Review: Making Waves at Penvennan Cove

Title: Making Waves at Penvennan Cove

Author: Linn B. Halton

Publisher: 14th October 2021 by Aria & Aries

Pages: 360 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: romance, contemporary, women’s fiction

My Rating: 3 cups

Synopsis:

For once, things are going well for thirty-year-old Kerra Shaw. She has a fulfilling job helping small businesses in the local community, she is within a few minutes' walk of all the people she loves best, and most importantly, she has finally got together with her childhood sweetheart, Ross.

It's not all plain sailing, though, because they have to keep their relationship a secret. The feud between their families still rages on, and Kerra doesn't want to pour fuel on its flame and risk losing everything.

But Kerra should know better than anyone that secrets don't stay hidden for long in a community like Penvennan Cove...

My Thoughts

‘… this is where I was born and brought up; this is where my roots are and yet I still feel that I’m that square peg in a round hole. And I don’t know why.’

Making Waves at Penvennan Cove is a delightful escape to a small village filled with quirky characters who love to gossip and where there is a lot going on for small town living.

This is Linn B. Halton’s second book in her Pennvennan Cove series. It would appear that reading these books sequentially as a series is important to a richer understanding of events. With there being a lot of people and a range of connections, at times it is challenging to keep up with it all. However, if loads of interaction and dialogue of the various goings-on in a tiny English village appeals, then this is certainly the book for you! To follow along the narration will be most appealing with the interweaving of all the characters and their escapades.

Making Waves at Penvennan Cove provides a window into village life on the coast. If you enjoy character driven drama then you will relish this cast of characters with their everyday adventures and incidental chatter not to mention the spectacular Cornish coast. 

‘As we take the winding track that leads us down through the mass of trees, the smell of the sea on the breeze is tantalising. I keep straining to catch glimpses of it as we weave in and out, stepping off the path where it’s a little churned up and still muddy from the recent storms.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Cry of the Kalahari

Title: Cry of the Kalahari

Author: Mark and Delia Owens

Publisher: 12th October 2021 by Hachette Australia

Pages: 434 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: non fiction, animals, adventure, culture Africa

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

The incredible memoir by international bestselling author of ‘Where The Crawdad's Sing’, Delia Owens and her partner Mark Owens', charting their time researching wildlife in the Kalahari Desert. Reissued and in full colour, for the first time since its original publication.

Carrying little more than a change of clothes and a pair of binoculars, two young Americans, Mark and Delia Owens, caught a plane to Africa, bought a thirdhand Land Rover, and drove deep into the Kalahari Desert. There they lived for seven years, in an unexplored area with no roads, no people, and no source of water for thousands of square miles. In this vast wilderness the Owenses began their zoology research, working along animals that had never before been exposed to humans.

An international bestseller on original release, Cry of the Kalahari is the story of the Owenses's life with lions, brown hyenas, jackals, giraffes, and the many other creatures they came to know. It is also a gripping account of how they survived the dangers of living in one of the last and largest pristine areas on Earth.

My Thoughts

‘The sky deepened. I lay back in the straw-colored grass, and pressing my fingers into the rough surface of the riverbed, as I had so many times before, I wondered how long the Kalahari would belong to the wild.’

Having lived and worked in Africa, I am always eager to read stories from that conflicted continent. ‘Cry of the Kalahari’, originally published in 1984, is being reissued with full colour photos for the first time and I highly recommend it. It was a wake up call almost forty years ago and, sadly, would appear to remain seemingly relevant today. 

Mark and Delia Owens devoted much of their life to conservation. This book details their first seven years of studying the Botswana wildlife, particularly lions and brown hyenas. Here you will read about what would have been the adventure of a lifetime, especially given the situation in the early 80s, namely the lack of communication. The hardships they endured on a daily basis seem so unreal but this is very much a factual account. To balance it out however, they bring such joy to what they did and through the sharing of their immersive lifestyle of living  in such remoteness, we can learn and feel so much. 

‘We had to remind ourselves that they were wild lions. What we felt at such times could not be expressed with any one of the usual emotional terms. It was an amalgam, really, of several emotions: excitement, gratitude, warmth, companionship.’

