Elma Turner book chat May
Alan Hollinghurst Our evenings
A life story of a fictional actor David Win – looking at his love life as a gay outsider.. His mother had had an affair in Burma when younger and David is the result. The effect on his career as a dark-skinned actor runs through the book, the racial prejudice. Also, his mother is a seamstress, so the theme of class is another theme. David is gifted and wins a scholarship to a boarding school .
Syou Ishida We’ll prescribe you a cat
Magic realism. Five people with problems go to a ‘clinic of the soul’. Set in Kyoto. People are given a cat to take home with the promise of it fixing their problems. One example is a young man who works in a toxic work environment. The cat destroys all his paperwork, and he loses his job, but other possibilities come up. Through the five stories there is a hint about what the clinic is about.
Pip Williams The dictionary of lost words
I liked the way the book reinforced the maxim that ‘ takes a village to raise (shape) a child’. It was a poignant book to read on Mother’s Day as the main character Esme is motherless and the definition of mothers interested Esme. Found the rest of the alphabet definitions a bit tedious.
Kerry Greenwood Murder on the Ballarat Train (available as e-book via Borrowbox)
Light-hearted read in the Phryne Fischer series
Bret Anthony Johnston We burn daylight
Set in Waco Texas 1993. Reimagines the David Koresh incident. In this fiction book the charismatic figure is called Lamb . Roy a 14-year-old falls for Jade who lives in the compound ( her mother is in love with ‘the Lamb’) Roy tries to rescue Jade. Starts slow but then there is relentless action. It shows sympathy to both sides. A good portrayal of a leader and good look at cults but would’ve preferred if just called it Waco and used Koresh as the leader’s name!
J P Pomare 17 years later: who really killed the Primrose family?
Australian podcaster comes to Cambridge NZ to investigate the conviction of a young man for the murder of 3 Brits. Moves between present day evidence and to the time of the murders. Does a good job at ambiguity but things forgotten at the end and disappointing denouement.
Jim McCloskey When truth is all you have
Nonfiction title looking into wrongly convicted cases in American prisons. Using DNA on cases that occurred before DNA testing the author found 99% of errors were due to the misbehaviour of prosecutors, forced confessions etc. Many exonerated, some on death row and predominantly young black men.
Katharine Center Things you save in a fire
Firefighter Cassie Hanwell is one of the only female firefighters in her firefighting crew. An upmarket Mills & Boon.
Based on The Tempest Felix Philip has a daughter called Miranda who dies and he’s still grieving 12 years later. He gets a job at a medium security prison teaching theatre and will put on a production of The Tempest where he plans to have his revenge. Intriguing.
Witi Ihimaera Sleeps Standing Moetū
Written in English and Te Reo ( translated by Hemi Kelly)the book focuses on one NZ Mar battle in 1864 when 300 Māori men, women and children fought an Imperial army. The battle marked the end of the Land wars in the Waikato and resulted in much land being confiscated for European settlement. Worth reading.
The oldest Briton to top Everest Adventurer Fiennes writes about the people who have inspired him from explorers, soldiers, freedom fighters and policemen.
Jim Kelly ( aka J G Kelly) The great darkness
No 1 in the Nighthawk series. Set in the opening weeks of the second world war in 1939. The Great darkness refers to the blackout in southern England. A man who was injured in WW1, was interrogated by Turkish forces, tied up and left in bright sunlight had his eyesight ruined so that after the war he can work and live only at night. One night the man, now a D I Brooke, is swimming and finds a body in the Cam rive. He calls on the expertise of a group called the ‘nighthawks’ across the city. A second victim appears soon after…
Set in 1960s London, Gabriel Dax is a travel writer and an accidental spy who is haunted by the memory of a house fire as a 6-year-old in which his mother died. A very absorbing tale. Recommended
Helene Tursten An elderly lady must not be crossed and An elderly Lady is up to no good
Charming . 88-year-old Maud lives in a spacious apartment in Gothenburg with no family, friends or qualms about murdering those who she says as guilty of crossing her. Spends her time travelling and surfing the net. Light and very entertaining.
