Something for Everyone at Wine, Books & More

Library book group Wine, Books & More worked their way through an absolute ton of books before their November meet-up, with some entire series being reviewed on the night.

One reader can’t seem to get enough of the crime novels of Peter Grainger. They particularly like the DC Smith stories, enjoying the complex, detailed mysteries and the humour. In An Accidental Death, the first book in the series, Smith is a former DCI, but has recently returned to work after an internal investigation. His superiors would really rather he retired, so now he’s just a DC at a Norfolk police station, when he is called to investigate a drowning that looks to be an accident. There are eleven in the series so far, so lots to enjoy.

The series, Willows and Lane follows bored widow Emily Willows and her new neighbour, former detective inspector Summer Lane, who team up to solve mysteries. There are three in this series, which have good stories, if not so interesting as the DC Smith series. The Kings Lake series is set around a police station and its murder squad, and in particular the cases investigated by DS Chris Waters. Another series of well-plotted and very detailed stories.

The Night Shift is a fairly solid thriller by Alex Miller about the attack on four teenagers and the connection to a massacre in a Blockbuster video store in 1999. Set in New Jersey, there are more attacks in the same town in a case for FBI agent Sarah Keller that becomes known as the ‘Night Shift Murders’.

Steve Cavanagh’s novel The Defence is a legal thriller, the first in a series following Eddie Flynn, a former lawyer who vows never to practise again, until his hand is forced by the Russian mafia. Eddie’s previous career as a con artist comes to the fore in this tense and nail-biting story. Our reader will be reading more in the series for sure.

Hunting Time is another American thriller, fourth in the Colter Shaw series by Jeffery Deaver. In this story Colter is trying to find and protect a woman on the run with her daughter. Her former cop husband has been released from prison and is itching for revenge. A well put together, twisty story, says our reader.

The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons brings us from America to Sweden in the latest in the Millennium series that began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist both have family problems that take a darker turn in the first book written for the series by Karin Smirnoff. Our reader was very impressed, finding themselves drawn into the story from page one, and enjoyed every minute.

While crime fiction is always popular with this group, there was quite a pile of speculative fiction – fantasy and sci-fi novels – that made the discussion. Cixin Li’s novels were a particular hit. Of Ants and Dinosaurs was a kind of alternative pre-history of Earth where dinosaurs and ants became dominant species. Our reader loved it, finding it a really entertaining and clever story.

Parts of The Three-Body Problem were really clever, but the story of an alien civilization on the brink of destruction and its plans to invade Earth was a bit bitty. Cixin Li’s collection of stories Wandering Earth was also worth picking up particularly for its interesting science.

Martha Wells’ novella All Systems Red is the first book in her Murderbot Diaries series, a cool and clever story that our reader, who isn’t usually a fan of sci-fi, really liked. There are androids going rogue and spacefaring planetary missions, so a lot to like.

We’ve heard a lot about Tīhema Baker’s novel Turncoat, a book that describes colonisation of New Zealand by aliens in a way that parallels the political landscape here today. It follows Daniel, a young idealist Human, who wants to make a difference and decides to infiltrate the Alien government.

Alien Clay is a new book by Adrian Tchaikovsky that takes place on a distant world where Professor Arton Daghdev is exiled for political activism. He’s at a work camp where every day is dangerous, but on the other hand his new planet holds a wondrous, terrible secret. The story explores how humans interact with other biomes with good use of animals' and other beings’ perspectives. A stand-alone novel that was a pretty good read though not one of this author’s best.

Three fantasy books by T Kingfisher complete the round-up of speculative fiction, the pick of them being Thornhedge, a story that's a kind of original, subversive fairytale, with its toadlike heroine, a gentle knight, a curse and a princess trapped in a tower. Kingfisher’s best book, said our reader.

Kingfisher’s Nettle and Bone was also a good read. Here we’ve Marra, a princess, and third daughter, relieved not to be married off for her parents’ throne. Unlike her sister, who is married to a cruel, abusive husband. With no one else, it looks like Marra is going to have to do something about him.

And while it had some interesting character development, our reader thought they wouldn’t carry on with the Saint of Steel series which begins with Paladin’s Grace. This whimsical fantasy about a sock-knitting paladin and a badass perfumer who team up to foil an assassination attempt, was just a bit too spicy.

