Heading into Spring at Tea with Tales

On a beautiful spring day we enjoyed hot drinks and cheese scones while we shared what we liked about spring.

Before we talked about our latest reads we listened to RNZ National’s book review segment with Catherine Robertson. Catherine was talking to Jessie Mulligan about the latest books by Hawke’s Bay writers: Charity Norman, Gareth and Louise Ward and Cristina Sanders. This whetted our appetite for the upcoming Readers and Writers Festival in October. We also talked about Gareth and Louise Ward’s recent book launch for Dead Girl Gone.

Several book recommendations from last month were read including A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman and The Kindness of Strangers: kitchen memoirs by Shonagh Koea. Both books were enjoyed although we still can’t understand why A Man Called Ove is a must read for all women.

138 Dates: the true story of one woman's search for everything by Australian Rebekah Campbell was a definite recommendation. Although everyone in the group was pretty sure they had never been on 138 dates.

A Voice and a Dream: Celine Dion by Richard Crouse was another recommendation especially after watching the latest Celine documentary.

Travel writer Eric Newby’s A Small Place in Italy was the easy-to-read story of the author’s time restoring a farmhouse in Italy. Newby had escaped from an Italian prisoner of war camp during the Second World War and lived in the region before being betrayed by Italian communists and sent to Germany to be interned.

Two readers had both read the latest from this book group’s favourite author Charity Norman. Both said the first part of Home Truths was hard reading but then it picked up and you were on the edge of your seat.

Further adventures of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus were enjoyed: Tooth and Nail and Hide and Seek. However two readers found the child abuse in James Patterson’s Along Came a Spider too hard to read.

After seeing the movie It Ends With Us, one of our readers was reminded that she had read the book by Colleen Hoover. It prompted her to read another of her novels, November 9, which she also enjoyed. She also read Southern Lights by Danielle Steel which she described as normal Steel fare.

We look forward to welcoming next month two new members from Central Hawke’s Bay. Tea with Tales is the library's book group for people with impaired vision and meets on the morning of the first Monday of the month.

6 September 2024

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