Thursday 28 March 2013

HHhH by Laurent Binet (translated by Sam Taylor)

It’s historical fiction, but not as you know it. History for fiction readers or a novel for history buffs – whichever it is, it's deeply satisfying.

In 1942, the RAF parachuted two Czech soldiers back into their homeland on a daring mission to kill hated Nazi, Reinhard Heydrich. Known as the ‘Hangman of Prague’, Heydrich had efficiently and ruthlessly quashed the Czech resistance and presided over the country with iron control. The parachutists are aided by what is left of the Czech resistance, but still, it takes many months before they are able to prepare and carry out the assassination.

This riveting true story grips you right till the end. Whether they completed their mission or failed, both men were well aware that it was likely to end in their deaths and the deaths of those who had helped them. My lack of historical knowledge also added to the suspense and I fought the urge to flick to the end of the book or check Wikipedia throughout.

Binet recounts the details of Operation Anthropoid passionately. In the opening pages, he states that this story has fascinated him since childhood and he’s had the urge to share it with the rest of the world ever since. This is where it diverges from the standard historical fiction format. Right from the very beginning and throughout this novel, Binet inserts himself and his own anguish about whether his retelling does justice to the memory of the two brave men and their many known and unknown supporters. Strangely enough, the flip-flopping back and forth from journalistic recount to narrative angst doesn’t detract from this story. Instead, the extra details he lets ‘slip’ into the novel seem only to heighten the sense that we aren’t really in a novel, but are in fact a witness to the real events of history.

Metafiction and writing about what you’re writing about may have been done before, but Binet still manages to create a fresh and exciting ride. He has clearly succeeded in doing justice to his own goal of keeping alive the memories of these real men and women. He has also succeeded in adding something to the craft of writing itself, and has been justly rewarded with the prestigious Prix Goncourt. Enjoy.

Reviewed by Spot

Check our Catalogue and reserve online          
HHhH by Laurent Binet, 2012               


About the Author
HHhH is Laurent Binet's first novel.  He lives and works in France.  He has spent many years teaching French literature at high school and university.

Read an interview with the Guardian



Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan sure knows how to take the reader by surprise, this time with a spy novel, of sorts. It is the 1970s and Serena Frome is spotted at Cambridge and targeted for MI5. The reader imagines dark doings involving stolen documents and risky escapades behind the iron curtain. These are the days of the Cold War and IRA bombings - enough to keep the secret services busy. However, for Serena, the reality is a lot of typing and filing, meagre pay and dismal digs.

She makes friends with Max, a few rungs up the ladder from Serena, and he sees in her good looks and literary interests an opportunity for her to take on a more challenging task. Feigning a role with an arts foundation, Serena must offer a grant to promising young author, Tom Haley, with the notion that he will write with an anti-Communist slant. But things get complicated when Serena starts to enjoy Tom’s company more than her job allows.

In spite of the lack of the usual spy skulduggery, this MI5 story is full of twists and turns, with plenty of tension and a brilliant twist at the end. McEwan’s writing is as polished as ever, producing another novel that ticks all the boxes.

Posted by JAM

Check our catalogue and reserve online
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan, 2012

Tuesday 26 March 2013

Waiorongomai : the land and the people

During their voyage to New Zealand, Charles and Elizabeth Matthew’s first child died. They arrived in Wellington in 1842 on the sailing ship London. The family eventually settled in the Wairarapa on land their descendants still farm today.

Linda Thornton has used diaries written by Alfred Matthews, the memoirs of Jack and conversations with more recent family members to trace the development of Waiorongomai Station from virgin land to one of New Zealand’s leading romney sheep studs.

The narrative places the lives of those who lived and worked at Waiorongomai Station within the context of changes in New Zealand society. I especially enjoyed reading the sections that dealt with the way in which the manpower shortage in World War Two lead to it becoming acceptable for the women of the family to work on the farm as well as in the household.

The book is extremely readable and gives a fascinating insight, through six generations, of life on a Wairarapa sheep station and the development of New Zealand from colony to nation. Posted by LCH

Check our catalogue and reserve online
Waiorongomai : the land and the people by Linda Thornton, 2011.

View a section of a documentary entitled Waiorongomai : waters of repute

RIP Barbara Anderson, Hawke's Bay author

It is sad to hear that novelist Barbara Anderson passed away on Sunday in Auckland after a brief illness.

