Oscar and Friends Booksellers - Bookshop Double Bay Sydney

An old man lies dying. Confined to bed in his living room, he sees the walls around him begin to collapse, the windows come loose from their sashes, and the ceiling plaster fall off in great chunks, showering him with a lifetime of debris: newspaper clippings, old photographs, wool jackets, rusty tools, and the mangled brass works of antique clocks. Soon, the clouds from the sky above plummet down on top of him, followed by the stars, till the black night covers him like a shroud. He is hallucinating, in death throes from cancer and kidney failure.

A methodical repairer of clocks, he is now finally released from the usual constraints of time and memory to rejoin his father, an epileptic, itinerant peddler, whom he had lost 7 decades before. In his return to the wonder and pain of his impoverished childhood in the backwoods of Maine, he recovers a natural world that is at once indifferent to man and inseparable from him, menacing and awe inspiring.

Tinkers is about the legacy of consciousness and the porousness of identity from one generation to the next. At once heartbreaking and life affirming, it is an elegiac meditation on love, loss, and the fierce beauty of nature.

Come in to Oscar & Friends and receive a 2-for-1 pass to see Micmacs, the new film by Jean-Pierre Juenet.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet is one of cinema's most inventive and inspired talents and the creator of Amelie, Delicatessen and A Very Long Engagement. His new film Micmacs, is a dazzling comedy that follows a band of misfits, lead by accidental hero Bazil, who takes revenge on big business. Dany Boon heads a terrific cast in a film that is part comic fable, part caper and always deeply human.
Featuring Jeunet's trademark sense of wonder, Micmacs is full of magical schemes and a chain of fateful events that lead Bazil and his friends through the bewildering mysteries of life - and brings answers to questions such as: Can a woman fit inside a refrigerator? Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? Is it better to live with a bullet lodged in your brain, or have it removed? The aesthetic sensibility at play in Micmacs is breathtaking, and with its ingenious plot, infectious imagination and sprinkling of romance, promises to delight and entertain audiences.

One of our favourite authors, Oliver Jeffers has released a new kids book titled The Heart and the Bottle. It's beautiful

Once there was a girl whose life was filled with all the wonder of the world around her. Then one day something occurred that caused the girl to take her heart and put it in a safe place. However, after that it seemed that more things were empty than before. Would she know when and how to get her heart back?

In this deeply moving story, Oliver Jeffers achieves the remarkable. He deals with the weighty themes of love and loss with an extraordinary lightness of touch and shows us, ultimately, that there is always hope.

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
(selected by Toby)

Scott Pilgrim is 23 years old, living in the big city with his gay roommate, just trying to get by in this crazy world. He's in a band. He's lazy. He likes video games.

Scott Pilgrim likes the new girl in town, Ramona Flowers, but to win her heart, he has to defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends. Seven! Evil! Ex! Boyfriends! Lucas has muscles! Todd plays bass with his psychic powers! The Twins are twins! Matthew Patel is an Indian guy! AND MORE!

Scott Pilgrim is a critically acclaimed, award-winning series of graphic novels by Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley. Boys and girls! Young and old! Come one, come all! Read Scott Pilgrim! Five volumes in stores now! One to go! 2010!

The Secret Speech by Tom Robb Smith
(selected by Ben)

Soviet Union, 1956: Stalin is dead. With his passing, a violent regime is beginning to fracture - leaving behind a society where the police are the criminals, and the criminals are innocent. The catalyst comes when a secret manifesto composed by Stalin's successor Khrushchev is distributed to the entire nation. Its message: Stalin was a tyrant and a murderer. Its promise: The Soviet Union will transform. But there are forces at work that are unable to forgive or forget Stalin's tyranny so easily, that demand revenge of the most appalling nature.
Meanwhile, former MGB officer Leo Demidov is facing his own turmoil. The two young girls he and his wife Raisa adopted have yet to forgive him for his involvement in the murder of their parents. They are not alone. Now that the truth is out, Leo, Raisa and their family are in grave danger from someone with a grudge against Leo. Someone transformed beyond recognition into the perfect model of vengeance.

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
(selected by Barbara)

Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress.
Jasper takes him through town and to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother; falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu.
And in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
(selected by Flora)

Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities? When a peculiar advertisement appears in the newspaper for children to take part in a secret mission, children everywhere sit a series of mysterious tests. In the end, just four children succeed: Reynie, Kate, Sticky and Constance. They have three things in common: they are all honest, all remarkably talented and all orphans. They must go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened where the only rule is that there are no rules. There they must work as a team to save not only themselves, but also the world outside the walls.

One Day by David Nicholls
(selected by Charlotte)

'I can imagine you at forty,' she said, with malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now.' He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then.' 15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows? Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY.

Lovesong by Alex Miller
(selected by Natalie)

Strangers did not, as a rule, find their way to Chez Dom, a small, rundown Tunisian cafe on Paris' distant fringes. Run by the widow Houria and her young niece, Sabiha, the cafe offers a home away from home for the North African immigrant workers working at the great abattoirs of Vaugiraud, who, like them, had grown used to the smell of blood in the air. But when one day a lost Australian tourist, John Patterner, seeks shelter in the cafe from a sudden Parisian rainstorm, the quiet simplicities of their lives are changed forever.
John is like no-one Sabiha has met before - his calm grey eyes promise her a future she was not yet even aware she wanted. Theirs becomes a contented but unlikely marriage - a marriage of two cultures lived in a third - and yet because they are essentially foreigners to each other, their love story sets in train an irrevocable course of tragic events.

You can see everyone's full list in the Staff Picks section.

We hope everyone had a nice break over the holidays!
Oscar & Friends will be resuming regular trading hours on Monday the 4th of January. We're in the middle of compiling a list of our favourite reads from 2009 so check back soon.

We had a very special visit from Mr Bradly Trevor Greive who is in town to promote his newest book 'Why Dogs are Better than Cats'. Besides being an absolute delight he signed a few copies of his newest book, so better rush in to snap up a copy before they're all gone!

Teaming up on their first collaborative effort, Greive and Hale explain once and for all 'Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats'. Now, before all you cat lovers find your fur standing on end, Greive is quick to stress that he is simply "pro-dog" not anti-cat.

We had a fantastic time at the Vivi Finds Bean book launch! Hope you enjoyed yourself too! Here are a few pics from the event.

A new staff picks reviewer has been added to the team. Flora, age 9, will be reviewing her favourite kids reads. You can read her recent reviews by clicking on Staff Picks at the top or clicking here.