The books that should be on your long weekend reading list
If you’re in need of a good book to pass the time this long weekend, here’s a list of the best new releases to add to your to-be-read pile.
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TRUTHS I NEVER TOLD YOU by KELLY RIMMER
HACHETTE, RRP $30
With the devastating and overwhelming topic of post-partum depression at its heart, this is no cheery read. Australian authorKelly Rimmer (above) draws out emotion as she follows two new mothers from one family coming to terms with debilitating depression. With four children under four, Grace Walsh’s only outlet from her despair in 1959 is to jot down her dark thoughts in letters, particularly after a doctor declares she just needs to tough it out. With contraception a sin and abortion illegal, Grace’smost agonising note comes when she realises she cannot face another pregnancy. Fast-forward almost 40 years and Grace’s psychologistdaughter Beth struggles to rationalise her own battle to bond with her long-awaited son. Cleaning out the family home, shefinds a stash of letters that help unlock her own secret — along with shocking truths that force Beth and her siblings toreassess their family memories. Rimmer’s tale implores us to recognise and respond to this condition that has been a weightacross generations of women.
Reviewed by Carina Bruce
VERDICT: Painful truths
TEN ROGUES by PETER GROSE
ALLEN & UNWIN, RRP $30
With such a short history you would think that there would be few stories not told about Australia’s colonial past. But veteranjournalist and writer Peter Grose has managed to find one that should have already found a distinguished place among the tall tales about scoundrels (well, criminals) bucking authority that the country is so fond of. At its heart is the story of 10 convicts, including ringleader Jimmy Porter, who steal a ship — which they helped to build — from a Tasmanian penal colonyand sail it across the pacific to Chile and (short-lived) freedom. That they managed this feat of navigation without chartsis a fireside yarn in itself. But the book is also the story of the privatisation of transportation after the arrival of the First Fleet a fact that angered the author and led him to “share some of my fury at the sheer cruelty and injustice of thewhole convict system”. But what will keep you reading beyond the “fury” is Porter’s life of courage in the face of his extremelypoor life choices and his ability to escape the noose on numerous occasions.
Reviewed by Barry Reynolds
VERDICT: Stand by for the film
TEN FEET TALL AND NOT QUITE BULLETPROOF by CAMERON HARDIMAN
HACHETTE, RRP $33
For most of this book, Cameron Hardiman goes back and forth between recalling how he got into the Air Wing of the VictoriaPolice Force, and a fateful day in February 2005. A happy, cheeky young man, he was attracted to the lights, sirens and camaraderieof police life while, like most coppers, always found it difficult to deal with the trauma of seeing lives torn apart by accidentsand violence. But he learnt to cope. Confronting the seeming injustice of the legal system, where he watched violent criminalsoften walk free, was another matter. So was working within a bureaucracy sometimes more intent on protecting its assets thansupporting the officers who were risking their lives. Hardiman’s story climaxes in a dangerous rescue over Bass Strait in2005, and the after-events that saw the proud and passionate police pilot battling PTSD. Despite the ominous foreboding thatpervades, he’s able to recount the events of his career in a relaxed, conversational manner, which not only makes the book an enjoyable read, but serves to underscore how people in high-risk jobs face dangers that go way beyond the physical.
Reviewed by Jeff Maynard
VERDICT: Alarm bells
ACTRESS by ANNE ENRIGHT
JONATHAN CAPE, RRP $30
Katherine O’Dell was, in her day, a true star of stage and screen. Even when the gloss faded, and scandal and health issuesdiminished her, people still remembered her with fondness. Years after her death, her daughter Nora decides it’s time to findout, if she can, who her mysterious father was. It was something Katherine was never prepared to discuss, despite the otherwisestrong bond between the two. In retracing her mother’s steps, Nora discovers some of the hidden truths about her mother’slife — the people who betrayed her, the secrets of her past — but this final detail remains frustratingly elusive. The relationshipbetween mother and daughter is the core of the story, and Anne Enright explores it with intensity and insight. The Irish author is best known for her Booker Prize-winning book The Gathering, and this shares with it an almost claustrophobic approach to the pain of family secrets. The story meanders a bit, but Enrighthas a way of drawing readers in and never overdoing it. There are things she won’t reveal, and readers will have to work itout for themselves.
Reviewed by Corinna Hente
VERDICT: Delicate and painful
DEAR EDWARD by ANN NAPOLITANO
VIKING, RRP $33
Twelve-year-old Eddie is the only survivor of a plane crash that killed 191 people, including his parents and brother. He’sdragged from the crumpled wreck to live with his aunt and uncle, sifting through the literal wreckage of his life in a newhouse in a new state. His aunt is bereft at both the loss of her family, and the fact she’s been unable to have children of her own. His uncle takes refuge in secretly compiling every detail of the crash and its aftermath as a strange way of silentlysupporting Eddie. The only thing that brings Eddie comfort is the unjudging support of his next-door neighbour, Shay, and the discovery of a cache of letters from relatives of the other passengers. Their touching friendship — and how they deal with the letters his uncle has secretly kept — forms the basis of every alternate chapter of Dear Edward. The chapters between detail each stage in the ill-fated plane crash, and the lives of selected passengers on it. It soundsmaudlin, but this is actually a moving reflection on friendship and carrying on after unimaginable loss.