Barbara Anderson became an internationally recognised fiction writer in her sixties. Born in Hastings, and educated in Hawkes Bay, she graduated with a BSc from Otago University (1947) and a BA Victoria University (1984). She has worked as a medical technologist and teacher in Hawkes Bay and Wellington. With a lifelong interest in writing and reading, she attended Bill Manhire’s creative writing course at Victoria University in 1983, having already experimented with her writing. Several stories were published in Metro, Landfall, Sport and the NZ Listener, while one of her unpublished plays won the J.C. Reid award in 1985, and several have been broadcast.  Read more at www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/andersonb.html

Read more tributes on Barbara's publishers' website:  Victoria University Press

Books by Barbara Anderson on our Catalogue

Friday 22 March 2013

Monkeys with Typewriters by Scarlett Thomas

The writing of fiction has had a lot written about it by writers of fiction. I have no intention of writing fiction, but enjoyed this ‘how to’ guide by British author and creative writing teacher, Scarlett Thomas. While aimed at the aspiring writer, the interested reader will also get a lot from this playful introduction to the key ingredients of ‘good’ fiction.

Thomas engagingly discusses well-known works of fiction (and film) to illustrate how stories are constructed, how you can create your own, and how to avoid the pitfalls of bad writing at the scene and sentence level. You'll find out why vague, over-inflated sentences are cautioned against, as well as the need to eschew the excessive use of unnecessary adverbs and other flashy tricks which detract from quality prose.

Her approach to teaching creative writing is not endless workshop-type exercises. Instead, this book gives clear examples that highlight her key points in an appealing, chatty, yet informative approach.      Reviewed by Spot

Check our Catalogue and reserve online                        
Monkeys with typewriters by Scarlett Thomas, 2012      

About the Author
Scarlett Thomas was born in London in 1972. She is the author of the novels Bright Young Things, Going Out, PopCo, The End of Mr. Y, and Our Tragic Universe. Scarlett’s work has been translated into more than 20 languages, and she has been longlisted for the Orange Prize, and shortlisted for the South African Boeke Prize. In 2001 she was included in the Independent on Sunday's list of the UK's 20 best young writers, and in 2002 she won an Elle Style Award for the novel Going Out. She has written short fiction and articles for various anthologies and publications, including Nature Magazine, the Guardian and the Independent on Sunday. She has also had stories broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She currently lives in Kent, UK, where she teaches Creative Writing. In her spare time she is studying for an MSc in Ethnobotany. She is currently working on her ninth novel, The Seed Collectors.    

From the author’s website  http://www.scarlettthomas.co.uk/about

Thursday 21 March 2013

Small Wars by Sadie Jones

Small Wars describes the involvement of the British forces in Cyprus during the 1950s, and the effects of army policy on those caught up in it all - in particular the soldiers and their wives.

The novel concerns Major Hal Traherne, a promising young officer, and what happens when his wife arrives on the island with their twin daughters. The army compound where they are housed with other army families should be a safe environment, but there is the perpetual problem with any kind of war - long spells of tedium broken up by moments of violence and terror.

The Cypriot rebels use guerrilla tactics often resulting in British casualties before vanishing into the mountains. To maintain control the British have to come down hard on the rebels. Hal cannot discuss the terrible things he sees with Clara, so the war becomes a wedge between them, affecting their marriage. The characters struggle to maintain a facade of normal life as the violence around them intensifies. This eventually explodes into the world of Hal and Clara, throwing them into a crisis that has life-changing effects.

Small Wars is a gripping novel and Sadie Jones does well at recreating what it might have been to live in a largely forgotten corner of British colonial history.

Posted by JAM

Check catalogue and reserve online
Small Wars by Sadie Jones, 2009

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Sydney Bridge Upside Down by David Ballantyne

The great unread New Zealand novel—a gothic thriller, a coming-of-age story and a sinister family tragedy.

Written in 1968, Sydney Bridge Upside Down was until recently an underground classic, now undergoing a revival after being republished.

Harry Baird lives with his mother, father and younger brother Cal in Calliope Bay, at the edge of the world. Summer has come, and those who can have left the bay for the allure of the far away city. Among them is Harry's mother, who has left behind a case of homemade ginger beer and a vague promise of return.

Harry and Cal are too busy enjoying their holidays, playing in the caves and the old abandoned slaughterhouse, to be too concerned with her absence. When their older cousin-the beautiful, sophisticated Caroline-comes from the city to stay with the Bairds, Harry is besotted. With their friend Dibs Kelly, the boys and Caroline spend the long summer days exploring the bay and playing games.

But Harry is very protective of Caroline and jealous of the attention she receives from other men. And what looked to be a pleasurable summer is overshadowed by certain 'accidents' in the old slaughterhouse and a general air of suspicion and distrust.

