review TOP 4 BOOKS TO READ THIS MONTH
A BOOK LOVER’S REVIEW BY JACQUI SERAFIM
1979 by Val McDermid The unmissable, unputdownable first episode in an electrifying brand new series from the Queen of Crime who brought you the Wire in the Blood series. “McDermid is at her considerable best” The Guardian
Miss Benson’s Beetle
Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks An epic, sweeping new love story from master storyteller Sebastian Faulks. Set in Europe between the two World Wars, it is his most powerful novel since Birdsong
After by Morris Gleitzman The much anticipated final instalment in the story of Felix, hero of the award winning Once series. This is a powerful climax to a much loved children’s series.
Together. Memorable Meals Made Easy by Jamie Oliver Jamie Oliver is a global phenomenon who has sold over 47 million books worldwide! This lovely book is about comfort, celebration and the sharing of mouthwatering food.
The Burns Bay Bookery is open for ‘takeaway’ from 9-3, Mon to Sat. 9427 4218 or e: burnsbaybookery@bigpond. com au We also have many games and puzzles to while away the lockdown hours, 34 TVO
by Rachel Joyce
In 1914, Margery Benson was 10 years old and living in London when father showed her a picture of the “undiscovered” golden beetle of New Caledonia. Entranced by its beauty and thrilled by her father’s attention, the golden beetle lodged itself fast in her memory and in her imagination. By 1950, Margery is in her mid-forties and two world wars have wreaked their havoc on society, wiping out generations of young men and scarring families, leaving both men and women damaged and devastated. Margery’s own family is decimated by war and she has led a small, lonely and insignificant life doing what is expected of her and staying in the background. One day, something snaps and Margery abandons her unrewarding job as a domestic science teacher and decides to travel across the world on an expedition to find the golden beetle of New Caledonia. She advertises for an assistant, and the woman who takes the job is the last person she would have chosen. Playful, flirtatious Enid Pretty in her pink suit and pom-pom shoes, with her impractical luggage and her bottle-blond hair, could not be more inappropriate for an expedition assistant. Margery is horrified by the thought of undertaking her expedition with Enid but she is also desperate to escape. As these two women set out on the adventure of a lifetime, both determined to escape their pasts and live their dreams, they discover the power of female friendship. Miss Benson’s Beetle is a wonderful portrait of two very different women, both victims of their time, who find strength and courage in each other’s example. They are “polar opposites” in every way: Enid is chatty and social, Margery is quiet and awkward. Margery is a spinster in her mid-forties, “a big woman” with frizzy brown hair and 25 year-old Enid is “a short, thin woman, with hair like bright candy floss”. Margery knew “They made a ridiculous pair…like a brown ostrich coupled with a pink-hatted canary”. But they also have something in common - both Margery and Enid are scarred by their respective pasts and limited by their options in post-war British society. Their adventure is both comic and heart-warming, full of mishaps and misadventures with both hilarious and calamitous outcomes. But as they travel together they learn from each other and realise they are stronger together. As Enid reminds Margery “You must never give up…We are not the things that happened to us. We can be what we like.” Miss Benson’s Beetle is a delightful novel of the transformative power of friendship which deftly explores the lasting impacts of war and the constricted lives of the women left behind. As Margery and Enid work together to pursue their dreams, they break free of their pasts, and of the restrictive roles assigned to them.
Miss Benson’s Beetle is a New York Times Bestseller and was shortlisted for the 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize.
