More Great Reads from the Tamarind Book Club in 2015
Still Alice
The short review: An informative, insightful and compassionate study of Alzheimer's.
This book reminds me how precious and precarious our good health is. Alice, a Harvard professor in Psychology is struck down with early onset Alzheimer's at the peak of her academic career. The book follows her degeneration and her hopeless battle to maintain her life and her memories.
This is an important book written by neuroscientist Lisa Genova. By telling the disease story through Alice and her family, the author had me totally engaged. Highly recommended.
Reviewed by Mary Barber
Tamarind Book Club Convener
This book reminds me how precious and precarious our good health is. Alice, a Harvard professor in Psychology is struck down with early onset Alzheimer's at the peak of her academic career. The book follows her degeneration and her hopeless battle to maintain her life and her memories.
This is an important book written by neuroscientist Lisa Genova. By telling the disease story through Alice and her family, the author had me totally engaged. Highly recommended.
Reviewed by Mary Barber
Tamarind Book Club Convener
A Stroke of Poetry
When Shelagh Brennand was recovering from a stroke that came out of the blue and stalled her perfect life at the age of 49, her brain turned to thinking in verse.
Going with the flow, Shelagh used the verse to write about her recovery journey. Now she has produced a collection of her poems so that others may feel less isolated when dealing with major health issues.
The poems are fresh, genuine and poignant. Ms Brennand has done an admirable job opening her recovery journey and her heart to other people through this book. It's sure to be a comfort to many people going through troubling health issues
and to their friends and family.
This book allows the reader direct access into the struggles and triumphs of a middle-aged woman who had to reassess everything about her day-to-day life after her stroke.
A Stroke of Poetry is an excellent resource for people wanting to learn about stroke and post-stroke depression. I expect it will become recommended reading in university programs before too long.
Reviewed by Mary Barber
Tamarind Book Club Convener
Going with the flow, Shelagh used the verse to write about her recovery journey. Now she has produced a collection of her poems so that others may feel less isolated when dealing with major health issues.
The poems are fresh, genuine and poignant. Ms Brennand has done an admirable job opening her recovery journey and her heart to other people through this book. It's sure to be a comfort to many people going through troubling health issues
and to their friends and family.
This book allows the reader direct access into the struggles and triumphs of a middle-aged woman who had to reassess everything about her day-to-day life after her stroke.
A Stroke of Poetry is an excellent resource for people wanting to learn about stroke and post-stroke depression. I expect it will become recommended reading in university programs before too long.
Reviewed by Mary Barber
Tamarind Book Club Convener
The Girl on the Train
This is a gripping first novel by British journalist Paula Hawkins. More than just a thriller, it would make a great book club read as there's plenty to discuss. Without giving too much away, here's a short review:
Rachel, with her alcoholism, was a flawed central character. Most of the action takes place around a row of houses backing onto a commuter train line. If you’ve ever looked out a train window and imagined other people’s lives, you will be able to relate to this.
The diary format worked well. It gave me a convincing look at three main characters, Rachel, Megan and Anna and their domestic lives.
There is a murder early in the novel and Rachel is struggling to retrieve her memory of that night, initially worried that she may have been involved in some way.
It’s a page-turner.
Reviewed by Mary Barber
Tamarind Book Club Convener
Rachel, with her alcoholism, was a flawed central character. Most of the action takes place around a row of houses backing onto a commuter train line. If you’ve ever looked out a train window and imagined other people’s lives, you will be able to relate to this.
The diary format worked well. It gave me a convincing look at three main characters, Rachel, Megan and Anna and their domestic lives.
There is a murder early in the novel and Rachel is struggling to retrieve her memory of that night, initially worried that she may have been involved in some way.
It’s a page-turner.
Reviewed by Mary Barber
Tamarind Book Club Convener
Golden Boys Packs a Punch
This is Sonya Hartnett's first foray into adult fiction. And it's a winner.
Golden Boys is set in the suburbs of an Australian town. It follows the lives of the Kiley children and their new neighbours, the Jensons. BMX bikes, forbidden drains to explore, a backyard pool, this seems to have all the ingredients for a perfect summer.
Only that's not to be. Sonya Hartnett builds a sense of dread. Ultimately adults have the power to endanger and destroy a child's world of play forever.
I highly recommend this powerful book.
Reviewed by Mary Barber
Tamarind Book Club Convener
Golden Boys is set in the suburbs of an Australian town. It follows the lives of the Kiley children and their new neighbours, the Jensons. BMX bikes, forbidden drains to explore, a backyard pool, this seems to have all the ingredients for a perfect summer.
Only that's not to be. Sonya Hartnett builds a sense of dread. Ultimately adults have the power to endanger and destroy a child's world of play forever.
I highly recommend this powerful book.
Reviewed by Mary Barber
Tamarind Book Club Convener
