February 12, 2026 · 1:46 pm

Time of the Child – Niall Williams

Time of the Child – Niall Williams

One of the lovely women in my stitching group lent this to me.

Here’s the blurb …

Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in the little town of Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from his community. A visit from the doctor is always a sign of bad things to come.

 His youngest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father’s shadow, and remains there, having missed her chance at real love – and passed up an offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.

 But in the advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy’s lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter’s lives, the understanding of their family, and their role in their community are changed forever.

This is beautifully written – is Niall Williams a poet? I could feel the damp and the humidity, not to mention the small town lack of anonymity. The baby doesn’t arrive until about halfway through the novel. Prior to that we are observing the daily lives of these ordinary people, which is made extraordinary simply by the observation. The doctor goes a bit mad when he tries to concoct a plan to keep the baby – this is Ireland in 1962, no one is going to let an unmarried woman keep the baby. However, after getting the curate drunk, sending money for a ticket to a young man in New York, crashing the car, willing an old lady to die, and Ronnie running away only to return – they concoct a good plan. This all sounds very dramatic, but it is a quiet, introspective novel with a real sense of place and character.

A review

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February 1, 2026 · 11:10 am

Children of Time – Adrian Tchaikovsky

Children of Time – Adrian Tchaikovsky

I found this in our Audible library and thought why not? The narrator, Mel Hudson, was brilliant.

Here’s the blurb …

A race for survival among the stars… Humanity’s last survivors escaped earth’s ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers?

WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age – a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind’s worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

I really enjoyed reading this. There are two narratives that join at the end – one from each civilization and I found both fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the conclusion (no spoilers). I was a bit worried I would have to commit to the next book in the series, but this ended at a good place – I can continue if I want to, but I feel the story has reached a satisfying end.

A review.

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January 31, 2026 · 2:41 pm

Clear – Carys Davies

Clear – Carys Davies

I found this one at the library, but then when I was sorting my ‘tbr’ I found a copy! At least I didn’t buy another copy.

Here’s the blurb …

A stunning, exquisite novel from an award-winning writer about a minister dispatched to a remote island off of Scotland to “clear” the last remaining inhabitant, who has no intention of leaving—an unforgettable tale of resilience, change, and hope.

John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland—Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted.

Shortly after John reaches the island, he falls down a cliff and is found, unconscious and badly injured, by Ivar who takes him home and tends to his wounds. The two men do not speak a common language, but as John builds a dictionary of Ivar’s world, they learn to communicate and, as Ivar sees himself for the first time in decades reflected through the eyes of another person, they build a fragile, unusual connection.

Unfolding in the 1840s in the final stages of the infamous Scottish Clearances—which saw whole communities of the rural poor driven off the land in a relentless program of forced evictions—this singular, beautiful, deeply surprising novel explores the differences and connections between us, the way history shapes our deepest convictions, and how the human spirit can survive despite all odds. Moving and unpredictable, sensitive and spellbinding, Clear is a profound and pleasurable read. 

This is a beautiful novel, the descriptions of the people (Ivar, John and Mary), the island, and their activities on the island are breath taking. It is a gentle story about human connection and isolation (and greed, but that’s just the catalyst to get the story going).

A review

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January 30, 2026 · 1:48 pm

Ghost Cities – Siang Lu

Ghost Cities – Siang Lu

This won the Miles Franklin in 2025 – I think a lot of book sellers were caught on the hop, I couldn’t find a copy anywhere and ended up buying a digital version.

Here’s the blurb …

Ghost Cities – inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China – follows multiple narratives, including one in which a young man named Xiang is fired from his job as a translator at Sydney’s Chinese Consulate after it is discovered he doesn’t speak a word of Chinese and has been relying entirely on Google Translate for his work. How is his relocation to one such ghost city connected to a parallel odyssey in which an ancient Emperor creates a thousand doubles of Himself? Or where a horny mountain gains sentience? Where a chess-playing automaton hides a deadly secret? Or a tale in which every book in the known Empire is destroyed – then recreated, page by page and book by book – all in the name of love and art?
 
