What We Read in July
A perfectly weighted story set in New York City on one April day over 3 years, 2019, 2020 and 2021. An intimate novel of relationships - brothers and sisters, lovers, parents and children, of grief and love and going on. Just beautiful. Possibly the perfect book, Day is a contender for my fiction book of the year.
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
What does the word 'bondmaid' mean to wealthy, educated men a turn of the 20th century? And what does it mean to their female servants? Wiliams takes real life events and characters who participated in the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary, and asks questions about language, who owns it, who gets to shape it, and how history remembers minorities. The story is full of lushly realised characters and is a fascinating and informative read.
Winner of the NZSA Best First Book Award at the 2024 NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults, Tsunami is an original and unexpectedly dark young adult graphic novel. Be prepared for all the feels.
A Month in the Country by J.L Carr
A quietly beautiful novella of one man's recovery from emotional wounds recovered in the Great War. 1920 Yorkshire, a young medieval art restorer, the last of his kind in England arrives to restore a fresco on the wall of a country church. In the small village he finds friendship and support from the locals, a young archeologist excavating next to the church, and the vicar's lovely wife. A gentle story of healing from the worst trauma and of finding happiness in the most unexpected places.
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton
A funny and clever feminist pirate romance with dueling flying houses and Queen Victoria by a Kiwi author. Lots of fun and plenty of spice.
Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan
Despite the harrowing lives of the characters in this book, the author has created an immersive page-turner that gives a vivid background to the civil war in Sri Lanka. Told through the eyes of 16 year old Sashi whose dreams of being a doctor are curtailed by her Tamil heritage and the onset of war, this is a stunning piece of writing well worthy of the 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction.
Bit is the first child born in Arcadia, an upstate New York commune in the 1970s. As a young child his perspective of the adults and goings on around him is unique, as he witnesses the politics, sex, drugs and evolution of the commune. Decades later, after the community inevitably falls apart, Bit is living in New York City, raising a young child alone, when his parents and a global pandemic bring him back to Arcadia. Groff is one of the finest American writers around at the moment, her works are unique masterpieces.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare is dispatched to represent her tiny home space station at the court of the galactic Emperor, the same court where her predecessor died under mysterious circumstances. Armed with some of his memories implanted in her brain, Mahit must navigate the uniquely convoluted political byways of the Empire to thwart a plot that will have implications for every being in the universe. A slow burning novel of political intrigue and personal drama, Martine joins the likes of China Miéville and N.K Jemisin in redefining the scifi genre.
