Books for everyone

Crime ...
Drawing Conclusions
by Donna Leon, Random House, $38
Review by: Graeme Barrow
There are many first-class female crime writers operating today, but Italy's Donna Leon ranks with the very best of them. Her thoughtful books, happily devoid of the lurid descriptions of violence, sadism and sexual abuse so common in many crime books (especially by male writers) are a pleasure to read.
She's a fine writer, who relies on scrupulous research and attention to detail. Furthermore, not since Ross Macdonald has there been a crime writer with such a great understanding of the human condition, and the strengths and weaknesses of ordinary people. Her murderers, in the main, are not depraved serial killers, but people who because of life's stresses and hardships are pushed into acting in desperate ways.
This novel, the latest in her series featuring Venetian police detective Bruno Brunetti, starts slowly and rather meanders along for the first half as Brunetti ponders what appears to have been the accidental death of an elderly woman who lived alone. But the second half is totally absorbing as, gradually, Brunetti digs and discovers the unknown details of the woman's life and behaviour, principally her membership of a group which gives help and succour to women sexually and physically abused by boyfriends, husbands and pimps.
This is a fine novel, and like all Leon's books, a must-read.
... for kids ...
The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary
by Jeff Kinney, Puffin, $21
Review: Sam Meenken, 10
The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary is quite an interesting book. It explains how they made the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid and also the sequel, Rodrick Rules. The book gives details about the actors and tells some behind-the-scenes stories. People who like the Wimpy Kid series will also enjoy this book.
... NZ read
Inside Stories: A History of the New Zealand Housewife 1890 - 1975
by Frances Walsh, Godwit, $49.99
Review by: Katy Davidson

New Zealand's housewives of days gone by were a remarkably stoic breed.
They had to put up with world wars, economic Depressions and shocking infant-mortality rates. Life, especially in the early part of last century, was a hard slog for most, consisting of an endless round of cleaning, cooking, sewing and child minding.
But just as our men have long been renowned for their prowess with No8 wire, similar ingenuity existed on the home front.
This fascinating book, based on research of women's magazines from 1890 to 1975, offers  lots of examples of how Kiwi women were experts of their domains.
And when labour-saving devices such as electric ovens, washing machines and vacuum cleaners arrived on the scene,  they embraced them with open arms.
Inside Stories chronicles the trials and tribulations of life as a housewife, but also the changing times of our nation as a whole.
Access to birth control thus the ability to determine the size of their family made a huge difference to women's lives.
Before abortions were legalised,  many women dying in back-street terminations were married with four-plus children.
However, although times were changing feelings of isolation and loneliness from bringing up a handful of kids  on a quarter-acre in suburbia was a common, ongoing problem.
The conflicting desires between a woman's love of her family and sense of duty, and her need to have an identity of her own, were evident in this excerpt of an anonymous poem that appeared in the New Zealand Woman's Weekly magazine in 1933:
Every woman is a wild free thing
Deep inside
Every woman hears the spaces sing
Every woman would go wandering
Far and wide.