More Terrific Reads from Book Chat

Hastings Library Book Chat discussed a wide variety of books, with quite a range of mysteries and literary fiction, some speculative fiction and one particularly well-known memoir.

Our first book is the second novel by New Zealand author Josie Shapiro. Good Things Come and Go follows three friends over time. They reunite when Penny and Adam are dealing with the loss of a young daughter, while Jamie moves to his uncle’s abandoned bach on the Coromandel when his work dries up. Secrets from their shared past threaten their newly found peace. A very kiwi sounding read that our reader really enjoyed.

A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan is a debut novel for another New Zealand author, which has already been picked up for a screen adaptation. The story takes place in the 1980s, when a family spend the long summer at the beach, their 10-year-old daughter finding herself at a loose end. Without much parental supervision, she and her new friend decide to investigate the disappearance of a young girl two years before. A brilliant, evocative read with an ending that will leave you pondering.

With Broken Light, Joanne Harris’s main character is Bernie Moon, who at fifty feels as if life has passed her by. The death of a young woman at a nearby park has her remembering events from her childhood she’d hoped she’d suppressed. Now she sees them in a different way with new possibilities. This book was not so appealing as some of Harris’s earlier work, such as Chocolat with its charming characters. The cast of Broken Light are all rather repellent, yet this was still a fairly good story and worth reading.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans has been getting rave reviews, particularly for book lovers. Sybil’s life is told through her letters to family and friends. A few postscripts are needed as she enters her twilight years – atonement, a final chance on romance, fixing relationships with her children as well as dealing with a devastating loss she’s ignored for thirty years. The letters also offer book recommendations you may want to note as you read.

One reader was inspired to pick up The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck because it has been developed into a movie. On opening the book, it was discovered that it is really a series of interconnected stories and only one of these is the movie. Nevertheless, it’s well done and enjoyable, a collection set mostly in New England, the past affecting what happens decades and even centuries later, with clever connections.

Another reader thought they were happy to read a book on any given topic but found Leverage by Amran Gowani a struggle. It’s the story of a hotshot hedge fund employer, risking everything to save his job. Losing $300 million in one investment, his boss gives him an impossible task and puts him up against one of the world’s most powerful men. Quite an interesting set-up but it isn’t nearly half as funny as it promised to be.

On the other hand, We Solve Murders by Richard Osman was a complete hoot. The first in Osman’s new series, the story begins with bodyguard Amy on a supposedly easy case, keeping world famous author Rosie D’Antonio safe. The two escape a hitman by the skin of their teeth. They’re going to need help from Amy’s father-in-law, a retired copper who likes the quiet life. A pacy, clever story with plenty of wit and charm.

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse was our second crime novel and has a more Gothic tone, particularly with the setting – a Swiss sanitorium that has been converted into a luxury hotel. It’s winter when Elin and her partner arrive to help celebrate her brother’s engagement to Laure. But as a terrible storm threatens to cut the hotel off, a murder takes place and Laure disappears. It’s just as well Elin’s a police detective, even if she’s on stress leave, uncertain if she’ll ever return to policing. Lots to enjoy in this first of a series.

Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howard is a thriller that begins with Jack hailed as a hero for trying to save his wife from a housefire. Only it transpires that Kate was already well and truly dead before the fire, suspicion stalking him ever since. When author Emily is struggling to come up with a promised second book, her publisher sets her off to ghostwrite Jack’s book. Guilty secrets emerge on both sides, but it’s a very convoluted story and as such just an OK read.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore didn’t impress one reader as much as it did another from the group. It’s the story of the Van Laars family who fifteen years ago lost their young son, thought to have been murdered when he walked out into the woods. Now all this time later, their teenage daughter has also disappeared. Family secrets, privilege and small-town grievances hover in the background, as young State Trooper Luptak, one of the first female graduates on the force, investigates.

Many readers will be thrilled that Ann Cleeves' Shetland detective, Jimmy Perez, is back. In The Killing Stones, Perez has left Shetland and has settled on Orkney, and several years on lives here with his partner, Willow, and their growing family. In this case Perez has the difficult task of investigating the murder of an old friend, found on an archaeological site, a message carved into the murder weapon, an ancient Westray stone. Our reader really enjoyed the story, finding it difficult to guess who the killer was, and appreciating the great characters.

The Appeal by Janice Hallett is a beguiling mystery written in emails and text messages between members of an amateur dramatic society. It all begins when two secretive newcomers arrive in the small town of Lower Lockwood, ending with a tragic death. A QC assigns two law students to investigate the correspondence of those involved. As they hunt for evidence, clues are there that the reader can also discover. Our reader thought it a clever storyline but also wondered if this would work today as not so many people still use emails.

One reader couldn’t put down The Memory Collectors by Deet Meserve which has an element of science fiction about it. Four strangers travel to the past to find themselves stuck on the day their lives changed. Each has a particular desire to fulfil, and while they are unable to change what happened, secrets are revealed in unexpected ways. It makes the reader ask themselves what would they do if they could spend a day in their past? Brilliant.

Another spec fiction novel is I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. It’s a post-apocalyptic story following a group of women who live imprisoned deep underground in a cage. They have no memory of how they got there. One girl, the newest to arrive, holds the key to their escape. This is a reprint of a French novel from 1995, and well worth reading.

Two historical novels were passed around, the first Meet Me at Rainbow Corner by Celia Imrie, a better than most cardy-read, said our reviewer. Set in London’s blitz in 1944, it follows Dot, a nurse from Liverpool who goes dancing with the GIs at a social club in Piccadilly. The club is an oasis in the chaos of war, where hostesses are in demand to dance the jitterbug and rock’n’roll with soldiers. Imrie, an actress and dancer, has done a lot of research for the book and seems to know her stuff.

A more literary novel is My Name is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende. The main character, the daughter of an Irish nun, grows up to think for herself, with a passion for writing. She publishes pulp fiction using a male pen name, before launching into journalism, when the opportunity arises to cover a brewing civil war in Chile. There’s danger, strong characterisation and an altogether epic storyline. Well worth reading.

A Different Kind of Power: a memoir by Jacinda Ardern was an interesting read for one reviewer after seeing the movie, Prime Minister. The first half of the book describes Ardern’s childhood and upbringing, with the second and much more interesting half following her career in office. Lots of insight into what it’s like to lead and the opportunity to be a different kind of leader.

Hastings Library Book Chat takes place on the third Wednesday of the month at 10:30am; the final meet-up of the year is 17 December.

Posted by JAM

Back to Library Blog