Dead People's Music | Sarah Laing

This book took me by surprise. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it certainly delivered a great read. The story is well structured and is told in three voices: young Rebecca in Wellington, New Zealand, Rebecca a bit older in New York and Rebecca's grandmother Karla in New York and New Zealand from the 1930's onwards.

Rebecca is a gifted cellist who wants to become a concert performer. She struggles with diabetes and the usual teenage angst as she trains and sits exams to study in London.  London is too much of a challenge and she returns home discouraged, but still believing in her talent which she believes is inherited from her grandmother. Her voice is clear and believable.

We meet Klara as a young child, a German Jew sent away just as the war began. With her sister they grow up in New York with an Aunt and other refugees from Europe. She learns the cello and is very gifted. A brilliant career as a soloist is hers for the taking except she meets and marries a New Zealander. Off she goes to the antipodes. We get a very good idea of what life in Wellington must have been like in the 50's and 60's.
Rebecca eventually goes to New York in the 90's to write and perform a modern composition based on her grandmother's life.

Laing has put together an interesting and engaging story and we are drawn into Rebecca's life and her family and friends. There is a lot of detail about classical music (dead people's music) and what it takes to be a dedicated musician. Both Wellington and New York are well drawn and easy to imagine. This novel is well worth reading.

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

St Agnes' Stand | Thomas Eidson

I was handed this to read, and as I love a good western, I was optimistic about it. I was so absorbed by it, engaged and entertained I tried to get everyone to read it. So even if you don't read westerns or haven't enjoyed them in the past- read on!

It's a short book under 200 pages. It isn't a typical light western or soppy love story set in the west. I think it is a true western describing a short few days in the lives of people living in the harsh reality that was the Western frontier of the USA.

In the deserts of California an outlaw comes across the trapped survivors of an Apache ambush. Two nuns and seven orphan children are trying to escape the brutality of the ambush. And yes, the historically accurate portrayal of what the Indian warriors did on the battlefield is nothing like what we've seen on TV westerns like Bonanza...

Sister St Agnes is convinced Nat Swanson is God's servant sent to save them. Nat is a hardened outlaw and won't have a bar of it. Over five days in the canyon, surrounded by the Apache, fighting thirst and hunger, St Agnes and Nat fight it out, knowing they must not be taken alive and yet trying to keep the children from succumbing to the heat and despair.

I was on the edge of my seat, I couldn't put it down. Incredibly well crafted, no word wasted, no superfluousness in the writing.  I went on to read all his books, they are great.

'The Missing','The Last Ride','All God's Children','Hannah's Gift','Souls of Angels'.

For generations Eidson's family farmed in Oklahoma, Kansas and Southern Colorado and he bases his stories on oral family histories and anecdotes he was told by his family of their experiences in the west. 

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

Sabbath | Wayne Muller

‘Finding rest, renewal and delight in our busy lives’ is how Muller describes the contents of this book. It appealed to me as I am busy and involved in loads of stuff. Trying to carve out space and peace in a week let alone a day seems like a good thing so I read it. And I was really impressed by the style and the content. Muller describes the ethos of taking time out to rest and reflect and how it is necessary in all aspects of life, not just the spiritual.

The chapters are short, with specific areas targeted and suggestions on how to achieve rest specifically. For instance he describes the origin of the Sabbath meal and encourages us to make a weekly meal a special occasion with simple and seasonal things on the table to remind us to be restful. Kind of like a Thanksgiving meal only simplified and weekly.

He emphasises the need to stop and reflect on our lives weekly daily, hourly and has good ideas on how to do this.

It was quite revolutionary to read this and to try to practice some of the ideas, instilling rest, peace and reflection into my life.

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

The Tenderness of Wolves | Stef Penney

I love reading books about pioneering life and especially those set in Canada as this one is. 
It begins with the discovery of a murdered trapper in the 1860's in a cold and dark prairie outpost. It's a small township where the outcasts of society are trying to make a living from hunting and trapping and coaxing from the soil the little they can harvest in the short summer. 

From the dead man's cabin a set of tracks leads off into the tundra. Agents from the Hudson Bay Company want to find the killer and the local journalist also pursues the tracks. Trappers and traders all head off into the desolate landscape where only the outlaws, the natives and the dispossessed live.

I love the setting and the characters are interesting quirky people and the story holds a few mysteries. What happened to the two sisters who have not been seen for seventeen years? Were they carried off by the natives? Those setting out looking for answers have different reasons for doing so. It's a satisfying read, it's beautifully written and I can't wait for her to write another one.