Reviewed by Claire Sutherland
VERDICT: Lovely
MR NOBODY by CATHERINE STEADMAN
SIMON & SCHUSTER, RRP $30
Actor Catherine Steadman, of Downton Abbey fame, shows her versatility with a cracking second psychological thriller. Dr Emma Lewis, a rising star in the field of neuropsychiatry, jumps at the chance to tackle the case of a nameless man with no memory found on a beach. Dubbed Mr Nobody, he baffles doctorsand draws global attention. There lies a problem for Emma because she has kept a low profile for years after a family tragedyforced her to change her identity and flee her hometown. It’s the same place Mr Nobody was found. Desperate to crack the caseand prove her doubters wrong, Emma puts aside her fears to establish a professional and personal rapport with her mysterypatient. But as she delves deeper, not everything adds up and then she defies advice to walk away before she loses everything. Steadman (above) has a knack to keep readers thinking and guessing throughout. And it’s more than welcome that her key character is not a crazy woman, as occurs in so many thrillers.
Reviewed by Carina Bruce
VERDICT: Enthralling mind games
MIX TAPE by JANE SANDERSON
BANTAM PRESS, RRP $30
As you might expect, this book comes with an evocative soundtrack –— and you can listen in as you read via a Spotify playlist. Alison is a Sheffield teenager, coping with an impossibly difficult home life. When she meets Dan, she keeps the mess to herself, but is grateful for their shared love of music and for being able to escape into his perfectly ordinary, wonderful family. When her precarious home situation explodes, she runs — never wanting to return. But one day, decades later in Adelaide, shereceives a contact from Dan — a single song, no note. Dan, like Alison, has made a happy life, and both are married with grown-upchildren. But their first love remains unfinished business and neither can let go of the memories. As they swap songs, itbecomes a conversation that will shape their future. This is a well-written and enjoyable musical stroll through lost (andfound) love. The morality of adultery will bother some — neither partner is portrayed as a monster — but the romantic warmthof the story is undeniable.
Reviewed by Corinna Hente
Verdict: A good mix
LONG BRIGHT RIVER by LIZ MOORE
HUTCHINSON, RRP $32.99
Hard-bitten and hard to put down, Long Bright River follows single mum Mickey, a cop in one of Philadelphia’s toughest and most drug-affected suburbs. She could try for a promotionto detective, but staying a beat cop means she can keep one eye out for her sister Kacey, a drug addict and sex worker long-lost to Mickey but still in her heart. When the bodies of down-and-out young women start piling up in Mickey’s region, shefights a losing battle to get her superiors to care, but the fact that she hasn’t managed to spot Kacey for a month makesMickey all the more determined to pursue it, in the face of her boss’ disinterest and the fact it’s not actually her job. Liz Moore has imbued this story with the toughness and authenticity of The Wire, and although the final chapters are a rush of exposition and unlikely explanations, what comes before is solid enough to makethis a worthy addition to the crime genre.
Reviewed by Claire Sutherland
VERDICT: Gritty
THE 24-HOUR CAFE by LIBBY PAGE
HACHETTE, RRP $33
At first glance, the plot might seem a tad simple with one setting over 24 hours, but don’t under estimate the power of thislittle gem. The Stella cafe offers more than coffee and food. To its eclectic patrons and committed staff it is a part-timehome, the source of friendships and the fountain of dreams – past and future. As each hour ticks over, it delivers a storyabout Stella’s random customers from Dan, the engineering student struggling to deal with his mother’s death, to Joe and Haziqwho contemplate a life-changing decision. Woven through the chapters is the friendship between co-workers and housemates Monaand Hannah. They juggle shifts to support their first love, which is dancing and singing, but it is their interaction with the customers that harness the reader and expose the frailties of human behaviour. The girls also have their own issues and the friendship is tested quite severely. Londoner Libby Page shows the importance of relationships, honesty and often the need for empathy when we communicate, regardless of how fleeting it might be.
Reviewed by Wendy Mason
VERDICT: Heart warming
THIS IS HAPPINESS by NIALL WILLIAMS
BLOOMSBURY, $30
This is the coming-of-age story of Noel Crowe and his grandparents’ village, Faha, in County Kerry, Ireland, in the mid-20thcentury. While the 17-year-old Noel gains some knowledge and a little wisdom as workers and equipment arrive in the villageto hook up this rural backwater to the electricity, it is not certain that Faha needs any more light shed on its inhabitants. From the safe distance of his older age, Crowe tells the story of staying with his grandparents after losing his faith andleaving the seminary, of his first loves, and his first drinks alongside Christy McMahon, a worker for the electricity boardwho has also taken a room with his grandparents. This beautifully written book has wonderful turns of phrase that has youreading in an Irish accent, and slowing your pace as you become attuned to a vanished world of little money but a wealth ofwelcome and humour — as well as all the enmities of any isolated village.
Reviewed by Barry Reynolds
VERDICT: Saintly sinners
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Originally published as The books that should be on your long weekend reading list