Thursday 30 November 2017

From auditor to soldier: stories of the men who served

Can we ever have too many books on the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and World War One?

This commemorative book produced by the Office of the Auditor-General looks and feels like an oversized coffee table book. However don’t let the glossy cover or the rather staid title put you off. This is a fascinating insight into 32 ordinary New Zealand men who voluntarily enlisted in the First World War.

The brief introduction explains the job titles and order of seniority system used by the Audit Department, as well as how the New Zealand armed forces turned these auditors into soldiers. Archival photographs show the various sports teams the men and women participated in as well as a photograph of the 1921 annual picnic.

New Zealand had the highest casualty rate amongst British Empire countries and this is reflected in these biographies. Starting with their work within the Audit Department before they enlisted, each biography includes military service details, battles involved in, injuries sustained and, for those that survived, their post-war employment.

Many of the men from the Audit Department served first in the Samoan Advance Party before going off to the battles at Passchendale, Le Quesnoy, Somme, Messines and ANZAC Cove. Of the 32 men, five did not return having been either killed in action or died from disease. The 27 men who survived did so with both physical and mental wounds having also suffered measles, tuberculosis and pneumonia.

There are three local men featured: Harry Latchford Marbrook, Hastings; George Grant Smith, Waipukurau; Henry Charles Steere, Waipawa. All returned to work for the Audit Department after the war.

Not all the men led such worthy lives post war. Several of the soldiers were imprisoned for theft and fraud with one soldier imprisoned multiple times before being diagnosed with acute mental depression. Each biography is accompanied by a small photograph of the soldier as well as photographs of toy soldiers re-enacting war scenes.

So can we ever have too many books on the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and World War One? I don’t think so. Not when we have books like From auditor to soldier, personalising soldiers’ stories and telling it like it was, warts and all.

Lest we forget

Posted by The Rummaging Bibliophile

Catalogue link: From Auditor to Soldier

Monday 27 November 2017

The New Mrs Clifton by Elizabeth Buchan

Author Elizabeth Buchan explores the themes around women's lives and changing social views post World War Two. Described as historical fiction, The New Mrs Clifton is a gripping, authentic feeling novel, building to a dramatic climax. The ongoing mystery and twists up to the last page had me hooked.

London's Clapham Common, 1974, and a young couple discover a skeleton wrapped around the roots of an old sycamore tree on their new property. The pathologist dated the young woman’s death between 1945 and 1947, noting that the trauma to the back of the head was considerable and that she had probably been killed by a blunt object.

The novel then winds back to Clapham Common in 1945, where Gus Clifton, former barrister turned intelligence agent and secretly married in Berlin, is arriving with his new German bride Krista to Gus's family home where his two sisters Julia and Tilly live. His siblings find his behaviour truly shocking - why has he married Krista who is, after all, the enemy? Gus and Krista are not in love, she's not pregnant and why did he change his mind about Nella, his beautiful loyal fiancée and close friend of the two sisters?

The characters are all so compelling and well-drawn that I felt for them all. Krista, who had seen and experienced terrible horrors in the war and now living in London, hated and rejected by practically everyone except her husband; Julia, whose RAF husband Martin was lying dead somewhere in Europe and whose baby daughter born far too soon after the shock of Martin's death, did not survive; Tilly, a damaged bohemian who had freedom during the war but has difficulty with post war life; and Nella who along with her brother Teddy cannot understand Gus's rejection of her in favour of Krista. The two families' close relationship pre-war begin to unravel.

Posted by VT

Catalogue link: The New Mrs Clifton

Friday 24 November 2017

Reckoning by Magda Szubanski

If you had met my father you would never, not for an instant, have thought he was an assassin.

Most of us would recognise Magda Szubanski as Sharon: the hapless netball-loving “second best friend” in the Australian TV comedy series Kath and Kim. Although this memoir covers Szubanski's path to becoming a comedian and actor; much of the book is about Szubanski's father. From the age of 15 to 19 he was a Polish Resistance fighter in Warsaw during WW2; killing Nazi’s and collaborators.

His experiences left inevitable scars and post-traumatic stress disorder. He had at times a difficult relationship with Magda; although the more she learned about his past the more his behaviour made sense, and they became close in adulthood.

The author later visits Poland, uncovering family stories and coming to terms with the intergenerational trauma inflicted by the war.

After being liberated from a POW camp he meets and marries Magda’s Scottish mother. Emigrating to the outskirts of Melbourne in the 1970's from England was a delightful culture shock for the Szubanski children, and Magda describes her carefree childhood running around a new suburb with dirt roads and few amenities.

Szubanski records with humour and pathos her emerging comedy and acting career, battles with weight, and coming to terms eventually with her sexuality. At one point she was a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers.

She describes coming out as a lesbian to her friends, family and then later the public as “a fate worse than death”, but has since become vocal in her support of marriage equality in Australia.

Reckoning has won numerous awards in Australia including Book of the Year and a Booksellers' Choice award.

Magda Szubanski is an excellent and intelligent writer and Reckoning is so much more than a celebrity memoir.


