| Kate Atkinson - Normal Rules Don't Apply
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| A collection of interconnected short stories. They are whimsical, clever, dark and funny. If you like Atkinson’s style, these may be for you. I don’t usually appreciate short stories but treated myself to these twice; once on audio and once in hardback. (Ros Cook)
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| William Boyd - Brazzaville Beach
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| Anthropology meets a multitude of adventure and difficult personalities, and more than a little tension. Boyd is consistently brilliant in all his writing, and this is no exception. Are chimps aggressive? You bet. Humans too. And they both protect their turf. (Herb Roselle)
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| Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Water Dancer
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| A wonderful, intense novel set in the context of American slavery. Intertwining magic, love, pain, loss and resistance. It includes the terrible cruelty human beings are capable of, but it also showcases the courage and idealism others have shown in the face of such terrible episodes of our recent history. It tells us a story which urges us to never forget the reality of oppression in history, which repeats itself in various shapes, and the almost miraculous force of love & magic. (Sally Gutierrez)
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| Lawrence Durrell - Esprit de Corps: Sketches from Diplomatic Life
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| Durrell’s fictional sketches on the mayhem and oddities of diplomatic life were first published in 1957. Reading them again today, they lose none of their charm and wit. Who can forget the hilarious account of a diplomatic party on a raft on the Sava headed for disaster at the confluence with the Danube? Oh for the days when the worst contretemps between countries were merely caused by gaffes and mishaps at diplomatic gatherings. (Jeremy Miller)
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| Patrick Gale - A Place Called Winter
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| Loosely based on a family mystery, this fictional tale is about a gay man forced, after the Wilde trial, to leave his wife and young daughter behind in comfortable Edwardian London and join pioneers taking uncultivated plots in the Canadian prairie. The abandoned daughter is Gale’s maternal grandmother. It has historical interest regarding the harsh lives of early settlers and displaced indigenous people. It is brutal and tender in equal measures. It’s a good read. (Ros Cook)
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| Paul Gallico - The Snow Goose
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| 1940, a wounded snow goose is brought by a young orphan to be healed by a reclusive hunchback living in an abandoned lighthouse in the Essex marshes. When Autumn comes the bird migrates. Will it return? A modern parable about the power of goodness and love in a time of war. As moving now as when it was published the year after Dunkirk.
(Jenny Baker)
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| Philip Larkin - Jill
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| A fan of Larkin’s poetry, I picked this book off the shelf whilst waiting for a doctor’s appointment. Whilst initially finding it difficult to get into this story about a 1940’s Yorkshire working-class lad trying to fit in at Oxford, it drew me and very soon I realised that, coming from such a similar background, it was probably based on his own experiences. I found myself thinking about it for days after finishing it.
(Anne Bloor)
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| Penelope Lively - Moon Tiger
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| A fictional bio, with multiple viewpoints and timelines. Adventure, love, even incest described in wonderful prose. The protagonist had quite a life, and, it goes without saying, the reader has quite a read. A Booker Prize winner. The descriptions of the WWII north African campaign are vivid, not of battles, but rather, setting. (Herb Roselle)
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| Abir Mukherjee - The Shadows of Men
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| This is the fifth book charting daring-dos in post WW1 Calcutta of Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee of the Imperial Police Force. I recommend reading them in order for the interesting way in which the relationship between these two policeman changes as the British Raj control falters. In addition to the crime mystery in each book there is also racial and religious tension, emotion, opium addiction and vivid descriptions of India at that time. (Ros Cook)
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| Iris Murdoch - The Sacred and Profane Love Machine
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| Blaise Gavender, a middle-aged, married psychotherapist, confesses to
his wife that he has a mistress and an illegitimate six-year-old son. So begins
this black comedy on the pitfalls of trying to have it all, and keep it all, in the
game called love. Lovers, victims, and other interested parties bumble about
in an effort to be helpful….until all goes very, very wrong. Murdoch’s modern-
day morality play is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. (Sharron Calkins)
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| Michael Ondaatje - Anil's Ghost
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| I sometimes sense that I can feel on my skin an Ondaatje described scene. I’m not sure if that makes sense to others. It’s set during the Civil War in Sri Lanka and details the atrocities committed, the way people coped or not with that and with each other, family and non-family. It’s deep, touching, disturbing and absorbing. The main character is a forensic anthropologist.