Although I enjoy reading stories like this one, good ones are hard to find. This is one of the most moving, full of the pathos and the landscape of the Canadian far north and its weird mix of people. Great to read in winter!

What makes it more remarkable is that Penney suffered form agoraphobia at the time of writing so did all her research from home and libraries in London. 

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

Four Letters of Love | Niall Williams

This is one of my all time favorite novels. It has everything we could ever want in a story. It’s difficult to describe the feeling we get reading this book because it’s rich and overwhelming at times. Like eating too much cake, or looking at a gorgeous painting or sculpture. There is just too much beauty.

It’s a very Irish story, written by someone in love with the landscape and its people.  Niall Williams knows his subject inside out and I think that’s why we fall deeply into the centre of this book.

This is the story of two families, the Gores and Coughlans. William Coughlan comes home one day and announces God has spoken to him and he’s going to quit his job and paint. To this end he goes to the West, where he tries to capture the light on his canvas. What follows is the unraveling of his relationship with his wife and son Nicholas. A slow dissolution into depression and anguish as he relentlessly pursues art and his family relentlessly pursues him.

The second storyline is of Muiris Gore. Tragedy follows his family. His son is a musical prodigy who out of the blue has a fit and is left lame and mute. Isabel, his bright sensitive daughter bears the weight of her family expectations and guilt over her brother’s illness.

There is so much Irish angst and such sweet sorrow in the telling of these two stories. Pathos and melancholy, not in a depressing way but in a way that makes us think that is entirely feasible that this kind of story belongs to real people.

In the end we are filled with hope and resolution as both families come together in love and hope and a future.

If you read nothing else, read this novel.

Once I finished this one, and recovered, I read all his novels.”As it is in Heaven”, “The Fall of Light”, ”Only say the word”, ”Boy in the World”, “Boy and Man”.”John”.

They are superb, great books, great reads.

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

Ahab's Wife | Sena Jeter Naslund

The first sentence had me hooked “Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last….” Although I only have a sketchy memory of reading Moby Dick, it didn’t really matter as in this story the author details the life of Una Spencer. She leaves wild Kentucky and disguised as a boy works on a whaling ship where she encounters and falls in love with Ahab. She marries him and then spends a lonely marriage as he goes to sea. There is another love, a lighthouse island…Yearning is so well described and I loved the character of Una as Naslund portrays life in that era so well.

Although Una doesn’t have an easy life, it’s an uplifting novel and thoroughly enjoyable to read. I love it when an author can transport us into someone’s life and for a few days we can live it together.

Well worth the hours it will take to read it.

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

Amagansett | Mark Mills

Yet another great book by Mark Mills.

In this story we meet Conrad Labarde, local fisherman and Tom Hollis, local cop in Long Island. There's a body tangled in the nets, there are suspicious locals and the high flyers who use the local town as their party playground. Who killed Lillian? We are drawn into the story through the investigation that follows.

What I like abut Mills' novels is that he researches them well and I can get right into the scenes and enjoy the landscapes. In this one the sea has quite a presence, and we get to learn a lot about fishing!

It’s not hard to love the characters. We get to know why Conrad’s family become fishermen on Long Island. Tom is exiled to Long Island after being falsely accused of corruption in his previous posting. Lillian’s family uses Long Island, they have a huge sense of entitlement and dark secrets.

This is a good book on many levels, there is enough intrigue to keep us reading, characters we get to care about and a satisfying conclusion.

His other books are well worth a read too, The Savage Garden, The Information Officer.

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

Love and Summer | William Trevor

This is definitively a slow book. There is a very languid felling to it, and even a bit of stream-of-consciousness style about the writing...The characters meander in their minds and I felt a bit lost at times as to who's mindII was in!

The story is set in Ireland, and it has a very defined Irishness about it. The landscape, the way people talk and the concerns of a rural community. The story centres on Ellie, a young girl who is brought up in a convent who goes to the countryside to help a farmer after his wife dies tragically (as only the Irish can!)

After a few years Ellie marries the farmer. They lead a life of small seasonal changes, small domesticity, small social circle. Then summer arrives and with it, heat and long days, summer pastures and hard work in the fields. In the midst of this simple life Ellie accidentally meets a young man from a nearby big house...Although predictable, what makes this story lovely to read is William Trevor's fabulous use of language. His descriptions and the rhythm of his writing make it a pleasure to read, although it doesn't have a lot of pace and action. Not a lot happens, but it does so  beautifully.

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

What would Google Do? |Jeff Jarvis

This is not so much a good book to read but a lifestyle change! My husband raved about his book and insisted I read it, so I did. And I’ve learned to be Googlier and googlier!

