Fed up of binge-watching endless TV shows and in search of something new to get your teeth into (and to distract you from the boredom of staying at home)?
Here are some of the latest titles which have passed our desk at The Senior. From a 1930s whodunnit to moving biographies there's plenty here to keep you entertained.
And while getting to a bookshop - or finding one open at the moment - may be tricky many retailers have moved to online sales. Check out if your local bookseller has a website or Facebook page for starters, or go to Dymocks and QBD. You can also search on Amazon Australia, the Book Depository and Booktopia.
And if you want to read something urgently you can buy the e-book version and settle down with your reading material straight away. The e-books are often cheaper than the RRP.
FOR THRILLER-SEEKERS: Liberation by Imogen Kealey (Hachette) $32.99 (out March 31)
The must-read thriller, inspired by the true story of freedom fighter, super spy 'the White Mouse' Nancy Wake, is also coming to the silver screen in a movie starring Anne Hathaway.
To the Allies Sydney-raised Wake was a fearless freedom fighter, special operations super spy, a woman ahead of her time. To the Gestapo she was a ghost, a shadow, the most wanted person in the world with a five-million Franc bounty on her head.
Now, for the first time, the roots of her legend are told in a thriller about one woman's incredible quest to save the man she loves, turn the tide of the war, and take brutal revenge on those who have wronged her.
FOR SELF HELP SEEKERS: Simple Shift by Chris Helder (Wiley) $19.95
We've all heard about the need for 'positive thinking' - especially in these coronavirus times. But in his new book The Simple Shift, Melbourne author Chris Helder says it's time to turn positive thinking on its head.
It's his belief that in unprecedented times like we're experiencing right now with COVID-19, it's vital to learn how to shift our mindset to useful thinking to get us through the challenges ahead.
The book provides readers with a practical guide to retrain your brain to see opportunities rather than obstacles.
Helder draws upon decades working with major organisations to help develop the self-awareness to know when and how your thoughts are holding you back. "It's not about putting on rose-coloured glasses and pretending that problems don't exist, but rather training your mindset towards what's useful," he says.
Out mid-April and available to pre-order at chrishelder.com.au/book-store/the-simple-shift
FOR CSI AND TRUE CRIME 'NUTS': 18 Tiny Deaths by Bruce Goldfarb
As the mother of modern forensic investigation, American Frances Glessner Lee (1878-1962) was a medicine enthusiast and builder of minature dollhouse scenes who paved the way for today's CSI homicide policing.
Lee is best-known for creatingThe Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death - a series of dollhouse-sized crime scene dioramas depicting the facts of actual cases in exquisitely detailed miniature.
These went on to be used as teaching tools in homicide seminars at Harvard Medical School from the 1930s.
Bruce Goldfarb is the executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner for the state of Maryland, US, where the Nutshell Studies are housed. In his book 18 Tiny Deaths, Goldfarb delves into Lee's journey from grandmother without a college degree to leading the scientific investigation of unexpected death out of the dark confines of centuries-old techniques and into the light of the modern day.
In the book he weaves Lee's remarkable story with the advances in forensics made in her lifetime to tell the tale of the birth of modern forensics.
FOR THOSE IN SEARCH OF INSPIRATION: Dear Life: A doctor's story of love and loss by Rachel Clarke (Hachette) $32.99
Rachel Clarke is a former TV journalist and now UK doctor working in palliative medicine. She spends her days working in a hospice, trying to bring comfort to those reaching the end of their lives and to help make dying more bearable.
In her new book Dear Life: A doctor's story of love and loss (Hachette) $32.99 Clarke gives a candid account of being alongside people in their last days.
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Your Life in My Hands comes this vibrant, tender and deeply personal memoir that finds light and love in the darkest of places.
The book is a mix of memoir (Clarke's training was put to the test in 2017 when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer) and guide to living and dying.
