Hastings Library Book Chat Wraps It Up for Another Year

Hastings Library Book Chat finished up for the year with their last session at a café, bringing to the table even more fabulous reading.

There were two books by Sarah Perry, who was longlisted for the Booker Prize this year for her book: Enlightenment. This story follows several characters from a small Essex town, who are fascinated with astronomy, and in particular, a vanished nineteenth century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor. Our reader loved the book for the excellent writing and will seek out more by this author.

Another reader enjoyed an earlier book by Sarah Perry: The Essex Serpent, which takes you to late Victorian times, and the rumour and superstition that evolves around a sighting of a strange watery beast. Can it be a creature that survived the dinosaur era? Newly widowed Cora Seaborne is keen to find out. The story, also beautifully written, brings together ideas about science, religion and superstition.

Another writer noted for his excellent writing is Niall Williams. His new book, Time of the Child is set during the Christmas season in 1962. The everyday life of a doctor and his daughter is disturbed when an abandoned baby is left on their doorstep. But however much they grow to love the child, how can they possibly keep it? A beautiful story about ordinary life in Ireland.

Kristin Hannah’s novel, Another Life also revolves around the parenting of a child, with a teenage girl who gets pregnant, and a woman whose marriage has failed when her dream of parenthood fails to happen. The two are brought together in an emotional journey in a story that didn’t quite ring true for our reader.

One reader was impressed with American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, which had been on her to-read list for some time. It follows a woman and child on the run from a drug cartel, who make the harrowing journey from Acapulco to the United States. It’s a gripping, page-turning read as well as giving you lots the consider in the context of recent political developments.

Several New Zealand novels were well received. The Jacaranda House by Deborah Challinor takes us to 1960s Sydney, where Kiwi woman Polly has come to work as an exotic dancer and support her young daughter. Living with two transgender flatmates, the four become an unlikely family. A fascinating story about motherhood, prejudice and identity.

Another reader picked up The Secrets of Strangers by Charity Norman, and soon realised she’d read it before. But that didn’t stop her getting lost in the story again and being utterly riveted. It follows a group of strangers who get caught up in a hostage situation at a café. Norman cleverly creates a story that sympathetically reveals the motives of the gunman, and where the lines between right and wrong become blurred.

And then there was The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth and Louise Ward, the cosy mystery set in Havelock North that’s had us all talking. Our reader guessed the plot’s big revelation which put a bit of a dampener on her overall enjoyment.

We heard about Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty, the new book by the author that gave us Big Little Lies. The story had an interesting premise in which a “fortune teller” predicts the deaths, how and when, of the people on the flight. The book then follows each character and the events that follow. A well-put-together thriller.

We also read a couple of Christmas themed books. Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews, was a pleasant enough read about newly single and unemployed Kerry, who gets co-opted into helping her gruff brother with his Christmas tree stall in New York City. What starts out as a string of disasters, turns into a heart-warming story about community with a romance thrown in. Our reader quite enjoyed it but found overall it was just a bit too twee.

Another reader picked up Christmas in Sugar Creek by Shelley Shepard Gray, which is an Amish story about new beginnings and a heavy dose of romance. A disappointing read was the verdict.

Quite a different read was Intrusion by Ken MacLeod, a dystopian novel describing a regime where pregnant women are coerced into taking a pill that will eradicate common defects from their unborn child. One woman who has a hyperactive four year old refuses to take The Fix, as it is called, and flees to Lewis to avoid the mandate. A gripping read with echoes of Brave New World.

Finishing with non-fiction, we were reminded about what a good read Ruth Shaw’s memoir The Bookseller at the End of the World is. The author describes her business as a bookseller in a remote corner of Fiordland, as well as the events of her extraordinary life.

Kate Mosse is popular for her Languedoc trilogy and Jourbert Family Chronicles – all well-researched historical fiction. Her book Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries is a non-fiction work that describes the lives of almost 1000 inspiring women through history: inventors, pirates, scientists and more. Mosse brings in her own family history through her great grandmother, Lily Watson, who was a successful novelist in her time, now largely forgotten. An interesting book you can dip in and out of.

Another reader read Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming and found it a fascinating look at the former First Lady – her life before the White House and after. Inspiring and illuminating was the verdict.

20 December 2024

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