The Last Hours

I enjoyed The Last Hours by Minette Walters which is set in England in 1348 when the Black Death was spreading throughout the land.  In a feudal village the lord and his family have not yet been exposed when the story begins.  But when the lord visits another lord to barter the dowry for his daughter, he and many of his entourage contracts the disease and he tries to return to his home.  He and his remaining three "soldiers" are barred from entry as his wife, Lady Anne, assumes control and brings all her serfs inside.  Lady Anne has a spoilt daughter, Lady Eleanor, and she causes a lot of trouble.  Then there is a young "Heathcliffe-like" character Thaddeus who has leadership qualities and takes a group out to search for food.  There are lots of conflicts and arguments along the way.  A good story, particularly if you have an interest in the Black Death.  The book is 547 pages and I was disappointed there were so many "loose ends" - because there's a sequel.  4/5

Every Last Lie

I enjoyed Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica most of the time.  The story is told from the perspective of each of the two main characters, in two time periods.  Nick tells the story from before the time when he is killed in a car accident.  His wife, Clara, tells the story in the "present" after Nick has died.  Clara is convinced that Nick was murdered, that it wasn't an accident.  In the lead-up to the crash Nick tells how he is having problems with his work and his money.  Clara has a new-born baby and a four-year-old daughter.  I found Nick and Clara very irritating, especially Clara's stubborn refusal to believe it was an accident.  By the disappointing end I didn't care. 31/2/5

Leave Me

I enjoyed Leave Me by Gayle Forman which is set in New York.  Maribeth Klein leads a busy stressful life with four-year-old twins and a husband who doesn't seem to be "sharing the load."  When Maribeth has a heart attack, she spends time in hospital but when she's well enough to go home she finds it all too much.  Maribeth is adopted and she wonders if she has inherited her heart condition.  She decides to leave her home and finds a small flat a long way from and builds a new, perhaps temporary life without the stress of her previous life.  She meets new people and searches for her birth mother.  How will it all end? 4/5

The Good Doctor of Warsaw

This story, The Good Doctor of Warsaw by Elisabeth Gifford, is a profoundly moving story.  It is told against the background of terrible real events and real people.  Janusz Korczak is the "good doctor", a pioneering child psychologist who ran an orphanage before and after the Warsaw Ghetto was created by Nazi Germany.  There is also a young couple, Misha and Sophia, whose happy lives are disrupted by the Nazi invasion.  Misha is learning medicine at university and helps Dr Korczak in the orphanage.  As the war continues, life within the walls of the ghetto becomes increasingly difficult.  Food is scarce and basic necessities of life are hard to come by.  People are taken away to work in factories.  Dr Korczak pins his hopes on the children as being the future of Poland.  Surviving the war can never be guaranteed.  Korczak's book How to Love a Child makes interesting reading.  I have read factual accounts about the Warsaw Uprising and I've visited the terrible Paviak prison and the excellent Rising Museum, now tourist attractions.  This is usually the sort of story that I would avoid because of the tragedy that we all know about.  However, though this is often a sad story, it is beautifully told.  There are happy parts as well.  Highly recommended. 5/5

June Book Club

We had our Book Club meeting at my place last Monday evening.  Not all our ladies were there, some travelling.  It was a very pleasant evening with lots to talk about.  Oh yes, we also talked about the books we've read, some good, some not so good.  I've selected a good batch to read this month.  

Cast Iron

I enjoyed Cast Iron by Peter May which is set in France.  Forensic expert Enzo Macleod investigates a cold case when the remains of a young woman, Lucie Martin, are found in a lake when the waters recede because of drought.  Enzo believes the man convicted of her murder is innocent and sets out to discover the truth.  Enzo is 56 and seems to have a number of complicated relationships with various other characters.  Enzo's daughter, Sophie, is abducted by the people involved with the murder of Lucie and three other women.  This is the last in a series and would probably be better to read them in order to better know the characters.  It is a tangled web. 4/5

