Elma Turner Book Chat - February
We meet on the 2nd Tuesday of every month to discuss books we're reading. All welcome.
Our next meet up is Tuesday March 10th at 10.30am
Winner of the Booker prize in 2025. The author lives in Vienna. Starts off with 15 year old protagonist living in an apartment in Hungary with his mother. He meets a married woman in the same building and begins a sexual relationship with her. Later fights with her husband. Moves on to when he’s in the army in the UK working in security for the ultra-rich and we see his life getting out of control with drugs, lots of sexual experiences…ends up having to return to Hungary to live with his mother. Seems to be a catalogue of his sexual exploits throughout his life and can’t see why it won the Booker
Milly is an ex-convict out on parole who gets a job as a live-in housemaid on Long Island. The woman of the rich couple Milly works for has mental health problems and mood swings. The gardener tries to warn her to be careful & that she may be in danger. Milly bonds with the husband and wishes she could replace Nina, his partner, in his affections. Twists and turns. Not just a love triangle but a study of mental and physical abuse and the justice system letting people down. Serious themes in a light plot.
Timoti Te Moke The unlikely doctor
This is a memoir by the author. Te Moke was in prison and a gang member and became a doctor at 56. Initially brought up by his loving grandparents on the Northeast coast of New Zealand he was then reclaimed by his mother and abused by his stepfather. In trouble with the law and with no support this memoir shows injustice, loss of potential but also true grit and determination for a better life. Timoti now works at Middlemore and Auckland City hospitals.
Claire Gleeson Show me where it hurts
Irish author. Rachel and husband Tom and two children live in Dublin and are just returning from visiting his parents when Tom deliberately runs off the road. The book moves on as a series of chapters before and after the accident. Very sad story. Excellent description of the development of a relationship.
The Chief Inspector Gamache who features in her detective mystery thrillers is wonderful. Set in a village called Three Pines in Quebec. Feel good novels!
In the early twentieth century in Wellington there was an amusement park called Wonderland in Miramar. This is a fictional story in this setting. The mother is a busy midwife who has triplet daughters of her own (fun characters) and the husband Charlie runs the park. The mother has invited a friend to stay who just happens to be Marie Curie who’s recovering from the death of her husband. Wonderful characters.
Virginia Evans The correspondent
Sybil Van Antwerp’s life is told through a series of letters written by her. She’s stubborn, opinionated, and cantankerous. She looks back at events and wants to fix things with her children and others.
Lori Gottlieb Maybe you should talk to someone
Non-fiction. Lori is a therapist in Hollywood. She must deal with her own pain when her husband wants out of their relationship. Lori goes into therapy and gives insights into both her work as a therapist and her experience in therapy. Very readable
Omar El AkkadOne day everyone will have always been against this
The author was born in Egypt and had to flee with his family and now lives in Portland. He was a war correspondent. An excellent take down of the way Western democracy has dealt with the genocide in Gaza. Hard-hitting. Can read only one chapter at a time.
A mother and the daughter relationship is not easy and only the father can help smooth things until a fatal car crash involving him and the mother’s sister results in disturbing truths about the family and their past history.
I couldn’t get past the way Hoover writes about the pregnant Verity. The author appears to judge Verity’s dread during pregnancy.
Paul Theroux The great railway bazaar
Follows a series of trips through Asia in the 1970s. He uses the Orient Express and Trans-Siberian railways for parts of the journeys. Part-funded by lectures on American literature. Mostly focuses on the people in the trains and the stations where he stops rather than the scenery. Patronising and judgmental about Asian people, focusing on dirtiness and strangeness. The style is perhaps a forerunner of today’s TV Travel series, but he doesn’t appear to have researched the many areas he travels to.
Daphne Du Maurier My cousin Rachel
Written after Rebecca it has similar themes – the big house in Cornwall and an enigmatic beautiful woman. Set in the 1830s, naïve narrator Philip Ashley is brought up by Ambrose who is unwell so goes to the sun in Italy and Philip is left to look after the estate. Ambrose writes to say he’s met a distant cousin Rachel . Later letters are concerning his apparent entrapment by her. Philip goes to Florence to find that Ambrose has died, and Rachel disappeared. When he returns to Cornwall, he gets a letter from Rachel who comes to meet him and bring Ambrose’s possessions. She’s young and beautiful and either a fortune-hunter or murderer. The ambiguity is unresolved til the end. This is a more sophisticated novel than Rebecca in terms of character and setting.
Humayra Qadiri Dancing in the mosque : an Afghan mother’s letter to her son
Translated from the Persian. Homeira Qaderi taught children reading and writing and fought for her rights under the Taliban regime. For a while as a married woman, she and her husband moved to Tehran where she could drive a car and went to university but then her husband wanted to return to Afghanistan and she had a son. When the husband decided to take a second wife and said ‘I divorce you’ three times ( all that required for it to be legal), Homeira moved to Illinois and gave up her son. This book describes her childhood and is a wonderful book.
Emmanuel Cooper Lucie Rie : modernist potter
A biography of Lucie Rie who grew up in Vienna. Went to Art school, lived through WW1 but by 1938 it wasn’t safe in Austria as a Jew so moved to the UK and married Hans Rie. One of the 20th century’s most celebrated and iconic potters.
Atul Gawande Being mortal : medicine and what matters in the end
Everyone should read this book. Gawande argues that the quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families and explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate how a person’s last weeks may be rich and dignified.
Two doctoral students in the field of analytic magick journey to the underworld ( Hell) to rescue their supervisor so they can complete their theses and get a letter of recommendation. Described as paranormal fiction or fantasy it is also very full of brainy asides about various philosophers’ writings about Hell and their journey through the trials and stages of Hell are quite engaging but felt it was a bit long. Good writing though ( author of Yellowface)
Robin Swift is orphaned by cholera in Canton in 1828 and brought to London by mysterious Professor Lovell. He trains for years in Greek, Latin and Chinese in preparation for the day he’ll enrol at Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation also known as Babel. Dark academia but wonderfully gripping as Robin realises why he was brought to London and has to choose between Britain’s colonisation and his motherland.
Debut collection of short stories narrated by a rural recluse about the life of a solitary woman in a remote country town in Ireland. Beautifully written and a delight to read slowly and savour.
