Wagga Book Buzz

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2012-02-17T14:40:00.003+11:00

The Hunger Games has the complete package, likeable characters and a well written, engaging plot… with the movie due out in 23 March for Australia, read it before everyone else has!

Dystopian, yet realistic, the novel is written for the youth market, but also holds plenty of appeal for adult readers as well.

Suzanne Collins makes you believe in another world, an eerily familiar world which parallels our own in many ways.

The heroine of the story is Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year-old girl who volunteers for The Hunger Games tournament when her twelve-year-old sister Prim is drawn in the ballot.

Katniss is a survivor, she has spent many years providing for her family after the death of her father in a mining accident. She knows how to hunt, set a snare and shoot a bow and arrow, so her odds of survival are in her favor.

Through Katniss’ eyes we see the country of Panem, its major city ‘Capitol’ and the injustice she sees in the situation she is thrust into.

In the edition I read there was a short interview with Collins which talked about her inspiration for the novel. In it she said, “...on one channel there’s a group of people competing for, I don’t know, money maybe? And on the next there’s people fighting an actual war.”

This book will make you think twice about what society sees as ‘entertaining’….

Find The Hunger Games in the Youth section of the library.
Read The Hunger Games? Continue on with Catching Fire.

Ruby Blues by Jessica Rudd

2012-02-03T11:08:00.001+11:00

Ruby Blues is one book that you don’t want to judge by the cover!
In this second novel by Jessica Rudd, she once again lets us delve into the life of Ruby Stanhope. If you haven’t read Campaign Ruby yet, while it is not crucial to understanding the plot of Ruby Blues -- it may aid in your enjoyment!
Ruby Blues takes place two years after Campaign Ruby leaves off, Ruby is now working for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and it is easy to believe that Rudd has some insight into what takes place in this office, given her father’s profession.
As the book’s title suggests, Ruby is in a different place mentally and emotionally in this book, but that doesn’t make her any less loveable as a character.
Throughout the book she sails from one government gaffe to the next all the while throwing herself into her work to avoid the problems in her personal life, of which there are a few – she even gets the power cut off from her house at one stage!
This novel is well-structured and easily read, with characters that ring true. Ruby’s niece Clementine easily steals the show with her child-like seriousness: “I really, really hate green, pacifically neon green and car key green. Car keys aren’t even green so it’s a silly name.”
This is easily one of the best written books in the chick-lit genre that I have read in awhile.

The Association of Foreign Spouses by Marilyn Heward Mills

2011-08-22T12:02:00.000+10:00

The Association of Foreign Spouses is set in Ghana around the 1980s. It is the story of an English woman who met a Ghanian man in London, married him and moved to Ghana. Along with three other women (from England, Germany and Russia) she struggles to adapt to the culture, what is expected of her and the difficult political landscape.
I have a friend from Ghana so was very keen to read a book aet in that country, being more familiar with novels such as Half of a Yellow Sun, set in Nigeria. In the end, the setting is what kept me going through this novel. I found the characters less than appealing at times and found the situations a little melodramatic. I did get a feel for the oppressive heat, beauty and contradictions of Ghana, but Ghana itself was a minor character as the women's relationships dominated.
The Association of Foreign Spouses is available from the adult fiction area of Wagga Wagga City Library.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

2011-08-02T11:55:00.000+10:00

Kazuo Ishiguro wrote The Remains of the Day, you know, that movie with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson? So, I was expecting an old country house in England and got something quite different. Never Let Me Go is set in England in the 1990s but you soon come to realise that it isn't quite life as we know it. If you like a technical label, Never Let Me Go is dystopian science fiction but there aren't any robots and it isn't your typical science fiction at all.
This is one of the RRL Book Club books and my club had mixed reactions to it. Mind you, my club has had mixed reactions to every book we have done, that's one of the many joys of a book club! I really enjoyed Never Let Me Go and have gone on to read When We Were Orphans and The Remains of the Day, both available at the library.

Sharp Turn by Marianne Delacourt

2011-02-22T12:39:00.005+11:00

This is the second book in the Tara Sharp series. The first book in the series is Sharp Shooter. I definitely recommend that you read the books in order as the first book describes how Tara ends up with an unorthodox PI business, or rather a "Paralanguage and Kinesics Agency". Tara sees auras and this helps her determine whether people are lying and how they will behave. I know it sounds a bit flakey but its a fast paced, fun series that you will not be able to put down. It comes with some interesting characters like Nick Tozzi who lines her up with some jobs and narcoleptic Wal Grominsky, former client, current bodyguard and a couple of pet galahs named Hoo and Brains. With more luck and determination, rather than skill, Tara solves a couple of cases.

If you like Janet Evanovich you will love this series. It is set in Perth and Australian author Marianne Delacourt keeps you entertained. I love the Perth setting and I love the Australianisms like 'tracky daks', though it took me a while to figure out that 'LBD' was Little Black Dress. I can't wait for the next book!

Violent Exposure by Katherine Howell

2011-02-22T12:11:00.005+11:00

Just finished this crime novel by Australian author Katherine Howell, a former NSW ambulance officer. This is her fourth novel featuring Detective Ella Marconi. I really enjoyed this book and will have to go back and read the previous three!

The story opens with ambulance officers responding to a posssible domestic violence incident. Shortly afterwards Suzanne Crawford is found stabbed to death and her missing husband is suspected. Eventually Ella solves the case with some assistance from the ambulance officers. Katherine Howell's experience as an ambulance officer really comes through, making this an interesting read.

