Book Reviews

 “There were no women in Nam.” This is the phrase that I remember most and one that is repeated several times throughout this fictional but thoroughly researched historical novel by Kristin Hannah.

The book highlights the vital role women played during the war in Vietnam as medics (but not only) tending to hundreds of injured soldiers in the field hospitals, day in day out. Once back home in the US they were often treated with even less respect or acknowledgement than the soldiers. There’s a love story of course, but Hannah also touches on the anti-war movement, as well as the overriding attitude of the public to the war at the time.

Great storytelling and research by Kristin Hannah with her signature happy ending!

MCFL has copies of the book, ebook and audio books available here.

It took me a while to decide to read this book. It seemed to be about video games and while I loved Zevin’s earlier book, The Storied Life of A J Fikry, I didn’t think I was interested in the world of gaming. I knew nothing about it apart from trying to limit my sons (now 36 and 33!) from their (then limited) access to video games and electronic screens and devices when they were young.
This novel is fantastic! A gorgeous love story, a fascinating insight into gaming but most of all a novel of empathy and sensitivity and friendships and personal growth.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is on several top seller lists, including New York Times best 100 books of the 21st century.

MCFL has copies of the book, ebook and audio books available here.

This is the fifth book by Domenico Starnone to be translated into English and I have loved them all. They are always memorable and written with such sharp, witty prose and wonderful observations.

This novel introduces us to the narrator Mimí, a writer, who looks back at his childhood, recalls his first young love (the girl from Milan), and traces the impact she had on his life through his university years and into adulthood. It’s a coming of age story, a novel about moving up and out of the working class environs of Naples, and a story of the love and devotion of a grandmother for her grandson. Wonderful!

See all of Domenico Starnone’s books available at MCFL here.

If you have read any of Elizabeth Strout’s books you will probably be familiar with the names Olive Kitteridge or Lucy Barton, the narrators or protagonists of several previous works. In this latest book the two characters actually meet and the world’s of all Strout’s previous books converge in this fabulous novel of interlocking stories. Everyone is here… William Lucy’s first Husband from O William and Lucy by the Sea, Tom Burgess and his brother and sister from The Burgess Boys, even brief mentions of Isabel of Isabel and Amy, and of course Olive and Lucy who tell each other stories from their past. Strout’s writing is wonderful, she deals with the everyday lives of ordinary people and shows us that no lives are simply ordinary.
While Lucy and Olive relay stories to each other over the course of several weeks a murder occurs and solved, and this is perhaps the most devastating and beautiful story of all.

MCFL has copies of the book and ebooks here, and there’s many other books as well (here) from this Pulitzer Prize winning author.

The Axeman’s Carnival is such an original, dark and funny novel by New Zealand author Catherine Chidgey. The narrator is Tama, a talking magpie who lives with sheep farmers Marnie and Rob struggling to make ends meet during a prolonged drought. When Tama is rescued by Marnie as a few days old chick he soon becomes a social media star with earning potential and builds a massive following. He is also witness to their failing marriage and his observations and thoughts are often hilarious and spot on. The novel reaches a dramatic conclusion with the arrival of the annual event in town – the axeman’s carnival. Beautifully written, poetic and poignant.

You can order The Axeman’s Carnival here

Wow! What a heartbreaking, powerful, at times hilarious, and very moving novel by Tess Gunty. The main character Blandine lives in a low cost housing development nicknamed The Rabbit Hutch along with various neighbors who become integral to her story. She shares her apartment with three teenage boys who, like her, have all been through the foster care system and are trying to find their way now they are on their own. The final few chapters pack a huge punch after an emotional journey, with and without Blandine, where we witness a snapshot of current day America. The Rabbit Hutch is a beautiful work of art and won The National Book Award in 2022.

MCFL has copies of the book, ebook and audio books available here.

This is a beautiful novel about finding salvation in art. Meet 82 Year Old Honey Fasinga, feisty, glamorous and subsisting on a diet of valium and viognier who returns home to New Jersey after decades working as a patron of the arts in auction houses in New York and Los Angeles. Having escaped her violent childhood ( the eldest daughter of a notorious mobster) she is now ready to reconcile with her past and try to reconnect with her family. The novel has a wonderful cast of characters, and is a gorgeous portrayal of love in all its many forms.

