THE BLUE ROSE by Kate Forsyth

For all fans of historical fiction, get your hands on this. And with a love story to completely hold the interest, this is a great read. The places you will go and the things you will see when you read this. If you want to learn about the French Revolution without wading through history textbooks, or about the early days of European trade and contact with China, then this book is a great place to start. It is not weighty or turgid or heavy going, and with the fictional stories of the main characters closely intertwined with the historical events, it makes for a really good book.

The story opens in a chateau on an estate in Brittany where young aristocratic Viviane lives with her awful aunt and occasional visits from her tyrannical father, who lives at the court of Louis VI in Paris or Versailles. Her father engages a young English botanist, David, to create a garden along the lines of the gardens at Versailles. Naturally these two fall in love, a forbidden love as Viviane is destined for an arranged marriage with a fellow aristocrat. Naturally disaster follows, the two are separated and Viviane is despatched to the French court. Viviane is a smart girl, easily able to move between the aristocracy and the revolutionaries but even so she finds herself getting ever closer to Madame Guillotine.

Meanwhile David, thinking he has been betrayed by Viviane, decides to restart his life by following in the footsteps of his hero Sir Joseph Banks, going on a voyage to China to search for new plants to take back to Europe, in particular camellia sinensus - the tea plant - which the English are desperate to obtain so they can start growing their own instead of importing from China. David is also on the search for the rarest of roses - the blue rose - which he had promised Viviane he would try to locate for her.

Naturally there's a happy ending, but what adventures these two have in the years before they finally find each other. David and Viviane are great characters, a true case of opposites attracting which makes them more real. The writer obviously loves her history, bringing the horror of the French Revolution and Reign of Terror truly alive. Her writing about those exploratory sea voyages, and what China was like in the early days of contact with Europe/England is fascinating. Despite all the history there is nothing high brow or text book  about this novel, being a great balance between fact and fiction.

1947: WHERE NOW BEGINS by Elizabeth Asbrink

I started reading this thinking it was going to be a potted history of the year 1947 - the big ticket items of  the year that defined the age and contributed to how events unfolded in the years ahead, how people were affected and behaved, and how these events are still reverberating in our present history.

Yes, it is all that, but the author also manages to weave some of her own story and that of her family. The author is both Swedish and Jewish, this book being a translation. So there is a personal flavour to this book, but without it being a memoir. It follows then that some of the events and happenings hold greater importance to the writer than others, but she has been very even handed in her choices of important events and people of the year.

It is only 2 years after WWII officially finished, but for many the war and its terrible aftermath are still happening all around. So many people are homeless, jobless, and for the surviving Jews also stateless with nowhere to call home. This is the driving issue of the whole book - the result being the creation of the the state of Israel by some unholy land grabbing, orchestrated by the British, that 70+ years later the world is still feeling the repercussions of.  It was either that or have the Jewish population of Europe boating around the ports of the Mediterranean, not wanted anywhere. Quite an appalling state of affairs.

The British continue to create mayhem with their hasty decision to partition India before Gandhi and his supporters forced their hand. The lazy, irrational and ignorant way this momentous and disastrous policy was enacted will forever be a scar on the relations between Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus in this most diverse of countries.

Also in 1947 the Kalashnikov was created, the CIA is set up, Simone de Beauvoir writes The Second Sex - seen as the starting point for the rise of feminism. Christian Dior takes his creations to America, the Nuremberg trials get underway, the first single standardised programming language is created by a woman no less, Billie Holliday and other black performers/artists struggle in America for recognition despite their talent and popularity.

Why did the author choose this particular year? Because really every year has momentous events, significant people, terrible tragedies and monumental mistakes. I suspect the creation of the state of Israel which has gone onto have tidal wave effects rather than ripple effects ever since throughout the entire Middle East, and so onto the rest of the world, was the catalyst for her choice of this year.

I learnt a lot from this condensed biography of one year. And felt vaguely downhearted that nothing has changed - the same issues are still going on - Middle East, the continuing displacement of black Americans, #MeToo movement, the return of facism and nationalistic politics, religious conflicts in India, and so on. I doubt anything really has been learnt since 1947.

THE BOOKISH LIFE OF NINA HILL by Abbi Waxman

An utter delight to read, helped enormously by the endearing, smart, slightly anxious Nina Hill, employee of an independent bookstore, whose favourite activity is, without a doubt, reading. Oh, that is when she is not agonising over the minutiae of her daily life, ensuring that her daily wall planner is exact in its detail, or when she is engaging with her character-filled cat Phil. But don't get the idea that only child Nina is some sort of bookish, nerdy, introvert who cannot connect with others. Not at all. Nina has a wide group of friends, is a trivia pub quiz queen, and sounds absolutely adorable.

She seems to come across as a slightly unusual person, a little bit quirky and whacky, but I loved her, because I could see parts of myself in her, as I am sure most readers will also. Of course we love characters we can relate to. And for how many people would their dream job be to work in a bookshop, even if you do have to be nice to everyone all the time. Hardly surprising you would need the solitude.

Anyway, the main thing is that Nina is happy, she loves her life, she sees no reason for it to change, for her to do other things with her life, to travel, to have a boyfriend, to have huge adventures. Another reason to love her - she is happy and content with her life. Adorable.

Then one day she receives a letter from a solicitor. It turns out she is not an only child after all. Her absent and unknown father (her mother's choice) had always known about her. Nina is required to be at the will reading following his recent death. Who wouldn't be thrown into a tail spin by this alarming and completely unexpected piece of news? So now Nina finds she is having some chaos in her life - her new and surprising family, the contents of the will,  and to top it off the difficult-to-avoid attentions of a rival trivia expert. How is Nina going to cope and manage with all this conflict and unresolved issues going on. Will she find a wall planner clever enough to cope with all these new people, new events, new decisions? For once, Nina is being challenged - how will she deal with this?

The author is a fabulous writer - funny, witty, combines words in a most charming and hilarious way, adores her character creation, all together just too cute for words.  

THE WIFE AND THE WIDOW by Christian White

Here is a murder mystery that will rock your socks, and keep you glued to your soft comfy chair. What a cracker of a story we have here!

Not giving anything away by saying that the basis for this novel is the death of John, wife of Kate who is now a widow. He isn't in London as Kate was led to believe by her husband, but turns up dead on the island of Belport, some 45 minutes ferry ride from the city of Melbourne. The island hums in summer as the city dwellers relocate to their flash holiday homes, with their flash cars and flash city ways. In the off season nothing happens, the locals living off the incomes they made in the summer, and the maintenance work they do for the absent owners of the houses. Abby's husband is a maintenance man, her world rocked when she finds evidence in the garage of some foul play. The lives of the two women gradually intersect as Kate come to Belport to find out what happened to John, and Abby has to deal with what she is learning about her husband.

So impossible to say more without giving it all away. The goldfish bowl of the island and its small permanent  community is its own character, as is the bleak wintery landscape. The characters of the two women are really good. Kate has to come out of her 'wife' shell, taking charge for perhaps the first time in her life as she does her own detective work, asks lots of questions in her quest to find out what happened to John. Abby is a taxidermist, something she loves and is very good at; she also works at the local superette so always knows what is going on in the community. And what lengths will she go to protect her family, her son and her husband? Riveting. 

A SHARP LEFT TURN by Mike Chunn

When I was a gawky nerdy teen way back in the 1970s, the only poster I had on my bedroom wall was Split Enz, ripped from some magazine. Why? No idea because when I listen to their songs from that time I don't recognise a single one. Maybe it was how they reinvented themselves with mad makeup, hair and colour everywhere. Who knows. But they have always been and continue to be one of my favourite bands.

So a book comes out, written by one of those weirdos in that poster! Get my hands on this. So enjoyable, so readable, so interesting and a bit of a walk down memory lane with a potted history of how NZ music went from nothing to something, Mike Chunn being one of those who made it happen.

His parents must have been marvellous people - allowing their two sons to develop and hone their musical talents, always approving, giving support and guidance without it seems being pushy or overbearing. The boys' time at Sacred Heart College brought them into close contact with other musically inclined boys, who also went onto make names for themselves in music. The bonds these boys formed at school carried them through the next few years as they tried to become a world famous rock band.

Be careful what you wish for. Fame and relentless exposure does not suit everybody. Many tough times too, not just for the band as a whole, but for the players. I knew nothing about agoraphobia, which Mike suffered from starting at this time. His life only surviving due to all the pills he was taking, it was many years before he realised what the cause was, and then how he went about dealing with it, learning to live with it.

He has gone onto great things in NZ music, his love for playing with others resulting in the formation of Citizen Band.  After flanneling his way through the excesses of the 1980s, I loved reading about his relentless campaigning to get more NZ music on the radio, encouraging young people in song writing, and possibly his greatest legacy the Play It Strange music trust. What a gift this man and his brother have been to the business of making music in NZ.