Staff Picks

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Have a look at what library staff have been reading this week.

 

Cat out of hell by Lynne Truss
About a librarian overcome with grief for his wife’s death who unwittingly becomes involved in a murder mystery featuring talking cats… – 3/5

Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner
Andy & Rachel meet one night in the ER when they are kids, a love story spanning 3 decades it’s a story about how they keep finding each other throughout the different stages of their lives and how they overcome different backgrounds. A nice easy holiday read – 3/5

The invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
Book two in the Queen of the Tearling trilogy follows Kelsea as she deals with the fallout from stopping the shipments to Mort and the inevitable invasion by the Mort army. We also meet Lily, a woman from pre crossing era – 5/5
Four: a Divergent collection by Veronica Roth
Story starts 2 years before we meet Beatrice Prior in Divergent, we hear Four’s story and how he came to be in Dauntless, eventually merging with Beatrice’s story – a bit of a pointless book, only for devout divergent fans – 2/5
The Sun in Her Eyes by Paige Toon
Amber is an Australian living in the UK, after being made redundant she learns her father back in Aus has had a stroke, leaving her husband Ned behind she flies to Australia to help her dad in his recovery. There she reconnects with Ethan, a boy she has been in love with since she was 8 years old. Ambar must choose between her husband and the man she’s always loved… A slight side story, when Amber was 3 she was involved in a car accident which killed her mother, we meet the stranger who stopped to help and holds her mother’s last words. It’s well written, but hard to like and relate to the main character Amber, so only – 3.5 stars
Ready by Kate

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The Gilded Hour – Sara Donati

A well-written, well-researched story about life as a female doctor in 19th Century New York. Sara Donati captures this period beautifully, touching on poverty, wealth, racism, and a women’s right to choose, which made me very grateful to live in this place, in this century – 5 stars

Tower of Thorns – Juliet Marillier

I always love Juliet Marillier’s books, but I’m worried they’re starting to follow a bit of a formula. This one seemed a bit same-same. I still enjoy her gentle writing though and her fairy-tale-like plot. Fingers crossed for the next one! – 3 stars.

 

We Never Asked for Wings – Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I read and loved The Language of Flowers a few years ago so picked up this one eagerly. It reminded me that sometimes we put our mothers up on pedestals when really, they are often as troubled, and have as much baggage, as the next person – 4 stars

The Natural Way of Things – Charlotte Wood

I know there has been a lot of press around this book and it is receiving some amazing reviews, but I just found I couldn’t get into it. Maybe it’s just not my kind of story, or I’ll go back to it one day and love it. For now though…2 stars.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend – Katarina Bivald

A lovely, light book for all the book-lovers out there. A great one for the summer, I think! – 4 stars

Read by Amanda

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Happy Reading!

 

 

This House of Grief

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This house of grief – Helen Garner

About the Book

Anyone can see the place where the children died. You take the Princes Highway past Geelong, and keep going west in the direction of Colac. Late in August 2006, soon after I had watched a magistrate commit Robert Farquharson to stand trial before a jury on three charges of murder, I headed out that way on a Sunday morning, across the great volcanic plain. On the evening of 4 September 2005, Father’s Day, Robert Farquharson, a separated husband, was driving his three sons home to their mother, Cindy, when his car left the road and plunged into a dam. The boys, aged ten, seven and two, drowned. Was this an act of revenge or a tragic accident? The court case became Helen Garner‘s obsession. She followed it on its protracted course until the final verdict. In this utterly compelling book, Helen Garner tells the story of a man and his broken life. She presents the theatre of the courtroom with its actors and audience, all gathered for the purpose of bearing witness to the truth, players in the extraordinary and unpredictable drama of the quest for justice. This House of Grief is a heartbreaking and unputdownable book by one of Australia’s most admired writers.

Comments Continue reading →

The time traveler’s wife

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0224073087The time traveler’s wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Summary
The story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, a librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.

Comments
Snippets of time filled with highly charged emotions deliver us the life-long love story of Claire and Henry. This story highlights themes of deep, unconditional love, loss, loneliness, abandonment and grief. Complex characters and a love story spanning years from childhood to adulthood draw the reader into the world of time travel and lives lived in secret.
Claire and Henry have a unique love and a trust that many relationships never fully develop. But this is often overshadowed by the sudden departures and reappearances of Henry as he battles with his “gift”. The deep connection these two share isn’t without it’s issues. The time travel raises issues of loss, abandonment and ultimately grief.
It is a world unfamiliar and surreal to those of rational thought, yet the detail and development of the story line, transport the reader with Henry on his journeys and back into the arms of “his” Claire with ease.
This was a most enjoyable read, however, attention needs to be paid to the dates, times and ages of the travel. Made into a major motion picture starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana, it made for the perfect  prelude to a girls movie night.

Rating – 7/10

Read by – Cultcha Club Book Club

Twilight reimagined – 10th Anniversary Edition

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The iconic young adult vampire novel, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, celebrates its tenth anniversary. This special double-feature ‘flip’ book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising reimagining, Life and Death, a retelling of Twilight with the characters’ genders swapped. In Life and Death, Edward has been changed to Edythe, while Bella is now Beau (for Team Jacob fans, Jacob has been turned to Julie). Reserve your copy to read now.

The Book of Night Women

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the-book-of-night-womenDid you love A brief history of seven killings? Why not read Marlon James’ previous novel, The book of night women, a sweeping, historical novel of Jamaican Slavery.

‘This is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the Night Women – a clandestine council of fierce slaves plotting an island-wide revolt – recognize a dark force in her that they treat with both reverence and fear. But as Lilith comes of age and begins to understand her own feelings and identity, she dares to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman. And as rebellions simmer and unspoken jealousies intensify, Lilith’s powers and sense of purpose threaten not just her own destiny, but the destinies of all the slave women in Jamaica.’