The Night She Fell, by Eileen Merriman
Eileen Merriman is delightful. I shared accommodation with her at a book festival last year and we sat by the fire in the evenings drinking wine and chatting about writing, YA books, families, life. I should have locked my door.
Continue reading “The Night She Fell–book review”Forgotten on Sunday, by Valé Perrin
This was a recommendation from my French Canadian friend. She’s young. All her friends loved it. Valérie Perrin is a best selling author in France, and her previous novel Fresh Water for Flowers was a massive hit. But does it work in translation and enchant an older audience? Hell, yes.
Continue reading “Forgotten on Sunday”Whatever love means, by David Baddiel
Whatever Love Means is an easy enough read about two couples in London around the turn of the millennium, the boys best mates, one married, the other a bit of a predator, with all the ingredients Baddiel seems to think we want to read about: sex, love, death, twists, secrets. Def a holiday read, there’s nothing much very philosophical here, no bigger picture other than creepy Vic having an affair with his best friend’s wife, and an unpicking of why her car crashed into a wall. “Whatever Love Means”, of course, is the famous line of Prince Charles’s in response to his engagement to Di – a stunningly cold response to love, which sums up the book really. None of these characters seem to have discovered the meaning of love. So why has it made my good books list? Well, I enjoyed the obviousness of it. Also, I think the stilted and stifled emotions of the characters deserve exploring. A good book, perhaps, for students of creative writing to unpick. Discuss: How might different people receive the book; what does the author want us to feel; is he in control of his characters?
Continue reading “Whatever Love Means – book review”Lola in the Mirror, by Trent Dalton
Trent Dalton has done it again – Lola in the Mirror is Boy Swallows Universe in all its unmitigated glory, but in Lola in the Mirror we have a girl hero who’s on the rocks, fighting to gain a place in the world. This was one of my favourite books of 2023 and I do recommend it for the feisty characters, twisting plot, adversity, love and gorgeous writing all wrapped up in a thrilling read. Yes, it is sentimental and the homelessness described is packaged with optimism. Barbara Kingsolver did this with her brilliant Demon Copperhead; she gave the narration of a deprivation story to a gustsy kid with smarts. Perhaps such optimism doesn’t live in broken cars in junk yards. Or, just perhaps, it does.
Continue reading “Lola in the Mirror – book review”Pineapple Street, by Jenny Jackson
I asked around for a read that was entertaining and not at all intellectually challenging and Pineapple Street delivered, certainly on the second point. I’m not convinced that it is “wryly funny” or “acutely observed” as billed, or why it is recommended by the New York Times, except for the fact that it is very New York, but there are plenty of those books about. Some women in a super rich family have angst, worry about money and class and are fearful of the domineering matriarch.
Continue reading “Pineapple Street – book review”Pet, by Catherine Chidgey
Very creepy, very noir, if domestic New Zealand, circa 1970, can be called noir. The story certainly starts off sweetly enough. Our girl, Justine, is in class, trying to please the new teacher, Mrs Price. Everyone is. Mrs Price is young, new in town, and glamourous. Hot, she’d be called today. She also has a tragic past: a husband and daughter, dead in a car crash. Justine watches as she selects her pets and desperately wants to be the one asked to stay behind to wipe the board, or empty the bins, but these jobs go to the popular kids. Justine, and best friend Jess, are not part of the cool crowd. They go home to each other’s houses, rate the prettiest girls in the class in order: Melissa first, others depending on haircuts and body parts, and then they select each other as fourth. Pretty enough, but not up there. They are kind to each other. They talk about boys, and buying a first bra. There’s nothing creepy here, yet. Just a whiff of foreboding. Chidgey is a clever writer. It’s all good until it isn’t.
Continue reading “Pet – book review”Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
Usually, it’s the story setting that draws me to pick up a book. Time and place. A Glasgow slum in the 1980s; the brutal 1700s with Māori tipuna; frozen Norway circa 1880; a present day high country farm. Then, to commit to reading I want characters I could care about, who do things I care about. So I was a slightly reluctant recipient when my friend thrust Tommorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow into my hands. It’s a book set in the States about the gaming industry, and a couple of kids and their friends who spend all their time developing and playing computer games. I’m not particularly interested in geeky American culture and think gaming is an addictive waste of life. So my knee-jerk interest was near zero. But friend Tess saw Zevin live at the AWF and raved, and a recommendation from a good reader is worth gold. So here we go.
Continue reading “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow–book review”Poor People with Money, by Dominic Hoey
I really wanted not to like this book. The too-cool-for-school, attention seeking badass author didn’t sound promising, with his snarly comments about moving to Detroit or LA (wooo) because he’s been left out of the NZ lit club. He has a lovely line in his poetry where he is:
…condescended to by people
who have never been punched in the face
which is a brilliant way to categorise people, but a $40k grant? Just saying. When he didn’t make the longlist for the Ockhams this year he said ‘Man there’s dogs they would give that award to over me!’ Thanks. (I’m on the shortlist). What a charmer.
The Lighthouse, by Christopher Parker
A book that seems well promoted in social media at the moment, The Lighthouse offers good engagement to keep the pages turning. It did have more of a Young Adult feeling than a grown-up read for me, with spooky but gentle ghosts, a sad but not gruesome mystery, young protagonists and a (pretty chaste) doe-eyed romance.
Continue reading “The Lighthouse – book review”The four finalists of the Jan Medlicott Acorn prize for fiction.
It is such a privilege to be on this year’s Ockham shortlist, along with Michael Bennett, Catherine Chidgey and Monty Soutar. It’s a very happy period, these weeks between the shortlist and the announcement of the winner, which will be on May 17th at the Auckland Writers’ Festival. A girl can dream!
Here is the Ockham Sampler, where you get to read an extract from each of the books for free. If you like what you read, please head to your nearest bookshop and buy the book. Not sure about the others, but I’m saving for a gold frock.
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