Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

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Genre - Fiction

Kate and Tully are two women who have been friends for thirty years. They meet in 1974 as girls in a small country town where Kate feels she is a social outcast and Tully seems to be the coolest girl in the world. One terrible night they make a pact to be friends forever and we follow their lives and loves through the years against a backdrop of popular music from the times. This is the kind of book that is easy to read, with larger than life characters making difficult, wrenching decisions. It reminds us of the importance of friendship in our lives and to appreciate the people who have made us who we are.


---- Reviewed by Sue, Knox

S is for Silence by Sue Grafton

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Genre - Mystery


What you thought: S is for Silence is the nineteenth in the series of the alphabet mysteries with Kinsey Millhone, who never fails to disappoint. It’s September 1987, thirty five years previously, Daisy Sullivan’s mother; Violet, disappeared from Serena Station, California on the 4th July 1953 and was never heard from again. Now Daisy wants peace of mind.

At first Kinsey is hesitant to open this case, but she decides to spend five days looking into it. Soon Kinsey discovers that there are people that want to keep their association with Violet away from prying eyes. They will do anything to stop Kinsey, even if it means killing her in the process…

This is another great mystery from Sue Grafton, she knows how to keep us in suspense, drawing out the tension to the point where it is almost painful. There have been times where I have found myself telling Kinsey ‘Kinsey, don’t do that, you’re asking for trouble’. But she goes ahead and does it anyway.


---- Reviewed by Nola, Guest

Daphne by Justine Picardie

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Novelist Daphne Du Maurier is at a crossroads in her life. She’s just turned 50. Her husband, Tommy, is having a nervous breakdown, he’s been having an affair for several years, and their marriage has become distant and remote. Daphne becomes absorbed in writing a new book, a biography of Branwell Bronte, brother of the famous Bronte sisters. Daphne has been obsessed with the Brontes since childhood and wants to rehabilitate Branwell’s reputation. She corresponds with Alex Symington, a librarian who is an expert on Branwell’s manuscripts, but has some secrets of his own. Another strand of the novel is about a young woman researching her PhD on Daphne in present day London. This is the least effective part of the novel. The references to Du Maurier’s most famous novel, Rebecca, are not subtle and don’t really add much to the book. The story of Du Maurier and her life at Menabilly, the house in Cornwall which inspired Manderley in Rebecca, is absorbing. A novel for anyone who loves reading about writers and their obsessions.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters

Death and the Maidens by Janet Todd

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Genre - Non Fiction


Fanny Wollstonecraft was a 22 year old girl who committed suicide in a small hotel in Wales in 1816. Her sad story is one of the sidelights of literary history because her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, a famous feminist, and her half-sister was Mary Godwin, who married the poet Shelley, and wrote Frankenstein. Fanny’s life was lonely and unregarded. She was illegitimate and her father abandoned mother and daughter shortly after Fanny’s birth. Her mother died giving birth to Mary when Fanny was only three, and she then lived in the household of her stepfather, William Godwin, with his second wife and several step-siblings. Fanny was the odd one out, not pretty, not clever, put-upon. When Shelley eloped with Mary Godwin, leaving Fanny behind, she was devastated. Her loneliness increased as she was torn between her stepfather and her siblings. Janet Todd’s book is a fascinating look inside this circle of geniuses. Written with sympathy for Fanny’s short, unhappy life, it is essential reading for anyone interested in the Romantic poets.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters

Making Nature by Peter Timms

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Genre - Non-Fiction


Take a walk with Peter Timms, or actually six walks, as he meanders off in six different directions from his charming little mudbrick house in Tallarook (where "things are occasionally crook", but more often wonderous; including magical encounters with wombats, with an echidna, with silence, or when closely observing his dog Max.

While walking with Timms through the bush, we are privy to his reflections on the environment, ecology, spirituality, history and on "seeing".

This last observation is prompted by strolling with a friend who has no visual sight, rather relying on some sixth sense.

I found this erudite story a delightful and thought-provoking read.

---- Reviewed by Clare, Guest

The Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry

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Genre - Thriller


This book is about man's insatiable quest for power and domination of the world around him. The new Central Asian Federation is planning to take over as much of Asia and Africa as possible, via the use of biological warfare. The leader of the Asian Federation, Irina Zovastina is obsessed with Alexander the Great. She plans to surpass Alexander as history's ultimate conqueror. This story bounces from the cities of Venice and Copenhagen as well as the newly formed nation of the Central Asian Federation, which has risen from the ashes of the U.S.S.R. In the bid to stop Zovastina Cotton Malone formally of the American Millgelian Billet is once again called on to help old friends, Cassiopeia Vitt and Henrik Thorvaldsen. Cotton narrowly escaping the blazing inferno of a museum, which he later learns is not an isolated incident. Museums around the world are being burnt to the ground, to mask a more sinister plan. The characters become embroiled in a plot they don't understand and are inadvertently set on a quest to find Alexander's tomb. They must unravel a thousand year old riddle to save the present day world.

This book is fast paced and is un-put-downable.


---- Reviewed by Tegan, Guest