Mornington Peninsula Library - Our Recommendations - April 2012
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Our Recommendations 2012
>Our Recommendations - April 2012
Our Recommendations - April 2012
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Last Chance Café
by Liz Byrski
My Reading Life: Adventures in a world of books
by Bob Carr
Under the Baobab Tree
by Jane Chidgey
City of Refuge: A novel
by Tom Piazza
Last Chance Café
by Liz Byrski
This is a book of many layers and interlocking paths, following the destinies of several people over a year. Essentially though it is about choices and changes, the paths that we follow or don’t follow, the options we have left. Meet Dot, in the past a fervent activist, but with a secret she has held for decades.
Meet Phyllida whose life has been spent supporting the stellar career of her husband Donald, who himself suddenly suffers an aneurism and is in a life-threatening coma. Meet her sister, Margot, who seems to have put her own life on hold as she looks after everyone else. These ladies are all in their seventies – what would they have done differently, knowing what they know now? Is it their last chance to make changes and enjoy the time they have left? A riveting novel that will surprise at every turn.
Chick lit for the old chooks!!
Picked by Val (Rosebud Library)
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My Reading Life: Adventures in a world of books
by Bob Carr
I have often wondered how other people read books, how they consume the words, the story, the way it makes you feel. It is this last quality that really fascinates me and it is what you get from Bob Carr in
My Reading Life: Adventures in a world of books
.
I loved the structure to this book. Carr’s approach is to group his reading into themes and discuss particular works with that theme. I loved that the bible and John Updike appear in the same chapter. His chapter on Primo Levi made me cry, his ideas on Shakespeare are original and touch most parts of his life; but his best chapter is perhaps the one on American Politics “The Greatest Show on Earth”.
Carr has a reputation for the cerebral but don’t let that put you off reading this. His discussion of the books is easy to read, often emotional and sometimes very short (which always appeals to me). It is a book you can read from cover to cover or pick bits out depending on what mood you are in.
Picked by Victoria (Library Headquarters)
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Under the Baobab Tree
by Jane Chidgey
Abandoning a professional career in Melbourne, Jane Chidgey joins her partner Peter in the Limpopo Valley in South Africa. This memoir is a moving, funny and tragic picture of life in Africa and their exciting work of being part of an animal regeneration programme with cheetahs. You get to know the staff intimately, their problems, joys and above all their commitment to the work being done. The description of their trip to Johannesburg reveals interesting insights into crime and violence which makes you aware of the daily challenges facing this part of Africa. Jane and Peter's life and work with the animals makes this an absorbing and fascinating read. I had mixed emotions - sad in one way, stimulated in another and increased awareness of the need to conserve Africa's endangered animals.
A very good read.
Picked by Mary (Mobile Library)
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City of Refuge: A novel
by Tom Piazza
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans the whole world watched on in shock as the storm passed over and then in growing horror as the levees broke and the water began its inexorable rise. Canals burst their banks and flooded the city with putrid, poisonous water, homes and lives were lost. The lower 9th ward of the city – a predominantly black neighbourhood was totally devastated. But more than black or white, rich or poor, this novel is about families, about homes, about the house that Dad built with his own hands when he came back from the war, about the grandparent’s bed that had been with the family for over a hundred years or the irreplaceable signed photo of Dr John.
This inside view into loss is an aspect of Katrina we have not previously been privy to. Although this is a work of fiction, there is a sense that these stories could actually have happened, and no doubt they do reflect someone’s reality.
We all heard about the tragedy but this novel gives us a far more human face on Hurricane Katrina. While reading it you cannot help but question – what would I have done? Tom Piazza really puts the reader right there in the thick of it with his gift for description and an eye for detail.
Unmissable!!!
Picked by Larissa (Hastings Library)
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