Really enjoyed this and have Vol II waiting for me. It‘s the first “stuck in time” book I‘ve read that really considers what the inner journey would be like. And some beautiful writing, capturing the feelings of being alone, feeling isolated. I almost found it too imaginable, it felt so real and oppressing in parts!
Photo is from a sunny weekend away in Wellington.

This is a really interesting and odd little book. Amane lives in a near future Japan where conception takes place solely by artificial insemination and sex is no longer considered civilised. The family unit is also being revolutionised as living alone may just be more convenient. Its a fascinating concept and as Amane is one of very few still having sex she deeply questions her morality. ⬇️

This was really sweet and fun - just wished it was MUCH longer as @RamsFan1963 has already said! The world building was so well done, I‘d love to see more robot centred stories here. Did you know the merch that is sold in the book is actually available on the authors website? Brilliant. www.automaticnoodle.website

If you like #spinsterlit, or books about books, or academics and their research, then you might like this. It was a 5 star read for me! Im going to say its like Possession meets The End of the Affair. Elizabeth, an academic in her fifties returns to Oxford to unearth some little known papers by TS Eliot. But once there she finds she must deal with her own past as well as the poets.

Took my daughter to the movies on Halloween to see Frankenstein, by Guillermo Del Toro. It veers from the book but it was a beautiful adaptation, Elizabeth has far more of a role and the Creature‘s initial innocence is so well done. Daughter wept - I nearly did - really moving. Also a bit gory in places. I saw a great meme titling the movie “Frankenstein - or how to DIY Jacob Elordi in your basement” 😂

Im reading this book you bought me in Melbourne Carolyn! @CarolynM
Matches my cup and saucer unexpectedly! 😁

Somebody must have mentioned this book recently to put it on my radar. Its Maggie O‘Farrell‘s debut. I really like a debut novel - they seems to be patchworks of brilliant bits and messy bits, and I like seeing where a polished writer once started from. This was really enjoyable - although the structure/set-up was a bit unwieldy in parts. Alice is in a coma and her mind is flitting through bits of her life ⬇️

I loved Brooklyn & I loved this follow up. Its perhaps 20 years later, Eilis is married with teen children, and returns to Ireland. We see the previous characters, older, carrying griefs or frustrations, having made compromises or changes, life has marked & changed them. I like the way Toibin shows rather than tells. We see family dynamics at work, he shows us what is hidden or goes unsaid. ⬇️

I love a time travel book so I went into this with high expectations and it was enjoyable - most of the time - especially the first part where our main characters Melisande (languages professor) and Tristan (military colonel) are figuring out why magic disappeared in the 19th century. Then as time travel is developed and a govt dept springs up to control it, the novel gets more farcical and the plot more convoluted. Amusing but also lengthy!

I read this thanks to Carolyn‘s review and loved it. A writer struggles to write a biography of Hortense Cezanne while watched by Hortense‘s ghost. A story of older women with time to reflect on their griefs & secrets. Isolated by the pandemic, Hortense observes & learns more about the writer than the writer has learnt about her. The observed becomes the observer. OKeefe does so much in limited time &space. A book with beautiful sentences.

Loved this! For those who havent read this, it‘s a novel told in a series of thoughts. You‘re reading this woman‘s thoughts and figuring out that she is entering a relationship, starting a job, struggling with anxiety etc. Its a format that could lose the reader, if the thoughts and fragments werent so beautifully crafted and sharply insightful. Some of the metaphors Offill came up with felt very new and superbly apt. ⬇️

(Images of old pub in Russell)
I finally got around to reading Villette! Poor Lucy Snowe has it tough - and I can imagine Bronte wanted to paint for the world the complex inner life of a plain woman, middle class but fallen on hard times. Both the vulnerability and the strength. Bronte does setting and mood and side characters so well too. I liked that noone was only good or evil, there were many shades of grey.⬇️

My daughter asked me to have a book club with her and I‘d just bought this book so we took turns reading sections. A lovely short classic from 1943 dealing with a love affair and feelings of isolation. From my 50+ yr perspective - it reminded me of other books and ideas - from her 20yo perspective it was utterly new and devastating. Also: spring blossoms!