Allegorical and imaginative, Ghost Cities will appeal to readers of Haruki Murakami and Italo Calvino.

I really enjoyed this – it was funny, intriguing, absurd, and thought provoking.

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January 22, 2026 · 5:43 pm

The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz

The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz

After Magpie Murders, I wanted to read more Anthony Horowitz. In particular, I wanted to read the next one in the Magpie series, but that wasn’t in our Audible library (and I am trying not to buy anymore books). However, I did find this one.

Here’s the blurb …

For the first time in its one-hundred-and-twenty-five-year history, the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate has authorized a new Sherlock Holmes novel.

Once again, The Game’s Afoot…London, 1890. 221B Baker St. A fine art dealer named Edmund Carstairs visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson to beg for their help. He is being menaced by a strange man in a flat cap – a wanted criminal who seems to have followed him all the way from America. In the days that follow, his home is robbed, his family is threatened. And then the first murder takes place.

Almost unwillingly, Holmes and Watson find themselves being drawn ever deeper into an international conspiracy connected to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston, the gaslit streets of London, opium dens and much, much more. And as they dig, they begin to hear the whispered phrase-the House of Silk-a mysterious entity that connects the highest levels of government to the deepest depths of criminality. Holmes begins to fear that he has uncovered a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society.

The Arthur Conan Doyle Estate chose the celebrated, #1 New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz to write The House of Silk because of his proven ability to tell a transfixing story and for his passion for all things Holmes. Destined to become an instant classic, The House of Silk brings Sherlock Holmes back with all the nuance, pacing, and almost superhuman powers of analysis and deduction that made him the world’s greatest detective, in a case depicting events too shocking, too monstrous to ever appear in print…until now.

I have never read any Sherlock Holmes, but I did love the series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. I was picturing them while reading/listening to it.

I very much enjoyed this – if this is what the original Sherlock Holmes novels are like, I will have to read them. There was more than one crime, several mysteries, poor children, rich ladies, American outlaws, art and possibly poison.

A review.

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January 19, 2026 · 1:14 pm

The Correspondent – Virginia Evans

The Correspondent – Virginia Evans

I loved this book – it was charming. I had heard it mentioned several times in various different groups, and I finally decided to read it while on vacation.

Here’s the blurb …

“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle, or, a better metaphor, if dated, the links of a long chain, and even if those links are never put back together, which they will certainly never be, even if they remain for the rest of time dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown seeds of a dying dandelion, isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

This is an epistolary novel – written in letters and emails. Sybil is the heart of the novel, both the plot and her character are revealed through her letters. It’s delightful, but also has emotional heft. There have been setbacks in Sybil’s life and (like everyone) she has regrets.

I put my life on pause while reading this – ‘no I can’t do that I want to read my book!’.

A review.

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January 18, 2026 · 2:19 pm

Magpie Murders – Anthony Horowitz

Magpie Murders – Anthony Horowitz

I watched the T.V. adaptation Magpie Murders, which I really enjoyed. It has the fabulous Lesley Manville in it as Susan. When I saw it in our Audible library I thought it would be the perfect thing to listen to.

Here’s the blurb …

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.

Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.

Masterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective. 

It is very clever – there is a golden age crime type of mystery and a modern mystery. Both written in the appropriate style.

Atticus Pünd is a quieter, less flamboyant version of Poirot. And I loved how the author in the story (Conway) wrote his neighbours, family, etc. in and changed their names to something appropriate. For example, Locke became Chubb (i.e. the people who make locks). I suspect Anthony Horowitz had a lovely time writing this novel.

Susan is an engaging character/detective and I enjoyed how we followed her thought processes.

If you like crime, and in particular cozy crime, then this is for you.

A review.

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January 15, 2026 · 11:44 am

The Tapestry of Time – Kate Heartfield

The Tapestry of Time – Kate Heartfield

I am intrigued by the Bayeux tapestry – I have even visited it (and it is a long way from Australia!), so clearly I had to read this one.

Here’s the blurb …

There’s a tradition in the Sharp family that some possess the Second Sight. But is it superstition, or true psychic power? 

