The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

When I first heard there was a new book from Margaret Atwood my first question was, What happened to Offred? I couldn’t wait to read it to discover the truth and expected it to be a continuation of her story. The Testaments isn’t a direct follow on from Offred’s tale, and it is so much...

The Possible World by Liese O’Halloran Schwarz

The Possible world is a lovely story exploring the importance of family, friends and the memories we make with them. It begins with a tragedy. Ben, an anxious 6 year old goes to a birthday party he will never forget. Lucy is working in the hospital when those involved are admitted. I enjoyed reading a...

The Silk Merchant’s Daughter by Dinah Jefferies

Nicole is half Vietnamese and half French, but she has been bought up by her French father since her mother died. It is at her 18th birthday party in Hanoi in 1952 that she meets Mark, an intriguing and handsome American friend of the family who works with her father. He is much older than...

A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

Harry Cane marries Winnie after his brother Jack introduces them. It seems more of a convenience relationship than romance but they soon have a daughter together and settle down. Harry would not have been Winnie's first choice of husband, but they are good friends and it seems to work. It isn't too surprising when Harry...

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

I've gone. I've never seen the water, so I've gone there. I will try to remember to come back. Etta's greatest unfulfilled wish, living in the rolling farmland of Saskatchewan, is to see the sea. And so, at the age of eighty-two she gets up very early one morning, takes a rifle, some chocolate, and...

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

Maud has problems with her memory. She finds herself stocking her cupboards full of peaches because she can't remember what to buy at the shop. To help, she leaves notes to herself around the house and in her handbag to remind herself: Coffee helps memory And No more peach slices Elizabeth is a good friend...

If I knew you were going to be this beautiful, I never would have let you go by Judy Chicurel

If I knew you were going to be this beautiful I never would have let you go is set in a "fictionalised Long Island" in 1972. It follow the lives of working class teenagers dealing with the pressures of growing up and the consequences of the Vietnam war. The title sounds so romantic, but this...