A change in Altitude

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Genre - Relationships

Popular author Anita Shreve has written about newlyweds Margaret and Patrick setting off to live in Kenya for a year. He is a doctor and she is a photographer and they settle into married life as strangers in a dangerous land. They agree to join a climbing expedition to the summit of Mount Kenya with two other couples without realizing just how testing it will be on them. Both physically and emotionally they are unprepared for the tragedy that unfolds and find they may never recover from it.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Belgrave

Lovesong by Alex Miller

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Genre - Love stories

This novel from a master storyteller is simple, familiar, romantic and tragic. It takes us into the lives of the widow Houria and her young niece Sabiha who run a small Tunisian café in Paris which caters to the North African immigrant workers of the area. Sabiha is a young woman delighted to be living in Paris with her Aunt and sometimes she can barely remember her old life in El Djem. When Australian John Patterner stumbles into their café he embarks on a gentle romance with the beautiful Sabiha. It is their tragic love story that is later confided to his new friend, Ken when they are finally settled in suburban Melbourne many years later.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Belgrave

ACT with love by Russ Harris

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Genre - Non-Fiction

Self help book with www support. I found it effective in overcoming negative recurrent thoughts.

---- Reviewed by Adrian, Guest

Noah's compass by Anne Tyler

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Genre - Fiction


This is a new novel from the prize winning author of “The Accidental tourist” and “Dinner at the homesick restaurant.” This story is also set in Baltimore and examines everyday life for recently retired teacher Liam Pennywell. He is widowed and divorced and has just been retrenched from his teaching position. When he decides to downsize his home and possessions he draws criticism and concern from his three adult daughters and his bossy ex wife. An assault by a stranger causes him to lose his memory of the first night in his new apartment and brings him more unwanted attention from the family. His youngest daughter, Kitty, decides to move in with him just as he begins a new relationship with an unusual woman called Eunice. This is a gentle story with some eccentric characters finding their way through family relationships.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Belgrave

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 paperbark shoe by Goldie Goldbloom

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Genre - Historical fiction

Set in Wyalkatchem in the West Australian wheat belt, this is a fictional tale about Gin and Toad and 2 Italian prisoners of war who came to work on their farm as labourers in 1944. She has captured the harshness of the country and the deprivation of the times and given us the character of Gin Toad. Married to Toad to escape a mental institution she survives the heat and dirt of the farm and gives up her ladylike ways as she becomes immune to the lack of music and lover in her outback life. Then she meets Antonio and becomes infamous as the traitor who helped an Italian POW to escape. This story is haunting, gritty and sad but it has a wonderful style of language which captures the atmosphere of the times and life on the land.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Belgrave

Some tame gazelle by Barbara Pym

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Genre - Fiction


Belinda & Harriet Bede are sisters living in an English village in the 1950s. They’re happily unmarried, although Harriet has an admirer, Count Bianco, who proposes marriage at regular intervals. Belinda has been in love with Archdeacon Hoccleve since their University days but he married the very capable Agatha instead. This is a story of gentle irony & humour as village life brings challenges such as the church fete & what to give the local seamstress for lunch when she comes to make up the new curtains. When Archbishop Theodore Grote arrives for a visit from his African diocese, Belinda finds herself the object of attentions that she suspects Agatha might envy.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters

The monster in the box by Ruth Rendell

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Genre - Mystery


Inspector Reg Wexford is startled to see a face from the past, a man who he believes has committed at least two murders, but who he never expected to see again. This is the catalyst that takes Wexford back to his early days in the police force, when he was convinced that Eric Targo had murdered young mother, Elsie Carroll. He had no evidence & was too junior to influence the murder investigation, but he knew Targo was guilty, & Targo knew that Wexford knew. So, a strange game developed where Targo would walk his dog past Wexford’s house or stare up at the windows of the police station. Then, he would disappear for years before unexpectedly turning up again. As Wexford tells the story to his deputy, Mike Burden, the evidence becomes more compelling, especially when another murder occurs close to Wexford’s home. The Wexford series has been one of the best police procedurals for over 40 years & this is another great installment. It’s not one of the best, but interesting to see Wexford as a young man, starting his career & meeting his wife, Dora.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters