Bookish News From Wine, Books & More

All kinds of non-fiction turned up on the table at the July session of Wine, Books & More - with mixed reviews.

Who do the police call when a skeleton is all that remains at a crime scene? The Bone Lady – life as a forensic anthropologist by Mary Manhein describes the author’s work profiling remains through a collection of stand-out cases. However, our reader, a follower of the genre, felt there are better books about the topic out there.

Ancestors: A History of Britain in Seven Burials by Alice Roberts is the forensic history of the plague through samples from different burial sites. The book can be a bit technical in some places as it discusses new advances in genetics. The author is a professor of archaeology, so clearly knows her stuff.

A book in the ‘did not finish’ pile, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You is Miranda Hart’s biography. The reader said that hey really like Hart as a comedian but struggled with reading her book as it got a bit preachy.

However another biography which didn’t disappoint was The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun, an autobiography of a Christian pastor in China who has been persecuted and tortured for his faith. A fascinating story of Yun’s life and the trials he’s endured. A four-star read.

End Times by Rebecca Priestley interweaves two time periods of author’s life – her teen years as a born-again Christian and her time in 2021 on a road trip down the West Coast of New Zealand. Rebecca is currently a science historian. A good read says our reviewer.

There was another vote for Archy and Mehitabel - Don Marquis’s collection of free verse poetry describing the antics of a philosophical cockroach and an ally cat on her ninth life. Clever, witty poetry and very light-hearted. First published in 1927, it has become a classic.

Some books were a little disappointing, but good on the readers who gave them a go.

What Lies Between Us by John Marrs is a psychological thriller which explores the consequences of lies. The two female main protagonists are both evil characters and everything would’ve been resolved a lot quicker if they’d just communicated. The second half of the book was thankfully better than the first.

Dark Eden by Chris Beckett is a science fiction novel about a community of descendants of two marooned explorers, and the beginning of a series. Our reader found it only so-so – their enjoyment limited because there was just “too much space incest”.

The Chanel Sisters by Judithe Little is a fictional account of the Chanel sisters, one of whom was Coco Chanel, as they emerged out of poverty to turn the world of fashion on its head. Although the book was very detailed, the author makes up the storyline as she goes along. Our reader is keen to read more about the sisters and their careers but unfortunately this book was a struggle.

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is an epic about the depravity of America’s westward colonization, particularly on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s. With so much nihilism and human debauchery described, it was difficult for our reader to get into; you also really had to concentrate on the writing.

A bit better was The Glass House by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion. The book has plants on the cover, so was selected for the Turn Up the Heat Challenge. The novel is about mental health, but there were a lot of characters, and this reader skim-read it. Interesting enough to have some potential as a story, but it didn’t quite make it.

Fortunately, there were plenty of good reads too. Here are the books that made our month.

Pig Island by Mo Hayder is a stand-alone crime novel, based around cults, and while it turns pretty dark pretty quickly, the story doesn’t turn out the way you think it will. Our reader whipped through it in two days and enjoyed it enough to give it four stars – and would have given it five if not for the ending.

The Light Through the Leaves by Glendy Vanderah is a very interesting story that begins with a child abduction. The story follows both the mother and child, their different journeys and trauma. The author merged the two storylines really well with good closure at the end. A four-and-a-half star read.

The Saint of Bright Doors by Sir Lankan author Vajra Chandrasekera is one of those books that is both weird and brilliant at the same time. It’s a fantasy that intertwines the path of folklore and cult mythology. While the pacing was a bit all over the show, the author incorporates some really cool ideas, and the characters were well written. It was nice experiencing a different culture. A.four-and-a-half star read.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester is a dystopian novel written in 1956. You wouldn’t know it was written in the 50s as it’s a remarkably clever book, but it can also be frustrating at the same time - almost overwhelming in its cleverness. Our reader gave it five stars for its ideas, but three for the ending.

Some of the group are getting stuck into the Turn Up the Heat winter reading challenge. Here are a few of the highlights:

Iceland is perfect for a setting that is somewhere cold. Reykjavik by Ragnar Jonasson is a Scandi noir mystery that is co-written by the Katrin Jacobsdottir a former prime minister of Iceland. We're in the 1980s, our main character a journalist looking into a cold case, the disappearance of a young girl from an off-shore island in 1956. A really enjoyable read, was the verdict.

Frieda McFadden has been getting a lot of interest lately. Her novel The Crash is another book in the “set somewhere cold” category. It gets off to a cracking start when Tegan, eight months pregnant, sets off on a journey to stay with her brother, unaware that she is driving into a blizzard. Rescued by a couple after crashing her car, she finds her safe haven isn’t quite what she thought it was going to be. A four-star read.

If you’re searching for an interesting read in the “biography about someone you haven’t heard of” category, The Hot Young Widows Club by Nora McInerny might fit the bill.  It is based on the podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking which offers good advice on dealing with grief. Another four-star-read.

That's all for another month. Wine, Books and More meets at the Hastings War Memorial Library on the third Tuesday of the month at 5:30 pm.

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