Small Great Things

I very much enjoyed Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult which is set in New York.  A coloured midwife, Ruth, has been working at her hospital for 20 years.  She has an exemplary work record and really loves her job.  When white supremacist, Turk, and his wife have their baby Ruth is told not to touch him.  However, she is left alone with the baby, Davis, when other staff are dealing with an emergency.  Ruth takes action when Davis stops breathing in an effort to save him.  To her astonishment she is charged with murder.  The story is told by three characters, Ruth, Turk and Kennedy, Ruth's solicitor.  The author examines the issue of unconscious bias and demonstrates how it happens.  This is a well written compelling story.  Highly recommended.  5/5

Commonwealth

I enjoyed Commonwealth by Ann Patchett which is the story of two families.  They are broken up in 1964 when the father of one family begins a relationship with the mother of the other family.  During holidays the children of the families become "blended" when they stay with their step-mother or step-father.  A tragic event occurs some years later, which haunts them all their lives.  The story of their lives is told by each of the children.  One of the girls becomes the lover of a famous author who turns the stories of her family in to a book.  I found it a little confusing at first trying to remember the names of the children and who their parents were.  They all have interesting lives and I then wanted to know how they turned out. 4/5

Why Did You Lie?

I very much enjoyed Why Did You Lie? by Yrsa Sigurdardottir,an Icelandic writer.  The story is set in Iceland. At first we read the start of what appear to be three unrelated stories.  There are mysterious deaths and tense situations.  A group are temporarily stranded on a remote lighthouse on a very small island space.  Then there is the family who return from a holiday house swap in Florida and find the Americans seem to have left suddenly.  Another story has a journalist who apparently committed suicide.  His wife is a police officer and she is struggling to come to terms with his death.  As we read on, we learn about the connection between them all. 5/5

The Martian

I enjoyed The Martian by Andy Weir which is mainly set on Mars.  Mark Watney was presumed dead following an incident after he and others had landed on Mars from their mothercraft, "Hermes".  When Watney regains consciousness he realises he has been left behind and that he will have to work out how to survive until he can be rescued.  He proves to be very resourceful as he builds a potato farm and finds a way of communicating with Earth.  From then the whole world is "barracking" for him, hoping he can survive.  But how can he surmount the seemingly impossible odds?  I found the chemistry hard to follow, went right over my head.  It all seemed very realistic and then the suspense of wondering whether he will survive. (I have not seen the movie). 4/5

May Book Club

We had a lovely Book Club at my place last night. Five of our ladies came along.  The others are off travelling in Australia and overseas.  As usual, we had a good chat about everything and anything before talking about the books we've read.  We all mostly enjoyed the books we'd read, very few duds.  One of our ladies has a son marrying next weekend, another has just returned from visiting her two beautiful granddaughters and their parents interstate.  I had bought eight new books to add to our collection and I'll look forward to reading them and others in the near future.

Dead to Me

I enjoyed Dead to Me by Lesley Pearse which is set in London and Devon beginning in the 1930s when two young girls from very different backgrounds meet.  Verity goes to a good school and from a wealthy family while Ruby lives in poverty with her prostitute mother.  The girls become best friends as their lives change.  The second World War has a huge impact on their lives and their friendship.  Verity's father committed criminal acts and becomes a fugitive.  This is a story about the strength of friendship despite what else is going on with their lives.  There is romance for both the girls.  The story was okay, though sometimes a bit "corny".  Definitely a "girl" book. 31/2/5

New books for May 2017

It is my turn to host Book Club in May so I bought the new books from Booktopia.  I went through my newspaper cuttings to produce a "long list" of 22 which was reduced to eight.  Click on the link to learn more about the book and read reviews.  I hope we will enjoy them.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick.  Arthur and Miriam Pepper were happily married for 40 years.  On the first anniversary of Miriam's death, Arthur finds a small box containing a gold charm bracelet with a phone number on it.

Why Did You Lie byYrsa Sigurdardotti, Icelandic queen of Nordic Noir and winner of the 2015 Petrona Award.  A journalist on the track of an old case attempts suicide. An ordinary couple return from a house swap in the states to find their home in disarray and their guests seemingly missing. Four strangers struggle to find shelter on a windswept spike of rock in the middle of a raging sea. They have one thing in common: they all lied.

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith, a story told in three time periods, Amsterdam in 1631 where Sara de Vos becomes the first woman to be admitted as a master painter; New York 1957 where one of her works is displayed in the home of a Manhattan lawyer; Sydney 2000 where a celebrated art historian is mounting an exhibition.

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2016. Lucy is visited by her estranged mother while she's in hospital.  As they talk she remembers her childhood.

A Hundred Small Lessons by Ashley Hay an award winning Australian (Brisbane) author. The story of a Brisbane home and the two main occupants.  Elsie is forced to move to a nursing home and then a family move in.

Idaho by Emily Ruskovich.  One hot August day a family drives to a mountain clearing to collect birch wood. Jenny, the mother, is in charge of lopping any small limbs off the logs with a hatchet. Wade, the father, does the stacking. Their two daughters drink lemonade, swat away horseflies, bicker, sing snatches of songs as they while away the time. But then something unimaginably shocking happens, an act so extreme it will scatter the family in every different direction.

The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain.  Gustav grows up in a small town in Switzerland, where the horrors of the Second World War seem a distant echo. But Gustav’s father has mysteriously died, and his adored mother Emilie is strangely cold and indifferent to him. Gustav’s life is a lonely one until he meets Anton. An intense lifelong friendship develops but Anton fails to understand how deeply and irrevocably his life and Gustav’s are entwined until it is almost too late.

The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty.  Four best friends since the first day of school. Now in their thirties and real life - husbands, children, work - has got in the way. So, resurrecting their annual trip away, one has an idea, something to help them reconnect. Each will write an anonymous letter, sharing with their friends the things that are really going on in their lives. But as the confessions come tumbling out, will their friendship survive.  Then they find a fifth letter containing a big secret.

The Bitter Season

I very much enjoyed The Bitter Season by Tami Hoag which is set in Minneapolis.  Detective Nikki Liska joins the cold case unit and her first investigation is the shooting murder of a police officer 25 years earlier.  Liska directs her investigation along different lines to the original investigators.  Meanwhile her former partner in the homicide department, Sam Kovac, is investigating a particularly gruesome double murder of a university professor and his wife.  Liska misses being with Kovac for this very interesting case.  There are many twists and turns in both these investigations with an excellent final twist.  Recommended. 41/2/5