In this book Jarvis shows us how Google has redefined how we do things, how we need to redo things and how much Google has influenced the world we live in. So what? You might ask… In reading this book I’ve learned that blogs aren’t for nerds with no friends to talk to. They are actually a platform from where anyone can launch their expertise into the world of people who want to learn, who search and find all they need on the internet. I learned that the way we do business has to change to become more efficient, Googlier.

How has Google influenced God, medicine, mobile phones, the health system, Universities and education….It was insightful and helpful. I‘ve looked up the websites Jarvis recommends as examples, I’ve started a blog doing what I’m passionate about: talking about books. I’ve started reading blogs and looking more strategically at what I do and what I know and how I can become Googlier, to fit into a world and a future defined by Google

Here’s a link to his blog, Buzzmachine. Read the book. It’s not for IT geeks, it’s for everyone!

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

Ellie and the Shadow Man | Maurice Gee

Maurice Gee is so enjoyable to read! He’s a New Zealand author of renown and every time I read him I’m reminded of how well he crafts his stories. This one is set in New Zealand. Be warned, any expat reading this overseas will get on the next plane for NZ for sure!

Gee can describe NZ and it’s inhabitants with amazing effortlessness and  we get drawn into the story, the landscape and enveloped by his imagination.

Here we have the story of Ellie, growing up in a boarding house, bottom of the social strata. We get parts of her life, every few pages/chapters is a new era. We see her grow up, her relationships develop and the Shadow Man shadows her through the years.

Ellie becomes a fruit picker in Nelson, meets some artists and then becomes one herself. Her emergence as an artist and as a person are beautifully drawn. Gee is a great author for telling a story simply, getting us to engage with and love his characters.

His other books are well worth a read too.

Florence and Giles |John Harding

What a little gem! This is a very well crafted little tale which is classified as a thriller but is more of a shiverer!I haven't read much in the Gothic genre but this one is well worth while even if you are not a Goth fan. As i read I got a creepy feeling that things are not as they seem. almost like i was seeing something out of the corner of my eye but when I stared hard, I couldn't see what it was. Fleeting glimpses, creaking doors, wind whistling through long dark corridors...That kind of thing! And very cleverly written.

 The story is told by Florence. She lives in a derelict mansion with a few servants and her brother Giles. Her parents are dead and her guardian uncle does not believe in educating women. Florence discoves the library and teaches herself to read in secret and her world is transformed. So far so good… 

Giles is sent to boarding school and this gives Florence a lot to worry about. It’s about now we start wondering about her credibility as narrator and quite frankly, about her mental state!

She’s very bright, she’s mostly alone and has a great imagination. Then there’s the issue of the drowned governess and the return of Giles, who is unable to cope any more away from Florence. Then a new governess arrives and things unravel very quickly.

We are filled with doubts and start getting a very uneasy feeling about Florence as she descends in to a manic-type state of mind… Utterly captivating and well worth reading as this is such a well crafted novel.

John Harding is a proven storyteller who is worth reading. One Big damn puzzler is another good example of his work.

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz

One Big Damn Puzzler |John Harding

This was a great book to read over a few rainy days as it's quite big and the narrative flows beautifully. Nice to read uninterrupted! It's a very well told story, of an unusual nature. It's set on a small Pacific Island where the native people have had brief contact with the outside world but have maintained a firm grasp of their indigenous ways.

Americans came by after the war, used the island as a weapons testing site and left it full of land mines.The British came later to build resorts for cruise ships but left buildings half finished and in a derelict state, and no cruise ships ever came. 

THEN one day an American lawyer arrives. Eventually he reveals he is there to seek compensation on their behalf for the loss of limbs and lives caused by the mines that the Americans left behind. 

As he discovers the island and tries to understand the indigenous culture, we observe with him. We also have William tell us about his past and his struggles growing up with OCD and as an adult making his way in life with this disorder.

In between chapters we have Managua's side of the story. He's an elder in the tribe, translating Hamlet into pidgin English and struggling with Shakespearean concepts and how they fit into the culture of his tribe. He opposes the idea of the west coming to the island and changing their way of life. He wrestles with concepts and is the voice of caution in his community. 

There is a nice interval at the end where we revisit the island one year after William's initial visit and then five years after that.  

In this story there is ample discussion of issues  current to our times but put in a context we can distance ourselves from and therefore take a more pragmatic view of topics like globalisation, cultural identity, mental disorders, gender issues....

All together this becomes an interesting and entertaining read and another great example of John Harding’s great skill as a story teller.

