Cecelia Ahern
PS, I love you
This is one of those books where you get exactly what you expect to get. It’s a heartbreakingly sweet love story that WILL make you cry. In the story a young couple, Holly and Gerry, are torn apart when Gerry dies after struggling with a brain tumour. Gerry’s death, predictably, tears Holly’s world apart but in order to ease her into her new life Gerry planned ahead. Before his death, he organised letters and events to keep Holly busy and moving forward through her grief. While it would be easy to pass this off as another vapid romance, it really doesn’t belong in that category. There is nothing remotely cheesy about this story it is sweet and sad and even hilarious in places. The fact that a 22 year old could possibly write such honest emotion is astounding. Movie fans can rest assured that the big screen adaptation is worthy of the book. I personally think that it wasn’t as good as the book but the two compliment each other and are different enough to not make reading the book and seeing the movie a waste of time.
-- Anita, St Heliers
Linda Olsson
Let me sing you gentle songs 
This stunning novel has a melodic quality that begins with a title that evokes nurturing and the oral tradition of passing on stories. The jacket of this superb piece of writing is beautifully simple with a hand cupped open with wild strawberries, against a background of white. This is a novel about narrative and the sharing of secrets between two women who inhabit neighbouring houses in the wilderness of a small town in rural Sweden. Each chapter is announced through an evocative title and draws the reader through images that are vibrant and true to life. Reading this novel is a sensory experience and leaves the reader with a feeling of peace and reflection on the power of stories to create intimacy amongst people.
-- Sue W, St Heliers
Lloyd Jones
Here at the end of the world we learn to dance
The well deserved success of Lloyd Jones’ Man Booker nominated novel, Mister Pip will no doubt generate interest in his other works. Having read this book I can confirm Jones’ beautifully poetic stylistic achieved without an over cluttering of words, is obviously a trademark of his writing. In this novel, Jones’ presents a stunning tale of the power of Latin American dance to both demonstrate a passion between two lovers, as well as plant the seeds of passion within a new partnership. The novel contains a central couple who relate and grow in love for one another through the medium of dance, whilst also providing an accompanying tale of a bygone love affair also using dance as its conduit. The novel is stunning in its layout and while gentle in tone, will earn the admiration of the reader through the subtlety in which Jones manages to evoke the tempo and passion of the Latin American dance.
- Xena, St Heliers
Belinda Jones
Café Tropicana
Jones is a highly underrated writer of fluffy feel good books that, yes, admittedly appeal to youngish women. She writes about situations that nobody would mind finding them selves in and sets all the action in exotic and beautiful but trendy locations. In Café Tropicana, we’re in Costa Rica in the middle of a competition for a fathers attention and control of a café. With sexy but never sleazy men and beautiful but nice women, this is a definite page-turner. Take it to the beach or save it for a rainy summer afternoon. Perhaps not quite as fun as “The Paradise Room”, Jones’ other tome, this is a fantastic way to while away a couple of hours.
-- Anita, St Heliers
Don DeLillo 
Falling man
Following on from the horrific events from 9/11, many authors have used this event as the starting point to examine the impact on various people’s life. The juxtaposition of a tragedy of such macroscopic scale, and the microscopic details of everyday life for each individual, gives a sense of the displacement and surreal disbelief in the time immediately following 9/11. This novel is an important addition to such literature, and is heartbreaking in its attention to small details and state of shock that individual people operate in after the event. The novel tracks a small group of characters including a young suicide bomber. This is a sombre, thought provoking, and sensitively written novel.
-- Sue W, St Heliers
Juilan Barnes
Before She Meet Me 
What starts out as a seemingly healthy, strong romantic attachment between two people, stealthily descends into a dangerous and perverse obsession for the male partner in the relationship. The skill in the writing is the initial normalcy of Graham, the male within the story. The fact that he starts off as such a credible, unremarkable character, makes his snowballing obsession and pathology of jealousy towards his partner’s history, eerie to witness. For those of you fully conversant with their partner’s foibles, this novel will make you thankful their traits do not involve a form of psychopathology. A chilling an engrossing read.
