The following books are recommended by members of CFS Book Club at the meeting on 18th July, 2026 (complied by Dr Bibiana Chan).
Geoff’s recommendations:
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming is a highly acclaimed 2010 non-fiction book written by American historians of science Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway
The Big Switch: Australia’s Electric Future by Saul Griffith (2022)
Written by Australian engineer and inventor Saul Griffith, this book provides a literal blueprint for combating climate change through total electrification. Given your previous interest in Merchants of Doubt, this book represents the active, modern solution to the climate stalling tactics exposed in that text.
2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years is a landmark 2012 environmental economics book written by Norwegian academic and futurist Jørgen Randers.
Commissioned by the Club of Rome, the book serves as a 40-year direct sequel to the iconic 1972 system-dynamics study The Limits to Growth, of which Randers was a co-author. Unlike the original study, which presented abstract potential scenarios based on data modeling, 2052 offers a definitive, realist forecast of what Randers believes will actually happen to human society by the mid-21st century.
Karen’s recommendation:
Tomorrow, When the War Began is a landmark 1993 young adult invasion novel written by acclaimed Australian author John Marsden.
It is the first book in the internationally bestselling seven-part Tomorrow series. The story follows a group of teenagers who go camping in a remote coastal bushland area known as “Hell”, only to return home to discover that a foreign military force has invaded and occupied Australia.
Caroline’s recommendations:
Mother Mary Comes to Me is the bestselling 2025 memoir by the Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy. Shortlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, this highly acclaimed book is a major departure from Roy’s famous fiction (like The God of Small Things).
The memoir explores the volatile, “tumultuous” relationship between Roy and her fierce, charismatic mother, Mary Roy, a celebrated educator and women’s rights activist in India. Written in the wake of her mother’s death, Roy chronicles her life from childhood in Kerala to her adulthood in Delhi. She describes her mother as both her “shelter and my storm”—detailing how Mary taught her how to think and write, but frequently raged against the very independence she fostered.
To Those Who Speak: A Message of Love from Father to Son is a highly moving, beautifully illustrated 2026 picture book written and illustrated by the bestselling British artist Luke Adam Hawker. Hawker is widely known for his previous Sunday Times bestselling illustrated works, Together and The Last Tree. The book is deeply personal, capturing an unconventional parenting journey. When it became clear that Hawker’s young son, Harry, was likely to be non-verbal, Hawker began focusing on the incredible ways his son was still able to communicate with the world entirely without words.
The narrative heavily features the beautiful, silent bond and growing friendship between Harry and their beloved family dog, Robin. Together, the boy and his dog explore the world, learning from each other and finding alternative ways to express love, connection, and deep understanding.
Bibi’s recommendation:
Published in 2017, this critically acclaimed epic historical fiction novel was a finalist for the National Book Award and named one of The New York Times’ 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.
The Plot: The multi-generational saga begins in the early 1900s in occupied Korea, tracking a young woman named Sunja who migrates to Japan. It chronicles the triumphs and systemic hardships of four generations of her family.
The Symbolism: The book uses the pachinko game as a central metaphor for life. While players pull the lever hoping to win, the final trajectory of the steel balls is entirely governed by luck and rigged machinery—mirroring how the characters’ lives are manipulated by the harsh forces of history and politics.
Homecoming – the Art and Practice of Trauma Recovery
What if home isn’t a place you arrive at, but the moment your body exhales and your nervous system feels safe? Blending the clarity of her healthcare background with the courage of a survivor of domestic, family and sexual violence, Ratu Nida reframes trauma not as dysfunction, but as the body’s attempt to survive the unsurvivable.
More than 1 in 4 Australians live with complex trauma. Yet most trauma conversations stop at awareness. Homecoming goes further, guiding you to see your story without shame, understand what trauma does to your nervous system, and rebuild safety, boundaries and self-trust.
Click HERE to read Bibi’s reflection on this Book Club meeting and a brief Q&A with the author Ratu Rida Farihah.
Bernad’s recommendations:
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is a highly celebrated 2016 collection of short speculative fiction by the acclaimed Chinese-American author Ken Liu.
The collection takes its name from its most famous story, The Paper Menagerie. It made literary history by becoming the first-ever work of fiction to win all three of sci-fi’s major awards: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Award.
The Plot: The story follows Jack, a young boy growing up in America with a white father and a Chinese “mail-order bride” mother. His mother possesses a magical ability to breathe life into origami animals (zhezhi), making them move, play, and show affection like real pets.
The Gift of Rain is the highly acclaimed 2007 debut historical novel by celebrated Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng.
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the novel is renowned for its lush, evocative prose and its haunting exploration of identity, conflicting loyalties, and the devastating moral ambiguities of wartime collaboration.
Core Plot and Premise
The Alienated Protagonist: Set primarily in Penang, Malaya, in 1939, the story follows 16-year-old Philip Hutton. Being half-Chinese and half-English, Philip feels entirely alienated, fitting into neither the colonial British high society nor the local Chinese community.
The Mentor: Philip finally finds a profound sense of identity and belonging when he meets Hayato Endo, a sophisticated Japanese diplomat who rents a nearby island from Philip’s wealthy trading family. Endo becomes Philip’s sensei, teaching him the Japanese language and training him in the martial art of aikido.
The Betrayal: When World War II explodes across Asia, the Japanese military savagely invades Malaya. Philip is shattered to discover that his beloved mentor was actually a high-level Japanese spy who used Philip’s intimate tours of Penang to map out the invasion.
The Choice: Trapped in an impossible situation, Philip is forced to work as a translator for the brutal Japanese occupation forces. To his community and family, he appears to be a traitorous collaborator. In secret, however, he uses his position and his ties to Endo to covertly feed information to the local guerrilla resistance, risking his life to save as many people as possible.
Ryan’s recommendation:
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World is a bestselling 2019 non-fiction book by acclaimed science writer and journalist David Epstein. The book challenges the modern obsession with hyper-specialisation, arguing that generalists—people who maintain a broad range of interests and skills—are actually more likely to succeed, innovate, and excel in complex, unpredictable environments.
Sarah’s recommendations:
Recursion is a critically acclaimed 2019 sci-fi thriller novel written by bestselling American author Blake Crouch, known for his other massive hits like Dark Matter and Upgrade. The book is a mind-bending, fast-paced exploration of memory, time travel, and the fragile nature of reality itself. It won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Science Fiction upon release.