It would be remiss of me not to draw attention to the proverbial elephant in this review - Delia Owens of Where The Crawdads Sing fame. Having read that novel, having read this current book and having been inspired to read more about the work of Delia and Mark Owens, I have to admit to being intrigued by the seeming correlations of Delia’s experiences adapted to her fictional sensation of Where The Crawdads Sing. Fascinating to consider. 

This is truly an inspiring read of a young couple dedicating seven years of their life to studying the wildlife of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. Tenacious, brave and seemingly fearless, they pushed on through many hardships in an effort to understand and preserve a very special part of our world. A must read for anyone interested in wildlife and conservation.

‘It’s difficult to describe the excitement and joy we felt. We had found our Eden. Yet we were very anxious not to disturb the intricate patterns of life that were going on around us. Here was a place where creatures did not know of man’s crimes against nature. Perhaps, if we were sensitive enough to the freedom of these animals, we could slip unnoticed into this ancient river valley and carefully study its treasures without damaging it. We were determined to protect one of the last untouched corners of earth from ourselves.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Book of Tea

Title: The Book of Tea

Author: Okakura Kakuzo

Publisher: 14th October 2021 by Amber Books Ltd

Pages: 96 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: non fiction, culture Japan, philosophy, tea

My Rating: 3.5 crowns

Synopsis:

‘Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage,’ are the opening words of Okakura Kakuzō’s The Book of Tea, written in English in 1906 for a Western audience. The book is a long essay celebrating the secular art of the Japanese tea ceremony and linking its importance with Zen Buddhism and Taoism. It is both about cultural life, aesthetics and philosophy, emphasising how Teaism – a term Kakuzō coined – taught the Japanese many things; most importantly, simplicity, which can be seen in Japanese art and architecture. Looking back at the evolution of the Japanese tea ceremony, Kakuzō argues that Teaism, in itself, is one of the profound universal remedies that two parties could sit down to. Where the West had scoffed at Eastern religion and morals, it held Eastern tea ceremonies in high regard. With a new introduction, this is an exquisitely produced edition of a classic text made using traditional Chinese bookbinding techniques. Surely it’s time for tea.

My Thoughts

‘The simplicity of the tea-room and its freedom from vulgarity make it truly a sanctuary from the vexations of the outer world.’

Okakura Kakuzo was a scholar who promoted Japanese arts last century and is best remembered as the author of The Book of Tea (1906). 

‘There is a subtle charm in the taste of tea that makes it irresistible and capable of idealization.’

Basically this is an essay written for a Western audience on ‘teaism’ and its contribution to Japanese life. Kakuzo looks at the ceremony associated with tea in relation to the wider themes of Taoism and art for example. 

‘Tea with us became more than an idealization of the form of drinking: it is a religion of the art of life.’

The main theme is that teaism has been central in teaching the Japanese the importance of simplicity. Short and succinct, this is an interesting read on Japanese culture. 

‘Do we not need the tea-room more than ever?’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Women of Troy

Title: The Women of Troy

Author: Pat Barker 

Publisher: 26th August 2021 by Penguin UK ,Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking

Pages: 304 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction, women’s fiction

My Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

Troy has fallen. The Greeks have won their bitter war. They can return home as victors - all they need is a good wind to lift their sails. But the wind has vanished, the seas becalmed by vengeful gods, and so the warriors remain in limbo - camped in the shadow of the city they destroyed, kept company by the women they stole from it.

The women of Troy.

Helen - poor Helen. All that beauty, all that grace - and she was just a mouldy old bone for feral dogs to fight over.

Cassandra, who has learned not to be too attached to her own prophecies. They have only ever been believed when she can get a man to deliver them.

Stubborn Amina, with her gaze still fixed on the ruined towers of Troy, determined to avenge the slaughter of her king.

Hecuba, howling and clawing her cheeks on the silent shore, as if she could make her cries heard in the gloomy halls of Hades. As if she could wake the dead.

And Briseis, carrying her future in her womb: the unborn child of the dead hero Achilles. Once again caught up in the disputes of violent men. Once again faced with the chance to shape history.

Masterful and enduringly resonant, ambitious and intimate, The Women of Troy continues Pat Barker's extraordinary retelling of one of our greatest classical myths, following on from the critically acclaimed The Silence of the Girls.