Body Work by Sara Paretsky

2011-01-28T17:46:00.003+11:00

This is the fourteenth book in the V.I. Warshawski Series. It's hard to believe that I read the first one back in 1982 but V.I. is a character that I will always love to follow. The stories are always interesting but it's the character that keeps me coming back for more. Every time I read one of these novels I picture Sharon Gless from Cagney and Lacey! That old TV series is probably nothing to do with these books but V.I. has some similar character traits. So if you didn't like Cagney and Lacey you probably won't enjoy these books.

In this novel V.I. investigates the murder outside of Club Gouge, Chicago's edgiest nightclub where the Body Artist performs, her naked body the canvas that the audience paints on.

Crime

2011-01-12T12:01:00.008+11:00

My favourites, if you like to follow characters:
1. Worth Dying For by Lee Child (The 15th book in the Jack Reacher series)
2. 9 Dragons by Michael Connelly (The 15th book in the Harry Bosch series)
3. Storm Prey by John Sandford (The 20th book in the Lucas Davenport series)
4. Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais (The 11th book in the Elvis Cole series)
5. Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen (the 8th book in the Rizzoli and Isles series and now a series on TV!)
6. Long Lost by Harlan Coben (The 9th book in the Myron Bolitar series)
7. Broken by Karin Slaughter (The 7th book in the Grant County series)
8. 9th Judgement by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro (The 9th book in the Women's Murder Club series, also a short lived TV series)
9. Cross Fire by James Patterson (The 17th book in the Alex Cross series)
10. Indulgence in Death by J.D. Robb (The 38th book in the In Death series)
11. Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs (The 13th book in the Temperance Brennan series, also known as the TV series Bones)
12. U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton (The 21st book in the Kinsey Milhone series)
13. Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen (The 9th book in the Eve Duncan series)
14. Kill Chain by Meg Gardiner (The 5th book in the Evan Delaney series)
15. The Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver (The 9th book in the Lincoln Rhyme series)
16. To Dream of the Dead by Phil Rickman (The 10th book in the Merrily Watkins series)
17. The First Rule by Robert Crais (The 2nd book in the Joe Pike series)
18. The Reversal by Michael Connelly (The 3rd book in the Mickey Haller series)
19. The Silent Hour by Michael Koryta (The 4th book in the Lincoln Perry series)

And for something zany:
20. Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich (The 16th book in the Stephanie Plum By the Numbers series - It will make you laugh out loud! Soon to be released as a motion picture starring Katherine Heigl. Hard to imagine the movie living up to these fantastic novels but can't wait to see.)

Just Watch Me by Peter Grimsdale

2011-01-12T11:35:00.003+11:00

I discovered this author by chance and this is only the second book by Peter Grimsdale. I haven't read his first book Perfect Night but if its anything like this one it would be worth a read!

Just Watch Me tells the story of ex army sniper Dan Carter who, after witnessing a terrorist attack, is placed in the Scheme, a type of Witness Protection program, with his new wife Sara. Four years on they plan their first family holiday with their twins. Just as they are about to board the plane Dan discovers his passport is missing, but he encourages Sarah and the children to go ahead and he will follow. Shortly afterwards he hears that their plane has gone down. This leads Dan on a search for answers where he will need all of his military training to get to the truth.

This is a great thriller with a surprising plot which will keep you guessing until the very end.

White Thorn by Bryce Courtenay

2010-12-20T09:38:00.006+11:00

I recently ran out of my usual thrillers and in desperation read this book by Bryce Courtenay which someone had given to me but I had never got around to reading. Surprisingly, I was pretty much absorbed into the story and read the 600 plus pages over a couple of days. Bryce Courtenay can definitely tell a story!

The story is set in Africa and follows the life of Tom Fitzsaxby, from his beginnings in an orphanage, the Boys Farm, and culminating in his working as the prosecution lawyer in a murder trial. The story shows how Tom survives a lot of racial hatred and revolves around his getting justice for his friend Mattress, a Zulu who had befriended him as a child and was wrongly accused of sexual assault and subsequently murdered . For those of you who haven't read The Power of One this will be an amazing story, but for me I kept seeing the similarities to the main character, Peekay, from The Power of One. I cannot recommend The Power of One highly enough. It is definitely a must read!

Worth Dying For by Lee Child

2010-10-26T16:19:00.003+11:00

Definitely worth waiting for! I can't get enough of Jack Reacher. This is the 15th book in the series and whilst the relationship started in the previous book didn't eventuate (as yet anyway) this was probably the best Reacher novel to date for me. I just loved it. This time Jack gets involved with a small town devoid of any police presence and run by the Duncan family. Add in a missing child, terrifed townsfolk and the quarterback enforcers and you have a situation that only someone like Jack Reacher can fix.

Shattered by Karen Robards

2010-05-14T13:36:00.004+10:00

Lisa Grant, a lawyer now working as a research assistant to the DA Scott Buchanan, is sent to the basement to help organise the cold case files, as punishment by her disagreeable boss. What she finds there sets her on a dangerous path because the woman in the cold case file, who went missing 30 years ago, looks just like her!

What a fantastic read this was. A great story that actually keeps you guessing. Whilst this is not my usual kind of read, I could not put the book down. It's a fast paced, light read, that is mainly a thriller, but also has a touch of romance.

