New Recommendations from Wine, Books & More

Unlike many of the libraries’ book groups, Wine, Books & More members read quite a bit of non-fiction. An amazing non-fiction read from the last session was Feijoa by Kate Evans, surprisingly subtitled “a story of obsession and belonging”. The book outlines the history of this polarising fruit, in both South America and New Zealand. Evans is a freelance science journalist and goes back 23 million years to discuss the botany, science, history, politics, philosophy and more around the humble feijoa.

David M Buss’s When Men Behave Badly explores the dark side of romance and why it exists evolutionarily. The book tries to understand the behaviour of male abusers and why women stay with them as well as ways they can avoid them. An enlightening read that might compliment the Colleen Hoover books that are so popular at the moment.

Sadly, the two self-help books discussed were disappointing. Unf*ck your brain: using science to get over anxiety, depression, anger, freak-outs and triggers by Faith G Haper supposedly offers “expert advice on the neuroscience of trauma” but this reader begged to differ. Likewise, Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn was more “woo-woo” than scientific.

A heftier read in more ways than one was The Book of Iris: a life of Robin Hyde by her son, Derek Challis. Weighing in at just short of 800 pages, this book is the definitive biography as well as being surprisingly readable and interesting.

As usual there were plenty of mysteries and thrillers at the session, beginning with two novels by Linda Castillo: Outsider and A Gathering of Secrets. The series is set in Amish country – in particular the small town of Painter’s Mill, Ohio, where local Chief of Police, Kate Burkholder, solves some intricately plotted murders, bridging the gap between the “English” and Amish way of seeing things. As well as pacey, page-turning plots, you get plenty of insight into both Amish life and police procedure.

Another reader has been enjoying the Hugh of Singleton, Surgeon Chronicles by Mel Starr, a more traditionally written collection of mysteries set in the 1300s. Hugh is an Oxford based surgeon who is asked to get to the bottom of a range of unexplained deaths. The first in the series is The Unquiet Bones.

Another reader is working their way through the Cormoran Strike mysteries by Robert Galbraith. Although they didn’t initially enjoy The Silkworm, things got better with Lethal White, although having a dictionary handy was a help. Partway through Troubled Blood, they were really enjoying tagging along with Strike and Robin as they figured out whodunit.

Ripper by Shelley Burr takes us into Aussie Noir territory with a book set in the outback enclave of Rainier where a serial killer has taken the lives of three people. A copycat murder takes place on the doorstep of our main character Gemma Guillory, a tea shop owner married to a local policeman. Our reader found this to be quite a good read, if a little implausible.

All the Words We Know by Bruch Nash is the story of Rose who has the beginnings of dementia. The death of her friend at their care facility has Rose turning amateur sleuth, and it seems as if Rose knows more than people think she does. A moving but also humorous book which has wonderful wordplay. A top read.

The concept in Kill Your Brother by Jack Heath will stretch your imagination but this is still an interesting read. Elise has tracked down her missing brother, kept imprisoned by a farmer with an axe to grind. But when she tries to release him, Elise becomes entrapped too. If she wants to get out she must make a terrible choice.

If you enjoy Jeffrey Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme books, you should try City of Windows by Robert Pobi. Lucas Page is a child prodigy and physics professor with an uncanny knack for reading crime scenes. Set in New York, this marks the first in a promising new crime series.

We also had a few graphic novels on the table, starting with The Promised Neverland, a manga comic by Kaiu Shirai. It is about an orphanage that farms kids for monsters. There were a lot of emotional moments but unfortunately the book lacked a logical ending.

Girl Genius by Phil & Kaja Foglio is a webcomic, with a mix of adventure, romance and mad science and which has won five Hugo Awards. It has a steam punk element, and follows its main character, Agatha Heterodyne, through an alternative history. See more at girlgeniusonline.com

The Ancient Magus’ Bride by Kore Yamazaki is an urban fantasy manga story our reader described as a little weird. It’s the story of Chis Hatori, an orphaned Japanese college schoolgirl who is looking for a home and decides to sell herself at auction. She becomes the property of Elias Ainsworth, a humanoid magus from Great Britain, with an animal skull for a head.

This leads us nicely into speculative fiction, in particular the entire oeuvre of Brandon Sanderson, the author of numerous fantasy series including the Stormlight Archive, Mistborn and Legion series. Our reader has committed to reading their way through them all and is enjoying them a lot.

Another really good spec fic read was Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It’s a tale of survival on a planet colony, involves space travel and the idea of animal intellect.

One of the quirkier books discussed was The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde, a satire based around British politics and set in a small country village. Rabbits have been anthropomorphised and are now sentient. Very amusing was the verdict.

Another reader recommended two books by Mhairi McFarlane: Don’t You Forget About Me and If I Never Met You. Although they are marketed as love stories they are primarily about friendship, their characters developing a little more nous as they deal with complex situations.

A book that has been so popular it has been filmed for the big screen and TV is One Day by David Nicholls. It follows a couple who meet one day but then go their separate ways. They meet again on the same day every year. Our reader thought it a brilliant read and kept thinking about it for days afterward.

And finally, The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1850 and which is set in a Puritan colony in 1660s Massachusetts. It follows Hester Prynne who conceives a child out of wedlock and must always wear a scarlet letter A (for adultery) as punishment. This classic novel is a scathing critique on the judgmental attitudes of the Puritan community.

21 May 2024

Back to Library Blog