My Thoughts

‘As a woman living in this camp, I was navigating a complex and dangerous world’

In The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker gave women, who up until now were mostly ‘silenced’ with regards to the story of the Trojan War, a voice. She continues Briseis story in her follow up, The Women of Troy and, once more through the female characters who lie in the background of this ancient Greek epic, women continue to have their voice.

‘Only two Trojans in the camp? There were hundreds of Trojans in the camp; but they were women and women are invisible. An advantage, perhaps?’

Troy has fallen, Achilles is dead and the Greeks are awaiting the weather to improve for their return journey home. Interestingly, Pat gives some insight into Pyrrhus, Achilles’s son, who is struggling in the wake of his father’s legacy. Although this instalment may appear subdued compared to the first, there is still nuance regarding the fallout and dangers of playing the waiting game. 

‘I followed her gaze and saw, through her eyes, Troy’s black and broken towers, like the fingers of a half-buried hand pointing accusingly at the sky.’

Briseis was an incredibly well written character, demonstrating great strength and compassion to the women around her. A real sisterhood develops as they comfort and support one another. Briseis demonstrates great resilience in the face of such harrowing circumstances and is able to inspire and encourage those around her.

‘The watching women moved closer, gathering round her where she knelt on the filthy sand, joining their cries with hers – until they turned from women into wolves, the same terrible howl coming from a hundred throats. And I howled with them, horrified at the sounds I was making, but unable to stop.’

Once again Pat Barker's writing is exceptional as she delves deep into the motivations of her characters. This duology of books truly was the story that needed to be told -  the women who were at the very heart of this iconic tale - whether vanquished or victorious - their story being brave and empowering.

‘Heroic deeds, atrocities –  who’s to say where the line is drawn?’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Wish

 

Title: The Wish

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Publisher: 28th September 2021 by Hachette Australia

Pages: 387 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: romance, contemporary, women’s fiction

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

1996 was the year that changed everything for Maggie Dawes. Sent away at sixteen to live with an aunt she barely knew in Ocracoke, a remote village on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, she could think only of the friends and family she left behind . . . until she meets Bryce Trickett, one of the few teenagers on the island. Handsome, genuine, and newly admitted to West Point, Bryce gradually shows her how much there is to love about the wind-swept beach town—and introduces her to photography, a passion that will define the rest of her life.

By 2019, Maggie is a renowned travel photographer. She splits her time between running a successful gallery in New York and photographing remote locations around the world. But this year she is unexpectedly grounded over Christmas, struggling to come to terms with a sobering medical diagnosis. Increasingly dependent on a young assistant, she finds herself becoming close to him.

As they count down the last days of the season together, she begins to tell him the story of another Christmas, decades earlier—and the love that set her on a course she never could have imagined.

My Thoughts

“It’s a strange thing to know the end is so imminent,” she admitted. “It gives rise to a lot of questions. Makes a person wonder what it’s all about. Sometimes I feel that I’ve led a charmed life, but then, in the next instant, I find myself obsessing over the things I missed out on.”

How special it is to have a book sit with you not only whilst you are lost in its pages, but also during and even after the book is complete. The Wish, I would say, is vintage Nicholas Sparks and here he offers a wonderful story - so grab a cuppa and bring along some tissues … just in case ;)

Sixteen year old Maggie’s life changes when she goes to live with her aunt on a remote island off the coast of North Carolina called Ocracoke. Here she meets Bryce and together they not only become friends but he introduces her to the art of photography which will shape the rest of her life.

Skip forward 23 years and Maggie is now a famous travel photographer who has travelled to many magical locations worldwide and shares a viewing gallery in New York. Yet a devastating medical diagnosis grounds her in the US and necessitates the hiring of some extra assistance to help supervise the gallery. In the days leading up to Christmas, Maggie and the new assistant build a friendship where she regales some of her past - especially that time on the island so long ago. 