Reviewed by Katrina





Monday 20 November 2017

A Secret Garden by Katie Fforde

“Lorna, a talented gardener and Philly a young Irish plantswoman come together through their love of plants and gardens to work in the grounds of a beautiful manor house in the Cotswolds. For both of them finding love has been unsuccessful.”
So starts the blurb for this the latest from the prolific romance author Katie Fforde. Romance is not my normal fiction of choice, but the covers of her book are whimsically appealing and almost beg to be picked up and perused. However, reading this book was a bit like watching the TV series Married at First Sight. I seemed to spend my time alternately wanting to shake Philly and Lorna and throttle the male characters for beating about the bush so much. Does no-one know how to communicate with anyone these days?
As a romance novel, the path to finding and holding onto love figures highly throughout the book. We follow the journey of these two characters as they come to grips with attraction, frustration, troublesome parents and children, a reminder of a past life and a seemingly overwhelming inability to be able to make decisions about their lives.
What I want to know is what lies behind those ash trees at back of the garden’ (Lorna).
I loved the idea of the secret garden and having lived in a house that had its own walled garden I know they can be wonderful mysterious, mystical places especially when they are hidden away. The answer seemed a long time coming. I waited and waited for the garden to materialise, especially given that it is in the title of the book and also the blurb. In fact the garden is so secret that it isn’t discovered until quite a lot of the story has been read, and even then it seems almost to be tacked on at the end of the story as an afterthought. I am also amazed that someone who called herself a gardener by vocation could not know that there was a garden hidden away on the property she worked on, even when it was a large sprawling property.
Despite everything written above, I do understand why Katie Fforde is so popular. Her books are easy to read, take us out of the humdrum of our own lives and allow us if only for an instant, to be onlookers in a society populated by people named Lucien, Philomena (Philly) and Seamus and where the message being shouted out loud is that people can find and keep love at any age, young, middle or old and that there is somebody out there for everyone.

Reviewed by Fiona

Catalogue link:  The Secret Garden

Tuesday 14 November 2017

A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee

For anyone who has ever dreamed about what the life of a maharaja might be like, Abir Mukherjee gives you a taste in his second Sam Wyndham novel, A Necessary Evil. The story is set in Calcutta 1920, and the Viceroy is courting the many princedoms of India requesting their support for the British regime. And as chance would have it, policeman Sam Wyndham and his trusty sergeant ‘Surrender-not’ Banerjee are on the spot when a maharaja’s son is shot dead by a religious fanatic.

Sam travels to the tiny state of Sambalpore, outrageously wealthy from diamond mining, and becomes embroiled in the intrigue and politics that occur close to the throne, with one ailing maharaja and a playboy heir. When a nervous British accountant disappears, Sam and Surrender-not do some careful digging but who can they trust?

This series got off to a flying start with A Rising Man, and now we have another glimpse of India post WWI, with settings involving sumptuous palace interiors and elephant hunts. Sam’s two bête noirs - Annie Grant, who turns up for the funeral, and his opium habit - also get a look in and give Sam even more to worry about. He and Banerjee make a great team, and you know that eventually, but not before there’s been more bloodshed, the two will crack the case. A terrific read. Roll on book three.

Posted by JAM

Thursday 9 November 2017

Like Nobody's Watching by L.J. Ritchie

‘When Oscar and his friends hack into the school’s surveillance system, the plan is simple: find the footage, blackmail the bullies, and leave no fingerprints. But the sense of power it brings them is hard to let go …’ – Goodreads.

This novel follows what happens when cameras are installed throughout the buildings and grounds of a Wellington high school to ‘stop bad behaviour’. Oscar and his friends know that there is bullying going unnoticed, so are unsurprised (although disappointed) when they find out that no one is checking the footage. Oscar is an expert hacker, and together he and his friends hack into the security cameras, find footage of the bullies, and email it to them, threatening to turn them in to the staff if the bullying doesn’t stop.

It was just meant to be the one time, but the group decides to keep watching, and blackmails more and more bullies. Eventually the school finds out it was them, and some people decide to get their revenge.

This was a fast paced story about the dangers of surveillance, especially when it falls into the wrong hands. While the group’s intentions started out good enough, the power quickly became too much. A great first novel by New Zealander L.J. Ritchie, and an exciting read for teens.

Posted by Sas

Catalogue link: Like Nobody's Watching

The Starlings by Vivienne Kelly

It takes quite a talent to sustain humour throughout what is in fact a sad story. In Vivienne Kelly’s novel The Starlings it is the amusing moments that make the pages fly but it is the unfolding narrative of a family coming apart that keeps you riveted to the end.

The story is told in retrospect by successful playwright, Nicholas Starling, recalling what happened to his family when he was eight years old. Nicky is a sensitive boy, who pours his imagination into creating small dramas around his action figures, the hero Zarlok and the evil looking Fleshbane. His mother has read him the stories of Shakespeare and King Arthur and these feed into his plays with humorous effect.