-- Sue W, St Heliers
Ronald Hug Morrieson
Came a Hot Friday
Acclaimed New Zealand writer Maurice Shadbolt claims that this is ‘the funniest book ever written by a New Zealander’ and he may well be right. Many people in N.Z will be familiar with the film version starring the classic comedian Billy T James as the Te Whakinga kid, a kind of Taranaki cowboy crossed with Don Quixote, but fewer would have read this delightful and rollicking Kiwi adventure.
Written by lifelong Naki man Ronald Hugh Morrieson (described as ‘a heavy drinker and a likeable man’) in 1964, this book is very much a Kiwi classic. Morrieson is perhaps better known for his darker novels, such as the scarecrow, but this one is all fun and adventure with chapter headings such as ‘Mayhen at Midnight’ and ‘Skullduggery afoot’.
This book is a good fun read with a wonderfully nostalgic kiwiana feel.
-- Kim
Mary Gaitskill
Two girls, fat and thin.
I love Mary Gaitskill, I haven’t been this excited over a contemporary author in ages. After reading Veronica, a nominee for the National Book Award, I had to read just about everything she’d written, as quickly as possible. My favourite so far has been Two girls, fat and thin. This novel is essentially about the weird and often sexual nature of female friendship and how childhood can affect your adult life. Justine is a (thin) sophisticated journalist type with an interest in sadomasochism, who was once one of the mean girls in junior high. Dorothy is a shy fat nerd, who spent most of her youth indoors, and once was a member of a strange philosophical movement.
They meet when Justine decides to write an article about the group Dorothy once belonged to, the Definitists. As they get to know each other, details of their pasts emerge and parallel what is happening to them in the present. I think this is one of the smartest, most beautifully written books I have ever read – I just can’t get over how uncomfortably accurate Gaitskill’s renditions of people’s private, inner words are. It feels like she is reading your diary, or listening in on the thoughts you have that no one else hears.
-- Elisabeth, Central
James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Step on a crack
Mike Bennett is a homicide detective with a difference - he has ten adopted children, and his wife is in a hospital ward losing her battle with cancer. Heading up to Christmas things take a turn for the worst when the funeral of the former First Lady is taken over by a group of hijackers who are well armed in a well planned and executed attack. The victims are the cream of the crop, the ransom that can be demanded is huge - and the threat is very real. Drawn back into the world of negotiating, Mike soon finds himself drawn in to the mess as he tries to broker a deal with the leader of the hijackers who wants to be known as Jack. But Jack is playing a deeper game than Mike realises and unless he can work out what is really happening then he could be the face of the worst press release that the NYPD has ever had to face.
Another fast paced novel from one of crimes most prolific authors of the past decade. This is a novel that you don't want to put down because you never know what will happen next. Hopefully there will be more Mike Bennett books in the future.
-- Erika, Central
Michael Wallner
April in Paris
 The title April in Paris suggests a lighthearted romance in Paris. The title page cover however, has a Nazi swastika emblem which is an obvious indicator of the dark side of life in Paris during the German occupation of Paris during the Second World War.
Rolf, a young French speaking German soldier based in Paris, initially has a cushy job as an interpreter in the army. Then he is transferred to become an interpreter for the Gestapo, the German military section established to seek out enemies and traitors by whatever means possible.
His job soon becomes so intolerable that he seeks solace by acting as a Frenchman in dress and language in his off duty hours. His life becomes more complicated when he is attracted to a French girl and is also blackmailed by a German woman working in the Gestapo office. If this all sounds a little improbable, the author does well in creating a sense of fear, and racking up the suspense against a background of those French people working in opposition to the Occupation. This is an unusual, yet convincingly written story by a young German writer which held my interest throughout.
-- Maureen, Glen Innes
Dennis Cooper
Try
 Although his subject matter is pretty disturbing, Dennis Cooper is worth reading – he’s another one of those 'edgy' types that I thought were annoying but ended up liking. Something about his writing style really appeals to me, I think it is mostly his dialogue – he knows how teenage boys talk – or the way he uses the word ‘whatever’ a lot. Try centres around Ziggy, a nervous and needy bisexual teenager brought up by two sexually abusive fathers (one of whom narrates the book, while commenting on Ziggy’s physical features). In Ziggy’s seedy suburban world, things like incest, child pornography and necrophilia are pretty much the norm. He even interviews his creepy uncle with a thirteen-year-old boy he’s picked up, for his zine on sexual abuse.
