Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

A timely and powerful story about a teen girl from a poor neighbourhood striving for success, from acclaimed author Renée Watson.

I was really looking forward to this book because I absolutely adored her books This Side of Home and What Momma Left Me. Thankfully I was not let down.

Watson tells a beautiful story about Jade, a teen from the ‘wrong’ neighbourhood who is working incredibly hard to get out of it. She got a scholarship to a mostly-white private school, spends Saturday mornings doing various test preps, and even (reluctantly) joins Women to Women, a mentorship program for “at-risk” girls.

It’s also about art, and using it as a form of self-expression. Jade is a wonderful and passionate artist (collages especially), one of her best friends is an amazing poet, and her mentor’s sister runs an art gallery.

The book was released during Black History Month last year, and was overshadowed by the buzz around Angie Thomas’ book The Hate U Give that was released the month after. Both books talk about what it means to be a black teen in modern America, but do it in different ways. Piecing me together focuses more on the everyday microaggressions that African Americans face and how that can wear a teenager down and affect her life in every way.

It's a wonderful story that taught me a lot. Most importantly it forces you to consider the world from a different view (as good books should do).

Posted by Sas

Catalogue link: Piecing Me Together

Tattletale by Sarah J Naughton

The perfect brother. The perfect fiancé. The perfect revenge.

Mags and Jody could not be more different. Abe's fiancé, Jody, has spent years not trusting anyone and avoiding dealing with her past. Everything started looking up for her as soon as she moved in next door to Abe.

Mags has not seen or heard from her younger brother, Abe, since she was a teenager. Imagine her shock when she is woken, in the middle of the night, to the news that Abe is in hospital, she is listed as his next of kin and there are tough medical decisions to be made. After years as a high flying Vegas lawyer, returning to the dingier parts of London where Abe has been living in a halfway home is a shock to her system.

Mags refuses to accept the Police’s decision that Abe’s injury was an accident. As Mags tries to discover what really happened to her brother, she begins to fill in the gaps. Is she putting herself in danger?

At first, I struggled to follow who was who and how they all fitted into the story. It took me a few chapters to really sink my teeth into this novel; luckily I was out at the beach with only one book so I had to keep with it. Tattletale is such a well written psychological thriller. It has you second guessing everything you think you know. The characters are well developed and I quickly became connected to them. Overall, I would easily recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good crime novel.

Posted by Kristen

Catalogue link: Tattletale

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney

When the weather is hot, I often like to read a book set in ice and snow, so of course I picked up the latest Stef Penney, whose debut novel The Tenderness of Wolves won the Costa Award. Under a Pole Star is about Arctic explorers Flora Mackie, the daughter of a Scottish whaler, and New York geologist Jakob de Beyn.

As a child, Flora visited Greenland with her father so often she can speak the native language of the Inuit she befriended there. A journalist discovers her story and she becomes known as The Snow Queen. She will require an education and sponsorship if she wants to return as a scientist, which means making some difficult decisions. Who will want to fund or join an expedition led by a woman? This is the late 1800s after all.

Jakob is fascinated by ice, and glaciers in particular. He joins an expedition led by polar explorer, Lester Armitage, a difficult man whose obsession with fame verges on madness and leads to a terrible accident. But through this Jakob meets Flora and their immediate connection drives much of the plot.

The story see-saws between the viewpoints of Flora and Jakob, both of whom are immensely likeable characters. But the novel starts out in 1948 with a reporter interviewing Flora about the old days and we learn that Jakob and Armitage had long ago mysteriously disappeared. This was potentially a problem for me – the risk of developing empathy with a central character you know is doomed before you even meet him.

My other problem with the book is its length. At 600 pages, I felt a little judicious editing, especially of the lengthy graphic sex scenes, might have produced a tighter plot-line, and given more prominence to the interesting themes around exploration, colonisation and women’s place in society that affect the fate of the protagonists.

Stef Penney is a terrific writer with a gift for creating amazing settings and powerful characters. Under a Pole Star is well worth reading, though you might like to skim a few chapters here and there.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: Under a Pole Star

100 Best Native Plants for New Zealand Gardens by Fiona Eadie

They say the best way to learn what to plant in a new garden is to look at your neighbours’ gardens and see what’s working for them. The next best thing is to find a book that takes all the guess work out of planting whilst at the same time saving you money and time. This is just what 100 Best Native Plants for New Zealand Gardens does.

First published in 2001 with numerous reprints this completely revised edition has a third of the plants different from the first edition. Eadie, with her many years of experience in native gardens has taken 100 species that are easy to grow and maintain covering all the New Zealand climates.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves because the value of this book is in its introduction. Starting with how to choose your plant professional (and how to continue to use them long after your plant is in the ground) she then goes through the basics: right plant, right place and right time. And because gardeners don’t obey these rules all the time she has tips on site modifications so that that plant that likes full sun can live in the shady part of the garden. Her gardening basics include working out what soil you have, how to prune and the new weeding tool - an old screwdriver.

Once you've covered the basics the fun part begins; choosing which native plant suits your garden best. Each plant has a colour photograph and a quick reference guide with a breakdown on whether the plant will tolerate sun, shade, dry, wet, wind and frost. The rest of the information describes the plant’s likes and dislikes, pests and problems, care and maintenance, finishing off with some landscaping suggestions.

Eadie’s simple and informative style will have you at the garden centre before you have turned the last page. Does it go without saying that once you have read this book there really are few excuses to not have thriving native plants in your garden?

