The Dry by Jane Harper

This is a fabulous crime mystery; it reminded me of both The Dressmaker and Gone Girl, but a simpler story.

Melbourne based Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk returns to the small outback Australian town of his childhood for the funeral of his farmer friend Luke and Luke's family. It appears that Luke killed his wife and son before turning the gun on himself after struggling financially due to a two year drought. Luke's father is convinced it wasn't suicide and asks Aaron to investigate. Aaron works with a local police officer to uncover what happened.

Aaron has not been back to Kiewarra since he and his father fled town, after his friend Ellie drowned and her father pointed the finger at sixteen year old Aaron. The book slowly reveals not only what happened to Luke and his family but also Ellie. I found the characters interesting and believable; some have lived their lives in Kiewarra while others moved there with misplaced romantic notions of what rural life would be like. Like any good crime novel, information is revealed gradually throughout the book; it doesn't all happen in the last fifty pages. That said, the last fifty pages are riveting.

When you reach me by Rebecca Stead

This children's book won the Newbery Medal in 2010. It is written in the first person by the protagonist, Miranda, and is addressed to a person unknown. The story is set in 1979, a time when most children walked home from school. Miranda is 12 years old and is helping her mother prepare for an appearance on a TV quiz show that will hopefully earn them some much needed money. Miranda always carries a copy of her favourite book, Newbery Medal winning (1963), A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. She discusses the book with a new boy at school, Marcus, who appears to be something of a genius.

Miranda begins to get strange notes from the person she addresses the book to. The writer of the notes appears to know things that haven't happened yet. Miranda has been lifelong friends with her neighbour Sal, but he's started to act distant. Miranda forms new friendships with Annemarie and Colin; the three of them start to work at lunchtime in a cafe called Jimmy's. The area Sal and Miranda live in is rough. There are frequent fights and a strange old homeless man stands on the corner of the street and kicks the air.

I got a bit bored with the story in the middle (when Miranda is working at Jimmy's), but it all comes together in the last forty pages when we find out who is writing the notes. The ending made me want to go back and read the book again from the beginning. This would be a great book to read to a Stage 3 class as it explores the way friendships shift and change. There are plenty of teaching resources to go with the book on TPT  and other sites.

Questions

What was the significance of the $2 notes?
What was the purpose of the notes Miranda received?
Was Miranda's life altered by what happened to Sal? (think about the TV quiz show).
Why were the notes so cryptic, why not just say what was happening?
In what way does the character of Julia break racial stereotypes?
How does Miranda make new friends?
What does the author want us to learn from the story of Miranda's mother?
Based on the book, how does childhood in 1979 differ from today?

Writing

Miranda looks under the mailbox and finds a final letter explaining what happened to the author of the notes after 1979. Write the letter.

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty

Dr Yvonne Carmicheal is a well respected scientist and academic, in her early fifties, with two adult children, and married to another scientist. She locks eyes with a stranger and, for some reason, is happy to go off and have sex with him in a broom closet in the crypt of the Houses of Parliament. The affair, and the man's penchant for public places, continues until something goes dreadfully wrong. The story begins with Yvonne and the fling, both on trial at the Old Bailey. The story slowly reveals what happened, who the man is, and how they got to be on trial.

Yvonne's marriage has had it's difficulties, but I can't say that helped me feel any sympathy. The 'thing that goes dreadfully wrong' did increase my empathy for her. The second half of the book becomes a courtroom drama. I read it quickly and wasn't disappointed with the ending. Yvonne, her lover and her husband all have a mix of positive and negative traits that provide plenty to reflect on. 

Some readers might see the moral of the story as being about women being judged by different standards to men, but for me it was that smart middle aged women, who think they've moved beyond the foolishnesses of youth and the hoi polloi, are just as capable of making idiots of themselves as anyone else.

The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood

The Natural Way of Things

I don't usually include spoilers, but I think it's unavoidable with this book. The story is about ten 'celebrity sluts' (girls who have been involved in high profile sex scandals or rape cases) who are abducted and held together in an Australian outback sheep station surrounded by a high electric fence. Two men, Teddy and Boncer, have been paid to guard and feed the girls and put them to work. The girls have their heads shaved and are forced to wear dirty old fashioned clothes. As food runs out, and whoever hired Boncer and Teddy fails to show up, both the men and the girls realise they're all likely to die.