It’s a really teenage book, in that the adult characters either aren’t there, or are empty sex-obsessed paedophiles, while the teen characters are quite charming and innocent. You might not believe me, but this is actually a very appealing book and is kind of a love story. It’s probably Cooper’s most accessible work too, eek. Hey, it’s ART.
-- Elisabeth, Central
Belinda Jones
The paradise room
 In order to get full value out of this book you have to suspend your inner cynic. Belinda Jones puts the ultimate fantasy down on paper and does it so well you almost feel like it happened to you. Our heroine gets reluctantly (yes, reluctantly!) dragged along with her partner on a business trip to Tahiti in an attempt to give some hope to their dying relationship. She is a rain person who loves to wear as many clothes as possible and splash through puddles in her gumboots. Her partner is a jewel merchant and is personally very rich and so not only is she in paradise, she is in paradise in five star style. The story from here is completely predictable fun. Along the way towards the inevitable conclusion, we see a lot of Tahiti, which seems so perfect that it can’t possibly be real. This is a really cool book that paints such a seductive picture it may just have you running to the nearest travel agent!
-- Anita, Remuera
Barry Maitland
Spider trap
'Cold cases', the expression used to describe crimes which occurred years ago, but were never solved, are making the news these days due to advances in modern detection. Spider Trap brings back D.C.I. Brock and D.S. Kolla to investigate a present day murder scene in an inner London suburb. Very quickly, investigating the current case leads to the discovery of the skeletons of unresolved murders from 20 years ago.
The setting, a West Indian based community, with its own particular troubles, food and markets appears quite authentic. Just as effectively, the ups and downs of police investigations, combined with good plotting and characterisations, make for a satisfying read.
-- Maureen, Glen Innes
Sarah-Kate Lynch
The house of Peine
I am a fan of Sarah-Kate’s but have to admit that this didn’t impress me to begin with. The book reads like a debut, but of course it's not. Sarah-Kate really enjoys the good things in life and her extensive research is obvious. Novel number five is a celebration of champagne, both the drink and the wine producing area in France where the name of the fizzy drink was originally coined. If you can put up with the amateur writing and stick it out through the clunky first chapters this is actually a really fun read that completely grows on you. It’s not high literature, but then it's not claiming to be. The house of Peine is perfect brain candy for devouring in one sitting on a weekend afternoon. I’m sure you will enjoy it, but you probably won't remember it after a week.
-- Anita, Remuera
Tess Gerritsen
The Mephisto club
This is the latest book in the series that started with The surgeon and The apprentice, and has continued on through four gripping novels of suspense and mystery.
In this latest offering a young woman is found murdered under gruesome circumstances and Detective Rizzoli and her partner Detective Frost are called in on the case, along with medical examiner Maura Isles. Even though the murder is gruesome and puzzling, the strangest aspect of the case begins when Rizzoli and Isles learn about the existence of the Mephisto club. The club is shrouded in mystery, and it soon becomes apparent that they know more than they are telling the police.
A gripping novel that was impossible to put down and expertly woven around a dark and mysterious story that will have you on the edge of your seat from the opening pages to the frantic finale.
-- Erika, Central
Célestine Hitiura Vaite
Breadfruit / Frangipani / Tiare
 This trilogy of stories is set in Tahiti away from the glittering tourist trails. They tell the story of Materena and her family. Each book records a different period of her life. They can be read separately but once you read one that will be impossible and you will definitely be heading back to the library for the next one. The stories are simple but the characters are so well crafted that you can’t help but develop a keen interest in how their lives turn out.
There are international themes of family, love and struggle but the author has also managed to infuse a great sense of who the Tahitian people are and what their lives are like. If you’re looking for something charming and a little bit different then any or all of these stories will be a good bet
-- Anita, Remuera
Cormac McCarthy
The road
 The new Cormac McCarthy novel follows in the footsteps of his last novel (the excellent No country for old men) in that the language is a lot sparer here than it is in some of his previous works, but his trademark fire and brimstone prose is still there.
