Book Chat Wraps It Up for Another Year

We finished a busy Book Chat reading year with some terrific recommendations to inspire a long summer of reading. Although it was definitely a mixed bag with some disappointing reads among the highlights.

One of the stand-out reads at the December session was The Women on Platform Two by Laura Anthony. Set over two time-frames in Dublin, we are taken back to the 1969 and the issue of contraception for women. A group get together to travel to Belfast for the contraceptive pill, meeting on the train. A present-day story follows Saoirse, who suddenly discovers she may never want to be a mother – she learns about the women who made this an option for her.

David Park is a new author to one reader, but one they will definitely read again. Ghost Wedding is also set over two time-frames, and again we visit Belfast, where George is a young architect who is tasked with overseeing the creation of a lake at a manor house. The mud and digging remind him of his time in the trenches. A modern-day couple visit the same manor house which is now a wedding venue. Ghostly echoes of the past connect the two storylines. A clever, immersive read.

Another historical novel, Buckeye by Patrick Ryan takes us to Ohio as the end of WWII in Europe is declared. Margaret meets Cal when she visits his hardware store to buy a radio. What happens next will change their lives forever. A story of small-town secrets, with rippling effects on subsequent generations as America enjoys a post-war boom. Well recommended.

There’s often an Ann Cleeves novel on the table at Book Chat. The Glass Room is recommended as an intriguing whodunit with an ending you’ll never guess. Vera is investigating a death at a writer’s retreat, where aspiring authors workshop and learn from the experts. This case is a bit personal when Vera’s hippy neighbour becomes a prime suspect. Vera’s determined to see it through in spite of the suggestion she should really hand the case over to another officer.

One reader particularly enjoys the books by Peter Swanson, especially the Henry Kimball trilogy, so was interested to pick up The Christmas Guest. This novella tells the story of a lonely American student studying in London, invited to spend Christmas at her classmate’s manor house in the Cotswolds. But Ashley feels that something isn’t quite right, and that her hosts have ulterior motives. While this is a good twisty mystery, The Christmas Guest wasn’t quite up to the usual Peter Swanson standard.

Beneath the Bleeding is the fifth book in the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan mystery series by Val McDermid. The profiler/detective duo are investigating the poisoning of a star footballer and then a bomb explosion at a football stadium. Is there a link between the cases? More deaths follow to ramp up the tension while Tony and Carol’s working relationship is tested when the intelligence service become involved. A taut psychological thriller.

The Drift by C J Tudor is a survival story that takes place during a snowstorm. Hannah wakes up after a traffic accident involving a bus of evacuees from a boarding school.  Meg wakens to a gentle rocking – she’s in a stalled cable car high above snowy mountains with five strangers. Carter is stranded in a ski chalet with his companions as the generator stalls and there’s a sense of danger. Somewhere there’s a killer. A complexly plotted, clever psychological thriller that is also a mystery and veers into the horror genre.

Rarely a session passes without a Japanese novel in translation. This time we heard about Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada, the perfect novel for booklovers.  The Night Library holds only books by dead authors as well as the books they loved. Otaha becomes a new assistant at the library, where she meets a chef who creates meals inspired by the books on the shelves. Our reader enjoyed the mystery in the story, but found the shifts in narrative voice hard to get used to and would have preferred a tidier ending.

Further contemporary novels discussed included The Names by Florence Knapp. Several of the group have read the book, and we all agreed that it is an excellent read and clever the way the story of a young man is told in three narrative strands. It all begins when his mother has to register the birth of her baby boy, her bullying husband insisting on one name, her daughter suggesting another, while in her heart she has selected a different name again. A story for each name takes us through the boy’s life into adulthood with a cleverly plotted ending.

Unfortunately The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce was disappointing – though, to be fair, Joyce’s previous books have been hard acts to follow. The story focuses on a family gathered at their lake house after the death of their father to seek answers about his death. Recently remarried to a much younger woman, his last masterpiece is missing. A novel about family secrets and difficulties among siblings, but our reader found the characters too unlikeable to care.

Even worse was The Black Dress by Deborah Moggach in which a lonely woman is so desperate to meet people when her husband abandons her, she turns up at funerals in search of single men. Our reader found the premise unpleasant, the main character too silly to take seriously. Another author with a huge backlist, including the popular favourite: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

One reader had never wanted the Harry Potter series to end, so put off reading the last book. Finally they got hold of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which begins with Harry’s journey to Hogwarts for his final year, continues with a mission to destroy Voldemort’s remaining Horcruxes and ends in an epic battle. At last the magic is over. However, other readers recommended our Harry Potter fan have a go at the Cormoran Strike series of mysteries, also written by J K Rowling under the pseudonym, Robert Galbraith.

Our only non-fiction this session was Polkinghorne by Steve Braunias. The book delves into the arrest and trial of the eye surgeon accused of killing his wife, the news headlines which brought the spectacle of rich Auckland life to light in a scandalous expose that shocked the nation. Braunias is a popular columnist for the NZ Listener and has written several books on court cases, but our reader felt this book too biased in favour of Polkinghorne to feel like an objective view of the case.

Book Chat returns to Hastings Library on 21 January.

Posted by JAM

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