Unless of course you really want to grow roses…

Posted by Miss Moneypenny

Catalogue link: 100 Best Native Plants for New Zealand Gardens

City of Friends by Joanna Trollope

The four women at the heart of Trollope’s new novel City of Friends all met at university where they were among the few females studying Economics. Now they have successful careers in ‘the city’ - the London world of business and high finance. Stacey is a fairly senior broker, Beth an academic who has made a name for her work in business psychology, Gaby runs a department in a large corporate bank and Melissa has her own business helping other businesses operate better. High flyers indeed!

When Stacey is given the sack for asking to work more flexible hours so she can better care for her mother, the four friends’ loyalties are tested. How do you talk to people who value their careers so highly when yours has gone down the gurglar? Melissa asks Gaby to find Stacey a job, but there is no room for someone of Stacey’s experience on her team. And Gaby has just hired someone who turns out to be married to the man who fathered Melissa’s child. Young Tom is getting to know his dad at last and enjoys hanging out with his half-brothers, giving Melissa pangs of jealousy. Meanwhile Beth runs into problems with her partner, Claire, who finds her too focused on work and well, a bit boring.

The women, their husbands and partners, as well their children, become caught up in a spiral of increasing difficulties of imagined slights and communication breakdown. Each of the four will have to pick up the phone, reconnect and think outside the box if they want to patch up their friendship.

Trollope has a lot to say about the notion of whether job satisfaction is all you need and the issue of work/life balance for women in management roles. She creates wonderful scenes with great dialogue  but overall, I found the women rather tedious and even just a bit silly. They seemed more concerned with taking offence, than dealing sensibly with big problems such job loss or relationship breakdowns. City of Friends is not one of my favourite JTs; however it is still oddly readable.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: City of Friends

The Surrogate by Louise Jensen

‘You know that feeling when you want something so badly you almost feel you’d kill for it?’

Be careful what you wish for…

The Surrogate is the latest offering from Louise Jensen and those followers of her writing will not be disappointed in this her latest novel.

The first couple of pages set the scene for the story with two bodies being found in a house in a comfortable neighbourhood. We almost forget the significance of this find until much later in the book when all is revealed.

The story follows the lives of Kat and her husband Nick, a young couple desperate to be parents but on the brink of giving up after several heart breaking attempts at adoption. Then a chance encounter (or was it?) with Lisa, an old friend seems to give them hope that they may have one last chance to achieve their dream. However there is a catch. Kat and Lisa have a past. Something bad happened 10 years ago that Kat has never forgiven herself for, a secret so bad that she has not even shared it with her husband, who also has secrets from his past. In fact every one of the main characters seems to have a secret. This lead to me being on edge for most of the book as the plot twisted and turned continuously. The suspense kept me guessing right to the shocking end.

I can’t say that I liked any of the main characters. Their neuroses and behaviours did not endear them to me at all. The topic of surrogacy is a topical one. As women wait longer to start a family, more increasingly intervention and alternatives are needed to bring the possibility of a family to fruition. A word of warning. If I were thinking of being a surrogate or finding one to carry my child, I really don’t think I would be reading this story!

Reviewed by Fiona Frost

Catalogue link: The Surrogate

Book Chat Reading for January

 Suddenly One Summer by Fleur McDonald

Set against a backdrop of bush fires in Western Australia, McDonald’s new novel concerns Brianna, whose mother disappeared when she was three. Now working her dad’s farm and caring for her children, Brianna's marriage is under pressure as hubby flies in and out from his job in Perth. Meanwhile in South Australia, Detective Dave Burrows has an odd case involving an old man with dementia. The connection between the two stories drives a heart-warming and suspenseful plot.

Wild Wood by Posie Graeme-Evans

It is 1981 and Jessie Marley makes a strange discovery while in hospital recovering from a road accident. She finds herself drawing with her left hand (she is normally right-handed) pictures of a place she’s never been to. Jessie decides to visit Hundredfield, on the Scottish borderlands, the house revealed in her pictures. The story takes you back to the 1300s and the brutal time of the Normans and an old family secret. A very enjoyable read a little in the style of Diana Gabaldon.

Istanbul – a tale of three cities by Bettany Hughes

You might have seen Bettany Hughes on TV – she has presented several series on the ancient world and is a highly regarded historian. Her new book about Istanbul describes the importance of this city from the Roman Empire through to the Ottomans and its role as a gateway between East and West. What looks like a weighty tome is in fact very readable and a wonderful historical story.

The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg

This is one of those novels that probably everyone in Book Chat will want to read with its quiet humour, honesty and true-to-life characters. Arthur is an elderly man visiting his wife's grave and here he comes across teenage Maddy who doesn’t want to go to school. To stop her living on the streets, Arthur offers her his home and along with nosy neighbour Lucille, the three become an odd kind of family. A warm, engaging relationships tale from a top writer in this genre.

The Countess of Prague by Steven Weeks

Beatrice (Trixie) von Falklenburg is the amateur sleuth in this mystery novel, the first in a series of ten, set in early 20th century Prague. A body is fished out of the Vltava River wearing clothes belonging to a former batman of Trixie’s Uncle Bertie. Only it can’t be him because the batman is still alive. Trixie has a knack for solving little problems, and so Bertie asks her for help. A charming new series full of period atmosphere - not a rip-roaring read, but definitely intriguing.

Posted by Flaxmere Library Book Chat