Five-Star Reads and Holiday Reads from Wine, Books & More

A couple of New Zealand books were among the five-star reads for the Tuesday evening book group. Not surprisingly, Catherine Chidgey was there with her novel from last year The Book of Guilt. This dystopian novel took a while to get going but by page 150 it became a fast-paced family revenge story. Although it was quite a dark novel, our reader couldn’t put it down. The ending makes you reflect on the moral compass of humanity.

The English Text of the Treaty by Ned Fletcher is 700 pages of very dense but fascinating reading. It’s the thesis of a widely respected lawyer and historian turned into a book. There is immense detail dealing with the lead up to the Treaty and then how it all went wrong. A very, very interesting book. Even after reading only 100 pages our reader felt incredibly empowered by what they learned and felt they could now have an intelligent conversation about the Treaty.

A Gentleman in Moscow is the book that put its author, Amor Towles, on the literary map. The story is about a count sentenced to house arrest in a hotel in early Soviet Russia. It then follows his life over 40 years and how he made the most of his circumstances. While the story is fictional, real events are happening in the background. Our reader found this to be such a satisfying read and the ending was brilliant.

Still among the five-star reads was Ship of Dreams by Donna Jones Alward. This novel is fiction based on the true events of the Titanic tragedy. The story follows two friends travelling to America, what happens on the boat, how they then deal with the events after the sinking and how they pull their lives together afterwards. A really interesting read.

A reread of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss seemed a good idea for one reader. This fantasy novel about an alchemist with all kinds of strings to his bow is the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicle. Our reviewer said how much they enjoyed it, particularly the cool trajectory of the story. They also enjoyed the very lyrical writing, which felt a bit like like a song with its rhythm and melody.

One reader found Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir took quite a while to get into but persisted, until halfway through it got really interesting. It was difficult to decide if the story was science-fiction or fantasy as it involved necromancy and space travel. It had a very Hunger Games power play vibe, they thought. They definitely changed their mind about the characters. Altogether an enjoyable four-star read.

Olive Kitteridge is the book that drew us to Elizabeth Strout and we’ve been reading her novels ever since. Set in a small town in Maine, the book is a rich tapestry of an ordinary life. Every chapter was about a different character but Olive was always there on the sidelines. It felt a bit too real sometimes and a little sad, but overall was extremely well written.

Among lighter holiday reading was that old classic Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. Our reader gave it two or three goes and then finally finished it and overall found it thoroughly enjoyable. This novel is an espionage thriller on the one hand but also entertaining and humorous  reading.

American author Kristin Harmel is a popular author with one particular reader. Her novel When We Meet Again follows journalist Emily Emerson who has a parcel delivered to her - a painting of her grandmother with an intriguing note attached. Emily decides to find out more about her grandmother’s past, a trail that leads her to Florida’s POW camps during WWII as well as to Munich in Germany. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Frieda McFadden would seem to be the crime novelist of the moment. Her book The Housemaid is a good psychological thriller. In an unusual turnaround, our reader wasn’t surprised by who the villain was but was surprised by the heroine. This was a light read, entertaining enough but without much emotional engagement.

Green Eye by Vena Cork is the 3^rd novel in the Rosa Thorn series. This story follows Rosa Thorn’s son Danny and his activities at university. When he becomes involved in a production of Othello, he is soon swept up into a hedonistic lifestyle, while a rapist is at large preying on female students. This psychological thriller was engaging enough but not gripping. It did have a final twist that you don’t see coming however.

Timothy Mason’s murder mystery The Darwin Affair had a really interesting premise but unfortunately didn’t live up to its promise. The story involves an attempted assassination of Queen Victoria, with a detective, Charles Field, on the case. He’s concerned those closest to the Crown are hiding something, while also exposing a conspiracy in which Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species sets off a string of murders and other crime. Although descriptively well written, our reader described it as “gore over gore” and very much style over substance.

Wine, Books & More meets at 5:30pm on the third Tuesday of the month at Hastings Library. 

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