Remarkable creatures by Tracy Chevalier

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Genre - Historical fiction

This is the story of Mary Anning, an extraordinary fossil hunter who lived in the 1800’s. This is a fictional account of real people and events during this time of stimulating scientific debate. Fossil evidence from the English seaside town of Lyme Regis was of great interest to Natural History Museums and was also very challenging to the prevailing religious view of the times. Mary’s fossil discoveries came at a time when men dominated the field of science and she has to fight for recognition of her work. She is helped in many ways by her unusual friendships with the feisty and intelligent spinster Elizabeth Philpot . Despite their differences in age and background their relationship remains strong through their shared love of fossils. This novel has captured many of the details of daily life for women from both the working and upper classes and brought these characters together in an exciting quest beyond the limits and conventions of their world.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Belgrave

The far traveler by Nancy Marie Brown

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Genre - Non Fiction


This book combines history, archaeology & the storytelling of the sagas to tell the story of Gudrid, an Icelandic Viking woman who sailed to Vinland – America - in the 11th century. Gudrid’s story is told in two of the Icelandic sagas, stories combining myth and history. They were written down 200 years after the Viking Age, but they represent the oral stories handed down since that time. In this book, Brown retells the sagas & also shows how archaeology has proven some of the stories to be true. The Vikings are known to have reached the coast of America hundreds of years before Columbus. Evidence has been found of a settlement there, founded by Eirik the Red. It was abandoned only a few years later, but stories of Vinland (Vine Land) were told in Greenland and Iceland long after. Gudrid was a great traveler. She went on a pilgrimage to Rome as well as traveling in Europe & America. The book tells the story of Gudrid by bringing in details of the lives of other Viking women known about from history & saga. It brings to life the harsh conditions of life in the far north, and the struggle for survival which led people to explore the outer limits of their world.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters

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