A young boy and his father are some of the last remaining people on a post-apocalyptic Earth. We never learn their names or the nature of the planets demise. We do know that there is no wildlife left and that a total lack of food has driven many to cannibalism. The novel traces the journey they make southwards; along the remaining highways of civilisation towards the coast. Aside from the constant threat of starvation, they must always be on the look out for bands of ‘road warriors’ - packs of cannibals that frequent the countryside, preying on the weak.
It is the contrast of the boys (slowly diminishing) innocence and inherent goodwill towards others set against his fathers square-jawed, and at times heartless, survival instincts that ultimately make this a compelling read.
-- Ben, Central
JG Ballard
Millennium people
It’s post 9/11 London, and a revolution is beginning to spark in the affluent middle class, who are sick of feeling trapped by maintenance charges and careers that go nowhere. Residents of exclusive gated estates are burning their possessions, refusing to pay bills and revolting against all that represents (and restricts) their class – art galleries, museums and arthouse movie theatres.
The story begins when a bomb goes off at Heathrow airport, killing psychiatrist David Markham’s ex-wife. Obsessed with the tragedy, Markham starts attending protests in the hope of finding those responsible and gets drawn into the terrorist group’s inner circle, lead by a charismatic ex-paediatrician, who preaches that unnecessary, meaningless violence “carries a significance of its own”.
I found this to be the kind of book best read consistently over a couple of days, in order to keep completely entangled in the mysteries and twists within. While being serious, intense and scary, it’s also really quite funny – after the biggest revolt is over, residents of the Chelsea housing estate roll their burnt out Volvos back into the correct garages. Millennium people contains what you’d want in a JG Ballard novel – lots of paranoia, unnerving suspense and excellent writing.
-- Elisabeth
Dan Fesperman
The warlord's son
The author creates a gripping atmosphere of danger and double dealing as an ageing American journalist tries to obtain an exclusive story about the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Every Westerner needs a 'fixer' to help smooth the way and avoid the pitfalls whilst in the Pakistan frontier lands and Afghanistan. The 'fixer' is Najeef who has his own reasons for not wanting to revisit his homeland. Add to the mix the Pakistan Intelligence Service who put their own pressure on Najeef and his girlfriend who is trying to escape the traditional arranged marriage by her family. An enthralling read for those who enjoy a well written and thoughtful adventure story.
--Maureen, Glen Innes
Jeffry P. Lindsay
Darkly dreaming Dexter
Dexter is charming, has a good job, albeit a bit odd, but what sets him apart is his hobby, Dexter manages not to let his hobby interfere with his job – blood splatter analyst by day, serial killer by night. Dexter follows ‘The Harry Code’, advice laid down by his foster father, a cop. Harry saw in Dexter his need to kill and guided Dexter into utilising it – and not getting caught. Dexter is, in a way, one of the good guys – there are plenty of people out there who deserve a visit from Dexter on a moonlit night.
Now Dexter has a problem. There’s another serial killer out there with a very familiar MO. Dexter provides insights into the killer’s thought processes to his sister, Deborah, a vice cop wanting to move up the ranks. It’s so familiar Dexter wonders what he’s been doing in his sleep.
Darkly dreaming Dexter is violent, disturbing, but charming. Just like the hero and narrator. There is a sequel Dearly devoted Dexter – next on my reading list.
--Annie
Alan Moore
Voice of the fire
Throughout the 1980s Alan Moore was a powerful presence in the world of English and American comics. With works, such as V for vendetta and Watchmen, he helped redefine a maligned medium. Then in the late eighties, at the height of his commercial success, he broke with his publishers, DC Comics, and dropped from sight. For the next few years his work would be an eclectic series of projects that barely paid the rent. The most personal of these was his first prose novel, Voice of the fire.
Set in Moore’s native Northampton, Fire is a series of short stories covering a 5,000 year period, each narrated by a unique, doomed voice. Caveman and witch, Templar and salesman, poet and shaman, all linked by a dark repetition of image and event. Betrayal and murder, spectral dogs and angel languages, fire and spite, magic and delusion, these are the occult gears that drive these tales, these are the repetitive forces that surface again and again, as the years, and the pages, turn. This book is magic.
