Memoirs, Mysteries and More from Hastings Book Chat

Hastings Library Book Chat’s monthly get-together discussed, among other things, some fascinating non-fiction, from a wide range of topics.

The Gardener of Lashkar Gah: the true story of the Afghans who risked everything to fight the Taleban by Larisa Brown takes us back to the sudden withdrawal of British and American troops in 2021 from Afghanistan. Shaista Gah and his family were in immediate danger for having worked for the British forces in different capacities. Awarding winning journalist, Larisa Brown chronicled their story, throwing a light on the precarious position of Afghan interpreters and the effects of the war on ordinary people.

In Becoming Tangata Tiriti: working with Māori, honouring the Treaty sociologist Avril Bell has compiled the voices of twelve non-Māori, an assortment of dedicated professionals, activists and everyday individuals. It describes their efforts to bring te Tiriti into their workplaces, their missteps and triumphs. The book was found to be both scholarly and interesting and an excellent guide for anyone who is beginning this journey as well as a refresher for those well along the way.

An interesting read was Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible life by Anna Funder. This is about Eileen O’Shaugnessy, in herself a brilliant literary mind, who married George Orwell. How did her brilliance help her husband’s work and what was the cost on her own career. The author has had access to recently discovered letters between Eileen and her best friend, helping her recreate the story of a literary marriage.

Quite a different read was Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars: space, exploration and life on Earth by Kate Greene. This follows the author’s experience on NASA’s HI SEAS mission on Hawaii, in a geodesic dome set up to simulate the Martian environment. Greene lived here for four months studying the sleep of her crewmates and the effects of living in such close quarters, the isolation from family and the tantalising promise of scientific progress.

We had a variety of mysteries and thrillers, always popular genres, which included award winning New Zealand author Mandy Hager’s new book. Strays and Waifs is about Bella Goodfellow, a climate activist desperate to save the world, while struggling to manage her own life when she loses her home in a landslide. Finding a temporary home on Kapiti Island with her publisher’s elderly aunt, the two women find themselves unexpected allies in a plan to rescue a child and catch out a murderer. Elderly Freya has a psychic gift which made the story interesting and Hager’s writing, as always, is brilliant.

Kate Rhodes was another popular author doing the rounds at Book Chat, with Hangman Island a superb mystery that kept you enthralled, while beautifully evoking an intriguing setting. As did Ann Cleeve’s The Rising Tide, set on Holy Island, or Lindisfarne, which is cut off at hightide from the mainland. A murder dressed up as suicide raises suspicions for our scruffy detective, Vera Stanhope, in this mystery that keeps you guessing to the end.

Masters of War by Chris Ryan is an earlier book by this popular thriller author who has used his own special forces experience to add authenticity to his books. This is the first in the Danny Black series, set partly in war-torn Syria, our reader said it was a good page-turner and not too violent, unlike some of Ryan’s more recent novels.

You’d Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace is written from the point of view of a serial killer who can see people as ghosts before they die. Although this seemed an intriguing premise, our reader found the character too preposterous to take seriously enough to enjoy the book.

So it was just as well there was a new Alex Gray novel to get lost in. Out of Darkness has DSI William Lorimer and his wife Maggie in Zimbabwe on holiday, their first in years. This is the country Lorimer’s new colleague, PC Daniel Kohi comes from, having escaped a vendetta against him for being a police corruption whistle-blower. In Glasgow, Daniel gets caught up in a murder mystery that is uncomfortably close to his own doorstep. Rumours around the visiting Scots couple emerge in Zimbabwe that threaten their safety. A really good read, but a bit grim to start with.

We’ve also been eagerly awaiting the new Tana French novel, The Hunter, a sequel to The Searcher, both of which feature ex-Chicago PD Cal Hooper, and young Irish girl Trey Reddy, who has changed from being somewhat feral to being a good kid with ambitions. When her father turns up after four years absence with a half-baked scheme involving gold prospecting, and some dodgy dealing, things begin to look shaky for Trey. An interesting read that adds lots of local colour with characters you can never assume are telling the truth.

Among the historical novels was The Glassmaker the latest novel by Tracy Chevalier, which is unsurprisingly set in Venice, beginning in 1486. Orsola isn’t meant to make glass as women were banned from becoming glassmakers. She has to secretly hone her craft to create perfect glass, and thus earn the respect of those around her, and it will take time. This is a really good story but you will have to suspend belief as the main character doesn’t age through the decades and even centuries that follow. The details about glassmaking are really interesting too.

The Youngest Son by John Byrnes is a very Australian and very male story beginning in 1920s Sydney. Spanning the decades, it follows three siblings from a dysfunctional working-class family. We get the seedy underbelly of the city, the Depression and World War II and the book is described as an epic saga – not a happy story but brilliant storytelling.

Another family story is The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. Set in 1960s Maine, this is where the Mi’kmaq people come to the blueberry fields each year for the picking season. When a little girl goes missing, her older brother is haunted by grief, while in a well-to-do area nearby, young Norma grows up full of burning questions about her past. This book is going round the table and has been immensely enjoyed by all.

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris takes us to 1992 in Sarajevo and the start of the war that will divide the city into enclaves of Serb, Croat and Muslim. Gangs erect barricades and unrest makes this an unsafe place. Artist Zora sends her mother and husband to stay in England with her daughter until it’s safe again to return. This was such a powerful read and reminded us of a similarly set story -  The Conductor by Sarah Quigley.

Among the contemporary novels was Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland a feel-good read set in a York bookshop. It’s the second book following Loveday Cardew, and in this story her Lost for Words bookshop is closed because of the pandemic. An elderly couple reach out for books to help get them through and this sparks an idea for Loveday to offer a special bookshop service, matching people to their ideal reads. A moving and thoughtful book with some brilliant characters.

This group enjoys anything by Patrick Gale, with one member recently reading Take Nothing With You. While he’s having treatment for cancer, Eustace looks back at his childhood and his emerging talent for the cello. A charismatic teacher, a controlling mother and an unusual family situation all add to this sensitive read.

Two of our members were recently mesmerised by the New Zealand movie, A Mistake which is based on a novel by Carl Shuker. The story follows the fortunes of a surgeon who loses a patient during surgery and the effects of this on her life. Unfortunately for one reader the book was nowhere near as good as the film, with too much incidental information about settings and an unappealing main character.

6 November 2024

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