Our Reading Group takes place on the third and fourth Thursday of the month. The next is installment is Thursday 20 March:
Delirious – Damien Wilkins
A novel of humanity, humour and understated prose, Delirious is a luminously written and poignant exploration of aging, memory and the fraught ties of family. Retired policewoman Mary and recently retired librarian Pete decide to shift into a retirement home, but an unexpected development in the 40-year-old case of their son’s death immerses them in a journey that recasts what might have been the end as an uplifting new beginning.
The Unsettled – Richard Shaw
Building on his earlier memoir The Forgotten Coast, Richard Shaw commits to the confronting but critical work of decolonisation, weaving his own stories and family histories with those of other Pakeha ‘settler’ descendants willing to look at the trauma and intergenerational implications of colonisation in the eye. What if the benign family stories you grew up with masked something very different? An important and timely read for tangata Tiriti.
Killing Time – Alan Bennett
Presided over by the lofty Mrs McBryde, Hill Topp House is a superior council home for the elderly. Among the unforgettable cast of staff and residents there’s Mr Peckover the deluded archaeologist, Phyllis the knitter, Mr Creswell the ex-cruise ship hairdresser, the enterprising Mrs Foss and Mr Jimson the chiropodist. Covid is the cause of fatalities and the source of darkly comic confusion, but it’s also the key to liberation, As staff are hospitalised, protocol breaks down. Miss Rathbone reveals a lifelong secret, and the surviving residents seize their moment, arthritis allowing, to scamper freely in the warmth of the summer sun.
Koha will be collected at the meeting. All proceeds go towards the purchase of acid free envelopes for document storage.
Please register for this group by booking your free ticket. We will meet by the blue couches by the display of the Treaty of Waitangi on level 4 at 1.50pm.