Honey is available from MCFL as an Eaudiobook here

William Boyd is a brilliant storyteller. His novels are always entertaining and surprising and so satisfying! My first introduction to him was through his book Any Human Heart. His latest The Romantic tells the story of Cashel Greville Ross, born in 1799 who travels the world experiencing an incredible array of tragedies and good fortune. He is a soldier, farmer, a prisoner, a writer, a father and lover. We find him in Ireland, France, Zanzibar, Massachusetts and Italy. So cleverly put together – hard to put down!

By the same author: Too many to list but I loved Any Human Heart, Restless, Waiting For Sunrise, Ordinary Thunderstorms, Love is Blind and Sweet Caress

This was such a unique and wonderful short read. After 60 years living in Australia, Helen Cartwright moves back to England to spend her last remaining years. She has lost her son and her husband and the lonely routine of her day causes her to wonder whether life is worth living… until the arrival of an uninvited guest completely transforms her life.

“Sipsworth is a love story about a woman and a mouse. Reason suggests that such a relationship couldn’t possibly work, and yet I found myself pulling for this unlikely duo on every page. Simon Van Booy’s characters are loaded with charm, resilience, and the deep desire for connection that all mammals share. I loved it”.

– ANN PATCHETT, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Dutch House

You can find this book in the MCFL catalog here.
Other books by Simon Van Booy you might like to check out include

• The Illusion of Separateness
• Everything Beautiful Began After

I found this book totally uplifting, charming and hilarious but with a sprinkling of trauma and unexpected violence!  Marjorie Benson gives up her school teaching job to go on an expedition to the South Pacific to find the Golden Beetle of New Caledonia, an insect introduced to her by her father when she was a child. It is 1950 and with an unlikely assistant called Enid Pretty they head off totally ill-prepared but determined in their quest. Like all the best stories their physical journey takes them on an even greater journey of self discovery. Surprising, delightful and beautifully written!

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce is available from MCFL here, along with several of her other novels.

This debut novel by Yael van der Wouden is full of tension and had me intrigued from the first page. The book is set in Holland in the early 1960s  and centers around a house currently occupied by a single woman called Isabel. We learn that Isabel has grown up in the house and that her two brothers, Hendrick and Louis, have moved away. She has an almost obsessive fixation on the inventory of the house and is convinced the maid is stealing things. The siblings often meet for lunch and in the latest instance Louis brings along his girlfriend Eva whom Isabel takes an instant dislike to. Tensions rise when Eva ends up staying at the house for the summer and their relationship takes an unexpected turn. Without giving anything away the final chapters are a harrowing account of Eva’s relationship to the house.

An intense and beautifully written novel – and one that was longlisted for the Booker prize 2024.

A mysterious postcard with no signature or explanation arrives one morning at the author’s mother’s house. Just four names are written on the card – Ephraim, Emma, Noemie, and Jacques, four relatives all killed at Auschwitz. Who sent it and what does it mean? The Postcard by French author Anne Berest is a page-turning true story (in novel form) of one family’s experience during the Holocaust. It was a best seller in France, translated by Tina Kover and winner of the first ever Goncourt Prize US.

The novel is based on extensive research by her mother and later detective work by the author who embarks on a quest to discover the fate of her family she knows so little about, and to find out the meaning behind the arrival of the mysterious post card. Gripping from start to finish!

I must admit that I haven’t actually read Three Men in a Boat but only listened to it on audio narrated by Martin Jarvis. It is one of the funniest laugh-out-loud books I have ever heard!  It is incredible to think that it was written in 1889 and still has much resonance with today. It tells the story of three men who take a boating trip along the Thames River in England – there are lots of cultural and historical facts too!

The three men are based on the author Jerome himself (the narrator ) and two real-life friends, George Wingrave (who would become a senior manager at Barclays Bank) and Carl Hentschel (the founder of a London printing business) called Harris in the book.