This is a special story and delivers on all fronts. Yes, it is heartbreaking (this is Nicholas Sparks remember!) but it is also full of hope and love. Nicholas cleverly delivers a story format he has used in the past - dual time narrative - and it works well with this particular scenario. He writes beautifully of Maggie and, as a reader, you simply want her to savour it all, find joy where she can and with little regret - whether it be with the 16 or near 40 year old Maggie. Her story is sure to touch your heart. There are other characters that will also endear themselves to you through this emotional tale of family expectations, lives loved and lost. 

I most definitely recommend this story for when you just want to lose yourself in classic Nicholas Sparks sentiment with a cup of steaming tea and tissues close by. 

‘It’s important to remember that none of us is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. All we can do is try to be the best version of ourselves as we move forward. In this case, if he asks, you can tell the truth, or you can lie. I suppose it comes down to the kind of person you want to see when you look in the mirror.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Birds of a Feather

 Title: Birds of a Feather

Author: Tricia Stringer

Publisher: 29th September 2021 by Harlequin Australia, HQ & MIRA

Pages: 352 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: contemporary fiction, women’s fiction

My Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

Who will find you when you lose your place in the world?

Full of practical wisdom, this heart-warming novel from a bestselling author celebrates finding help where you least expect it as well as the ties between women that can change - and save - lives.

Eve has been a partner in a Wallaby Bay fishing fleet as long as she can remember. Now they want her to sell - but what would her life be without work? She lives alone, her role on the town committee has been spiked by malicious gossip and she is incapacitated after surgery. For the first time in her life she feels weak, vulnerable - old.

When her troubled god-daughter Julia arrives at Wallaby Bay, she seems to offer Eve a reprieve from her own concerns. But there is no such thing as plain sailing. Eve has another house guest, the abrasive Lucy, who is helping her recuperate and does not look kindly on Julia's desire for Eve's attention.

But Lucy, too, has demons to battle and as each woman struggles to overcome their loss of place in the world, they start to realise that there may be more that holds them together, than keeps them apart.

But will these birds of feather truly be able to reinvent what family means? Or will the secrets and hurts of the past shatter their precarious hold on their new lives ... and each other?

My Thoughts

‘Sometimes you just get sick of fighting to keep your head above water.’

Birds of a Feather is the latest offering from Aussie favourite Tricia Stringer. Her books always strike a chord with her faithful following. On this occasion, Tricia gives us a multi generational family drama but with the emphasis on what exactly is family? A fantastic theme to ponder in these new and uncertain times.

Tricia brings together three very different women under the same roof - none of them are technically family - yet they embrace to be a ‘family’ for each other in their time of need. There is the retired Eve who required help after shoulder surgery. Middle aged Julia (Eve’s goddaughter) who has come to stay between jobs. The younger Lucy who is employed by Eve to assist with her recuperation. 

‘I wasn’t perfect and neither was life … we have to make adjustments and understand that we all have foibles and make mistakes. It’s how we deal with the lumps and bumps of life that make us.’

Each of the women are at a stage of their life where they have questions and concerns. Currently living under the same roof, they come together through cups of tea or glasses of wine to provide the support that a family traditionally would. As they talk about their past or present dilemmas an unlikely friendship forms.

‘Well,” she said. “You really are b …” She harrumphed again. “You really are birds of a feather.” Then she turned on her heel and left the hall. Norma scurried after her. Lucy shook her head. “Was that meant as an insult?’

Once more Tricia proves her mastery at highlighting current issues many face. Whether it be purposeful living in retirement, expectations of marriage or challenges faced by FIFO families as a few examples, she sensitively addresses these very real life situations for people. Written in 2020 Tricia addresses the elephant in the room - the Covid pandemic. She explains that in her small way she wished to pay tribute to the front line workers and, although not a priority in the story, Tricia does acknowledge its existence and impact.

‘We have to learn how to stop being controlled by it. Things happen in life, good and bad; you chalk them up to experience and move on. It took me a long time to work through that.’

This book is cleverly crafted to provide three inter generational viewpoints on a range of contemporary issues. It provides much to consider and contemplate. I only wish I could sit around with Eve, Julia and Lucy to have a cuppa whilst sharing our fears and failures, our hopes and dreams. 

‘It’s made me rethink many things. To begin with I was looking backwards, wishing life was how it had been before, but now I think I need to focus on a future where I may need to do some things differently.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.