Stoke book chat April
We meet on the 3rd Wednesday of each month from 5:30pm at Stoke library. All welcome.
Pippo and Clara by Diana Rosie [Audio book]
Available from Nelson Public Libraries on paper, as an e-book, and as a talking book on disc and as an e-audio book.
Set in Italy in 1938, during Mussolini’s time, with war not far away. Clara and Pippo are just children when their mother leaves early one morning, never to return. When Clara wakes, she goes off in search of her mother, and when Pippo wakes, he also goes off in search of his mother and Clara. The children go in opposite directions. It’s a novel about a family and a country divided. Our reader found it a fantastic read – really engaging, with first rate attention to detail. She listened to the audio book version and enjoyed the narration.
The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean, 2019
Available from Nelson Public Libraries on paper, as an e-book
Set in Australia, this novel tells the story of Tikka Molloy’s summer as an eleven-year old – the summer that the Van Apfel sisters disappeared; the summer that shaped Tikka. The narration moves between 11-year-old Tikka and her older 27-year-old self, when she returns home and discovers the town is still reeling from the sisters’ disappearance. Tikka subsequently recounts the events of the night the sisters disappeared – it was the night of the Showstopper concert. Could her friendship with the sisters somehow have contributed to their disappearance?
Enigma by Robert Harris, 1995
Tom Jericho succeeds in cracking the impenetrable operational cipher ‘Shark’ used by Nazi U-boats, but when the Germans change the code, Tom must break the new code before it’s too late. Our reader really enjoyed this book and described it as a love story with code breaking, rather than a war story. She found the descriptions of winter / March 1943 particularly interesting.
The Denniston Rose by Jenny Patrick, 2003
In the 1880s the Denniston Incline on the South Island’s West Coast, is an isolated, rugged place to live, full of misfits. Five-year-old Rose and her mother arrive one stormy evening without explanation. Subsequently, Rose must establish a place for herself in this harsh community. A story of spirit and determination, set during an interesting chapter in New Zealand’s history.
Born and raised in a small village on the Yorkshire moors, Leah goes on to become a top model working in New York and Milan, but her past follows her, and she must fight to challenge destiny. Leah’s heritage includes the mysterious and tragic tale of two young siblings in Poland during WWII.
Although our reader had enjoyed another Lucinda Riley novel, she found this one jumped around a bit too much.
The novel was first published in 1993 as ‘Hidden Beauty’ under the pen name Lucinda Edmonds. It was revised and updated by Lucinda’s son Harry Whittaker.
It’s spring time and Lara’s three adult children have returned home to the cherry orchard. Her children manage somehow to get Lara to talk about her time at Tom Lake when she was part of a theatre group and when she had an affair with a man who later became a very famous film star.
This book took a little perseverance at first, partly because the main character Lara had nicknames for her children that were the names of people she had known at Tom Lake, but it was well worth the effort – a great read.
Past Perfect by Danielle Steele, 2017
Sybil and Blake Gregory live a well-ordered, predictable life in New York, raising their three children. Then, Blake visits San Franciso to check out a job offer, where he sees a wonderful large character house, the price of which is such a great deal that he buys it on the spot. Sybil and the children later join Blake and move into the mansion, where they find that they can see and interact with the large family who previously lived there and are long-since dead. Within the house it is at once 1917 and 2017; can the Gregory’s influence the future, and should they even try?
Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
"The Blind Assassin opens with these simple, resonant words: Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge. They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist. Brilliantly weaving together such seemingly disparate elements, Atwood creates a world of astonishing vision and unforgettable impact"--Publisher.
Dark Secrets of Dressmakers’ Alley by Rosie Clarke
Dark Secrets of Dressmakers’ Alley is set in1924 in a ladies’ fashion shop, where business is thriving, but bad things start happening – ladies are attacked in the alley. The police seem unable to find the perpetrator/s ,so the men of dressmakers’ alley form their own vigilante group. Then, a man is found brutally murdered and suspicions fall on the group itself, and one of the group – Sam Collins - is charged with the murder. Can Sam’s fiancé Winne prove his innocence?
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop : A Novel, by Satoshi Yagisawa, translated by Eric Ozawa
A lovely story about everyday life and the trauma of loss and redemption. A really enjoyable short read.
Twenty-five-year-old Takako has enjoyed a relatively easy existence, until the day her boyfriend Hideaki, the man she expected to wed, casually announces he's been cheating on her and is marrying the other woman. Suddenly, Takako's life is in freefall. She loses her job, her friends, and her acquaintances, and spirals into a deep depression. In the depths of her despair, she receives a call from her distant uncle Satoru. An unusual man who has always pursued something of an unconventional life, especially after his wife Momoko left him out of the blue five years earlier, Satoru runs a second-hand bookshop in Jimbocho, Tokyo's famous book district. Takako once looked down upon Satoru's life. Now, she reluctantly accepts his offer of the tiny room above the bookshop rent-free in exchange for helping out at the store. The move is temporary, until she can get back on her feet. But in the months that follow, Takako surprises herself when she develops a passion for Japanese literature, becomes a regular at a local coffee shop where she makes new friends, and eventually meets a young editor from a nearby publishing house who's going through his own messy breakup. But just as she begins to find joy again, Hideaki reappears, forcing Takako to rely once again on her uncle, whose own life has begun to unravel. Together, these seeming opposites work to understand each other and themselves as they continue to share the wisdom they've gained in the bookshop."--Publisher.