There was a simple country boy who lived on the edge of the world, and his name was Harry Baird. That is not the whole story.

Sydney Bridge Upside Down has long been considered a New Zealand literary masterpiece.

Check catalogue and reserve online
Sydney Bridge Upside Down by David Ballantyne

Harry's Hikoi
An intiative has been launched to promote the novel during New Zealand Book Month in an unusual, but superbly fun, manner. To honour Ballantyne’s contribution to New Zealand literature and the inspiration he has provided for Taki Rua’s theatre production of the novel, they have set in motion the initiative called Harry’s Hikoi. Using a “pay it forward” approach readers are being challenged to share their copy of the book with as many people as possible.

Taki Rua Productions is Aotearoa / New Zealand’s national Māori theatre company.

See Harry's Hikoi on Facebook

Monday 18 March 2013

Author Visit: Joanne Drayton discusses The Search for Anne Perry

Photo of Joanne Drayton by Bradley Fafejta
You've been convicted of murdering your best friend's mother in a crime that shocked New Zealand...

How do you live your life after such an event?

NZ Book MonthJoanne Drayton will be discussing her book The Search for Anne Perry at Havelock North Library on Wednesday 20 March at 6.00pm.

Tickets $5.00, now available from Havelock North, Hastings and Flaxmere Libraries.
__________________________

Until 1994, the world knew Anne Perry as the writer of bestselling crime fiction at the peak of her writing career. But following the release of Peter Jackson’s film Heavenly Creatures about the sensational 1954 Parker-Hulme murders, came the shocking revelation that Anne Perry started life as Juliet Hulme, the teenager jointly convicted of murdering her friend’s mother.

Life would never be the same for Anne. That a convicted murderer had gone on to become a celebrated crime writer with worldwide sales of over 25 million books was tantalizing enough. But careful analysis of her writing reveals that these were more than simple crime stories; spiritual and philosophical complexities thread the way through Anne Perry’s works and the characters she creates. Was Anne, in fact, revealing more about herself in the characters she was creating? Acclaimed biographer Joanne Drayton takes on the challenge of exploring Anne Perry’s writing to uncover her world view and her compulsion to write. The famously private Perry agreed to be comprehensively interviewed for the book and has allowed Joanne unparalleled access to her friends, relatives, colleagues and archives. The result is a compelling read with revelations that will resonate with the reader long after the final page.


Search Catalogue and reserve online
The Search for Anne Perry by Joanne Drayton, 2012


Also see our earlier post
 

Friday 15 March 2013

Blur by Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel

Do we live in a true democracy if our news media is only a puppet at the end of strings? And, who might be pulling those strings?

Kovach and Rosenstiel are two seasoned journalists from the US, who are on a crusade to educate the public – and journalists – about the need to respond to the challenges of news broadcasting in the age of the internet.

Technology has developed to the point where a constant stream of news and information saturates us to the point of overload. But, while this seems to allow us direct access to events as they happen, dangerous changes have crept into the field of journalism. Gone are the well-staffed newsrooms of old, where journalists had time to thoroughly check their facts and sources. In their place, news is reported as instantly as it occurs, and with the public expecting on the spot reporting, sleek PR teams and a burgeoning number of media savvy partisan groups are using the system to their advantage.

How to counteract this? The authors argue that speed is the enemy of accuracy, and the less time you have to produce your content, the more errors it will contain. Journalists must stop just relaying the news from whatever source is close to hand, be it a well-rehearsed sound-bite from a politician or a second-hand account from a self-proclaimed witness. Quality journalism requires time, research, and a healthy degree of skepticism. Kovach and Rosenstiel state journalists and news consumers need to be educated enough to question the quality of news content, and in Blur they provide us with a set of tools to do so. This book will bring you up to speed with how even our most trusted sources are at the mercy of our own consumer expectations.

I found this book very informative, especially in light of the new current affairs offering from TVNZ.

Posted by Spot

Check our Catalogue and reserve online                                                                                       
Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload by Kovach & Rosenstiel


About the Authors
Tom Rosenstiel is an author, journalist, press critic and executive director of the American Press Institute. He was founder and director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), a research organization that studies the news media. A journalist for more than 30 years, he worked as a media critic for the Los Angeles Times and chief congressional correspondent for Newsweek magazine and as co-founder and vice chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. He appears often on radio, television and in print, and has written widely on politics and media.

