I love memoirs, I love Africa, and I love true heroes. School for Life by Annabelle Chauncey is all three rolled into one. At twenty one Annabelle, together with her friend, Jessie, left Sydney for Kenya originally, as part of a volunteer programme, intending to teach English to African school students. Finding they had arrived in time for the annual two months school holiday shut down, Annabelle and Jessie decided to leave Kenya after four weeks to travel to Uganda with Dave Everett, a fellow Australian volunteer, and his mate, Luke.

So began Annabelle Chauncey’s remarkable career. She had been shocked by the poverty and degradation of the land of Uganda and its people and what she saw as a hopeless future for its children. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has read Annabelle’s story and remembered Bobby Kennedy’s quote: “There are those that look at things the way they are and ask why: I dream of things that never were and ask why not?”.

It is truly inspirational to follow Annabelle’s story, starting with her stated aim of teaching English as a second language to children; to building schools; bringing water and electricity to villages, and to improving the lives of children and their families as well. There are some beautiful photographs in the book which illustrate how much Annabelle and the people around her have achieved in an amazingly short time. Annabelle’s parents must be bursting with pride for their beautiful daughter. I am, and I have never met her!

A brilliant life, well lived, and still with many, many years ahead of her.

Published by Pan Macmillan 

Storm in a B-Cup by Lindy Dale

 

Storm in a B-Cup is a novel, but obviously based on the author’s true life experiences, which was confirmed in Lindy Dale’s acknowledgments at the end of the book. 

Sophie, the narrator, tells her story from discovering she had breast cancer, through to the various successful and failed treatments; the ways in which her son, Rory, and her partner, Brendan were affected, and the reactions of her family and friends. Finding out who loves her    and who doesn’t makes her stronger in surprising ways. She has to jump over some pretty high hurdles!

Lindy Dale’s gentle touches of humour in some of Sophie’s most difficult moments are almost unbearably poignant. It’s a good story which balances the bad moments with the good, and with some lovely and loveable characters along the way.

Lindy Dale is a survivor, fortunately one of many, and I’m sure Storm in a B-Cup has been inspirational to a lot of people.

Robert B Parker’s Buried Secrets by Christopher Farnsworth

  

I used to love Robert B Parker’s Jesse Stone novels, as well as watching the movie series with Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone. Buried Secrets is the first Jesse Stone I’ve tried by a substitute author since Robert B Parker’s death, and I have to say I liked it very much.

A man is found dead inside his house in Paradise, surrounded by stacks of old newspapers and a heap of photographs, all of dead people, most with bullet wounds in their heads. So begins a new case for Jesse, Suit, Molly and Gabe.

This was a read-in-one-day book, in true Robert B Parker tradition. There is nothing like a good cops-and-robbers story on a cold winter’s day to get you going.

Published by Bedford Square Publishers UK.

Red Lake by Jason Summers

 

Just a moment please, while I recover from the powerful, dramatic and ultimately heart wrenching conclusion to Red Lake, a brilliant new Australian crime novel by Jason Summers. 

The town of Koorinda in the Riverina district of New South Wales skirts Lake Koorinda, or Red Lake as it is known because the red brown earth and red clay loam of the area make the water in the lake look red. The town’s big attraction is a water park, with dips and slides and especially one huge slide which tests the bravery of the local children. It is there, one day in 1989, that Harper goes with her little brother, Nick, to the top of the tower while their parents wait below for them to emerge from the slide. 

So begins a story which has consequences that are still being felt thirty seven years later, by which time Harper and her husband, Darren, are the parents of an eighteen-year-old son, Will. Harper had been a well respected detective in Sydney before she decided to come back to Koorinda with Darren and Will. She is happy with her job as a sergeant with the local police, Darren is doing well as a builder and Will is in his last year at high school. Will has a 19-year-old girlfriend, Camilla, who is a junior reporter at the local newspaper. When a murder is discovered at Red Lake Harper is considered too close to the case and is asked to step back and make way for detectives from Sydney.

I love murder mysteries and Red Lake is a stunning addition to the genre. Momentum builds slowly and by the end of the book I was emotionally engaged, to say the least. But wait: that wasn’t quite the end of the book, and by the real end my emotions (tears) came spilling out and, as I said at the start of this review, I had to take some time out to recover.

 It really is that good.

Published by Pan Macmillan 

Whistler by Ann Patchett

 

The themes of Ann Patchett’s books over the years have been many and varied. I started with Bel Canto, which I loved, and I think I’ve read most of them since then, favouring, naturally, some more than others. Whistler goes in the highly favoured column.

Daphne and her husband, Jonathan, are walking through the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York when Jonathan notices an older man who appears to be following them. This is the beginning of the story of Daphne’s reunion with Eddie, her beloved former stepfather.

Through Ann Patchett’s magic all the characters in Whistler in no time became heartbreakingly real to me. It’s just a lovely book!

Published by Bloomsbury.

The Tennis Partner by Abraham Verghese

 

In his second memoir Abraham Verghese writes about living in El Paso; the deterioration of his marriage; his work as an internal medicine specialist and mentor of medical students at Texas Tech School of Medicine, and, central to all of this, his friendship with David Smith, his tennis partner.

David was an Australian who went to America straight from high school on a university tennis scholarship, later joining the junior pro tennis circuit.  By the time Abraham met him David had left the pro circuit and was an ‘extern’, which was the term  for fourth-year medical students who were given almost as much responsibility as interns. Tennis had been a passion of Abraham’s since childhood and he was thrilled when David agreed to playing a few games after work.

Abraham Verghese’s memoirs are as beautifully literary and soulful as his novels. He was a kind, compassionate, loving friend to David and he writes about him with his usual clear-eyed, non-judgmental intensity. While Abraham’s main concern was keeping his two little sons happy when he and his wife separated, he could only stand by, watch and hope as David tried to work through his own life’s struggles.

The Tennis Partner is a deeply moving, sensitive memoir from a uniquely gifted writer.  No pressure, Dr Verghese, but is there another masterpiece in the works, after Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water?

Published by Vintage

Rain on a Hot Tin Roof by Stella Quinn

 

Stella Quinn writes believable characters in iconic Australian settings: Rain on a Hot Tin Roof is set in the Clarence River area, a scene of particular nostalgia to me and, therefore, a particularly enjoyable read.

Felicity is attempting to restart her life after fleeing from a relationship in which she was a victim of coercive control, an all too present evil in our world in which someone’s confidence and feelings of self-worth can be destroyed in a surprisingly short time. Felicity has come back to Clarence, her home town, and is teaching at the local high school.

Luke has brought his son, Jace, to Clarence to live on the property Luke co-owns with his much older sister, Sal. He is a mining engineer working on a FIFO basis at a gold mine in Queensland, and Sal is looking forward to being a substitute parent to sixteen-year old Jace for two weeks of every fortnight while Luke is away. Luke has problems of his own, holding himself responsible for an accident in which Jace’s skull was fractured, leading Luke to give up his job and live on his savings for twelve months while he took care of Jace’s lengthy rehabilitation.

It’s a dramatic backdrop but there is light and laughter and the beautiful countryside of northern New South Wales as well as, of course, romantic tension, all written in Stella Quinn’s recognisably beautiful style. I loved it!

Published by Harper Collins