Hell Gate by Linda Fairstein

2010-05-07T15:55:00.005+10:00

For those of you who, like me, like to follow characters, here is Book No.12 in the Alexandra Cooper series. Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper and NYPD colleagues Mike and Mercer are called to assist at a shipwreck. The story has an intricate plot involving human trafficking, murder and an adulterous congressman. Always a fascinating, believable read, but for the first time I found the banter between Mike and Alex a bit irritating. Despite this, it is an enjoyable story.

Linda Fairstein writes as only someone with experience running the Sex Crimes unit in the New York DA's office can.

61 Hours by Lee Child

2010-05-06T15:41:00.005+10:00

I've just finished 61 Hours, which is Book No. 14 in the Jack Reacher series, by Lee Child. I'm absolutely addicted to this series. Jack Reacher is an ex-military cop, now a bit of drifter, who does not actively go looking for trouble but cannot stand to see innocent people being trampled on. This loveable tough guy is a loner with some amazing skills, thanks to his military training. What a great paced book. You would think that by Book 14 some of the appeal and excitement would have waned, but it hasn't. For the first time there is a teaser at the end of the book saying "To be continued" in late 2010. I hope this means that Reacher will be catching up, in person, with one of the main characters that helped him out in this novel. A must read series for crime/action lovers.

The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville

2010-02-04T10:45:00.000+11:00

The Idea of Perfection is an RRL Book Club book and makes a perfect book club choice as it would provoke animated discussion. It is set in a small country town in New South Wales and is populated with familiar characters. The town is divided over the fate of an old bridge; some wanting to save it and some wanting to replace it. Into this seemingly sleepy town come two strangers, ill at ease with with the town and themselves. Kate Grenville does a brilliant job getting inside the heads of the characters, giving us an insight into human failings and how two people can fall in love despite their flaws.
You can borrow The Idea of Perfection from the fiction area of Wagga City Library or reserve it here.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton - an RRL Book Club Book

2010-01-05T10:59:00.000+11:00

Mystery, atmosphere, romance and history, this book has it all. The Forgotten Garden gained the highest number of votes for most loved book by RRL Book Club members in 2009. I am trying to read through the whole book list (thankfully I had already read 43 of the 86) so started with this.
The book is set partly in Queensland and partly in Cornwall and follows three generations of women to solve the mystery of a little girl lost. I am a person who reads for setting, among other things, and I wasn't loving the book until it moved from Australia to Cornwall and then I loved it. There is family scandal, upper and lower classes, ghosts, houses and gardens from the late 1800s until the present, in Brisbane, London and Cornwall. You can borrow The Forgotten Garden from the fiction section of Wagga Wagga City Library as well as Kate Morton's first book, The Shifting Fog but you may have to wait for that one as it it is on reserve for me :)

An Accommodating Spouse by Elizabeth Jolley

2009-12-23T12:31:00.000+11:00

I am a very quick reader, usually powering through books at high speed. For this book, however, I had to slow down. To read in my head as if it was being read aloud, so lovely were the sentences. The story is told by an aging professor surrounded by women - his wife, her twin, their triplet daughters and two work colleagues. It is a comedy of manners and I enjoyed it very much.

You can find An Accommodating Spouse and other novels by Elizabeth Jolley in the fiction section of Wagga Wagga City Library.

The Mitford Girls: A Biography of an Extraordinary Family by Mary S. Lovell

2009-12-21T18:20:00.000+11:00

Having thoroughly enjoyed The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate I was keen to learn about Nancy Mitford and her famous sisters. There were six daughters (and a comparatively unremarkable son) born between 1904 and 1920 into an aristocratic English family. It was a remarkable time to be young and the six girls all led such fascinating and different lives. Nancy became a famous novelist, Diana the most beautiful woman of her time, Unity knew and loved Hitler while Decca was a communist, Debo became the Duchess of Devonshire and lived at Chatsworth and even Pam, the most domestic sister, Pam had the Mitford wit.
Mary S Lovell has done a great job letting us into the lives and loves, trials and tribulations of a most fascinating family living through turbulant times. The book is available from the biography section of Wagga City Library with the call number B940 MIT. There are several other books about the Mitfords in the library as well, just put Mitford into the catalogue.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

2009-12-21T13:03:00.000+11:00

The murders on which In Cold Blood was based were committed in 1959 but the book wasn't published until 1966 as Capote had to wait to find out what ultimately happened to the murderers. A film version of In Cold Blood was made in 1967 and in 1996 a mini-series was made. In more recent years two films were made about Capote's experiences researching and writing the book - Capote and Infamous. His childhood friend Harper Lee (author of To Kill a Mockingbird, pictured) came with him to Kansas. The case certainly consumed Capote for those years and he considered the book the first non-fiction novel.

The Clutters were a wealthy faming family in Kansas. They were murdered by two criminals who met in jail and the book looks at their lives up until the murders and their relationship than enabled them to commit such a crime. It is a fascinating look into a small town in 1950s America, the criminal mind and powerful relationships. This book is an RRL Book Club book and you can also find it in the non-fiction section of Wagga City Library with the call number 364.1523 CAPO. Truman Capote also wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Love in a Cold Climate and other novels by Nancy Mitford

2009-12-07T16:58:00.000+11:00

The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate and The Blessing are brought together in one brilliant, hilarious volume. Nancy Mitford was born in 1904, a member of the British artistocracy and a family of famous sisters. She was a novelist and biographer who lived in England and France, dying in 1973 in Versailles.
She writes about upper-class life in Britain and France and how the two cultures compliment and clash with each other. She wrote at a time of great change and it is fascinating to see how her characters adapt. The first two books are companions, with the same narrator. Love in a Cold Climate tells the story of Polly, the beautiful, aloof aristocrat who falls in love with her lecherous, married uncle, who also happens to be her mother's lover. All three books show the deliciously absurd side of the life of the British upper classes.

Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels is available in the fiction section of Wagga City Library. A biography of the Mitford sisters as well as others books by and about the Mitford family are available in the non-fiction section.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

2009-11-08T21:37:00.000+11:00

Originally published in 1932, Cold Comfort Farm is a very amusing parody of the rather doom-laden novels of rural life in England, such as those by D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy or the Brontë sisters.

Flora Poste is nineteen years old and has just been orphaned. Rather than find a way to make a living she decides to live with relatives in Sussex - the bizarre Starkadders. She is a very sensible young woman and sets about sorting out all their problems in a thoroughly modern way.

You can borrow this book from Wagga City Library.

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

2009-11-02T17:03:00.003+11:00

I have seen this book on lots of top ten or top one hundred lists so was very keen to read it. It was published in 1930 and is, therefore, a story about the type of childhood that isn't possible now. Obviously we would never call a little girl "Titty" these days but what really struck me was the freedom given these children. Our children seem to be watched every minute and don't spend hours unsupervised, let alone days.

Swallows and Amazons is set in the Lake District in England, in 1929. Four siblings sail a little boat called Swallow and two sisters sail Amazon and together they have wild adventures. It is a delightful, fanciful story, somehow nostalgic even though my own childhood was very different.

You can find this book in the Junior Fiction section of Wagga City Library but it can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

2009-09-18T14:29:00.003+10:00

Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event. Now fourteen, she yearns for her mother, and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, she has only one friend: Rosaleen, a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart. South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act. Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother. (Fantastic fiction)

This is a delightful and heart-warming book that would be great to read in a book club. You can find it at Wagga City Library or reserve it here.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

2009-09-09T12:55:00.000+10:00

Great Expectations is a classic novel by Charles Dickens and is an RRL Book Club book. You don't have to be a fan of classics to enjoy this story as it follows the delightful Pip as his fortunes rise and fall, Miss Havisham, the jilted bride who nevers sees sunlight nor has changed out of her wedding dress in all the years that have passed, the beautiful but cold Estella, brought up by Miss Havisham to get her revenge on men and the scary and surprising Magwitch.

This book is great to read before or after Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones, which is also an RRL Book Club book.

The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in love and war by David Lebedoff

2009-05-29T14:28:00.005+10:00

At first glance there seems to be very little common ground between Orwell and Waugh. Orwell is most famous for writing 1984 and Animal Farm and Waugh for Brideshead Revisited. They were both born into middle class England but while Orwell shunned the class system Waugh was the ultimate social climber. Lebedoff writes that what they had in common "was a hatred of moral relativism. They both believed that morality is absolute, though they defined and applied it differently. But each believed with all his heart, brain and soul that there were such things as moral right and moral wrong, and that these were not subject to changes in fashion."

This fascinating book gives an insight into life in England in the early to mid-twentieth century and how the influential authors participated in and reacted to society. It can be found in the non-fiction section of Wagga City Library at 823.912 ORW. You can also find the novels of George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

2009-05-29T13:45:00.005+10:00

Winner of the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for the Best Book in South East Asia and the Pacific, shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal 2009, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Prize 2009. The Slap was also discussed on the ABC's First Tuesday Book Club. It is a gritty, confronting look at suburban life in Melbourne. It centres around a barbecue at which a man slaps a child who isn't his own. This event has great consequences for all present and the author tells the story alternately from the perspective of the different characters. It is thought-provoking on many levels looking, not only at parenting and children, but also at love, marriage and tradition.

This book has tended to provoke strong reactions in those who have read it. I did not like any of the characters in the novel and yet still found the book compelling. It is worth a read just to see what all the fuss is about but be wary if you are sensitive to swearing!

The Slap is available from Wagga City Library - you can reserve it here.

Coronation Talkies by Susan Kurosawa

2009-05-25T17:54:00.003+10:00

A charming, funny, engaging novel set in India at the end of British rule. It tells the story of Lydia who enters into a hasty marriage with with an Englishman living in India and Mrs Banerjee who comes to the station to set up a talking picture theatre.

Lydia moves from her quiet, English village to the very wet Indian hill station of Chalaili. This sodden, not quite fashionable town is full of fascinating characters, Indian, English and Anglo-Indian. Mrs Banerjee is hilarious as she sets up Coronation Talkies and enliven the society in Chalaili.

There is gossip and scandal, love and hate, betrayal and blackmail and a lovely look at the end of England's rule in India.

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith

2009-04-03T13:54:00.000+11:00

This is the first book in the delightful series by the author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. It is set in a fictitious building in a real street in McCall Smith's home town of Edinburgh. It is full of characters very much a part of Edinburgh and yet recognisable to all of us - a good-looking young man, very used to getting what he wants, the young woman in her second gap year who falls for him though she knows she shouldn't, an eccentric widow, a pushy mother with a 'brilliant' son who just wants to be a little boy, the son of a wealthy man who just can't make a go of anything and many others.
You can borrow 44 Scotland Street at Wagga City Library (reserve it here) as well as the books that follow - Espresso Tales, Love Over Scotland, The World According to Bertie and The Unbearable Lightness of Scones.

