What Are You Reading Now (anything goes) 2020

[D'anna]

"Crazy Brave" by Joy Harjo, in honor of Native American Heritage month. So far so good!

[Julie]

Barely a Lady
Eileen Dreyer
3.5/5 stars
During the War of 1815 in Europe, Olivia Grace who is divorced from her husband finds him unconscious on a battlefield in the enemy's uniform. Despite her misgivings, she rescues and brings him to the place where she is staying with friends and relatives. When he wakes up he does not remember their divorce and tries to resume their relationship but he is still in danger and they cannot reveal his condition or where he is at to others. Romance fans will probably enjoy this!

[Selina]

The Kew Gardens Girls by Posy Lovell

A nice read on a garden road trip -- this one is about some female gardeners doing the mens work when they got called away to fight the first world war. Suffragettes, conscientous objectors and alcoholism feature in this one, as well as relationship dramas. Happy endings though.

I thought it might be a little bit more detailed on the plant lore, but as with a lot of chicklit, it doesn't focus on technicalities much. But as historical fiction it was pretty accurate.

[Julie]

Blindman's Bluff
Faye Kellerman
4/5 stars
A gruesome killing of a billionaire sends LAPD Peter Decker and his crew investigating the family and the people he surrounded around himself. It has been awhile since I read the an installment of the Decker and Lazarus series and I really enjoyed it!

[Selina]

Bastion Point 507 Days on Takaparawha, Auckland, 1977-78: My New Zealand Story by Tania Roxborogh

Another NZ diary story, about the Maori land occupation and protest at Bastion Point, a piece of prime land on Auckland's harbour. 13 year old Erica Tito narrates. Interesting, although I wasn't around at the time to understand it much and the 13 year old perspective doesn't much either. In this one she billets with another family and they have dinner with the then Prime Minister, Rob Muldoon. I found that a little hard to believe...!

I was into reading more fictional stories set in Auckland, and this one could have been in a near suburb (possibly Grey Lynn, home of the arty set) In the Neighbourhood of Fame by Bridget Van der Zjipp
About 3 women and their connections with a former famous rock idol. An interesting and thought provoking story about the nature of fame. For the record, nobody famous lives in my street.

Shadow Man by Eva Wong Ng is some short stories from childhood set in what was then Chinatown in Auckland.

To round out the Auckland stories binge, I'm now reading Fire by Deborah Challinor.

[Fishface]

Enjoying -- if "enjoying" is the word -- See How Much You Love Me: A Troubled Teen, His Devoted Parents, and a Cold-Blooded Killing.

[Julie]

Waiting for Gertrude: A Graveyard Gothic
Bill Richardson
4/5 stars
This delightful story is set in Paris’s famous Pere-Lachaise cemetery where many famous people are buried there including Maria Callas, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison and Alice B. Toklas to name a few. Author Bill Richardson imagines that the celebrity dead have now been reincarnated into cats who live, work, fight and bicker in the cemetery.

[Koren]

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
3 stars


If you've ever taken an anatomy and physiology course I doubt you are going to learn much here that you didnt already know. However, it is a lot easier to read than an anatomy text book and the anecdotes make it worth reading.

[Julie]

Koren wrote: "The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
3 stars


If you've ever taken an anatomy and physiology course I doubt you are go..."
I love Bill Bryson's books!

[Selina]

I'm quickly tiring of chick-lit tropes.

I started The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman

Thinking it might be up my alley but it's too similar to The Household Guide To Dying except with sarcastic gardening tips instead of household hints in between chapters. Both female characters are in publishing.
The gardening one is a widow and the household one is dying. But the gardening one is such a whiner, I give up.

[Sylvia]

any memoir that turns into a whine is soo off putting I agree- there has to be a journey from here to there as it were but no victimhood

[Julie]

The Green Mile
Stephen King
5/5 stars
Since our library closed, I had been searching through my house for books to read and came upon The Green Mile in my son’s collection. I have always enjoyed King’s books and this is no exception. I had seen the movie previously when it first came out but I was blown away again by the story and I had a hard time putting this down. The story is set in a prison on death row in the 1930’s and surrounds a black man, John Coffey who was tried for killing two young girls. Coffey is an unusual man, who has a gift for healing which comes out when he heals a dying mouse on the prison block. This leads to an event that could cause the prison guards to lose their jobs but they go ahead with their plans anyway. Highly recommended.

[Koren]

Julie wrote: "
The Green Mile
Stephen King
5/5 stars
Since our library closed, I had been searching through my house for books to read and came upon The..."

You can't go wrong with Stephen King.

[Selina]

Overheard in a Dream By Torey Hayden

Torey Hayden's first novel covers familiar territory as its about a disturbed child having therapy with a child psychologist, but she has freer reign in fiction to delve a bit deeper into family dynamics and gets into some darker stuff.

At 389 pages I wondered just where this was going with all the fantasy passages but I think she deliberately held off for the clincher/break through at the end.

[Selina]

Misconduct by Bridget Van Der Zjipp

My foray into nz fiction cottoned on to this author which was her first novel before In the Neighbourhood of Fame
This time though, its just one narrator and she's getting over her slacker of an ex, who's run off with the single mother next door.

She takes a job house-sitting but not before torching her ex's car.
Cue guilt feelings and a bit of ruthless self-examination. Conclusion - he was a useless a**hole.

But then she was stupid for going with him. She ends up with someone more reliable - she thinks. But then where's the challenge in that?

Maybe nz just has a reputation for stroppy females who fall for charming but weak men. I dunno. But it's the same story all over again.

[Selina]

Colour Coding for Learners with Autism: A Resource Book for Creating Meaning through Colour at Home and School

Something completely different. I'm thinking of colour coding ALL the non-fiction books in the school library. Which will require lots and lots of stickers or coloured tape.

But...what if I just had lots of coloured glasses instead? Apparently autistic children mainly have vision problems and need rainbow and rose coloured glasses. Cutting out all the glare and confusion.

[Julie]

The Nest
Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
4/5 stars
This is the interesting tale of a family whose children are expecting to receive a nest egg from their parents. However, when their older brother Leo is in an car accident with a woman, the mother decides to give a good portion of the wealth to Leo to help with his recovery. This set back wrecks the plans Leo's siblings had for their portion of the nest and causes them all to re-evaluate their lives and goals including the plans they had for their part of the nest. Enjoyable and hard to put down.

[Fishface]

Just finished The Bazaar of Bad Dreams and started Massacres of the South, Most Likely to Succeed, and the autobiographical The Fire She Set.