City of Crows

I've read City of Crows by Chris Womersley which is set in Paris in the 17th century.  The author has built a story around actual people who lived at that time.  It is a good story, well written but not a genre that I really enjoy.  There is witchcraft, magic spells and the plague in the story.  A prisoner, Lesage, has just been released from prison where he endured incredible hardship.  He meets a young widow, Charlotte, who has left her village with her son after her husband died.  Charlotte has a strange encounter then a something terrible happens.  After that she meets up with Lesage and together they go to Paris.  31/2/5

The Other Hoffmann Sister

I very much enjoyed The Other Hoffmann Sister by Ben Fergusson about two sisters, Margarete and Ingrid who grow up in Africa and return to Germany shortly before World War I begins. It was interesting to read a story from the German perspective as we don't see many stories like this (history is written by the victors).  Margarete is destined to be married off to a German Baron but there is a turn of events.  Ingrid is the younger sister and she loved their "half-caste" houseboy in Africa and yearns to see him again.  This an interesting historical fiction in a time when one's place in society was important.  There are secrets and mysteries to be solved in this intriguing story.  Beautiful writing, highly recommended. 5/5

New Books for June 2018

It is my turn to host Book Club in June and I bought the new books from Booktopia.  I went through my newspaper cuttings to produce a "long list" of 24 which was reduced to eight.  Click on the link to learn more about the book and read reviews.  I hope we will all enjoy them.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland - An enchanting and captivating novel, about how our untold stories haunt us - and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. After her family suffers a tragedy, nine-year-old Alice Hart is forced to leave her idyllic seaside home. She is taken in by her grandmother, June, a flower farmer who raises Alice on the language of Australian native flowers, a way to say the things that are too hard to speak.

A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey - Australia’s master novelist takes us on the journey of a lifetime.  Irene Bobs loves fast driving. Her husband is the best car salesman in western Victoria. Together they enter the Redex Trial, a brutal race around the ancient continent over roads no car will ever quite survive.  With them is their lanky fair-haired navigator, Willie Bachhuber, a quiz show champion and failed schoolteacher whose job it is to call out the turns, the grids, the creek crossings on a map that will finally remove them, without warning, from the lily-white Australia they know so well.

The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins - Professor Olivia Sweetman has worked hard to achieve the life she loves, with a high-flying career as a TV presenter and historian, three children and a talented husband. But as she stands before a crowd at the launch of her new bestseller she can barely pretend to smile. Her life has spiralled into deceit and if the truth comes out, she will lose everything.

Only one person knows what Olivia has done. Vivian Tester is the socially awkward sixty-year-old housekeeper of a Sussex manor who found the Victorian diary on which Olivia's book is based. She has now become Olivia's unofficial research assistant. And Vivian has secrets of her own.

The Child by Fiona Barton - When a paragraph in an evening newspaper reveals a decades-old tragedy, most readers barely give it a glance. But for three strangers it’s impossible to ignore.  For one woman, it’s a reminder of the worst thing that ever happened to her. For another, it reveals the dangerous possibility that her darkest secret is about to be discovered. And for the third, a journalist, it’s the first clue in a hunt to uncover the truth.

Together by Julie Cohen - A poignant, surprising love story told backwards with a devastating secret at its heart. Perfect for anyone looking for a twisty, emotional page-turner.  Robbie and Emily have been together for decades. Now, their joints are creaking and their eyesight is failing - but their love for each other is as fresh and fierce as ever. They have had children and grandchildren, lived full and happy lives. But they have been keeping a devastating secret since the day they met, when their lives changed forever.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles - On 21 June 1922 Count Alexander Rostov – recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt – is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol.  But instead of being taken to his usual suite, he is led to an attic room with a window the size of a chessboard. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely.

The Choke by Sofie Laguna - Abandoned by her mother and only occasionally visited by her secretive father, Justine is raised by her pop, a man tormented by visions of the Burma Railway. Justine finds sanctuary in Pop's chooks and The Choke, where the banks of the Murray River are so narrow it seems they might touch - a place of staggering natural beauty. But the river can't protect Justine from danger. Her father is a criminal, and the world he exposes her to can be lethal.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman - Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.  One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life.