Betty Loves Books

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Betty Loves Books Independent bookstore. New and used. Local artists and giftware. We are on the corner of Scott and watt streets Newcastle.
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We’re a part of The Station precinct which can be accessed by bus or tram. Parking on site available on wharf road or any of the side streets with street parking

‘An unforgettable, multi-layered history, Alice’s dreaming is at once biography, literary thriller and stunning evocatio...
05/09/2026

‘An unforgettable, multi-layered history, Alice’s dreaming is at once biography, literary thriller and stunning evocation of Country and place.’ -Mark McKenna

Early last century, Alice Duncan-Kemp grew up on a remote Queensland cattle station. Later she would write down her childhood memories of learning from Aboriginal women and men at home on their own Country. In her books, she evoked a rich parallel universe of storytelling and lore, which she felt privileged to witness. She also spoke of an informal local treaty that curbed the violence of the frontier.

What are we to make of ‘Alice’s dreaming’ today? Master historian and writer Tom Griffiths takes us into - and beyond - this revelatory encounter. Through it we glimpse the turmoil of a complex and tragic frontier, and a remarkable story of survival and cultural resilience. In recent years, the Mithaka people Alice lived among and wrote about have reclaimed their Country, drawing in part on her writing to support their claims.

Alice’s dreaming shows how moving, intimate - and unexpected - history can be.

‘In this wonderful book Tom Griffiths reveals how 60,000 years of First Nations history is intricately woven into the fabric of contemporary Australian values. Alice’s dreaming is a work of the greatest importance to our understanding of who we are. It is also great literature, an epic story told with imaginative distinction.’ -Alex Miller

In store now!

A powerful and expansive story of one family separated by the Korean War, for fans of Pachinko and Homegoing.1950, Pyong...
02/09/2026

A powerful and expansive story of one family separated by the Korean War, for fans of Pachinko and Homegoing.

1950, Pyongyang. Oksoon’s father - confident that the war is over - has left for Seoul in search of opportunity. There is nothing to do but wait, until the Chinese army attacks and forces Oksoon, her mother and her brother to flee southward themselves. But the journey is dangerous, and wartime makes enemies of even the kindest of friends.
Meanwhile, Oksoon’s cousin Junho has found uncertain refuge in a struggling orphanage near the southern coast. When the orphanage director’s rich niece arrives, harbouring a secret, Junho must choose between his duty and his dreams if they are all to survive.
Full of heart and rich in history, Song for Another Home is an unforgettable portrait of resilience, courage, friendship and love that endures

‘Bora Lee Reed has written a beautifully told, beautifully constructed chronicle not just of war, but of growing up, of storytelling and survival, of the ties that bind both blood family and found family. Song For Another Home is timely, wide-ranging, immersive historical fiction and a magnificent debut’ - Laurie Frankel, author of This is How it Always is

In store now!

Abby always believed she was destined for great things. But her dream career as an industry-disrupting fashion designer ...
01/09/2026

Abby always believed she was destined for great things. But her dream career as an industry-disrupting fashion designer went up in smoke, and her aspirations to become a world-renowned yogi and/or save the endangered tigers proved equally fruitless. She’s in her early thirties, suffering the unbearable burdens of adulthood and anonymity, when she wakes up after a drunken bender with an all-new, all-consuming purpose in life: to be the first person on Mars.

Perfect timing – Danish tech entrepreneur Tor Skovgaard is currently recruiting for a one-way mission to colonise the red planet. Abby knows this is it: her last-ditch bid for fame and glory. And if she can’t be humanity’s saviour … she’ll settle for being its martyr.

Blue Giant is an unruly eulogy for millennial optimism – a deranged love letter to a generation torn between helplessness and selfishness.

In store now!

Robust new release drop.
28/08/2026

Robust new release drop.

A story of complicated families and a wartime secret that ripples down through the generations from a writer of exceptio...
27/08/2026

A story of complicated families and a wartime secret that ripples down through the generations from a writer of exceptional talent.

Tommaso is just about making it work: travelling abroad for his job, helping his girlfriend with her two unruly sons, and keeping up with the eccentricities of his Italian grandmother, Alma. But as Alma grows increasingly troubled by strange and unsettling memories, Tommaso realises that there is much in her past that he doesn’t know. And the more he discovers, the more it seems that the secrets she has guarded for so long might not only overwhelm her, but upend his own precariously balanced life too.

Reaching back to the tumultuous days of the Italian resistance during the Second World War and into the domestic chaos of modern life, this is a story of the past’s long shadow, and the families we have and those we make.

In store now!

‘Bold, surreal, feminist & ferociously funny’ Service95A jaw-dropping debut about a woman who loses her job as an oil co...
27/08/2026

‘Bold, surreal, feminist & ferociously funny’ Service95

A jaw-dropping debut about a woman who loses her job as an oil company CEO after she’s filmed having s*x with a tree in her sleep, an act that spirals her through history until she’s united with a centuries-old coven of revolutionary women.