We talked about a manga series: Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba, which one reader found absolutely amazing, an incredible story about a bored student whose life changes when he discovers a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. The plot went every which way with so many twists. There are more than a dozen books in the series, beginning with Death Note: Boredom.

Then there was the cosy romance novel: The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore, which has become a TikTok sensation. The story follows Jeanie who is gifted the café of the title, a chance for her to ditch her boring desk job. This is what's known as a "grumpy x sunshine" romance with Jeanie a happy-go-lucky sort who falls for curt-but-gorgeous local farmer, Logan.

Moving to more general fiction, we heard about Christmas Actually by Lisa Darcy – a drama about family, forgiveness and life with all its hurdles. Christmas is coming as Kate is juggling a new opportunity, while her family pull her in different directions. Anxiety over events of the past also intrude, but the season also offers opportunities to heal. Sounds like the perfect yuletide feel-good read.

A more serious read was All the Broken Places by John Boyne – a very powerful story about the aftermath of war. The novel follows on from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, in which 90-year-old Gretel has lingering sadness from her past, the daughter of a commandant of one of the Reich’s most brutal concentration camps. Her friendship with the new neighbours’ young boy brings her to an important decision.

On a lighter note is Jonas Jonasson’s Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd – a novel about an unscrupulous Stockholm adman who sets up a company offering a revenge service. The story brings in a wide variety of characters, from a Maasai warrior to the Pope, but although it sounds a bit of a stretch of the imagination, the way that it was written makes it oddly believable. A fun read.

A really imaginative read was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, a very popular novel from 2012. It’s about two circus magicians who unexpectedly fall in love, in spite of the competitive side of their relationship - their romance both fantastical and manifesting in fateful ways. Our reader found it to be a beautiful story, if a bit hard to follow. Lovely prose that really paints pictures in your mind.

Among the historical novels discussed was The Italian Bookshop Among the Vines by Amanda Weinberg, which for one reader was a bit of a slog. The story takes us back to a secluded Italian village where both Jewish and Catholic families have lived side by side amicably. Bella’s Jewish family has run the bookshop for generations but the war brings danger when German soldiers arrive in the village.

Although the cover led our reader to expect a different kind of story, they enjoyed Kelly Rimmer’s The Warsaw Orphan very much. Set during the German occupation of Warsaw, it follows young Elzbieta and how she becomes drawn into helping smuggle Jewish children out of the ghetto. A well-paced, tense and involving story.

Audrey Blake’s novel The Girl in His Shadow was according to one reader a lovely story. When young orphan Nora Beady becomes ward to Dr Horace Croft, she also becomes his trusted assistant, her suturing skills and medical knowledge making her better qualified than most in the field. But this is mid-18th century London and women are not allowed to practice medicine. The price, if caught, is severe.

The non-fiction included a bunch of celebrity biographies and memoirs which were all interesting reads. Sam Neil is a natural storyteller in his book, Did I Ever Tell You This? Describing his rise to stardom and the famous people he has met over the years, his writing reveals a natural wit and amusing, self-deprecating manner.

Ruby Wax also writes an enjoyable biography with I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was, although this one was also a bit heartbreaking. Raw, honest and witty, the book follows Ruby’s journey in mental health, offering both advice and solace. A good read.

For actor Alan Cumming, startling revelations about his family came to the surface in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? More secrets were then shared by his estranged father and Alan went on a journey of self discovery. He tells his story in Not My Father’s Son: a family memoir. Our reader found it really interesting, particularly the way it shows how Alan came to be comfortable in his own skin.

Cider with Roadies by Stuart Maconie was another good read - humorous and interesting. The book describes the author’s lifelong obsession with pop music. It’s “a life-affirming journey through the land where ordinary life and pop come together to make music".

Which None Can Shut by Reema Goode gets its title from Revelation 3:8 – “See, I have set before you an open door, and on one can shut it.” Reema and her family are Christians who work in a closed Middle Eastern country where Christians are persecuted. This is a collection of personal stories about living among Muslims and as a Christian including a calling to the spread the message of Jesus. Our reader found it a bit disjointed unfortunately.

Wine, Books & More meets on the third Tuesday of the month at Hastings War Memorial Library, at 5:30pm.

4 December 2024

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