JHB West - Dec 22 / Jan 23

A few of our holiday reads ...
Whatever your taste in holiday reads, there’s a wonderful selection this month.
We’ve put these aside to take with us these hols. Santa Montefiore’s Flappy
Investigates is light and rather silly, so perfect for a day on the lounger. All
snobbery and gossip, ardent admirers and parties and small village life. Simon and
Schuster • The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas broke our hearts. And we’ve a feeling John
Boyne’s just released All The Broken Places is going to do it again. It’s the story
of Gretel, sister of Bruno (the protagonist in the first novel), who was 12 when her
brother disappeared, and is now 91, living in London and who has, when a young
family move into the apartment below hers, the chance to expiate her guilt, grief
and remorse and act to save a young boy. Certainly not an easy holiday read, but
quite possibly the one we’re looking forward to the most. Penguin, an Exclusive
Books Festive Favourites read • An Angel’s Demise is Sue Nyathi’s epic saga of love,
war, bloody massacre and betrayal, as well as the cruel caprice of politics, genderbased
violence and what happens when ordinary people get caught up in lies.
Pan Macmillan • It’s 1561 and when sixteen-year-old Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara,
is taken to a country villa by her husband, it occurs to her that he’s taken her there
to kill her. Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait shows the beauty and brutality
of Renaissance Italy, and of a young woman whose proximity to power places
her in mortal danger. Tinder Press • Jodi Picoult. A proper holiday read, since once
you start you struggle to put her books down. In Mad Honey, she co-authors
with Jennifer Finney Boylan, the two alternating chapters in this book that don’t
shy away from difficult subjects, exploring identity and self-acceptance, abuse
and toxic relationships, domestic violence and trust. Hodder and Stoughton,
an Exclusive Books Festive Favourites read • When Tanz discovers the voices she
hears in her head are not, actually, her imagination working overtime, but rather
messages from beyond the grave, a whole new way of life opens for her. And not
a moment too soon, since all has not gone according to plan on the career side.
Tracy Whitwell’s The Accidental Medium is perfect for the beach or long plane
journeys. Macmillan • And what, we ask, would a holiday be without a thriller?
Peter James’ Picture You Dead is a Detective Superintendent Roy Grace novel
... in which he’s plunged into the unfamiliar world of fine art - a world which
appears to be respectable, gentlemanly and above reproach, but which in fact is
all greed, deception and violence. Macmillan
Book notes
The Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch saga
continues in Sex, Lies & Alibis, which
boasts it’s the hottest book in town.
Steamy and scandalous, this is the
third in Eva Mazza’s sexy and risqué
trilogy. Melinda Ferguson Books.
Staying in the winelands ... in
Stellenbosch: Murder Town,
Julian Jansen shares the behind
the headlines details about the
dozen murders that have taken
place in this town over the past two
decades. Tafelberg
Making movies can be murder!
When strange goings on happen in
the script and then on the set of the
psychological horror movie too ... it
appears the real horror lies off the
page. Run Time by Catherine Ryan
Howard’s a scare a page. Corvus
John Grisham ... another great holiday
read. The Boys from the Bronx sees
two boys growing up as friends. Both
sons of immigrant families, they end
up on opposite sides of the law, and
ultimately in a courtroom showdown.
Hodder and Stoughton
Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley is a
brilliantly written, sharp and incredibly
witty rom-com ... a tale of love, luck,
and the ghosts of heartbreaks past.
Bloomsbury Circus
It’s 1926 in Kate Atkinson’s Shrines of
Gaiety, and in a country recovering
from the Great War, Soho is the
glittering centre of nightlife and
gaiety. But beneath the dazzle, there’s
a dark underbelly, and not everything
is as it seems. Penguin
Oh gosh .. if your holiday’s a good
few weeks long and you’re a royalist,
you’re in for a treat with Queen of
our Times - The Life of Elizabeth II.
A whopping 624 pages, it’s said to
be the definitive biography by one
of Britain’s leading royal authorities,
Robert Hardman. You’ll be quite
the authority yourself once you’ve
finished this study of dynastic survival
and renewal, spanning abdication,
war, romance, danger, tragedy and
triumph. Macmillan
Compiled by: KYM ARGO
Dec 22 / Jan 23 Get It Magazine 07