17. Wild Swans by Jung Chang
This book is a brick!
But I strongly urge you not to be put off by the size, and jump on in – Jung writes about her life, and the lives of her mother and grandmother, in China. It covers the period pre-Mao, and then during the massive communist uprising with a writing style that doesn’t get in the way of the stories, but helps you to understand them.

18. Capricornia by Xavier Herbert
I read this so very long ago, as part of an Australian History unit at University. Somehow Herbert’s story about the privations of the new settlers in Australia, and the things done to the native peoples, has slipped through the cracks culturally. Whilst this book is never violent in the way Fight Club is (I seem to recall), there are passages that made me bawl, for the treatment of the koori children… all the writing is based on facts. I think this should be required reading for Australian highschool students.

19. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
I’m a sucker for delicately written stories about undercurrents – and Edith Wharton writes undercurrents aplenty. This is my favourite of her stuff that I have read – a truly gothic novel, in the best sense – no vampires, or supernatural occurences, minimal castles – just a slowly impending doom that we can see coming, like a trainwreck. Beautiful, and terribly, terribly sad story about high society in America at the turn of last century, and the awful things it did to people, especially women.