(Not book related)
So I got a new part time job a few months ago. There‘s a local free magazine (distribution of about 20,000) - I started doing some editing and proof reading, and now Im doing a monthly column and sometimes a feature article. (Local news and not book reviews unfortunately!) Writing an article on bush walks this month, so Ive been doing some new ones. The one on the left has a tree top section that is 18m (59 feet) high!

I kept hearing that Book number 2 is on its way so I thought I‘d better read this. And I loved it! Not at all what I was expecting - I thought it was going to be a slow, atmospheric read about feeling like an outsider. (A vibe I like for sure) But this book runs and jumps and does flips, it has teeth. The “outsider” characters have some fantastically sharp remarks in here, I grinned like a Halloween pumpkin. Have you read this @Reggie ?

For the first couple of chapters, I wondered if the form of this novel was going to become overdone and affected - a POV narrated by a book, disagreeing at times with the boy at the center of the story. But then i relaxed and just let the story wash over me - and I loved it.
This isnt an easy story. Benny and his mother Annabelle are having a very hard time, traumatised by the death of their father/husband, ⬇️

@CarolynM @Reggie our NZ “big sheep” isnt quite as big or as stoic as your one Carolyn! And of course its made out of corrugated iron because why wouldn‘t you?! This is in Tirau - a town everyone stops in on the way to somewhere else. 😜

This was a lovely read - Sybil is determined to never give up the art of letter writing as its brought her joy over many years - we see her relationships with friends, family, penpals and strangers morph and change through the impact of her letter writing. This made me think of Ove a little bit although Sybil isnt quite that prickly! Definitely felt the feels with this one 💕

Finally started this series and it was really good! @CarolynM @TrishB I think it was you two who put this on my radar years ago! I do love a detective novel with interesting character work - and the setting and community was warm and friendly.
This isnt a photo of Three Pines of course - my local beach walk on the other side of the world 😁

Oh I do so love the Cazalets @LeahBergen @Ruthiella I bailed on a couple of books mid August and it was such a relief to pick this up and be absorbed in the familial bonds, heartaches, small and large tragedies of this sprawling family. This is the second volume where World War 2 is under way. Keen to step straight into Vol 3 but so many library holds have come in for me while I was reading this!

Thanks for reviewing this book @Jeg encouraging me to read it. I havent read a book about estranged family members for a long time, and this was just written so well. Hillary is the widowed mother of two daughters who are no longer speaking to each other. We have her POV, Esther and April, the two middle aged daughters, and Lawrence, Esther‘s ex-husband. Each of them are at a crossroads. ⬇️

Here you go @merelybookish this is the very colourful childrens author Margaret Mahy who wrote over 100 picture books as well as a couple of dozen novels. She was also a librarian and dedicated to growing young readers. She would be the most well know author in NZ because everyone (around my age at least) grew up reading her books.

Just a cheery nearly Spring photo from NZ for those of you feeling very hot at the end of Summer! #notbookrelated

I am currently audiobooking Barkskins which is taking me a LONG time.

Hows the season going where you are?

Margaret Forster wrote a biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1989 and some years later wrote this novel about her Ladys Maid, Lily Wilson, based on the bare few facts that are known about her. Its a really deep imagining of what it was like to be in service in the 19th C and to have an intense and complicated relationship with your frail mistress. Great historical writing, slow moving and character driven - a bit depressing at times! ⬇️

Fell in love with The Tainted Cup so I had to get quickly into the sequel - Drop of Corruption. This is like Holmes and Watson in a fantasy world which also has a complicated Empire, political, class and race issues and a variety of villainry. The relationship between Kol and Ana is full of sarcasm and sass. The mystery is complex and kept me 100% involved - its great world building, character driven, fantasy mystery. My catnip!

I love movies and reading about behind the scenes and Im a Gen Xer too so OF COURSE I was going to enjoy reading Ione Skye‘s memoir. There were so many touchpoints I remembered, movies, music, models. Ione had a wild ride through teen movie stardom and looking back can see the motivations that drove some toxic relationships. She delves into her feelings of abandonment by the father who wouldnt acknowledge her. ⬇️

There is a large black cat in this book so my large black cat thought he should feature. Jasper will be unimpressed that this isn‘t a glamour shot though 😂😂

I love this series, I think this is about Book 10. There‘s a little less of Peter here and a lot more of Abigail (his neice) so that was fun. Plenty of fantastical hi-jinks. Nothing ground breaking for this world and these characters just good solid fun.