‘You’re holding a torpedo of a book in your hand. Take a seat and get comfortable. This novel’s energy, humour and rebel spirit will awaken your mind and change your way of thinking’ Olga Tokarczuk

Anna Frenza hates the tyrannical tree huggers and the idiotic eco-warriors, after all, she’s the CEO of Poland’s biggest oil company. But then she finds herself in a trance, sleepwalking into the woods and making love to a tree, manically, all caught on camera. Her career ends and, in the fallout, she discovers her husband’s disturbing secret. Her mind splinters and whether by delusion or possession of spirit, she finds herself in medieval province ruled by the Catholic Church.

Deep in the past, Anna falls in with Mathilde Spalt, leader of the Earthen Ones-a congregation of women who live in the woods and reject all patriarchy, instead engaging in ecstatic, sensuous worship of Mother Earth and learns to love the forest . . . until the Church decides to fell the forest and all the women within it.

Bold and entirely unexpected, Hexes of the Deadwood Forest is a collective rebellion and a collective or**sm, the death knell to the elevation of the erect. Take hold of your seat; patriarchy is coming to an end.

In store now!

Set in an alternate reality where pregnancy endows women with exceptional powers, one new mother uncovers terrifying tru...
18/08/2026

Set in an alternate reality where pregnancy endows women with exceptional powers, one new mother uncovers terrifying truths about herself and life in this philosophical and propulsive tale of a woman and mother in crisis.

In a world where drastic measures have averted the global environmental crisis, humans too are now subject to great transformation.

Vivi should be happy she’s pregnant. But she’s troubled by a looming reality that seemingly bothers no one else: having a baby also means birthing an identical, nearly indestructible self who will eat her and take her place. “Rebirth” is simply a fact of life—nature’s way of equipping women for the challenges of motherhood. But as Vivi’s unborn child develops, so does her fear.

In a rare turn of events, Vivi emerges from rebirth weakened rather than strong. When her husband cannot tolerate her defects, they divorce and Vivi relocates to the country with her baby to work for her old boss.

Chronically exhausted, mentally struggling, and on her own, Vivi must move on—for her own and her son’s sake. But just as with her failed rebirth, swapping old for new isn’t as straightforward as it seems. When Vivi finally discovers what went wrong during childbirth, it will rewrite her life utterly: future, present, and past.

An inspired blend of Nightbitch and The Substance, as enthralling and incisive as The School of Good Mothers and The Need, But Won’t I Miss Me is a gripping and profound exploration of the physical and psychological tolls of motherhood, with a speculative horror spin. Tiffany Tsao imaginatively reveals the macabre hidden in the mundane and asks us to consider what we lose of ourselves when we leave our broken parts behind.

In store now!

It’s the fall of 2024, and twenty-four-year-old Cat isn’t asking for too much: all she wants is three boyfriends, to wri...
16/08/2026

It’s the fall of 2024, and twenty-four-year-old Cat isn’t asking for too much: all she wants is three boyfriends, to write her little novels, and to survive another chaotic presidential election. She’s in an open relationship with her college sweetheart Jay, but nonmonogamy isn’t just a hot trend she’s trying. It’s her sliver of freedom in a world eager to wrestle it from her for being a Black woman going after what she wants with reckless abandon.

While political tensions roil the campus where Cat is slowly earning her creative writing degree, she finds herself drawn to Jay’s best friend, Tristan, who’s smart, super hot, and…in a monogamous relationship. And then she meets Tristan’s girlfriend, Nia, a captivating art student with her own gravitational pull.

Friends and family urge her to just be happy with Jay, but Cat is determined to have it all—or blow up her life trying. As she falls for all the wrong people, racking up lies, betrayals, and terrible drafts of her novel, she tries to write her way to a happy ending. But in art, politics, and love, true liberation may take more than rewriting the old scripts. It may mean inventing something entirely new.

In store now

This blisteringly original crime thriller and exciting debut smashes Mr Inbetween, Monkey Grip and Animal Kingdom into a...
15/08/2026

This blisteringly original crime thriller and exciting debut smashes Mr Inbetween, Monkey Grip and Animal Kingdom into a gutter opera on the vicious, bent and drug-laden streets of Newcastle - written by the Pushcart nominated writer and 2009 shark attack survivor

Vincent Silk is back in the decaying maw of Australia’s Steel City after losing everything – his money, his self-respect and his friends and family. He wants to make amends but first he has to pay back an unhinged loan shark. With no way to make good, Vincent is forced to take on a brutal new role: working as an enforcer, a teeth kicker, collecting debts in a town where everyone owes someone something.

Vincent is big and imposing, so he should be a natural at hunting down late-payers, but he hates the violence and his conscience weighs heavy. Every knock on a door tests his resolve, especially when his next target turns out to be Henrietta, the woman who once saved him from an OD - and the person he’s in love with. Vincent wants to protect her, and he knows running isn’t an option. The shark would come for their families, including Vincent’s younger brother, Ray.

Vincent and Ray have a complicated past, scarred by a horrific car accident that made Ray an amputee and left Vincent with a metal plate in his head. As Ray spirals into his own trouble, Vincent enacts a brash plan to solve everyone’s problems ...

Until it all unravels, and he’s left with an impossible choice.

Address

Shop 1a/110 Scott Street
Newcastle, NSW
2300

Opening Hours

Thursday 9am - 3pm
Friday 9am - 3pm
Saturday 9am - 3pm
Sunday 9am - 3pm

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