Victoria Park by Gemma Reeves

We follow the lives of different people who live around a park in London, for a year. Each chapter tells a different character’s perspective, in a different month. Through an older married couple coming to terms with the wife’s Alzheimer’s, the couple trying to conceive through IVF, the teenagers working out who they are, the older woman no longer able to care for herself, and more, we reflect on life; what makes it worthwhile, how our choices affect others, the struggles of marriage, parenthood, love, making a living. The way the stories interconnect highlights the power of connection and community, and the beauty in ordinary things.

The secret ingredient by Dianne Blacklock

A modern Australian women’s story that was engaging and easy to read. After 10 years of marriage to Ross, it is over after Andie finds he has cheated on her. Andie now has to rediscover what she wants from life. It is a story of messy relationships and achieving your dream.

I’ll be your blue sky by Marisa De Los Santos

In the days leading up to her wedding, Clare is uneasy and meets an elderly lady who gives her the confidence to call it off. Not long afterwards, Clare finds that the lady has left her a house, which sends her off on a quest to solve a mystery, and bring healing. Set both in the 1950s and modern day, it’s a romantic page-turner with endearing characters, banter, intrigue and bookishness. The language was a little flowery for me at times, but on the whole it had a gentle, nostalgic feel. It sensitively deals with the heavy topic of domestic violence, and is hopeful and sweet, without being cloying.

Sorrow and bliss by Meg Mason

Such a story for our times, really funny, terribly sad, and so much like life. Martha struggles with her mental health and her upbringing, but her husband loves and cares for her, until she learns something that makes things really fall apart. It’s about modern life, love, marriage, parenthood, and responsibility. It reminded me a little of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and Rabbits for Food, but was more hopeful than either of those; less bleak, and so funny, with a London and Oxford setting.

Purple roads by Fleur McDonald

When fertilizer is stolen, it’s the last straw, and Matt and Anna have to sell the farm. As the marriage falls apart Matt has to find out wo was behind the theft. This was a well paced romantic suspense story that also explores rural hardships, Vietnam veterans, friendships and marriage breakdown.

So much life left over by Louis de Bernieres

This book is a sequel, yet I managed to love it without having read the first book. Set after WWI, and into WWII,in Ceylon, England, and Germany, it follows a cast of eccentric, and flawed characters trying to make their way in peace time after the Great War, and find themselves heading towards war again. It’s a novel of relationships, about romantic love, betrayal, parenthood, loyalty, and life. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and look forward to getting the back story once I get hold of the first book.

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Fleishman is in trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Toby Fleishman is a 41 year old liver specialist in New York, recently separated from his wife, and exploring part-time parenthood and the modern dating scene. One day his wife doesn’t arrive to pick up the kids, and everything is turned upside down. I don’t much care for the “dating” scene, and none of the characters are very appealing, but it is a fascinating look at marriage, middle age, upper-middle class New York, belonging, connecting, and what it is to be a woman.

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The strangers we know by Pip Drysdale

This was an entertaining thriller that kept the momentum going throughout the story. Told in a conversational tone by the main character Charlie (which included great asides) it grabbed me from the start and drew me into the story. It also made the story personable – leaving me wondering all the time if I could except Charlie’s version of what happens as the truth?

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Therese Raquin by Emile Zola

A deliciously gothic tale of adultery and murder in a dingy part of Paris, published in 1867. Thérèse Racquin married her sickly cousin but began a passionate affair with Laurent. The pair plotted to murder Thérèse’s husband in order to give full rein to their lust, but the act haunted them in increasingly horrific ways. If you read Nancy Mitford you might think that adultery is an accepted part of French life, but reading Madame Bovary, and especially Thérèse Racquin, will put you off adultery for life!

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The vegetarian by Han Kang

Yeong-hye has a horrible dream, after which she decides to give up meat. This decision is so shocking to her husband, family, and society, that it has serious consequences. The story is told in three separate sections, from the perspective of Yeong-hye’s husband, brother-in-law, and sister, not Yeong-hye herself. It is strange, haunting, disturbing tale of abuse, family bonds, societal expectations, and mental illness. The narration is very well done, by Korean-Americans.

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