Book Chat Issue #113

A beautiful family

Hello readers and eaters! How are things with you all?

Here on the Central Coast it’s sunny but quite cool, especially inside our house which is a bit like being in a refrigerator. Luckily we have a verandah so we can go outside and defrost every now and then. Having a cold house isn’t good for my other writing (sometimes I struggle with that - see below), but reading is a different matter. There’s nothing better than snuggling up with a good book, and I always think wintertime is especially good for reading mysteries.

What I’ve Been Reading

I’ve just finished A Beautiful Family, a debut novel by New Zealand author Jennifer Trevelyan, and while it’s not exactly a thriller, there are plenty of small mysteries in this novel. Set in 1985 in New Zealand, it tells the story of 10-year-old Alix who goes on holiday to the Kapiti Coast with her parents and older sister, Vanessa.

Vanessa is at the age where she despises everyone, especially her younger sister.

Vanessa gave me a look. It was a dead kind of look, empty behind the eyes. I knew it well—it was the look of a cat about to pounce. The last time I’d seen my sister with that dead look in her eyes she’d asked me, in front of our older boy-cousins , if I knew what a vagina was. I lied—I said I did know what it was. She asked me to point to one. I was caught in a lie, but it was something more than that - something else about vagina that was ugly and sinister and I didn’t know; I hadn’t the faintest clue.

I remember looking around and, in desperation, pointing towards the window. I thought whatever it was, it was bound to be out there somewhere.

A Beautiful Family

by Jennifer Trevelyan

Alix is obsessed with her little red Walkman, but only has one cassette, (Split Enz) which she plays over and over again. This reminded me of my own obsession with Simon and Garfunkel, the only record I owned for quite a long time. When she’s not listening to music, Alix’s favourite activity is swimming in the ocean and pretending to be a dolphin. Same, same!

Her parents seem to get along well enough; they are constantly eating sausages (cooked outside on the BBQ), and drinking wine whilst swatting away sandflies, but it transpires that her mother has insisted they holiday in this particular place for a reason. She keeps disappearing into the sand hills only to reappear looking tousled.

As a result, Alix is left largely to her own devices and makes friends with a young Māori boy named Kahu. Together they decide to solve the case of the mysterious disappearance of a young girl several years earlier. This involves poking around in the seaweed and looking for other ‘clues’.

The entire book is told from Alix’s perspective. This is quite a hard thing for a writer to pull off, and Trevelyan does a great job of this. Using a child as a narrator also helps build tension. There are several moments in the novel where adult readers are thinking “I know what’s happening,” but 10 year-old Alix is clearly mystified and you wonder when and if the penny will drop.

This is an enjoyable book if you’re looking for a low-key mystery that’s well-crafted and not too dark.

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What I’ve been writing

When I started this newsletter, my overall goal was to build a community of readerly friends, but I also hoped to use it as a way to share my personal essays.

I’ve published short articles on my website for more than ten years, but sadly (or perhaps happily), Book Chat is such a joy that I’ve neglected my essay writing. This week I finally got my act together and published a short piece about my dreams of turning a coming-of-age novel into a film.

It’s fun to write personal essays, and I have the freedom to write about any topic I like, but lately I’ve been wondering if I should continue to write both, or combine them somehow, so I thought I’d get your input.

If you have time to visit my website and read a couple of my posts, please let me know what you think I should do next. As I see it, my options are to keep using it for longer, mostly book-related posts, or move all my writing to this platform (Substack).

That would involve either incorporating the articles into Book Chat, or starting an additional Substack publication. Let me know what you think, or if you want to discuss this further, flick me an email. I’m open to suggestions!

In the meantime, I’d love you to complete this poll:

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What I’ve been eating

The cool weather makes me want to bake biscuits, but I try to resist making them too often. They disappear way too fast. As a healthy alternative I decided to make some granola instead.

I tasted some home-made granola in a cafe recently, and thought it had just the right level of sweetness, so of course I became slightly obsessed about how to achieve the same result. I wasn’t brave enough to ask them for their recipe (it’s probably a secret) but my superior googling skills (ha ha) led me to believe that the secret ingredient was dates!

Here’s what you do

Soak a cupful of dates in boiling water for 20 mins then blend the water and dates together. One recipe I saw called this a ‘date caramel’ but I think this is going too far. It’s really a thickish date sauce.

In a bowl combine three cups of rolled oats with a generous cup of any nuts you like, (I used pistachios and walnuts) as well as a large handful of pumpkin seeds and a couple of tablespoons of shredded coconut. I tend to add the dried fruit later, because it has a tendency to burn. Or leave it out if you prefer your granola fruit-free.

Add the date puree to the dry ingredients along with a tablespoon of maple syrup and a tablespoon of oil (coconut if you have it, otherwise olive oil is fine) and mix well.

Spread it on a baking tray and bake for at 120°C for at least one and a quarter hours. Stir a couple of times while it’s toasting and don’t let it burn.

Enjoy with yoghurt and fresh fruit!

A delicious and mostly healthy granola

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International Book Club: a message for new subscribers

Our online book club is free for subscribers and you are very welcome to join. We are currently reading Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire.

You don’t need to do anything to register. Just let me know you’d like to come and I’ll send you a meeting invitation. Our next meeting is in late September and we are a friendly bunch, so don’t be shy.

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That’s all for this issue,

Until next time, keep safe and look after yourself.

Marg xx