--Kelly
Anne and Todd McCaffrey
Dragon’s fire
This is the second book that Todd McCaffrey has co-written with his mother in one of the most loved created world’s featuring heroic men and women and their dragons. As with the previous novel Dragon's kin, Todd and Anne have focused on a part of Pern’s history that has previously been untouched. Dragon's fire unfolds like a true Pern novel building up in layers that pulled together a cast that at first seems alarmingly large into a deftly written novel that rivals many of the previous Pern novels for a creating a deeper understanding of the heroes and villains of Perns past. People who have hesitated about reading this novel because it is a collaboration should try it as I was in no way disappointed in the quality of the writing – or my ability to immerse myself in the world that I have known and loved for so long.
Todd has a love and understanding of Pern that no one else can have because he has grown up among the men, women, and dragons of that world for so long.
-- Erika
Daniel Handler
The Basic Eight
Chances are you’ve already read a book by Daniel Handler, or at least seen the movie – he’s behind Lemony Snicket’s A series of unfortunate events. The Basic eight is his first novel for adults and older teens, a black comedy about an exclusive group of precocious teenagers, who call themselves “The Basic Eight”. Set in upper-middle class San Francisco, the kids are good looking, rich, intelligent and pretty badass – they drink absinthe, take drugs and have wild parties. Flannery Culp, the protagonist, narrates the book through her annotated high school diaries, commenting on the events that lead up to the climax of the book – a murder. The basic eight covers plenty of teen drama clichés in a hilarious manner; there’s cliques, power battles, body image, absent parents and over the top intellectual teen dialogue (see Dawson’s Creek, 90210 etc). It’s very well written and uses interesting techniques, like satirical “study questions” at the end of each chapter. I cannot begin to recommend Daniel Handler enough, and let it be noted that he also plays accordion in the excellent US pop band the Magnetic Fields.
-- Elisabeth
David Stukas
Someone killed his boyfriend
A large amount of gay fiction I have read tends to be heavy, coming of age, or dealing with the tough issues of gay, bisexual or lesbian life. So in that regard, Someone killed his boyfriend stands out about as brightly as its rainbow coloured cover, and is a refreshing, irreverent read. Michael Starks has slept with just about everyone, so when he settles down it’s as big a shock as his subsequently being stood up at the altar, and discovering his soon to be partner has stolen his Matisse, and then turned up dead! It’s then up to his friend Robert, who is about as opposite to Michael as one can get, and their towering lesbian, crime novel reading sidekick to save the day. What other book can claim the fame of having a drag queen marathon in high heels? A mad and genuinely funny look at the lighter side of the gay scene.
-- Tama
Amy Hempel
The collected stories of Amy Hempel
I keep coming back to Amy Hempel because of the way she is able to describe a situation or feeling just right, by looking at it peripherally. The narrative of one of my favourite stories, ‘Three popes walk into a bar’, in which a stand-up comic is trying to save his marriage, is framed by an attempt to think of a joke. Loss and grief trouble her characters but it’s the humour that makes her stories remarkable. Some people call her work “miniaturist” – small, concise, precise. With this collection of four-books-in-one, I would add that it is best read in little doses.
-- Nick
Julian Barnes
Arthur and George
Prepare yourself to be taken back in time when life was lived at a slower pace in late Victorian and Edwardian years. Britain was at the height of its powers. Class was everything: the rule of law was supreme.
Julian Barnes has written (in the style of the period) an outstanding story based on facts, which looks at the lives of two boys. One, from Edinburgh, grew up to become Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, famous detective writer of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The other, George Edalji, living in central England, was a 'half caste', son of an Indian father and an English mother, who became a hard working solicitor. Though they had little in common, their lives were to become entwined as adults through a series of unhappy events whereby George became an unfortunate victim.
There is much to enthuse over in this story once you have adjusted to the measured pace of writing. The dry, sly humour, the details and minutae of the social mores of the time are a delight.
-- Maureen
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