This book is going to stay with me because the imagery was so vivid. Bo lives in San Fran in about 2050. The city is flooded - everyone that hasnt evacuated lives in apartment buildings above the third floor. Markets happen on rooftops - you move from building to building across bridges. Why does Bo, a traumatised artist stay, when she could leave? This is a character driven novel, a slow thoughtful novel ⬇️

Been away to a little town with hot springs and they were having a Winter Lights Festival!
Listened to the audiobook. I am a massive Billy Connolly fan and it was a joy listening to his voice. His wife Pamela wrote a biography of Billy which goes into more depth about his childhood abuse. This one stays out of the details - its more anecdotes and memories of a childhood in Scotland. Made me think as well as laugh out loud a number of times. ⬇️

I really enjoyed the premise of this novel - a woman grieving the loss of her teenage son finds herself in a parallel universe where her son is alive, an adult and estranged from her. She spends the novel trying to find out who this alternate version of herself is and how she got to this point. Mesmerising and unsettling! I wish I had figured out more about this woman in the parallel universe and what motivated her decisions in the past ⬇️

Ali Mau is a famous journalist and TV presenter in NZ who led the reporting here on #MeToo and broke stories on abusers. (And is an Australian originally!) This is her memoir about her life, breaking into journalism, and her own childhood abuse which was repressed for many years. She also went through hell in the 90s when the press discovered her same sex relationship. Well written and thought provoking, ⬇️

I finally got around to reading this and LOVED it. Such a huge cast of characters but each one unique. I do love a book that when you change POVs you get insights that change your initial view. I have to say though one man did a thing & Lord I stomped around the house desperate to murder the guy. Fictionally murder him but still.
If you havent heard of this it‘s set just before WW2 with a very extended family gathering for the summer ⬇️

If you‘re a sci fi fan this duology is SO GOOD! It makes me think of that Keri Russell series The Diplomat but the politics are interplanetary. You have a colonising empire, a barbarian non empire station that wants to be left alone and now a new alien species that is creating havoc and looks like a civilisation ending threat. In THIS universe there just may be a possibility of peace.

There is such a good, propelling story at the heart of this book, but for me, that story became a bit overwhelmed with multiple POVs and side characters that didn‘t feel fully fleshed out. I see it was made into a tv series and it felt like it had great bones for something like that. Would be interested in trying this author again.

This is a beautifully written book about three young Japanese women - all struggling with identity, relationship with family, men (oh some terrible men), and trauma. One in the UK, one in Tokyo and one that has moved to London from Tokyo.
I‘m surprised more people havent read this! It‘s a 5 star read IMO, strong emotional pull and I cant say much more without spoiling it - except that i see @squirrelbrain liked it too!

It was this tv show in the late 70s that made me love time travel - being able to visit your grandparents as children in the early 1900s! Time travel novels for me can be escapist fantasy or dystopian sci fi - sometimes a delight, sometimes a disaster - and my tastes have moved from fantasy towards dystopia lately #timetraveltop5 @Ruthiella
1 - The Time Travellers Wife
2 - Outlander
3 - Doomsday Book
4 - Black Out/All Clear
5 - Kindred

You know I like a time travel novel? This is a little more high octane than I usually read, but a lot of fun. January is Head of Security at Paradox - a hotel for the ultra rich who can afford to vacation in a different era because Paradox has an entry into the Time Stream. January used to be one of the people policing the time stream but now she‘s becoming unstuck, seeing things from the past or future flash across her current world. So ⬇️

I bought this knowing nothing about Novalis or Sophie or the Romantics. At first I was a little lost with the many surnames & family honorifics. But quickly, this unusual tale of a dreamy young poet, his tumbledown noble family and his falling in love, won me over and I gobbled it up. Fitzgerald writes in such a simple style here and yet captures so much. I loved how the minor characters had such sharp and wry insights. The Bernhard!

