Emotional Reads and More with Book Chat

23 June 2026

Books that made an emotional connection were popular at the June session of Hastings Library’s Book Chat. Heart-stirring stories, inspiring reads or just plain weepies - we found a few that were the absolute goods.

We heard about Love Lane by Patrick Gale – his new novel in which the author brings back the character of Harry Cane from A Place Called Winter. Harry is elderly when he sells his farm in Canada and makes a journey to England to visit his long-lost daughter and her family. This is a brilliant historical read, with amazing characters based on the lives of Gale’s own relatives.

My Brother’s Name Is Jessica by Book Chat favourite John Boyne is a YA novel that deals with a family coping, or not coping, with a boy’s transgender identity. With parents who are too busy with their careers, it’s as well that there’s older brother Jason who has been always there for young Sam, but is his family ready for a secret that could tear them all apart?

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan was another stand-out read, a historical novel that takes us to a small town in Ohio during World War 2. It follows two couples, and later their children, as the main characters harbour secrets, struggle with relationships, while world events and social changes upend their lives even more. It’s a heartfelt, emotional read, beautifully written.

T J Klune’s novel We Burned So Bright is set at the end of the world, as couple Don and Rodney deciding to go on a road trip to Washington to deal with some unfinished business. It’s a story filled with love, humour and warmth and a bunch of characters living their final days as best as they can.

A reread but well worth it was The Blackbird Sings at Dusk by New Zealand author, Linda Ohlsson. The story follows Elias who with friend Otto tries to be neighbourly with a new arrival at his apartment building. But for reclusive Elisabeth, her only company is a vision from her childhood dreams. An interesting psychological read.

Six Little Words is a delightful feel-good novel by Sally Page which follows Kate, a cancer survivor whose children have left home. At a bit of a loose end, she joins an art group run by Bardy, a retired teacher and makes a bunch of friends who begin to feel like a kind of family. The setting of coast Norfolk is beautifully described with its dramatic scenery and birdlife.

Tata is a recently released novel by Valérie Perrin, a book that looks at family secrets and events from the past impacting the present. Agnès is a well-known film director still reeling from her divorce and unable to work since. A call out of the blue tells her that her aunt has died, which would be in itself sad, but Agnès had believed her aunt had died three years ago. So who is it buried in the town cemetery? Lots of French atmosphere, beautiful writing and interesting characters.

John of John by Douglas Stuart was described as one reader’s “best book of the year” so far. It follows a young man, a recent art-school graduate, who returns to his family’s home on the Isle of Harris. It’s a story of repressed emotions, relationships and non-communication, with a love story as well.

Also set on an island was The Retreat by Sarah Pearse, the second in the mystery/thriller series featuring detective Elin Warner, here investigating a death on an offshore island that is also the site of a wellness centre. The island’s dark past casts a shadow on the present, as more deaths occur. A gripping, well-written story that’s also a bit spooky and full of foreboding.

More islands and another popular series with the group: the Scilly Isles series by Kate Rhodes which is big on atmosphere and location. In The Brutal Tide, DI Ben Kitto has a revenge crime on his hands, when a twisted killer heads for the isles on a job for the gang leader Ben had put in prison years ago. But is Ben is too distracted not only by an investigation into the discovery of a body, but also by the imminent birth of his first child?

One reader discovered John Connolly’s Charlie Parker crime series, starting with A River Red with Blood, which isn’t as gruesome as it sounds. A group plays The Game where you have to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. When someone breaks the rules, PI Charlie Parker gets suspicious. This was an excellent read from a series that doesn’t have to be read in order.

Claire Fuller’s novel Bitter Orange takes our main character, Frances back to the summer of 1969, as she writes a report on garden architecture in a country house. Here she meets the couple, Peter and Cara who invite Frances into their circle. But are they just stringing Frances along? The stories they tell her don’t add up. This psychological novel had a dramatic twist, but our reader found it all neither satisfying nor convincing.

Much better was The Silence of the Sea by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, an author whose crime fiction always delivers. In this story, a luxury yacht arrives in Reykjavik with no one on board. Both the crew and the family who own the yacht are missing. Thora Gudmundsdottir is asked to investigate. Was the yacht really cursed?

Rebecca Tope’s main character Simmy Brown is similarly distracted by parenthood and by her upcoming wedding in The Ullswater Undertaking. But murder lures her to investigate, especially when the death has links to her fiancé. Our reader liked the mystery but was annoyed by all the interruptions as nappies needed changing.

We finished with a terrific historical mystery - Aussie Noir novel Bone Lands by Pip Fioretti. The story follows mounted trooper Gus Hawkins, a veteran of the Boer War working out of a small-town police station in outback New South Wales. The brutal murder of three young members of the same land-owning family shakes the town up, but when Gus tries to find the truth, he’s shut down at every turn.

Hastings Library Book Chat meets on the third Wednesday of the month in the Wattie Room at 10.30am. New members welcome.

Posted by JAM

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