FOR AGATHA CHRISTIE FANS: A Testament of Character by Sulari Gentill (Pantera Press) $29.99
Described as "Evelyn Waugh meets Agatha Christie", A Testament of Character sees Gentill's much-loved character Rowland Sinclair venturing to America after receiving word of the death of his friend, Daniel Cartwright.
Named the executer of Daniel's will, Rowland travels to Boston to bury his friend and honour his last wishes. He is met with the outrage and anguish of Cartwright's family, who have bee spurned in favour of a man they claim does not exist.
Artists and gangsters, movie stars and tycoons all gather to the fray as elite society closes in to protect its own, and family secrets haunt the living.
This is the tenth book in Snowy Mountains-based author Gentill's charming historical crime series, set in the 1930s in Australia and overseas.
FOR DOG DEVOTEES: A Dog Called Harry by Jill Baker (Hachette) $32.99
Award-winning journalist Jill Baker was enjoying life with her husband when her world was turned upside down. One day she arrived home to fine her him dead on the floor.
Within weeks, still in shock, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment followed in a year from hell.
At her lowest Baker took a chance, and gave a home to a cavoodle puppy called Harry. "I needed something to make life worthwhile," she writes. "Somehow I ended up with a dog called Harry."
A Dog Called Harry is the moving memoir of how this "crazy, howling, snoring, digging, chewing, barking, orange pup" helped her love life again.
Baker has edited The Sunday Age and Sunday Herald Sun and was group publisher at Australian Consolidated Press running about 20 magazines including Australian Gourmet Traveller and House & Garden.
OR TRY... Good Dogs Don't Make it to the South Pole by Hans-Olav Thyvold $29.99 (Allen & Unwin).
Described as the "wisest, funniest, and most inspiring book on ageing and friendship written by a dog you'll ever read" this book is already a bestseller and has now been translated into English.
The story's narrator is Tassen, a dog who has just watched his beloved elderly owner, The Major, take his last breath.
Now Tassen and the major's widow settle into their new life surrounded by books and stories of the 1911 race between Norway's explorer Roald Amundsen and Britain's Captain Robert F Scott to reach the Sole Pole first.
FOR OLD ROMANTICS: Small Mercies by Richard Anderson (Scribe) $29.99 (Out March 31)
This tender love story by second-generation northern NSW farmer Richard Anderson follows the story of a husband and wife living on a serverly drought-affected property. They take a brief break, only to find that their relationship is parched too.
After enduring months of extreme drought on their modest freehold, farming couple Dimple and Ruthie face uncertain times on more than one front. Ruthie receives the news every woman dreads.
Meanwhile, a wealthy landowner, Wally Oliver, appears on the local radio station, warning small farmers like Dimple and Ruthie that they are doomed, that the sooner they leave the land to large operators like him, the better. Bracing for a fight on all fronts, the couple decide to take a road trip to confront Oliver. Along the way, not only is their resolve tested, but their relationship as well.
Beef cattle farmer Anderson is the author of two rural-crime nobels Retribution and Boxed.
FOR DOWNSIZERS: Let it Go by Peter Walsh (Scribe) $24.99
Australia's foremost organisation expert Peter Walsh gives his strategies - hone over decades of professional organising for thousands of people - to turn the potentially stressful project of downsizing into a rejuvenating life change.
Let it Go we learn about the three simple categories that your items can be divided into to make downsizing as easy as possible; what our stuff says about our personalities; digital downsizing and 'treasure creep'.
There's also a section on navigating family conflict while downsizing and helpful exercise worksheets and step-by-step guides.
FOR HEALTH GURUS: The Path to Longevity (Hardie Grant), $32.99.
In The Path to Longevity (Hardie Grant), $32.99, ageing expert Professor Luigi Fontana - credited with the research that gave rise to the 5:2 diet - shows how nutrition, exercise and brain training can lead to a long life.
The comprehensive guide sees Fontana share the secrets of the world's most long-living populations, answer questions on diet and what works, and look at the benefits of a prevention-based approach to healthcare.
READ MORE: