Three books I enjoyed reading:<\/span><\/p>\n Historical Fiction<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n A novel about a young woman\u2019s growing realisation as to her father\u2019s role in Argentina\u2019s \u2018Dirty War\u2019, an infamous campaign waged from 1976 to 1983 by Argentina\u2019s military dictatorship against those thought to be a political or ideological threat, during which thousands of people were \u2018disappeared\u2019. Although brutal in places and one of the two points of view from which the story is told requires some suspension of disbelief, it is so beautifully written, compelling and deeply moving that the reader willingly does so.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Political\/Scientific Fiction<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n A novel in which Dellarobia, a young mother dissatisfied with her life of poverty on a failing farm in the Appalachians, experiences a phenomenon which turns out to be both unnatural and life-changing. As a biologist from Appalachia, the author ably conveys her knowledge of, and esteem for, the people, location and science in this story. It seamlessly weaves together threads of marriage, motherhood and family life; faith; climate change and the natural history of Monarch butterflies (aka King Billies). It does so without being preachy, by using outstanding imagery and containing a surprising amount of humour (particularly for the parents of young children).<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Historical Fiction<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Ursula Todd is born during a snow storm on 11 February 1910 but, strangled by the umbilical cord, promptly dies through a lack of outside help; more specifically, a pair of surgical scissors. However, this novel innovatively and successfully employs The Butterfly Effect to illustrate, through multiple, parallel presents, numerous answers to that eternally asked question, \u201cWhat if\u2026?\u201d Ursula\u2019s narrative starts again\u2026and again and again in each chapter\u2026each time taking a different, and ultimately influential, course. This novel accordingly resonated with me on many levels, including its setting in the wartime Britain my grandparents and father were born into and lived through.<\/span><\/p>\n I also recommend Kate Atkinson\u2019s Behind the Scenes at the Museum.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n ~ Janine Sowerby<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Janine Sowerby is a town planner who dabbles in writing and may one day to be a writer who dabbles in town planning. She has had poetry and short stories (fiction and non-fiction) published, including in Kokako<\/em>, Takahe, The Press <\/em>and NZ Poetry Society and other anthologies, such as Crest to Crest <\/em>and A Foreign Country<\/em>. She has also co-written short screenplays as part of NZ\u2019s annual 48 hour film-making competition.<\/p>\n To read the previous three installments in this “top reads” series, click on:<\/p>\n And a very Happy Reading New Year to all of you. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To wrap up the year and the”avid reader” feature, I thought I’d being you one more installment — in this case my friend, and fellow avid reader, Janine Sowerby’s, Top 3 reads of the year. As with the past installments, the books don\u2019t have to have been published in 2015, just read this year. — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-blog-posts","category-recommended-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30869"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30891,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30869\/revisions\/30891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Perla\"](\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Perla-103x150.jpg\")
<\/a>Perla<\/em>, Carolina De Robertis<\/span><\/h3>\n![\"Flight](\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Flight-Behaviour1-95x150.jpg\")
<\/a>Flight Behaviour<\/em>, Barbara Kingsolver<\/span><\/h3>\n![\"Life](\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Life-After-Life-97x150.jpg\")
<\/a>Life After Life<\/em>, Kate Atkinson<\/span><\/h3>\nJennifer Lowe\u2019s Top 5 Reads Of 2015<\/a><\/h3>\n
Paul Weimer\u2019s Top 5 Reads Of 2015<\/a><\/h3>\n
Karen McMillan’s Top 5 Reads of 2015<\/a><\/h3>\n