Highlights from Flaxmere Book Chat

The group at Flaxmere Library Book Chat enjoyed a lovely selection of relaxing reads, assuring each other that, yes, housework and gardening did get done as well as all the reading.

Among the historical novels was The Wartime Librarian’s Secret by Molly Green, which follows Esme’s story, who in 1942 has been recently widowed. Budget cuts at the library where she works sees her take on a job at Redcliffe Manor in Somerset, where she is the new librarian, hiding the secret that she hasn’t any official qualifications for the job. However she soon settles in at the manor, also housing a girls’ boarding school, an American military hospital set up in the grounds. It was a lovely story said our reviewer and nice to read a war story that isn’t too grim.

A more serious historical novel is The Warrumbar by William J Byrne, taking us to 1969 when young Robbie meets an old Aboriginal man, Moses, on his way to school. Moses tells Robbie stories about hardship and war and it seems the two have a shared family history. A tragedy that the boy witnesses has a powerful effect on the man he is to become. This is a compelling coming of age novel about love, courage and injustice.

With Pandora by Susan Stokes Chapman, we’re in London 1799, where Dora, an aspiring jewellery artist, lives with her uncle in her parents’ former shop of antiquities. A mysterious vase is delivered, setting off a chain of events involving Edward, a young antiquarian scholar. There are family secrets likely to emerge, some of which are locked away for a reason.

The secrets continue with The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani when Jess travels from New Jersey to Italy to discover more about her family history. Complications arise when she falls in love with the area and also Angelo, an artist, but will what she finds out about her family’s past drive her back home? This was an excellent read, and the wonderful setting a bonus.

Losing a partner is a theme in a couple of the more popular books of the session. This Book Makes Me Think of You by Libby Page is the story of Tilly Nightingale who is grieving for her late husband. When she receives a call telling her she has a parcel at her local bookshop from her husband it upsets her applecart. But this is a gift to help her recover – a book for every month of the year, taking her around the world and helping her to discover the Tilly she can be. A delightful read, heart warming and packed with brilliant reading suggestions.

Further contemporary fiction reads included the new Joanna Nell novel. In The Funeral Crashers we meet a bunch of interesting characters, including retired academic, Martin and recently bereaved Grace who helps out at All Souls Church. There’s also psychic medium Rhondda and her eight-year-old son Hudson. A delightful, five-star read which includes four or more funerals and at least one wedding.

Joanna Nell often writes about older characters, as does Maddie Please in Old Girls Go Greek, the story of Meg, who finds escape from her dull life and recent divorce in joining an art class. A painting trip to a Greek island is just what she needs in spite of never having held an artist’s brush. But new friends, sunshine and a Greek god or two overcome any hesitancy.

This was such a fun read that it inspired our reader to pick up The Dolce Vita Divas, also by Maddie Please. This is another second chances story with Joanna, also in her sixties, with an empty social calendar. She is rescued by her friend Susie, who drags her off to Capri to honour their late friend Ellen. Here Jo meets a lost love, Paolo, the one that got away.  Another sun-filled adventure and a light and easy read.

There’s often an Amish themed novel at Book Chat, and this time we heard about A Hidden Hope by Susan Woods Fisher - part of the Doctor to the Amish series. Here Ruth “Dok” Stolzfuz is monitoring two newly graduated medical residents: top of the class Wren Baker and struggling but determined Charlie King. This is a story about balancing modern medicine with “plain living” and with personal complications and a little romance thrown in. Altogether lovely.

I See You’ve Called In Dead by John Kenny is about Bud Stanley, an obituary writer, now in a bad way since his divorce. After a night on the booze, he accidentally publishes his own obituary, which he is sure will see him fired. He finds himself visiting the wakes and funerals of total strangers and begins to live again. Another fabulous read to add to the pile.

Mixing the light with the dark is Too Old For This by Samantha Downing, in which a serial murderer comes out of retirement in her seventies. Lottie Jones ditches the bingo and gossip when an investigative journalist starts asking awkward questions about some unsolved murders. Our reader awarded this entertaining read five stars.

There was a similar vibe with the dark comedy revenge story, Eat Slay Love by Julie Mae Cohen. Marina, Opal and Lilah are unlikely collaborators but are drawn together when they discover that they have been all hoodwinked by the same man. Now he's held hostage in Marina’s basement, and the three have to decide what to do with him next. This was a fun read, easily five stars, with lots of twists you don’t see coming.

The crime fiction continued with Someone in the Attic by Andrea Mara, an excellent four-star read which keeps you on the edge of your seat. A murder and a masked intruder appearing in an online video sparks the shocking realisation for Julia that the footage shows her house, which is in a luxury gated community. How did he get in and why is the stranger targeting Julia? – or is it that he isn’t a stranger at all.

In Bailey Seybolt’s new novel, true crime writer Alex is struggling to find another winning book so accepts a commission to ghost-write the story of Coram House, a former orphanage that is now luxury condos. While a court case settled child abuse cases years before, rumours of a cold case, the murder of a young boy, have Alex probing into the past, not realising the danger this unleashes. A chilling but excellent five-star rea

Our final book, also garnering five stars, was The Sister by Valerie Keogh, the story of twins separated when their parents died. Tia found herself growing up in the shadows, unwanted and not belonging anywhere. Ellie found a perfect marriage, a home and security. When fate brings them together again, Ellie hopes to rebuild their bond, but Tia knows a secret that could ruin Ellie’s life.

Flaxmere Library Book Chat meets every second Tuesday at 10:30am – anyone with a passion for books is welcome to join us.

Posted by JAM

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