Dry Season | Dan Smith

I really enjoyed this book, I could feel the dry red dust in the back of my throat and the glare of the constant Brazilian sun. In the back-blocks of the rain forest is a small town where not a lot happens, where people go when they want to forget and be forgotten.

In this town we meet a priest in denial, a renegade doctor and a reformed hooker...who all need each other to do away with the ghosts of their pasts and form a future for themselves.
There is a really languid feeling about this book, you are immersed in how it feels to be there for real, the torpor of the tropics, the destruction and desperation of the subsistence lifestyle of the people living on the fringes of society now, not in historical times.

The pace is slow until I felt something was about to happen. The tension builds to breaking point, the action speeds up to a cataclysmic event which brings the story to a close. A very satisfying read.



This book  reminded me of two of my favourite books The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene and most books by Gabriel Garcia Márques Chronicle of a death foretold.

This is Dan Smith's first novel. I'll be keen to read more.

The Information Officer | Mark Mills

Picked this up on a whim and it turned out to be a great read. It drew me in straight away and the characters are so well done that I cared what happened to them.

Set in Malta in 1942 Mark Chadwick is stationed on the island as the information officer. His job is to filter the information that reaches the people of Malta so as to maintain high morale and support of the British stationed on the island. But Mark suspects a British officer is killing local women. He surreptitiously goes about trying to solve the mystery and maintain his position as information officer.

It’s well written and will keep you reading. Interesting setting and well drawn landscapes and characterisation.

Mills’ other books are well worth reading too: “The Savage Garden” and “The Whaleboat House”.

The Savage garden |Mark Mills

I picked this one up because I loved “The Information Office” by Mills as well. If I like a book I tend to read as many as I can by the same author. Savage garden didn’t disappoint! It’s quite cerebral and bookish, with loads of references to classical writing, but he’s skilled at taking the reader along with him in this story that has a bit of everything in it.

If you don’t know your classics, it won’t matter, really, as Mills has set up a situation where the main character is a young student, Adam Strickland, who learns as he goes, thus educating us without looking down on the undereducated reader! The learning process is quite enjoyable.

Adam finds himself in Tuscany trying to figure out the puzzle of an ancient garden set out with deliberate care by the Docci family in the 1500’s. The garden reveals family secrets and Adam has to deal with the revelations of an old murder and a more recent Dicci family murder which has been kept hidden.

I really enjoyed this book. The others by Mills are also worth reading.

Mark Mills is a British author and screenwriter.

The Turning | Tim Winton

This is Tim Winton at his best. A selection of short stories set in the same stretch of desolate Australian coast line and small town life. Most of the characters migrate from one story to the next so you get the sense that you are a fly on the wall, seeing a side of Australian life not easy to get close to.

It appears to be a seedy town and life, hard.You feel the dust, feel the relentless heat.
This book  holds together beautifully and is a very satisfying read. Don't let this put you off if you normally steer clear of short stories. It's the best example of how they can work.

I'd be happy to recommend any of Winton's books, so if you like this one, read them all!

Opportunity | Charlotte Grimshaw

 I'm not too sure about this one. It's a collection of short stories from a New Zealand author. There is plenty of local flavor in the stories but I'm not sure that's enough.

They are engaging enough but I feel frustrated that they are only short glimpses of the characters. I keep comparing it in my mind to Tim Winton's book of short stories, The Turning, which somehow is a more satisfying read.

I've managed to read two other books in between trying to finish this one off, not a good sign.

As the Earth turns Silver | Alison Wong

In the middle of our dreary grey winter I wanted a book to curl up with in front of the fire and be taken into a different world...I picked up this book and loved it from the first chapter.

The story is set in Wellington,New Zealand, from the late nineteenth century to the 1920's. Some chapters dash back to China to give background to the Chinese characters.

The writing is clear and the language handled in such a way that it's very easy to see the characters and the Wellington described.

The main character is Katherine, recently widowed. At a time when women were challenging traditional female roles in society, she begins a clandestine relationship with the local Chinese grocer,Yung.

She is employed by Mrs Newton, who is an advocate for women's rights and civil rights in general and is a colourful, assertive character who brings change into Katherine's life and opens a whole different set of opportunities for Edie, Katherine's daughter.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading As the Earth Turns Silver and count it as one of the better reads of the year!

Alison Wong is a New Zealand poet and this is her first novel. She has drawn heavily on her family's history both in New Zealand and in China for this story which gives it authenticity and great feeling for the characters.

Buy at Fishpond.co.nz