Birkenhead Bookchats July 2010

Violinist Michael Holme is overwhelmed by memories of Julia McNicholl, a pianist whose beauty was as mesmerizing as her musical genius, and whom Michael loved with an intensity he never found again. Years after parting, Michael is still in love with Julia. After a chance meeting, he persuades Julia to join his quartet on its tour of Vienna. Although Julia is now happily married and the mother of two children, and is reluctant to lead a double life, they once again become lovers. But circumstances will doom their love, for while Julia still performs publicly, she's losing her hearing; her reunion with Michael is an idyll that can't last.

A shocking truth lies within the pages of an ancient library, locked inside a high-security complex deep beneath the Nevada desert. And the US government will stop at nothing to keep it classified. But now a shadowy group of ex-employees want the world to know however terrifying the disclosure might prove to be.

"Boom town, modern marvel, commercial hub, where middle-east meets wealthy west, playground for tourists, crawling with ex-pats, built by Indians, owned by Arabs, Dubai has risen from next to nothing to an awful lot in little more than thirty years. How? And can it go on? Has it sold itself to the corporate dollar? Is it anything more than a mall in the desert? Will the sands return? Joe Bennett goes to find out" -Publisher's description.

Thirteen stories with older women given the starring role. Coping with sweeping changes in family and society values, they know about loss, ingratitude, yearning and grief, but also about loyalty, stamina, laughter and love.

During a season in Bath, Catherine Morland meets Henry and Eleanor Tilney and is invited to Northanger Abbey, the home of their father, General Tilney. Hearing exaggerated reports of Catherine's wealth, the General encourages her to marry his son. Austen mocks the gothic genre in this novel.

"Another season of Elm Creek Quilt Camp has come to a close, and Bonnie Markham faces a bleak and lonely winter ahead, with her quilt shop out of business and her divorce looming. A welcome escape comes when Claire, a beloved college friend, unexpectedly invites her to Maui to help launch an exciting new business: a quilter's retreat set at a bed and breakfast amid the vibrant colors and balmy breezes of the Hawaiian Islands.

In 1969 in Kerala, India, Rahel and her twin bother, Estha, struggle to forge a childhood for themselves amid the destruction of their family life, as they discover that the entire world can be transformed in a single moment.

"The behind-the-scenes story of the world's most famous palace, painting a picture of the way its residents truly lived and examining the palace's legacy, from French history through today. The story of Versailles is one of historical drama, under the last three kings of France's old regime, mixed with the high camp and glamour of the European courts, all in an iconic home for the French arts. The palace itself has been radically altered since 1789, and the court was long ago swept away. "Versailles" sets out to rediscover what is now a vanished world: a great center of power, seat of royal government, and, for thousands, a home both grand and squalid, bound by social codes almost incomprehensible to us today. Using eyewitness testimony as well as the latest historical research, Spawforth offers the first full account of Versailles in English in over thirty years.

A collection of 24 short stories by one of New Zealand's top living writers of short stories. These stories explore the worlds of small-town communities, their loves and losses, their dreams and everyday lives.

When he was 15, Kevin murdered seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker, and a teacher. Here, our narrator, Kevin's mother, Eva, tells the story of his upbringing to her estranged husband through a series of letters. Who is to blame for teenage atrocity?

According to author Lear and the memory experts she taps in the book, the memory lapses that begin in middle age are typically no cause for alarm. In fact, remembering less in later years is rarely a sign of Alzheimer's or any other scary memory-loss condition. It's just a part of normal aging. On her hunt for answers, Lear explores why names are the first things to go and what can be done about it, why we forget certain things on purpose, why we forget more than our parents did and in which cases our brains are actually doing us a favor by letting go of certain knowledge. Weaving together insight from psychologists, neuroscientists, and evolutionary biologists with rich and often hilarious anecdotes, Lear offers reassurance and hope to the millions of forgetful baby boomers. -

Tracing the route of an ordinary pair of underpants from their purchase in New Zealand back to where they were made, Bennett has created a wonderfully funny and insightful look at the nature of global trade and the rise of the new China, the factory of the world.