Kit Sharp is in Paris, where she is involved in a love affair with the stunning Evelyn Larsen, and working as an archivist, having inherited her historian father’s fascination with the Bayeux Tapestry. He believes that parts of the tapestry were made before 1066, and that it was a tool for prediction, not a simple record of events. 

The Nazis are also obsessed with the tapestry: convinced that not only did it predict the Norman Conquest of England, but that it will aid them in their invasion of Britain. 

Ivy Sharp has joined the Special Operations Executive – the SOE – a secret unit set up to carry out espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance. Having demonstrated that she has extraordinary powers of perception, she is dropped into Northern France on a special mission. 

With the war on a knife edge, the Sharp Sisters face certain death. Can their courage and extrasensory gifts prevent the enemy from using the tapestry to bring about a devastating victory against the Allied Forces?

This had an interesting premise – the Bayeux tapestry was created before 1066 by a group of women who could see the future.

I enjoyed the world war two setting and the very different lives of the four sisters. It was well-researched, but wore that research lightly.

It has fantasy elements – second sight, etc.

For me there wasn’t enough Bayeux tapestry, and a bit too much of Ivy training her second sight.

A review

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January 11, 2026 · 1:39 pm

The Rest of Our Lives – Ben Markovits

The Rest of Our Lives – Ben Markovits

I selected this because it was short listed for the Booker Prize. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was short, so I didn’t have to commit to too much.

Here’s the blurb …

What’s left when your kids grow up and leave home?

When Tom Layward’s wife had an affair he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest daughter turned eighteen. Twelve years later, while driving her to Pittsburgh to start university, he remembers his pact.

He is also on the run from his own health issues, and the fact that he’s been put on leave at work after students complained about the politics of his law class – something he hasn’t yet told his wife.

So, after dropping Miriam off, he keeps driving, with the vague plan of visiting various people from his past – an old college friend, his ex-girlfriend, his brother, his son – on route, maybe, to his father’s grave in California.

This is told from Tom’s perspective and I feel he is an unreliable narrator. His wife, Amy, (who admittedly did have an affair) is portrayed very unsympathetically. Also, Tom is clearly unwell. He wakes up every day with a puffy face and oozing eyes and tells everyone there is nothing wrong, but middle age, and yes he has had tests. And finally, there is white man fragility – good men aren’t getting jobs because of diversity hiring, etc.

Tom is on a road trip; to drop his daughter at College, and then he keeps driving. He visits his brother Eric, who seems to be another lost soul, his college mate (one of the sad white men), his college girlfriend (not sad) and finally his son in L.A.

All of the relationships are beautifully portrayed, and the descriptions of being on the road; the diners, the houses, the basketball courts are great.

It’s about middle age, family, regrets and missed opportunities. There is emotional heft to this novel, particularly the end (no spoilers).

A review

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January 9, 2026 · 4:22 pm

Butter – Azako Yuzuki

Butter – Asako Yuzuki

I bought this in November of 2024, and then it languished. However, it is my next book club book, so I have read it!

Here’s the blurb …

The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, “The Konkatsu Killer”, Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan. 

This novel was extremely popular when it first came out in English. I remember seeing the bright yellow colour everywhere.

I haven’t read much Japanese fiction (one of the coffee going cold books and The Housekeeper and the Professor, which I really enjoyed), so I didn’t know what to expect. This novel is very sensuous. There are many mentions of the sensations of eating; the nuttiness of the rice, the butter coating the inside of her mouth, the feeling of warmth in her body, etc.

There also seems to be an obsession with thinness

And

And this from Rika’s boyfriend after she has gained some weight from all of the good eating

I am not sure about the time setting of this novel. There are mobile phones, but also DVD rental stores (or is that a Japanese thing?)

And this idea about taking care of oneself

And this idea of trying to live well

This was fascinating. How both Rika and Reiko became enamored by Kaji to the point of psychological distress. Everyone had trauma, disappointments and disillusionments. Rika’s untangling of food, cooking and her father’s death was well-written. To me this novel feels more introspective than a western novel.

It is fascinating, intriguing and well worth reading.

A review

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