Bill Kovach is a US journalist, former Washington bureau chief of The New York Times, former editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and co-author of the popular book, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and The Public Should Expect

Thursday 14 March 2013

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

Deborah Levy conjures up a scorching, summer holiday atmosphere in her latest novel, Swimming Home. It all begins when Joe and Isabel arrive at their rented Riviera villa with their daughter Nina, to find a naked woman lying at the bottom of the pool. Isabel dives in to see if the girl is all right and unwittingly finds herself inviting her to use the spare room. Their guests, Mitchell and Laura, look on with amazement.

The young woman, Kitty Finch, is emotionally disturbed and turns out to have an obsession with Joe, a famous poet. Joe, who has already jeopardised his marriage with a string of affairs, looks set to jump into another one. What makes it all the more worrying is the mental affliction Kitty shares with Joe – depression, and Kitty stirs up things Joe is at pains to forget. The tension builds towards a shocking ending within a glorious setting of fruit-laden orchards and seaside cafes.

Swimming Home was short-listed for last year’s Mann Booker Prize. Levy’s prose is beautifully crafted and there are plenty of ideas about what makes us tick simmering under the surface. Swimming Home is the kind of book you want to dive into again.

Reviewed by Paige Turner

Check our catalogue and reserve online
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy, 2012

Wednesday 13 March 2013

HB Readers and Writers Festival speakers announced

An impressive line-up of writers are booked for the June festival which will include free events and ticketed, catered sessions. More information on the specific events will be available in coming weeks, however the guest writers can now be confirmed as:

Dame Anne Salmond, 2013 New Zealand New Zealander of the Year and prominent historian and biographer

Alexa Johnson, food writer (Ladies, a Plate and A Second Helping), biographer (Sir Edmund Hillary: An Extraordinary Life,) and art curator

Tim Wilson former TVNZ correspondent to the US, journalist and novelist (Their Faces Were Shining and The Desolation Angel)

Rachael King Christchurch-based novelist (Magpie Hall and The Sound of Butterflies) and recent children’s book author (Red Rocks)

Tusiata Avia renowned poet (Wild Dogs Under My Skirt and Bloodclot)and performer

These writers will join Napier-based historian and author Peter Wells and local children’s and young adult fiction writers Anna MacKenzie, Adele Broadbent, Aaron Topp and Mary-Anne Scott

Confirmed to chair events at the festival are musician and conductor Jose Aparicio and writer Cheryl Sucher

The Hawke's Bay Readers and Writers Festival will be held 14-16 June 2013.

Check them out on Facebook 

Monday 11 March 2013

A Room with a Pew by Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt

Planning a trip to Europe? Small budget?  Interested in staying in unusual places?

This eBook will both entertain and inform you, and have you pulling out the maps to get on with planning.

"One recent summer, Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt traveled through Spain – from Barcelona in the north to Malaga on the southern Mediterranean coast – staying exclusively in ancient monasteries. As they quickly discovered, these are intriguing places in which to stay. They are ripe with history, art and culture (living museums); peopled by a dying breed of monks and nuns (last chance to see); rarely visited (so few tourists); and open to anyone who cares to stop by (you don't have to be religious, although it doesn't hurt if you are). They are also inexpensive (much of the time); eager for customers (most of the time); and always hospitable (in keeping with the Rule of St. Benedict).

This account of the authors' journey will show you what it is like to turn your back on tourist Spain, to leave behind the hotels, pensions and up-market paradors and immerse yourself in the cowled world of Spain's many and varied ancient monasteries. This is not a guide book, but it does include enough information for you to plan a similar journey of your own. The tone is amusing, sometimes irreverent, but always respectful and entertaining. Monasteries visited: El Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Vallbona El Monasterio de la Virgen de Monlora Monasterio de San Salvador de Leyre El Real Monasterio de Santo Tomas, Avila El Monasterio de la Purisima Concepcion y San Jose , El Toboso El Monasterio de la Santa Maria de las Escalonias Convento de la Purisima Concepcion (Santa Maria) Marchena."  From the Publishers

Read this as an eBook on ePukapuka Overdrive
A room with a pew : Sleeping our way through Spain's ancient monasteries by Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt

About the Authors

Richard Starks is a former journalist and editor, and is now a full-time writer. He was born in England and raised there and in the United States and Scotland.