Winter Close by Hugh MacKay

2009-03-18T13:56:00.004+11:00

Hugh MacKay is a psychologist and social researcher who has written four best-selling books on social psychology and is also well known for his column in the Sydney Morning Herald. This, his fourth novel, is set in the Sydney suburb of Castlecrag and is a study of suburbia and the concept of neighbourhood.
That may sound a little dry but the novel is an engaging look at the residents of Winter Close, told by Tom, a counsellor who has his own inner demons. It is especially interesting if you are familiar with Sydney or have neighbours! Winter Close is one of the RRL Book Club titles.
You can borrow Winter Close, as well as other books by Hugh MacKay, from Wagga City Library - reserve it here.

March by Geraldine Brooks

2009-03-11T14:37:00.003+11:00

March is the story of the absent father from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Mr March is a man of great conviction who goes as an army chaplain to support those fighting to abolish slavery in the American Civil War. The book tells of the harsh, ugly and life changing realities of the war both for those who experienced them first hand and for those who were left behind.

From the author's website ; October 21, 1861. March, an army chaplain, has just survived a brush with death as his unit crossed the Potomac and experienced the small but terrible battle of Ball’s Bluff. But when he sits down to write his daily missive to his beloved wife, Marmee, he does not talk of the death and destruction around him, but of clouds “emboss[ing] the sky,” his longing for home, and how he misses his four beautiful daughters. “I never promised I would write the truth,” he admits, if only to himself.
When he first enlisted, March was an idealistic man. He knew, above all else, that fighting this war for the Union cause was right and just. But he had not expected he would begin a journey through hell on earth, where the lines between right and wrong, good and evil, were too often blurred.
For now, however, he has no choice but to press on. He is directed to a makeshift hospital, an old estate he finds strangely familiar. It was here, more than twenty years earlier, that he first met Grace, a beautiful, literate slave. She was the woman who provided his first kiss and who changed the course of his life.
Now, he finds himself back at the Clement estate, and what was once the most beautiful place he had ever seen has been transformed by the ugliness of war. However, March’s sojourn there is brief and he finds himself reassigned to set up a school on one of the liberated plantations, Oak Landing—a disastrous posting that leaves him all but dead.
Though rescued and delivered to a Washington hospital where his physical health improves, March is a broken man, haunted by all he has witnessed and “a conscience ablaze with guilt” over the many people he feels he has failed. And when it is time for him to leave he finds he does not want to return home. He turns to Grace, whom he has encountered once again, for guidance. “None of us is without sin,” she tells him. “Go home, Mr. March.” So, March returns to his wife and daughters, and though he is tormented by the past and worried for his country’s future, the present, at least, is certain: he is home, he is a father again, and for now, that will be enough.

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

2009-03-10T11:06:00.000+11:00

Brick Lane is an RRL Book Club book and was short listed for the Booker Prize. It tells the story of Nazneen, who, as a young woman, leaves Bangladesh for London with her new and much older husband. Together they struggle to find their place in a new country, dealing with racism and disappointment. A great look into the life of immigrants and their journey towards belonging. She keeps in contact with her sister in Bangladesh whose love marriage resulted in hardship and suffering. Nazneen is a traditional and dutiful Bangladeshi wife who ends up finding a place for herself.

You can borrow Brick Lane from the Wagga Wagga City Library or reserve it here.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2009-03-01T15:36:00.001+11:00

Water for Elephants is largely set in America in the 1930s and is the story of a travelling circus. The story follows Jacob, a young man recently orphaned who was a veterinary student who finished just shy of his final exams. In desperation he jumps onto a train and discovers that it belongs to the circus. What follows is a tale of love, hate, friendship, betrayal and an elephant.

A fascinating look into the history of travelling circus' of the time with interesting characters and a satisfyingly clever ending.

You can borrow Water for Elephants from Wagga City Library or reserve it here.

How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton

2009-02-26T10:00:00.000+11:00

Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time (earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past) is considered by many to be the best novel ever written. With seven volumes, many claim to have read it but have not quite managed to. Alain de Botton's book is about Proust and his novel, but it is also about all literature. Through extracts from Proust's letters, essays and novel, de Botton paints a picture of the eccentric author and shows the power of literature to change your life. While the theme is very literary, this book is delightfully readable and full of memorable quotes.

You can borrow the book at Wagga City Library (it is found at 843.912 DEB) or reserve it here.

The Various Flavours of Coffee by Anthony Capella

2009-02-23T15:12:00.000+11:00

A lovely piece of historical fiction, set in England. This book, beginning in 1895, also takes us to Africa and Brazil. It is about a young dandy named Robert Wallis who wishes to be a poet but manages spend most of his time, and all of his money, drinking and misbehaving. Suffering a terrible lack of funds he accepts a position with Samuel Pinker, categorising the different flavours of coffee. He falls in love with one of Pinker's three daughters and is sent to Africa where he becomes obsessed with a beautiful slave.

The descriptions of the aromas and tastes of coffee are fascinating and the historical and business details are also very interesting. It is easy to forget the hardships women went through to get the right to vote. A book filled with wonderful characters.

You can borrow The Various Flavours of Coffee from Wagga City Library or reserve it here.

The River Baptists by Belinda Castles

2009-02-16T12:49:00.003+11:00

The River Baptists was the winner of the 2006 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award.

