BRING UP THE BODIES by Hilary Mantel

The story of the world is littered with the corpses of clever, charismatic women. To make your mark pretty consistently over the past 3,500 years, as a female of the species you have had to be extra special; and being special in historical times usually led to the cold embrace of an early grave. 

Having conjured Henry’s brainy bovver-boy Thomas Cromwell from his own tomb in her Man Booker winner Wolf Hall (2009), Hilary Mantel now does the same service for Anne Boleyn. And just as Wolf Hall tracked Henry VIII’s waning interest in Katherine of Aragon, we now realise that spiky Anne “all elbows” is running out of time. Henry has spotted pale Jane Seymour and wears the moronic expression of a stunned veal-calf, “knocked on the head by the butcher” as Mantel’s Cromwell puts it. Anne has become another staging post in Henry’s ramble through the carnal, political and sacral corruptions of absolute power. 

In Bring Up the Bodies, all Henry’s skulduggery, the desperation of his framed traitors and his women’s privations are experienced through the prism of Cromwell’s consciousness. This is a compelling plot device but also an interesting historical one. Historians have been described as frustrated novelists – we select key characters, become mildly obsessed by them and follow their story through the evidence they leave behind. Mantel tells us up front – by seeing with Cromwell’s eyes, hearing with his ears – that this is what she will be doing. 

In A Few Words:  Complex, courtly intrigue; Detailed and Dark; Power, lust and greed; Power and corruption; Tedious

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THE NEWS; A User's Manual by Alain de Botton

The news is everywhere, we can’t stop checking it constantly on our screens, but what is it doing to our minds?  The news occupies the same dominant position in modern society as religion once did, asserts Alain de Botton – but we don’t begin to understand its impact on us. In this dazzling new book, de Botton takes 25 archetypal news stories – from an aircrash to a murder, a celebrity interview to a political scandal – and submits them to unusually intense analysis.

He raises questions like: How come disaster stories are often so uplifting? What makes the love lives of celebrities so interesting? Why do we enjoy politicians being brought down? Why are upheavals in far off lands often so… boring?

De Botton has written the ultimate manual for our news-addicted age, one sure to bring calm, understanding and a measure of sanity to our daily (perhaps even hourly) interactions with the news machine.

In a few words:  Food for thought;  Raises questions; Philosophy hard to extract; Thought provoking.

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THE CRUELEST MONTH by Louise Penny

In August 2016 we read The Cruelest Month

It's Easter, and on a perfect spring day in peaceful Three Pines, someone waits for night to fall, they plan to raise the dead...

When C.I. Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec is called to the village the next morning he faces an unusual crime scene. A seance in an old, abandoned house has gone horrifically wrong and a villager lies still, spirited away – apparently frightened to death.

Gamache soon discovers that in idyllic Three Pines not all is as it should be. Toxic secrets lie buried, and something fetid and festering has clawed its way out. And even Gamache has something to hide. He is shielding his team from a terrible truth. A powerful enemy within the Surete has planted a traitor amongst them. Who will betray him? And how far will they go to ensure Gamache's downfall?

In a Few Words: A Different Who-Done-It; A good read; A portrait of jealously; Complex; Enjoyable; Terrific Atmosphere; Bland

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THE PATTERSON GIRLS by Rachel Johna

In July 2016 we read The Patterson Girls

When the Patterson daughters return home to Meadow Brook to be with their father after their mother's death, they bring with them a world of complication and trouble.

The eldest sister, obstetrician Madeleine, would rater be anywhere but her hometown, violist Abigail has fled from her stellar career, while teacher Lucinda is struggling to have the children she and her husband so desperately want. The black sheep of the family, Charlie, feels her life as a barista and exercise instructor doesn't measure up to that of her gifted and successful sisters.

Dealing with their bereft father who is determined to sell the family motel, their loves old and new and a series of troublesome decisions doesn't make life any easier, but when they go through their mother's possessions and uncover her shocking secret of an old family curse, they begin to question everything they thought they knew.

In a Few Words:

Chick Lit; Easy Read; Light Romance; Mills & Boon; Trite; Uninspiring; Very contemporary writing

Comment: A novel of its time but will it stand the test of time?

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THE RIVER HOUSE by Janita Cunnington

In June 2016 we read The River House

It is the late 1940s, and the Broody River runs through a maze of sandbanks into the Coral Sea. On its southern bank lies the holiday town of Baroodibah. But its northern shore is wild - unsettled except for the River House, an old weatherboard box on stumps where the Carlyle family take their holidays.

For four-year-old Laurie Carlyle the house and its untold stories fire the imagination. It is a place of boating trips and nature collections, of the wind howling, the sheoaks sighing and the pelicans soaring into the blue sky.

But when a squabble between Laurie and her older brother Tony takes an unexpected turn, she detects the first hints of family discord. As the years pass, the River House holidays seem to shine a light on the undercurrents in the family: the secret from her mother's past, the bitterness between Tony and their father Doug, and her sister Miranda's increasingly erratic and dangerous behaviour . . .

Following the family's story through the decades, The River House is a richly nostalgic novel about love and betrayal, personal tragedy and thwarted ambition, illusion and remorse. Above all it is about change, and the slow but relentless march of time.


In a Few Words:

A book about nothing; A coming of age story; Bland; Lost in the detail; Rambling nostalgia; Richly nostalgic;  Significant moments; The only constant is change

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SPIRITS OF THE GHAN by Judy Nunn

In May 2016 we read Spirits of the Ghan

It is 2001 and as the world charges into the new Millennium, a century-old dream is about to be realised in the Red Centre of Australia: the completion of the mighty Ghan railway, a long-lived vision to create the 'backbone of the continent', a line that will finally link Adelaide with the Top End.

But construction of the final leg between Alice Springs and Darwin will not be without its complications, for much of the desert it will cross is Aboriginal land.

Hired as a negotiator, Jessica Manning must walk a delicate line to reassure the elders their sacred sites will be protected. Will her innate understanding of the spiritual landscape, rooted in her own Arunta heritage, win their trust? It's not easy to keep the peace when Matthew Witherton and his survey team are quite literally blasting a rail corridor through the timeless land of the Never-Never.

When the paths of Jessica and Matthew finally cross, their respective cultures collide to reveal a mystery that demands attention. As they struggle against time to solve the puzzle, an ancient wrong is awakened and calls hauntingly across the vastness of the outback.

In A Word

Australian historical novel; A good yarn; Historical Quintessentially Australian; A cultural exchange; Interesting; Insightful, A light entertaining read; Entertaining with cultural and spiritual messages

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OPEN CITY by Tegu Cole

In April we read Open City by Tegu Cole

Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor wanders aimlessly. Walking releases Julius from the regimented environment of work and gives him an opportunity to consider his past and his present, and his recent break-up with his girlfriend. As he walks, Julius encounters people from different cultures and classes who provide insight on his journey – a journey which will take him to Brussels, to the Nigeria of his youth, and into the most unrecognisable parts of his own soul.

In our Words:  Aimless; Boring; Confronting images of a Western society; Frustrating; Grasshopper-ed; Meandering; Solitary; Uninspiring

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