Second Best by David Foenkinos imagines the life of the young actor who was runner-up for choice of the character of Harry Potter in the 8 movies following the success of the books by J K Rowling.  Martin Hill is ten years old, crazy about Arsenal and through no real desire of his own makes it to the final two in the casting for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. In the end, the other boy is picked and a devastated Martin tries to move on with his life. Whether you loved Harry Potter or not this book deals brilliantly with rebuilding life after huge disappointment and supposed failure. Translated from French by Megan Jones.

The best novels take you on an unexpected journey and make you stop and think and relate on so many levels. This was one of those! Lessons covers so many aspects of history, politics, culture, family dynamics, marriage, love, loss and grief all through the life experiences of one man – Roland Baines. I was particularly moved, disturbed and fascinated by his wife leaving him and his young baby to enable her creative self to fully function. This would make a fantastic book club choice – so many things to discuss!!

MCFL has Lessons available as a physical book and audiobook, check it out here.
And be sure to check out many of Ian McEwan’s other books here, including Atonement which has received many awards.

I loved this unique novel about a Greek film composer remembering the impact on her life of meeting and working with film director Billy Wilder during the filming of Fedora, set on the island of Corfu. There is her own coming of age story, a touching friendship between two generations, and the story of the end of the golden era of Hollywood. There are lots of references to Wilder both his early days and later life, together with his relationship with his writing partner Iz diamond. Beautifully written.

By the same author: You might like What a Carve Up!, The Rotters Club, Bournville and Middle England

I can’t believe I have only just discovered Niall Williams and feel I should apologize for picking yet another Irish author but I simply cannot help myself. This debut novel was first published in 1997. The writing is beautiful, and the story mind-blowing. And what’s more I have just learnt that it is being made into a movie this year! The setting is Southern Ireland and the story centers on two young characters Nicholas Coughlan and Isabel Gore who live on opposite sides of the country. The plot twists are totally unpredictable, both heartbreaking and heartwarming right to the very end. If I say anymore I will get carried away and ruin your enjoyment. I LOVED this book!

Here’s a link to Four Letters of Love and a couple of other books by Niall Williams that you can borrow from MCFL:

• This is Happiness (Washington Post Best Books of the Year, 2019)
• History of the Rain (Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, 2014)

Go out into the street and the first person you see will be the subject of your next book.

This is the challenge a struggling Parisian writer sets himself, imagining his next heroine might be the mysterious young woman who often stands smoking near his apartment … instead it’s octogenarian Madeleine. She’s happy to become the subject of his book – but first she needs to put away her shopping.

Is it really true, the writer wonders, that every life is the stuff of novels, or is his story doomed to be hopelessly banal? As he gets to know Madeleine and her family, he’ll be privy to their secrets: lost loves, marital problems and workplace worries. And he’ll soon realize he is not the impartial bystander he intended to be, but a catalyst for major changes in the lives of his characters.

The Martins is such a great read. A clever take on the blurred edges between truth and fiction.

(translated from the French by Sam Taylor)

Heritage is a fabulous family saga, brimming with poetry and passion, that skillfully weaves together the private lives of individuals and major historical events in South America and Europe.

The house on Calle Santo Domingo in Santiago de Chile, with its lush lemon trees, has sheltered three generations of the Lonsonier family. Having arrived from the harsh hills of France’s Jura region with a single grape vine in one pocket and a handful of change in the other, the patriarch put down roots there in the late nineteenth century. His son, Lazare, back from World War I’s hellish trenches, would live there with his wife and build in their garden the most beautiful aviary in the Andes. That’s where their daughter Margot, a pioneering aviator, would first dream of flying, and where she would raise her son, the revolutionary Ilario Da. Like Lazare before them, they will bravely face the conflicts of their day, fighting against dictatorship on both sides of the Atlantic. In this captivating and surprisingly short novel, Miguel Bonnefoy paints the portrait of an endearing, uprooted family whose terrible dilemmas, caused by the blows of history, reveal their deep humanity.