Set in a small riverside community, The River Baptists tells the story of Rose, bunkered down in a borrowed house overlooking the river, grieving for her dead father and waiting for her baby to be born. It is also the story of Danny, another refugee from life elsewhere, hiding out from his violent father and dreaming of owning a block of land on the river. Then there are the river old-timers, who miss nothing and forget less, and a newcomer who cares nothing for the locals, or the secrets of the past. Set over the course of a long hot tense summer, when sparks constantly threaten to ignite bushfires, the tight-knit riverside community is set alight by confidences betrayed and a renewed age-old grudge.And through it all flows the mysterious pulse of the river, indifferent, deep and calm, offering the possibility of life and death, renewal and rebirth.

I found this novel completely captivating. You can borrow it from Wagga Wagga City Library and reserve it here.

The Horla by Guy de Maupassant

2009-02-09T13:58:00.000+11:00

Guy de Maupassant wrote this novella about a man's decent into madness, three ways, all of which are included in the book. They each tell the story of the man's struggle against what should not be and how his mind manages to explain and deal with it.
The book was published shortly before de Maupassant was, himself, institutionalised for insanity so could well be informed by his own experience.
It is a chilling and fascinating read and I appreciated the insight into what it might be like to lose your mind.

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

2009-02-03T11:30:00.000+11:00

Set in Rhodesia in the late 60s and early 70s, before it became Zimbabwe, Nervous Conditions is about a clever and ambitious Shona girl called Tamba who leaves her poor parents to stay with an affluent uncle at a mission school. She shares a room with her cousin who spent her early years in England and who struggles to know where or how she fits in. She and Tamba feel the vast differences between European and African culture, particularly for women and try to work out what it is to be an African woman.

This is a lovely coming of age story in a fascinating setting and you can reserve it here. Riverina Regional Library also has the sequel to Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not.

Growing up Asian in Australia

2009-02-02T13:45:00.000+11:00

Alice Pung's memoir Unpolished Gem has been short-listed for several awards. In it she shares her experiences of growing up as a child of immigrants, moving between two cultures - experiences shared by many Asian-Australians. Growing up Asian in Australia is a collection of these stories, told by well-known authors and new voices, spanning several generations and from all over Australia.

I found this book funny, sad, poignant and uplifting. I kept reading just one more chapter, unable to put it down.

You can borrow Growing up Asian in Australia from any branch of the Riverina Regional Library or reserve it here.

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

2009-01-29T13:42:00.000+11:00

This is a very powerful book, beautifully written. The subject matter isn't light and yet the book doesn't seem heavy or depressing. It is told from the view points of a young Nigerian refugee called Little Bee and a suburban woman in London. Little Bee's story is shocking and frightening and not only the part that happened to her in Nigeria. This book made me think differently about the life of refugees; before they leave their country and after they arrive in the place that is supposed to bring safety and stability. Despite the horror at the heart of the book, it is funny and life-affirming.

You can borrow this book from Wagga City Library or reserve it here.

Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb

2009-01-23T15:37:00.008+11:00

This is the 27th book in the "In Death" series by J.D. Robb aka Nora Roberts. For those of you who like to follow characters, this is a great crime series set in New York in the future. Lieutenant Eve Dallas is the main character, a strong woman who believes in justice. If you haven't already discovered this series, it is a great read. She meets her husband in the first book of the series "Naked in Death", so there is a romantic element. Her sidekick Peabody is another great contrasting character in the series. Whilst not essential to read the books in order, as each book can stand alone, I would recommend that you do read them in sequence and enjoy the gradual character development. This series is light, easy to read and great escapism with the futuristic setting adding an interesting element.

The Waterlily: A Blue Mountains Journal by Kate Llewellyn

2009-01-23T13:15:00.004+11:00

This is such a delightful book! Kate Llewellyn is an Australian poet who bought a house in the Blue Mountains and wrote this journal for one year. It is filled with love, heartbreak, hope, gardening, fabulous food and cups of tea. Her writing is evocative and I feel as though I too have spent a year in the mountains coming to terms with life and enjoying it through all the ups and downs.

If you love beautiful writing, gardening or food you must read this book. Reserve it here. Also available by Kate Llewellyn are The Mountain, The Floral Mother and other Essays, The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets, The Dressmaker's Daughter, Honey: Poems and Playing with Water.

The Trout Opera by Matt Condon

2009-01-20T11:59:00.000+11:00

The Trout Opera is an epic, Australian novel, spanning the twentieth century. It begins with a Christmas pageant in Dalgety in 1906 and ends with the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics. We follow Wilfred Lampe whose long life is lived in the Monaro and who must come to terms with modern Australia and Aurora Beck whose life is fraught with modern problems and who needs to find a way to reclaim her life.

Australia itself is one of the fascinating characters in this book. From the Snowy to Kings Cross covering history, war, romance and the media. If you like Australian literature you may find this a wonderful experience.

You can reserve The Trout Opera here.

David Golder by Irène Némirovsky

2008-11-21T03:30:00.000+11:00

Another wonderful book by Irène Némirovsky. Not beautiful like Suite Française but harsh and bleak. It is a portrait of an old, rich, Jewish man who lives for business. He is thoroughly merciless and almost without love, but for his only daughter. The story takes you to a glittering world of jewels and houses by the sea but doesn't leave you envious as this world is so empty and unsatisfying. While the characters aren't likeable, their story is fascinating right up to the conclusion. A very enjoyable look at capitalism and perceptions of Jewishness in the 1920s.

David Golder is available at the Junee and Cootamundra branches of the Riverina Regional Library.