Thank you so much for this book @CarolynM It was such an eye-opening read. Told through the story of Mulanyin in 1855, when his saltwater people are not yet outnumbered by the British, and the story of Winona & Grandma Eddie in 2024. It both confronts the reader with the injustices and atrocities of colonialism while teaching a lot about the culture and beliefs of some of the First Nations Australians. I learnt a lot and enjoyed it a lot too!

I completely loved this. A Sci Fi political intrigue novel with strong mystery elements. Mahit has been sent by her home world as an emergency replacement for their missing ambassador at the centre of the Empire. She needs to find out what has happened to the missing ambassador Yskandr and somehow ensure her homeworld remains out of the empire‘s expansionary plans. Really interesting world building, tech and interplanetary politics. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you for the birthday gifts @CarolynM ! So perfect a choice - this book is exactly in my wheelhouse and I definitely identify myself as a Book Nerd! They arrived the day before my birthday so perfect timing as well 💕 Thank you so much, I so appreciate your thoughtfulness and friendship.

Loved this book, as Ive loved each one in this series. It was wonderful to see Lucy meet Olive and wonderful to hear more about Bob. Amidst all the sad stories, Bob‘s steadfast kindheartedness really spoke to me.

And I wanted to show you the gorgeous flowers in my local cafe. @Reggie this is the cafe that keep giving me extra danishes and banana bread and upending my decisions to avoid sweets! 😝😝

My second Susan Scarlett and at first I thought it was going to be too sweet for my current mood - then along came Freda. 😜 It became a page turner as I raced to see whether her evil plans for our sweet protagonist Annabel would materialise!
A really fun read and I love that we see snippets of early 20th century life that I‘d never heard about. Imagine giving your staff a wee glass of port to help them through a long work day!

Great timing for me to be reading the audiobook of James just as it won the Pullitzer!
I wanted to give a shout out to the narrator Dominic Hoffman. He really is fantastic. I listened to him narrate Homegoing years ago and that book is now burned in my brain. (Please listen to it if you havent read it yet!) He has a gorgeous voice and made the differences in James‘s use of two languages have such an impact on me. This book is thought provoking ⬇️

Look at this! My daughter crocheted me a cover for my Kindle. Hopefully this will get me reading the many unread books I have on there 😊

It turns out one of my favourite crossover genres is mystery-fantasy. (Although maybe this is mystery-scifi? There is no magic but the tech is all plant based)
Anyhow! Everything i love in a mystery with a Holmes style detective plus a strange new world with unusual tech. Our protagonist is Kol, he‘s the level headed Watson to Ana, the temperamental investigator. Ana wears a blindfold and usually stays indoors, to better focus, ⬇️

One of my favourite books is Han Kang‘s novel Human Acts about the Gwangju Uprising and the violence and torture that occurred. In her new novel the protagonist is a writer, Kyungha, who is tormented and depressed by the research she did into a massacre. I wondered how much this reflected Han Kang herself. Kyungha makes a journey to her friend‘s hometown of Jeju, a place with a history of a massacre.
The writing here is incredibly beautiful, ⬇️

Into the foggy streets of Victorian London strides Bridie Devine, a highly competent female private investigator, more than a little experienced with examining dead bodies since she spent her early orphan years travelling with a resurrection man. If that sounds like your thing, let me add in a helpful ghost and a possible mythical water creature. Kidd is an excellent writer - setting and character are fully developed. A joy to read (but TW below)

This is a soft pick. It is incredibly well written, in parts it was over my head with cultural & historical references, sometimes fascinatingly so & sometimes it began to feel too much & meaningless. It did some truly interesting things with form in the second half of the book - with repetition & alternating pov between paragraphs - giving you real time variances between the two protagonists. But the relationship! I felt so disturbed ⬇️

I‘m kicking myself because i had almost finished this book and then the library insisted i bring it back 😂 But it was probably the best collection of short stories I‘ve ever read! That is - if you like authors like Barbara Pym, Anita Brookner, maybe Penelope Lively. These are frequently bittersweet stories where the main character is a woman, often an older woman, and they focus on love and grief and ageing and mistakes and chances lost and ⬇️