Miriam Murcutt is a writer, editor and former marketing executive with extensive experience in the travel and the publishing industries.
Read more at the authors' website

Watch a short YouTube video about A Room with a Pew 

 

Friday 8 March 2013

Oh Dear Silvia by Dawn French


"Who is in Coma Suite Number 5? A matchless lover? A supreme egotist? A selfless martyr? A bad mother? A cherished sister? A selfish wife? All of these. For this is Silvia Shute who has always done exactly what she wants. Until now, when her life suddenly, shockingly stops. Her past holds a dark and terrible secret, and now that she is unconscious in a hospital bed, her constant stream of visitors are set to uncover the mystery of her broken life. And she must lie there, victim of the beloveds, the borings, the babblings and the plain bonkers. Like it or not, the truth is about to pay Silvia a visit. Again, and again and again . . ." - From the publisher

Readers of Dawn French's second novel, Oh Dear Silvia, have had mostly positive comments to make. Although, some felt the use of dialects a little overused, others loved them, and could just hear the dialogue as if spoken aloud in French's own comic voice.

Characterisation is the core of this novel, and patience is rewarded slowly but surely as the monologues of each visitor start to reveal the nature of the woman who lies, still and immobile, in the hospital bed. For those who prefer strong plot driven action, this may not be for you. Most readers, however, have reported enjoying the rich combination of humour and pathos, the contrast between the more carefully drawn studies of the quietly troubled vs. the over-the-top comedic characters, and the struggle of all in their journey toward acceptance.

French started this book before her own mother become ill. You may want to read her interview with the Guardian to see how this influenced the writing process - it definitely adds an extra depth to it.

Posted by Spot

Check our Catalogue and reserve online
Oh Dear Silvia by Dawn French, 2012 

About the Author
Dawn French is one of Britain's best loved comic writers and is well-known from series such as The Vicar of Dibley and French & Saunders.

Dawn French Guardian Interview

Thursday 7 March 2013

The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N Murari

The Taliban Cricket Club – how’s that for an incongruous title! And yet this novel by Timeri N Murari was actually inspired by the Taliban’s promotion of cricket in 2000 as a way to earn international acceptance. Its main character is Rukhsana, a determined young journalist - a career choice that is risky in a place like Kabul, as if being a woman isn’t bad enough.

When Rukhsana is called before the Minister for the Propaganda of Virtue and the Prevention of  Vice, she could be in big trouble. But Minister Zorak Wahidi wants to make a diplomatic coup through cricket, a game involving civility, fairness and equality, and he needs journalists on
board. Unlikely as it seems, cricket is a game Rukhsana can play. Anyone can organise a team, and Rukhsana sees this as a golden opportunity for a ticket out of Afghanistan for herself and her family.

The Taliban Cricket Club is a tense yet uplifting novel about people overcoming immense difficulties. It is a story about love, courage, passion, tyranny and cricket.

Posted by Flaxmere Library Book Chat

Check our Catalogue and reserve online 
The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N Murari, 2012

About the Author

Timeri N Murari was born and raised in Madras, India.  He has lived in London and New York, working as a journalist and film documentary writer before returning to live in Madras.

Read more about him on his website: www.timerimurari.com/about.htm

Also available there is a BBC World Service interview with him and a reading of The Taliban Cricket Club on YouTube. 

Tuesday 5 March 2013

The day Dad blew up the cowshed.

A bright, vibrant picture book set on a farm, Silodale, in Central Hawke's Bay, it tells the true story of the day Jennifer and Margery’s father blew up the old cowshed and the resulting mayhem.

It is told from a child’s perspective in rhyming verse with bright energetic illustrations. I especially liked the illustration of the startled, stressed telephone which looks as if it may have been on a party line.

The book is suitable for children aged 5 to 9 and will appeal to boys although there may be a few adults who find the story brings back memories. It took me back to when friends of my father used number 8 fencing wire and the odd stick of gelignite to take care of "little problems”.

Posted by LCH


Check our catalogue and reserve online
The day Dad blew up the cowshed, text by Jennifer Somervell ; illustrated by Margery Fern.

About the Author

Interview with Jenny Somervell 

Monday 4 March 2013

Staff Favourites - Mysteries

Sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction. Here's a list of both fiction and non fiction mysteries enjoyed by staff recently.

Click on the titles to go to the Catalogue records - reserve online if you wish.

The beautiful mystery by Louise Penny, 2012
A Chief Inspector Gamache mystery; 8

The uncommon appeal of clouds by Alexander McCall Smith, 2012
The Sunday Philosophy Club series - Isabel Dalhousie mysteries (9)

Immortal by Dean Crawford, 2002
County coroner Alexis Cruz makes a surpising discovery when carrying out an autopsy

The damnation of John Donellan : a mysterious case of death & scandal in Georgian England by Elizabeth Cooke, c20122
Was Captain John "Diamond" Donellan really guilty of the murder of his brother-in-law Theodosius Broughton, heir to a fortune and baronetcy?  The author examines this real life murder and the dynastic drama around it.  It offers glimpses into the sometimes sordid Georgian high society.