December: Favourite book read this year

Judy De la T:  Judy read 4 interconnected books written by Carlos Ruiz Zafón:

The Shadow of the Wind

The Angel’s Game

The Prisoners of Heaven

The Labyrinth of the Spirits

 Set in Barcelona in Franco’s Spain, it involves intrigue, mystery, corruption and circles around Cemetery of Forgotten Books and the bookshop of Sempore and Sons.

Connie:  Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Connie found the characters likeable and the dilemma they found themselves in was intriguing. A young highflyer with career and everything it brings, becomes paralyzed following a motorbike accident. His carer, a young girl from a not well off family takes on looking after this miserable bloke.

Tam:  A Passionate Life by Ita Buttrose

Having listened to Ita Buttrose talk about her life, Tam was interested to read her autobiography. As well as being a wonderful and dignified speaker, her life was very interesting. She was a trendsetter being a pioneer in the media industry, and she had her struggles including a couple of marriages, but never lost her dignity.

Pamela:  The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

This is a very strange book narrated by a Pakistani man. He tells the story of his life to an American in a café in Lahore. The format of the book is interesting, there are a lot of ambiguities and parts of it are very sinister.

Bev:  A Month of Sundays by Liz Byrski

For over 10 years, four women have been members of an online Book Club, but they have never met. They are all very different people, at different stages of their lives and careers. They decide to meet for a week in the Blue Mountains and each has to bring a book that personalizes their life.

Lesley listed a variety of books she had enjoyed this year.

They included

Kristina Ohlsson ~ Silence, Unwanted and The Chosen

Robert Galbraith ~ Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike), Cuckoo’s Calling, Silkworm

Judy Nunn ~ Maralinga

Jane Harper ~ The Dry and Force of Nature

Liane Moriaty ~ What Alice Forgot, Big Little Lies, The Husband’s Secret and Truly Madly Guilty

David Lagercrantz ~ The Girl in the Spider’s Web continuing the Millennium Trilogy following the death of Stieg Larsson

Val:

Val read a poem by Robert Risenden, better known for his thrillers.

 

Pat:  The Stony Ground by Michael Crowley

This book had a personal connection for Pat as it told the story of James Ruse, a First Fleeter who eventually settled and farmed along the Hawkesbury River, close to where Pat now lives. No biography has been written about him because he was a convict, so this is a fictional account based on historical records.

Wendy L:

Jane Harper’s The Lost Man is her third book and in Wendy’s opinion, her best. It is totally different from the first 2 books featuring Aaron Falk.

Her second recommendation is Feet of Clay by Markus Zusak. This book took many years to write and tells the story of several generations of one family. The Dunbar boys are a gaggle of bruised and battered brothers, raising themselves in the wake of tragedy. Their mother is dead, their father has fled and most remarkable of all is Clay. Watch out for the twist at the end!

Charis:  Starlite Drive-In by Marjorie Reynolds

A young girl and her parents live in the Starlite Movie Theatre. When a young man comes to work at the theatre, both mum and the daughter fall in love with him.

There is a murder but the the story is told very gently.

Rosemary: The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

This is the incredible story of the Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist and the woman he loved, Gita, whom he met within the camp. It is his account of what they needed to do to survive.

“If you wake up in the morning and you’re alive, it’s a good day!”

Jo:

Jo read 4 books from The Cotswold Mysteries, a series of 16 books. Tragedy and intrigue set among the muddy paths and winding roads of this beautiful countryside.

Anne: Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales

Following unexpected circumstances in her own life, Leigh Sales became interested in how ordinary people turn their lives around following tragedy The book is full of many interesting stories of people who have managed to survive.

Kris: Red Notice by Bill Browder

This is the true story of high finance, murder and one man’s fight for justice. Bill Browder was in the ‘dog eat dog’ world of hedge fund investing in the 1990s.

He had developed his business in Russia investing in undervalued Russian oil stocks. He later finds himself on the wrong side of some very powerful men when his young lawyer is murdered after uncovering a huge fraud committed by Russian government officials.

                        

Natalie:  Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriaty

This book was a disappointment, certainly not the author’s best work. Natalie thought it became bogged down in parts.

Sheila:

Sheila has thoroughly enjoyed reading Sharpe’s Company by Bernard Cornwall.

This is a series of historical fiction stories centered on the character of Richard Sharpe in the British Army beginning with the Napoleonic Wars

 The stories are historically sound and very good fun to read, covering the period from 1799 to 1821.

Joan: The Fox Hunt by Mohammed Al Samawi

This is a young man's moving story of love, war, and hope in which he recounts his harrowing escape from fanaticism and a brutal civil war in Yemen, with the help of a daring plan engineered on social media by a small group of interfaith activists in the West.

Joan described it as a riveting page turner. It showed the generosity of the human spirit and is very current.

Diann: Daughter of Australia by Harmony Verda

Written in 2016, the book has epic scope along the same lines as The Thorn Birds. It is filled with characters and vivid details of the Western Australian landscape.

This year, Women in the Bush has been a theme for Diann’s reading.

Prue: Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter

This Science Fiction thriller is the first of a trilogy. Humanity has been decimated by a human pandemic and it looks like the end. But genetic engineers can change the genes in some people and also genetically engineer other people to do the work.

The story rolls along at a good pace, and the characters are well developed. Some of the problems they encounter are also the problems we have today.

Judy J: Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

This family saga portrays the lives of an Irish family in Brooklyn, set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and then the second world war. A young woman becomes a diver to help the war effort and after meeting a gangster her father had worked for, she tries to find out how and why her father has disappeared. A magnificent book.

Julia: Redemption Point by Candice Fox

This book is a real thriller. It’s the story of a former police officer who was wrongly (according to him) accused of abducting a 13-year-old girl. The book is set in Queensland.

The author is also the co-writer of several best sellers with James Patterson.

Ed: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

This an enthralling historical novel about two women, a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War 1 and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947. This is a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

January 2019

Santa Sack: come along and tell us about a book you read over the Festive Season