Answer a Question and Win

Our reading theme for October's Wrappers meeting is murder/mystery.  Have you found a good one to read this month?  The prize draw question is related to our theme - how do you like your murder mysteries?  Do you prefer them as a book or movie?  Perhaps you'd rather play a game of Cluedo or learn about a real murder mystery in the newspaper in a 'truth is stranger than fiction' kind of way.

You can tick as many answers as you like. Submit your entry via the Google Form below (open to Kāpiti District residents only). The winner will be drawn at the next Wrappers meeting on October 2nd.

We Were Liars by E Lockhart

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

So that's the blurb. It doesn't tell you much about the story line but maybe it's better not to reveal too much.

I liked this book even though I didn’t like it.  It is a great suspense but also tragic.  The characters, including the adults, seemed liked annoying spoilt rich kids at times, but what happens as the family disintegrates is also sad. It’s one of those books that I would say to you ‘read it as I’d really like to know your opinion of it’. Like me, perhaps you’ll be left thinking “what an odd, twisted family story”  but also “what a gripping tale of woe.”

 
Reviewed by Carolyn

Being Magdalene by Fleur Beale

Being Magdalene revisits the Pilgrim family and its closed religious community, The Children of the Faith.

Four years have passed since Rebecca ran away. The community simmers with tension and rumours of an approaching split, and life has become terrifying for Rebecca's remaining siblings as Elder Stephen seizes any chance to take revenge on them. Twelve-year-old Magdalene lives in fear that her strong-willed little sister, Zillah, will be his next target.

The girls have run out of people who can protect them. To Zillah their path is clear but Magdalene is torn. How can she cause more hurt and shame for her parents? But, equally, how can she face a life with no freedom to be herself?

And another question scares her most of all. Without the elders' suffocating rules that tell her how to live, who would Magdalene be?

I was excited to see this book arrive at Paraparaumu Library as I have read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Fleur Beale's previous novels about the Children of the Faith. Being Magdalene is just as gripping and thought provoking as the previous stories. Of all the Pilgrim children Magdalene is the one most torn between the decision to stay or leave. She is struggling to cope psychologically in the strict religious community but will removing the structures and rules she has grown up with be the answer to her problems?  Highly recommended. 

Reviewed by Carolyn

The Wrappers Recommend

Books discussed, liked and recommended at the August Wrappers meeting.

Batman - Nightfall    (If you like graphic novels this is one of the best Batman books - Peter) 

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams

Deadpool (Marvel graphic novel)

Things Not Seen  by Andrew Clements

Unenchanted by Chanda Hahn  (ebook - free from Amazon) 

 

The Cat at the Wall by Deborah Ellis

A cat sneaks into a small Palestinian house on the West Bank that has been commandeered by two Israeli soldiers. The house seems empty, until the cat realizes that a little boy is hiding beneath the floorboards.
Should she help him?

After all, she’s just a cat.

Or is she?

It turns out that this particular cat was once a regular North American girl, one who wasn't used to thinking about anyone but herself. That was before she died and came back to life as a cat, in a place with a whole different set of rules for survival. 

While the premise of a teenager being reincarnated as a cat seemed bizarre at first the author has cleverly developed an engrossing story narrated by a cat/teen.  The story alternates between her American girl life and her cat life in a conflict zone.
As a girl reincarnated as a cat she still thinks like human, but her behaviour as a cat and the response of the people around her to a cat, means she is uniquely placed to experience the unfolding drama of the situation she finds herself in. 

This is a story of amazing complexity for such a short book (142 pages) and it is a very rewarding read.  Highly recommended.