Summer Holiday Reading
After another busy year isn't it great to have the time to relax and enjoy some good reading, hopefully in the sunshine! Below is a small selection from our catalogue which have wide appeal:
The Midnight Library Matt Haig
Imagine a library with an infinite number of books in which you get the chance to find out how your life would have been had you made different decisions in your life. Norah Seed, our main protagonist, finds herself in such a place in which all she has to do is step into a volume in which she is, for example, an Olympic athlete, and that life is hers. The question is whether another sort of life, choosing a different path, making different decisions, would really make you happy.
The Bullet That Missed Richard Osman
Book number three in the 'Thursday Murder Club' series. Four pensioners in a rest home are amateur sleuths. They all meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. They turn their attention to the case of Bethany Waites, a television reporter who, one night 10 years ago, while investigating a massive tax fraud operation, was in a car that went over a cliff. She was missing, presumed dead. The foursome call upon old contacts and new to help solve the mystery.
Harbouring Jenny Pattrick (NZ)
Wales, 1839, and Huw Pengellin is desperate to find a new life for his wife, Martha, and child. They decide to take advantage of Colonel Wakefield's plan to colonise New Zealand. There is a great deal of change happening in New Zealand during this period, forging relationships with Māori, cities being built, and new immigrants struggling to settle in. Hineroa, a young wāhine, is also struggling to find a better life as all converge to make their lives work in burgeoning Wellington.
Take My Hand Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Based on true events, Alabama, 1973. Newly graduated nurse Civil Townsend is determined to make a difference in her job at the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, helping women make their own choices for their lives and bodies. During her first week, Civil has to travel down a country road to administer birth control but is shocked to discover that the girls are only eleven and thirteen years old. Civil comes to love this family and is shocked to discover one day that the unthinkable has happened to the two girls. Many years later Civil takes time to make her peace and leave the past behind.
The Maid Nita Prose
Molly Gray is a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. She loves her job and gains a deep satisfaction from making things tidy and bringing order back to chaos. Molly, however, struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her beloved gran has died, and Molly is alone in the world. She is thrust into the spotlight when she finds a guest dead in his bed and Molly becomes the prime suspect. Molly has to find a way to prove her innocence.
By The Green of the Spring Paddy Richardson (NZ)
Sequel to 'Through the Lonesome Dark'. Otto, Pansy and Clem grew up in the small mining town of Blackball on the West Coast. When the First World War came, Otto, being of German descent was interned as an enemy alien on Somes Island in Wellington harbour. Pansy was pregnant with Otto's child but went ahead and married Clem. While Clem is serving in the war, Pansy's child, Lena, grows up supported by the Bright family. Clem returns damaged from the war and the family learns to adapt and grow from the trauma and secrets from the past.