Meanwhile Nicky’s teenage sister is pining for a boy at school and rolling her eyes at every utterance made by their dad. And why wouldn’t she? All he ever talks about is the footy. Nicky does his best not to be a wimp and to feign interest in the high drama of the footy field so as not to annoy his father. Mum sympathises with her son and looks increasingly pained and frustrated.

On the day of Nicky’s birthday comes the news that his grandmother, Didie, has died of the cancer that has kept her bedridden and cared for by the lovely Rose. Nicky adores Rose and worries that she will not be around anymore when he visits his grandfather’s house. Only she is. Rose’s attachment to Nicky’s Grandpa adds more friction, and Nicky finds himself an unsuspecting spy when he visits, pumped for information on his return home.

The story hums along towards a crisis in his parents’ marriage, interspersed with Nicky’s reinterpretations of Shakespearean tragedy and Arthurian legend. Somehow the stories of Hamlet, Macbeth and the love affair of Lancelot and Guinevere help Nicky to make sense of what’s going on around him.

Kelly cleverly writes Nicky as a forty-year-old looking back, so the prose is fairly sophisticated, and yet we are still in the head of a child. I loved this novel. It is as witty and fresh as it is insightful and poignant and eight-year-old Nicky is wonderful company.

Reviewed by JAM 

Catalogue link:  The Starlings








Sunday 5 November 2017

Book Chat Reading for October

Dare to Remember by Susannah Beard

Lisa retreats to the countryside to recover from a brutal attack that left her friend dead and with only a vague memory of events. As odd recollections of the assault return, she finds she has more questions than answers and eventually discovers a truth that she should have noticed before. A slow-burner of a story that draws you in, with terrific characters.


The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

A modern-day classic, the story takes us to Belgian Congo, circa 1960, where zealous Baptist minister, Nathan Price, has brought his family to begin a mission. The four girls and their mother struggle to survive the jungle climate and wild life, while Nathan, blinded by fanaticism, makes poor decisions which threaten them all. An engrossing and powerful read.

Murder and Mendelssohn by Kerry Greenwood

This is the twentieth Phryne Fisher novel in which our amateur sleuth investigates the murder of the conductor of an orchestra. The choir gives Phryne a chance to go undercover and there’s plenty of humour here during rehearsals of Mendelssohn’s Elijah. More serious echoes of Phryne’s wartime past as an ambulance driver emerge when she helps an old friend whose mathematician lover is in danger. Full of the usual madcap fun and quirky characters we have come to enjoy.

A Dangerous Inheritance by Alison Weir

Two time periods and two queens create two alternating plotlines in this novel by historian Alison Weir. In 1562 Lady Catherine Gray is imprisoned in the Tower of London, perceived as a threat to Elizabeth I. She becomes caught up in the story of another Catherine - Kate Plantagenet, daughter of Richard III, also locked up in the tower when Henry VII takes the crown. During Kate’s imprisonment, she explores the story of the two young princes her father is alleged to have murdered. A great read, if somewhat convoluted, for lovers of English history.

Dregs by Jorn Lier Horst

The first in Horst’s William Wisting series sees his top policeman leading the investigation when two left feet are washed up by the tide. Is there a link with a number of mysterious disappearances in Norway's Larvik district? Wisting’s journalist daughter, Line, also does her bit in this engrossing police procedural. Horst is a terrific new discovery for those who like their Nordic Noir to be intelligent and well plotted.


Posted by Flaxmere Library Book Chat

Thursday 2 November 2017

The Caller by Chris Carter

I read a lot of crime books. In fact, I would take a guess that about 95% of all books I read are crime books. This means that it takes a special kind of book to give me the goose bumps, make me double check that all my locks are actually locked and to make sure I am not being watched.

Recently, I came across a book called The Caller by Chris Carter. I speed through it and as it was the eighth book in the series, I knew I needed to read the rest of his books as quickly as possible. It didn’t matter what order they arrived in, I was reading them as quickly as I could get my hands on them.
The Caller opens with Tanya picking up a video call from her best friend, Karen. It quickly becomes a nightmare as Karen is gagged and bound and if the voice at the end of the phone is to be believed, her fate lies in Tanya’s hands. The police believe that it is a one off crime but the phone calls keep rolling in and the victims begin to pile up. It is up to Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia, partners who work for the UVC (Ultra-Violent Crimes) Unit within the Los Angeles Police Department, to catch the killer before it is too late.

Robert Hunter is an interesting main character. He has flown through the ranks at the LAPD and has been approached to join the FBI many times over the years. His thesis is even compulsory reading for any FBI agent during their time at Quantico. After the early deaths of both his parents he struggles with insomnia. He spends a lot of his time reading and so in true Sherlock fashion he is a wealth of knowledge about anything you could think of.

Chris Carter was born in Brazil and later moved to America where he studied psychology and criminal behaviour. Chris has been involved in interviewing over 100 serial killers, murderers and violent criminals. Following on from this he spent 10 years as a guitarist for Glam Rock bands. His book Evil Minds is based on some of these criminals he spent time with and I think it is the most chilling book to date.

Reviewed by Kristin Clothier

Catalogue link:  The Caller