Book Reviews for Booklovers from The Booklover • March

This Month's Must Read:

The Huntress
Kate Quinn  $35

On the icy edge of Soviet Russia, bold and reckless Nina Markova joins the infamous Night Witches – an all-female bomber regiment – wreaking havoc on Hitler’s eastern front. But when she is downed behind enemy lines and thrown across the path of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress, Nina must use all her wits to survive. British war correspondent Ian Graham has witnessed the horrors of war from Omaha Beach to the Nuremburg Trials. He abandons journalism after the war to become a Nazi hunter, yet one target eludes him: the Huntress. Fierce, disciplined Ian joins forces with reckless, cocksure Nina, the only witness to escape the Huntress alive. In post-war Boston, 17-year-old Jordan McBride is delighted when her long-widowed father brings home a fiancee. But Jordan grows increasingly disquieted by the soft-spoken German widow who seems to be hiding something. Delving into her new stepmother’s past, Jordan slowly realises that a Nazi killer may be hiding in plain sight. Shining a light on a shadowy corner of history, The Huntress is an epic, sweeping Second World War novel from the acclaimed author of the bestseller The Alice Network.


The Fourth Shore
Virginia Baily  $38

From the popular author of the bestseller Early One Morning. Liliana’s beloved husband has been dead six months when she finds a roll of banknotes in a drawer with a note: Treat yourself to something nice, love. The same morning, in her local cafe, she spies the headline on La Republica: two men have been shot and injured in Rome and it is suspected that Libya’s Colonel Gadaffi is behind it. When she reads the name of one of the victims, Abrama Cattaneo, the last forty years of her life in England – not speaking Italian, never mentioning her Italian family – disappear in an instant. She is transported back to her years in Italy and in Tripoli, and she realises that Cattaneo, a poet, is the nephew she last saw when he was a baby. Immediately she knows what she must do. She boards a plane to Rome, where she plans to reclaim the life that she failed to have – her real life. Moving between past and present, to explore Liliana’s years as a young woman in Tripoli under Italian occupation, The Fourth Shore shines a light on a forgotten period of brutal repression and once again shows that the emotionally crippling effects of war linger for decades after the fighting has stopped. 


Womankind: New Zealand Women Making a Difference
Margie Thomson & Simon Young  $65

A landmark book of profiles and portraits celebrating the achievements and diversity of New Zealand women across many spheres – politics, arts, science, community development, business innovation and health. These leaders share their views on what it is like to be a woman in New Zealand today – the contributions they are most proud of, challenges they have faced and still face, dreams they have and goals for the role of New Zealand women. The range of women covers diverse fields, ages and ethnic backgrounds – from household names like Helen Clark, Jenny Shipley and Jacinda Ardern, Malvina Major and Anne Salmon, Margaret Sparrow and Portia Woodman, to unsung heroines of the suburbs – a Kiwi Samoan scientist, the first Indian-born female police officer, and a maker of coffins! These women have set out to make a difference in the world, whether on a global stage or in their local communities.


10-a-Day the Easy Way
James Wong  $40

Acclaimed botanist, science writer and broadcaster James Wong says: Eating healthily can be a confusing business. But what if there were a single, simple change you could make that would transform your health, without forcing you to give up the foods you love? According to a growing body of international studies, little tweaks to your everyday diet to get you beyond the 5-a-day minimum and towards 10-a-day could slash your risk of developing the biggest diseases to affect the Western world. Experts agree that simply eating more fruit and veg is the single most important dietary change you can do for your health! As only 3 out of 10 people are even achieving the minimum amount of fruit and veg, this book aims to make getting there easy. Wong presents 80 of the classic recipes you know and love made healthier (and tastier) by simply upping the amount of fruit and veg in them, all backed by the best science available.


Issue 96 March 2019