The book is reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, the girls coping with their captivity in different ways. One girl hunts and skins rabbits for the others to eat, one looks for mushrooms in the hope of poisoning the men, three girls take to grooming and depilating each other. What is striking about all the girls is the things they miss. Rather than talking about their families or loved ones, they obsess about their Chloe boots and their clothes. 

The book is obviously allegorical and has a message (I resisted using Google to find out what that is). I suspect the book is a parody of a celebrity reality TV show that I haven't watched. Perhaps its purpose is to make the reader appreciate all they have. Alternatively, the purpose may be to remind the reader that not everyone has those things and that in some parts of the world women are treated like slaves. The hero of the story, if there is one, is the hunter. She finds her animal self and a level of happiness. She doesn't personify the qualities that are normally admired in women. She is not kind, or gentle or caring. She is strong, efficient and practical. 

I enjoyed the story even if I couldn't relate to any of the characters. Mushroom picking Verla, was perhaps the one I could most sympathise with. I couldn't see why the girls didn't work together and overpower the men, but maybe that's the point of the story; how bizarre it is that women let men treat them the way they do and how much more we could achieve if we supported each other.

Beside Myself by Ann Morgan

Beside Myself by Ann Morgan

This is a psychological drama about identical twin girls. The 67 short chapters alternate between the story of the two girls as children, gradually progressing to adulthood, and the present day, where the twins are in their mid thirties, one in a coma and the other living in squalor.

At age six the twins, Helen and Ellie, decide to swap clothes and pretend to be each other. The problem comes when Ellie refuses to switch back. The adults don't believe Helen's protests and continue to call her Ellie. Helen's frustration mounts causing her to act out and leading to a hatred of Ellie. As an identical twin myself, I found it difficult to believe that the mother wouldn't use some sort of freckle or birth mark to tell the twins apart.

The story raises lots of issues around identity and mental health. I read it quickly, eager to find out what had happened to both girls. The chapters about the girls' childhood begin in the first person from Helen's perspective but switch to the second person from chapter 24; I found the repetition of the word you slightly annoying, but other than that I enjoyed the book.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling

The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling

Published in 2012, this was J.K Rowling's first adult novel. It has since been made into a BBC miniseries. In the small town of Pagford, the death of a councillor leads to a vacancy on the parish council. A sink estate know as The Fields sits within the parish boundaries of the otherwise genteel town. The council is split between those councillors who would like to see the boundaries changed so that The Fields becomes part of  neighbouring Yarvil, and those who think the people of Pagford should be doing more to help the Fielders. Particularly contentious is the fact that children who live in The Fields are eligible to go to the much sought after local school. Everyone wants the new councillor to be someone who sides with them on the boundary issue. 

The book is about privilege. It shows that bad parenting is not limited to any particular socio-economic group, and that middle class families are usually better at masking their dysfunction than working class or non-working families. 

The characters Rowling creates are both realistic and exaggerated. Hardly any of them are likeable. Teenagers hate their parents, parents bully their children, seemingly dutiful wives quietly despise their husbands; this makes the book truly unputdownable!

I created a character map to help me see where the book was going; it made who the main characters were more obvious. It's definitely something I'll do again. 

The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

The story is written from the perspective of Jimmy Flick. Jimmy is the autistic son of a working class Australian couple. The story begins in the late 80s when Jimmy is six.  It reflects the fact that Autism wasn't widely recognised at the time. The word is never mentioned, instead Jimmy is described as retarded, special or different.

Jimmy's mum has asthma and his father has a drink problem. Tales of domestic violence are narrated through the eyes of a child with Autism.

What makes the story special is the insight it provides into Jimmy's thought process. Jimmy sees lines joining the people he loves to one another. He is aware of his body and how it speeds up and slows down as he heads towards a meltdown or before he begins to run around in circles. I used to think that children with Autism were cold and treated people like objects; I've recently learned that they are often oversensitive and treat objects as if they had feelings. This is reflected in the book.

Mid way through the book I began to suspect that nothing much was going to happen, but that all changed and it turned out to be great read. I'll finish with an extract as you've really got to read the book to get a feel for how Jimmy sees the world. The passage below is Jimmy meeting Ned the dog.

"I touched Ned's head with my fingers and a small current entered my hand wires. We couldn't have a dog at home because its fur would clog Mum's air ducts."

"Ned sat on his back legs and I went closer. Ned didn't blink as he took in the scent of me and made his decision. I looked into his eyes and I saw myself inside them...I felt my cells slowing down until they spun at the same speed as Ned's; there was no difference."