Keeping Cosy with Tea with Tales

All wrapped up from the cold, we had a lovely cuppa and shared our favourite flower.

We started with a short reading from WW2 concentration survivor Hannah Pick-Goslar’s biography My Friend Anne Frank: the inspiring and heartbreaking true story of best friends torn apart and reunited against all odds. We were reminded of the need to continue to reflect on the lessons of the Holocaust and freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Our first review was of the New Zealand yachting journalist Rebecca Hayter’s tale of buying a lifestyle block on the beach of Golden Bay. High Heels and Gumboots is told with humour and is was a good read.

One of our members read Jodi Picoult’s By Any Other Name, a recommendation from the previous month. Split between modern day and the 1500s it is based on the belief that Shakespeare didn’t write the plays and sonnets he is credited with. Although she enjoyed the historical part our reader found the modern story not as believable.

Our next member enjoyed two very different books. The first was Akin by Emma Donoghue and is about a retired New York professor about to make a special visit to Nice, where he hopes to uncover secrets about his mother's life during WW2. He is asked to care for his great nephew who he has never met and the two make the journey together. A good story line and really engaging writing.

Her other recommendation was a historical novel originally published in 1918 - E M Delafield’s The War Workers. Set in England in 1917, it follows the lives of a group of women working in a munitions factory. Eloquently written was the verdict.

Another recommendation from a fellow group member left our reader wondering if he was past reading gritty stories, although he reported Stuart MacBride’s Birthdays for the Dead was very well written. However he did enjoy The Beautiful Mystery written by Canadian Louise Penny. Written more than ten years ago, our reader found Max Cryer’s books on language still very relevant and readable. He particular enjoyed Preposterous Proverbs: why fine words butter no parsnips.

Our Danielle Steel fan is struggling with Passion’s Promise but was saved by Kerry Greenwood’s amateur sleuth, baker Corina Chapman. Earthly Delights is the first of seven cosy mysteries set in modern day Melbourne and a delight to read.

Inspiring was the description for actor Michael J Fox’s Lucky Man biography. By the time Fox announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease he had been fighting it for seven years. He writes of the support he receives and his commitment to searching for a cure and spreading public awareness.

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett was the best historical book our next reader had read. This realistic depiction of the building of a cathedral in twelfth century England is the first in the Knightsbridge series.

We ended with another biography of an entertainer, this time New Zealand comedian Dai Henwood. The Life of Dai spans the twenty-five-year career of the TV host and entertainer as well as his diagnoses with stage four bowel cancer. A really good read.

Posted by Miss Moneypenny

Back to Library Blog