The pianist

2008-11-19T10:39:00.000+11:00

This book is the amazing and moving story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew who survived the horrifying events of the Warsaw ghetto and the Nazi occupation. I read and re-read this book because I found it such an inspiring story of survival, through privations and violence few in western societies today have experienced.
Wladyslaw Szpilman survived ( you will wonder how when you read what he went through) by trusting his instincts and adapting to whatever situation was thrown at him in the unrelenting nightmare of occupied Poland. His family were murdered by the Nazis but he escaped.
It's well written and thus easy to read, but there are some graphic descriptions of violence which some may find disturbing.

Pure Fiction by Julie Highmore

2008-11-18T08:48:00.000+11:00

A library related title and cakes on the cover - surely this is a must-read. Pure Fiction is about the members of a book club in Oxford. It is a fast-paced, relationship driven tale about people whose lives are very different but become more and more entwined as they meet each week to discuss books. The characters are realistic, a bit quirky and very modern. A light read, not memorable perhaps, but plenty of fun.

Pure Fiction can be found in the fiction collection at Wagga Wagga City Library.

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

2008-11-14T14:00:00.000+11:00

Irène Némirovsky's story is tragic. She planned this book to be like a symphony with five movements but she had only written two when she was taken away and killed at Auschwitz. Knowing this, and the fact that the manuscript only surfaced in the nineties made the book all the more moving. It is set in France just as the Germans arrive to occupy during World War II. Everyone flees Paris for the countryside and we follow many characters from different walks of life. Némirovsky paints vivid pictures of Paris and the beautiful countryside - cool houses, lavish apartments and fragrant gardens. I became very involved with the lives of the characters and while the book is complete in itself, the notes and letters in the appendices make me wish she could have written more.

A number of copies of Suite Française are available across the Riverina Regional Library. Other available books by Irène Némirovsky are David Golder and Fire in the Blood which is an RRL Book Club book.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2008-07-22T12:10:00.000+10:00

Wow and wow again!

Markus Zusak takes us to places where we would rather not go and which we would rather not see.

He uses words and images in such a way that we are looking at horror and not feeling that sense of despair which usually accompanies such pictures. For the first part of the book at least!

Our narrator, Death, oversees the life of Liesl Meminger when all around her Germany, and the world, is spiralling out of control and into World War II. He assumes a benevolent persona towards Liesl and in her, sees a strength and integrity which somehow fascinates him. From the death of her brother and her delivery by her mother to the foster family, the Hubermanns, right through her adolescence until her death as an old lady on the other side of the world, he follows her and to a certain extent protects her.

We assume that we are hearing Death speaking and telling her story and it is not until at least halfway through the book that we discover that the words are Liesl’s and not his. He is reading her book – her life as written by her each night in the basement of 33 Himmel Street.

Liesl is a survivor and is smart enough to know that she must learn “words” and how to use them if she is to progress and survive in the world. Her parents, who really play a very small part in her life, were devastatingly poor and therefore unable to ensure that she has an education. She does not even know how to speak her native tongue. She is so fortunate in her placement with the Hubermanns. Hans loves her unreservedly and even though Rosa has a foul mouth and an abrasive manner, she, in her own way nurtures the girl. The Hubermanns are simple, honest and very brave as evidenced by their protection of the Jew, Max Vandenburg, for almost two years.

Liesl blossoms with them and takes her place in the local school pretty much on her own terms. She discovers books as the result of a find in the cemetery where her little brother is buried and determines to acquire more, by whatever means possible. Hence the title of the book.

Liesl becomes a thief – mainly of books – and with the implicit connivance of Ilse Hermann, one of her foster mother’s washing clients and also the wife of the Mayor of the town of Molching where they live. Ilse has a library of about a thousand books, and while she is defeated by the death of her son, obviously decides that Liesl is a worthy recipient of her treasures, her books.

We follow Liesl and her friend, Rudy Schneider on their various adventures and their gradual involvement in the progress of the war and how they are inevitably sucked up into the vortex of terror and destruction which is totally beyond their control. It is during one telling chapter that Death seems to despair totally of his mission when he describes how he has to scoop up the souls of the people “taking showers” in what we know were the concentration camps of the Nazis. He tries to alleviate the suffering of some of the inmates in so far as he takes their souls before they hit the bottom of their last leap. He tries to hide his face from it all. Unsuccessfully.

Molching is hit by the “tin can” planes and most of the residents of Himmel Street are killed in one horrible night of bombing. Liesl is the only one to survive and in the course of her grief stricken wandering, her black book, her diary, her story, is lost and finally tossed in amongst the waste from where our narrator rescues it.

“The Book Thief” is written in a way which is so different from any other book I have read that it took a little while to come to terms with the style. Initially I found it disconcerting, then became intrigued and finally, was totally hooked.

This book should be on the bookshelves of each and every home. Not only as a cautionary tale of the horrors of war and man’s inhumanity to man, but because it contains some of the most wonderful word pictures I have ever read. It would be easy to be seduced by the way in which Markus Zusak uses words. There is no need to sit with a dictionary by your side – the words are those which we use each and every day and their use in such a way makes them even more powerful.

