Monthly Archives: January 2015

The Silk Thief by Deborah Challinor – 2014

Posted on January 17, 2015 by alysonebaker

The Silk Thief is the latest and third of four books in Challinor’s The Convict Girls series.  I hadn’t read the previous two and that wasn’t a bad thing, as I loved being plunged into the deep end of the … Continue reading →

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The Stove and the Stage by Des O’Regan – 2014

Posted on January 9, 2015 by alysonebaker

The Stove and the stage is the tale of Danny Mulligan who arrives in Constant Bay, Charleston in the early 1870s.  But Danny doesn’t arrive for the gold; Danny is an entertainer, and seemingly escaping a shady past in Ireland.  … Continue reading →

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Dawn Chorus by Ray Ching – 2014

Posted on January 5, 2015 by alysonebaker

What an absolutely stunning book.  Dawn Chorus, like Ching’s previous Aesop’s Kiwi Fables (2012), re-imagines Aesop’s moral tales with New Zealand animals as the protagonists.  Dawn Chorus frames the fables with a tale about Aesop himself, in which he posthumously … Continue reading →

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Landscape with Solitary Figure by Shonagh Koea – 2014

Posted on January 2, 2015 by alysonebaker

“… when you return to where you belong you find that you belong there no longer”, Landscape With Solitary Figure is the beautiful but quite ominous reminiscence of Ellis Leigh, a woman who has isolated herself in a cottage a … Continue reading →

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Purgatory by Rosetta Allan – 2014

Posted on January 1, 2015 by alysonebaker

What a wonderfully imagined novel, and so well executed.  Its focal point is the 1865 Otahuhu Murders, and the times have been meticulously researched, resulting in rich and engrossing story-telling.  The tale is told from two points of view: that … Continue reading →

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