(Ros Cook)
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| Ann Patchett - Tom Lake
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| I found this a ‘slow-burner’, the story only coming good in the last third of the book but appreciate that the rest of the book was building to this. There was a confusingly slow drip feed of the plot with two timelines. As you would expect from Patchett, it’s filled with very human, often flawed, characters busily making mistakes and carrying on. I’m glad I stuck with it. (Ros Cook)
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| Weina Dai Randel - The Last Rose of Shanghai
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| 1940, Shanghai, the city is occupied by the Japanese - Ernest, a Jewish refugee from Germany is hired to play piano at a nightclub owned by a young Chinese heiress. Hyped as a timeless, sweeping story of love and redemption, it is all these and more. It had me hooked. (Jenny Baker)
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| Lucy Steeds - The Artist
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| 1920's Provence: a reclusive painter lives in self-imposed exile with only his young niece to care for him. She cooks his meals, cleans the house, lays out his paints, arranges the subjects for his still-lifes, cleans his brushes. Then a young journalist comes to interview him and everything changes. Winner of this year's Waterstone's prize for debut fiction.
(Jenny Baker)
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| Pierre Szalowski: translated from French by Alison Anderson - Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather
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| I couldn’t resist the quirky title. It describes how a community overcomes prejudice to help each other during the Quebec ice storm of January 1998. The Chapters are short so it’s a good book for travel, particularly if being herded around an airport. Suspension of disbelief is necessary to accept so much feel-good vibe.
(Ros Cook)
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| Dejan Tiago-Stankovic: translated from Serbo-Croat by Christina Pribicevic-Zoric - Estoril
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| A captivating book about the clients and staff in a classy hotel in the neutral Portuguese Riviera during World War II, including Allied and Axis agents, displaced ex-royals and stateless Jews. Historical figures are intermixed with fictional ones. It is poignant and funny, particularly regarding a young Jewish boy who spends the war years in the hotel, hoping his parents will arrive, being ‘fostered’ by the other characters. The hotel still exists. (Ros Cook)
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| Yael van der Wouden - The Safekeep
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| Isabel’s strictly ordered and lonely life after WW11 is upended by the arrival of Eva, her brother’s girlfriend and Isabel’s opposite in appearance and manner. On one level it is about the sexual and emotional release of this self-controlled woman. On another it is about the guilt regarding the possible failure of The Netherlands to welcome home surviving Jews or return property and belongings to their original owners after ‘safekeeping’ them. However, the ending is of hope and reconciliation. (Christine Miller)
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| Asako Yuzuki:translated by Polly Barton - Butter
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| Did the female gourmet cook actually kill three men, or is the cook
herself a victim? Yuzuki’s book points an accusing finger at Japanese misogyny,
fatphobia, and society’s contradictory expectations of women, while dipping a
second finger into specialty butters and mouth-watering foods. Enjoy this
Japanese best-seller for a fascinating look at our cultural differences, anno
2025, and to become inspired to cook (and eat) something divine. (Sharron Calkins)
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| Rachel Clarke - The Story of a Heart
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| A palliative care doctor, the author writes with great compassion and understanding about how the tragic loss of one child gives life to another through the gift of her heart. We learn so much about the history behind such operations and the teams supporting them today. Above all it is about the two families involved, their traumas, generosity and love. A truly moving and uplifting piece of writing, notwithstanding the tears of this reader. (Christine Miller)
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| Andy Gill - Bob Dylan:The stories behind the classic songs 1962-69
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| Tracing Dylan’s progress from hobo cum folk-singer to acclaimed protest singer, this beautifully illustrated anthology covers much familiar ground but also provides fresh insights into the genius of the man who invents folk-rock and transforms rock ‘n’ roll with poetry. This is early days Dylan and for those who bought his records in the 60’s, it is simply heaven to be transported back there. Ironically, cries of ‘Judas’ neatly arrive roughly midway through this timeline. (Jeremy Miller)
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| N A M Rodger - The Price of Victory: A Naval History of Britain 1815-1945
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| This the third and final volume of Rodger’s monumental naval history of Britain, shows how the service reformed itself in the course of the nineteenth century. Despite being the largest and most powerful naval power, Britain entered the first word war with a remarkably dysfunctional process of command and control and in the absence of a clear strategy for conducting naval warfare. In summary, he sets the scene for Britain’s headlong decline as a worldwide maritime power. (Jeremy Miller)
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| Bee Wilson - The Heart Shaped Tin
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| This is such an original and charming book. Basically it's about the emotional attachments we can form with objects - specifically kitchen utensils and vessels - and covers a wide range of cultures. Each chapter is headed by a thoughtful quote, and has a relevant black and white photo. Without being sentimental, the author - a cookery writer - makes us think deeply about why we value and treasure certain utility items above others, and the profound memories they can provoke. (Mary Standing)
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