Review by Elizabeth Cooke from the Montag Book Club

A Dog’s Heart (aka Heart of a Dog)

2007-10-20T12:54:00.000+10:00

The only reason that Mikhail Bulgakov was not liquidated by Joseph Stalin is that he wrote a play, Days of the Turbins (based on his novel White Guards), that Stalin happened to enjoy immensely. It is said that Stalin saw the play on at least seven occasions. While you read “A Dog’s Heart” (written in 1925, but not published in Russia until 1987) you will be astounded by the fact that upon the discovery of his typed manuscript by the OGPU, Bulgakov was not tortured in the Lubyanka, put in a train headed for the gulag archipelago, and then “eliminated”. This is because the tale is a biting, and blatant, satire of the Soviet Union in the1920’s, exposing the absurdities of a social experiment going horribly wrong. Set in crowded Moscow, the story begins with one of Russia’s greatest scientists, Philipp Philoppovich Preobrazhensky, taking in a stray dog. However, the motive is not an altruistic sense of concern for welfare of the dog, but rather a desire to conduct a radical experiment.
Into the dog are transplanted the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased human (who turns out to have been a criminal). The dog then begins a gradual transformation until eventually it is recognisably “human” – it walks on two legs, is capable of speech, has human-like facial features and is given a new name: Sharikov. Soon Sharikov unleashes his terrible “personality” upon the Scientist’s household in particular and the city of Moscow in general. It can be read on many levels – as a comment on the futility of attempting to artificially bring socialism to “backward” Russia; as a cautionary morality tale; as a wonderful piece of science-fiction writing; or simply as a hilarious short story about a drinking, swearing, womanising human/dog hybrid. Whatever your take, you are sure to be delighted by Bulgakov, one of the greatest, and oft neglected, writers of the twentieth century.

Review by Michael Scutti

A dog's heart: A monstrous story. Fiction, Mikhail Bulgakov

Orwell’s Victory

2007-10-20T12:19:00.000+10:00

Since Orwell's death in 1950 his legacy has become twisted and contradictory. People of all political persuasions have either attempted to 'win' him for their side or to 'expose' him as a charlatan. Was Orwell a homophobe? Why was his attitude towards women so negative? Was he a (shudder) Trotskyist? And what about "The List"? These questions and more are examined, and indeed answered, as Hitchens masterfully navigates the reader through the maze of (mis)interpretations of Orwell's considerable literary output. The book is clearly and logically constructed, with chapters on "Orwell and the Left", "Orwell and the Right", "Orwell and the Feminists" and so on. Hitchens maintains that while Orwell was by no means infallible, he possessed the entirely honourable quality of constantly evaluating his own beliefs and prejudices. What emerges is a picture of a remarkably honest, perceptive and consistent man in a world displaying precisely the opposite qualities.

Review by Michael Scutti

Orwell’s Victory, by Christopher Hitchens 823.912 ORW

Oliver Sacks

2007-08-18T15:04:00.000+10:00

I find Oliver Sack's books so wonderful I couldn't choose just one to review. Oliver Sacks is a neurologist who was born in England and has lived in New York since the 1960s. You may have seen the film Awakenings (616.832 SAC)which is about him. The book and the film are available at the library. In The man who mistook his wife for a hat(616.8 SAC) and An anthropologist on Mars(616.832 SAC) Dr Sacks presents in a warm and personal way, case histories of people struggling to live with conditions such as Tourette's Syndrome, autism, phantom limb syndrome and epilepsy. He investigates the world of the deaf in Seeing voices(362.42 OLI) and the colourblind in The island of the colourblind(616.8 SAC). He writes from the perspective of a doctor in Migraine, but he has also written as a patient in A leg to stand on(617.584092 SAC). He has even written a memoir of his youth called Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a chemical boyhood(617.584092 SAC). He writes about the truly fascinating human brain in an engaging and easy to understand way.

The Girl with the Broken Wing

2007-05-08T11:34:00.000+10:00

This book by Heather Dyer is such a delightful read. Spend some time reading this book to your children, it will be time well spent! It is the story of Hilary, an angel, who 'breaks' her wing trying to land on James and Amanda's roof. She has so much fun with the twins that she decides to stay. She eats chocolate, goes on a picnic and even goes to school while James and Amanda try to keep her wings hidden.

The girl with the broken wing by Heather Dyer. Available in junior fiction.

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

2007-03-27T10:45:00.000+10:00

This book won the Book Trust Teenage Fiction Award but, like all good books for young people, it is a great read for adults as well.It is the story of fifteen year old Christopher who has Asperger's Syndrome which is a form of autism. He finds a neighbour's dog lying dead on the lawn and sets about solving the mystery of who killed it but ends up finding out a lot more. It is a fascinating glimpse inside the head of someone who is brilliant at maths and science but who just doesn't understand humans. A moving and fabulously quirky book! Available from the youth fiction section under the stairs.

Small Island

2007-03-17T11:01:00.000+11:00

This book has won a number of awards and is a fascinating read. During World War II soldiers from British colonies fought for Britain but when they came to live there were given a very cold welcome. Set mainly in 1948 we see a slice of life in England during a very difficult time of transition.

The story is told alternately by a Jamaican man who fought in the war and has now come to live in England, his proud and haughty wife, an English woman who married to escape her dull farm life and her awkward, cold husband. Their lives collide in a tale of relationships, racism, hope and dashed expectations.

Small Island can be found in the Wagga adult fiction section under Levy.

Michael Palin on Python

2007-03-16T15:39:00.000+11:00

People can be quite nutty about Monty Python. I can understand why even if I am not the greatest fan myself. Luckily you don't need to be a huge Monty Python fan to enjoy Michael Palin's diaries.
He begins when Python begins and we are able to experience with him the madness, tantrums and tensions. There are volatile personalities and hilarious adventures as we follow through the filming of the television series' and movies such as 'The Life of Brian'.
At the same time it is a lovely picture of a family man coping with parenthood, his father's growing disability, celebrity and difficult times.
The book can be found at Wagga Library on the shelves at
791.4572 MON .
Let us know what you think!