Staff faves...May2023

Published on 28 March 2023

Jann recommends The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams

This is a great historical fiction read, especially if you’re interested in women’s fight for equality particularly in education and the workplace. Whilst it’s a work of fiction, the author has carried out thorough research and is based in historical fact which I found fascinating. Having visited Oxford, I also loved the familiarity of the buildings and place.

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 Sue recommends Weather by Jenny Offiill

Short paragraphs. Clipped sentences. In this short book Jenny Offill portrays the angst in tricky personal relationships, and gives the reader a sense of unease by oscillating between describing the mundane and the enormity of climate change. This book is at once compelling and unnerving, and starkly reflects our existence as we grapple with the zeitgeist of this fragmented world. This gem was Shortlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction.

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Anne recommends The Sun Walks Down, by Fiona McFarlane

An historical novel set in South Australia … with descriptions of landscape, relationships between different people within families and communities within the context of the time of the novel, and the lives of early land owners and settlers … It centres around a 6 year old boy getting lost in a dust storm … and the community pulling together to look for him …

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Debbie recommends Red Dirt Road by S.R. White

It was excellent / gripping. Even though outback town settings are now popular, it was written sufficiently differently to be very engaging. Perhaps a reflection of the author being British. 

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