The Date by Louise Jensen, is a ripper of a mystery. After her marriage falls apart, Alison Taylor is reluctantly persuaded to sign up to a dating app. She “meets” a nice man, and they have many good online conversations before agreeing to meet in person. Next thing she knows, Alison is waking up the morning after, with a bruised throat and arms, an aching bleeding head, and face blindness.
Before reading this novel, I didn’t actually know there was a condition called face blindness, or Prosopagnosia. It can be acquired through trauma, or one can be born with it, but it means that you cannot recognise faces. Ever. Even faces you’ve seen a hundred times. Occasionally there’s a one in a thousand chance you might retain recognition of a face, but usually, sufferers need to learn how to recognise people by voice, body language, hair, clothing etc. It’s a horrendous condition, when you think about it.
Soon after being released from hospital, Alison starts receiving threating notes implying that on the night of the date, she committed some kind of crime. Perhaps she ran someone over? Enlisting the help of her best friend, who lives next door, and her brother, she tries to recreate the events of the night. The only problem is, she comes to realise that some people are lying to her. And who she thinks some people are, they aren’t.
Later into the plot, it emerges that her roommate (who she double dated with that night) is officially missing. In addition, she finds out that her roommate is actually the daughter of a woman who was killed in an armed robbery, that Alison’s father was involved in. Is there a link? Was it her she hurt?
Suffice to say that there are many twists and turns in this novel, and I certainly didn’t guess the ending. Louise Jensen has done an admirable job of portraying the imagined reality of living with face blindness, intertwined with a suspenseful mystery. 7/10.
Natalie
Maths is Fun children’s programme for October school holidays is open for registrations now. It’s for children in Year 1 to Year 8 at school (or homeschooled). Children learn to enjoy maths by applying it to create and have fun. Places are strictly limited so parents need to register your kids quickly. Sessions are run by qualified teachers, and lunchtimes are supervised.
Age groups are separated into four age-appropriate separate sessions each, depending on school years. Children may not participate in groups outside their allocated group.
The theme this year is “Finding your way” so sessions will be based around map reading, latitude, longitude and the such.
RUNNING TIMES BELOW – MUST BE REGISTERED TO ATTEND. Contact your local library now.
Dannevirke Library
- Level 1 (school year 1 & 2) : Mon 8/10 & Tue 9/10 : 9.30am to noon, both days.
- Level 2 (school year 3 & 4) : Mon 8/10 & Tue 9/10 : 1pm to 3.30pm, both days.
- Level 3 (school years 5 & 6) : Wed 10/10 : 9.30am-12 then 1pm to 3.30pm. Bring lunch.
- Level 4 (school years 7 & 8) : Thur 11/10 : 9.30am-12 then 1pm to 3.30pm. Bring lunch.
Woodville Library
- Level 1 (school year 1 & 2) : Mon 1/10 & Tue 2/10 : 10am to 12.30pm, both days.
- Level 2 (school year 3 & 4) : Mon 1/10 & Tue 2/10 : 1.30pm to 4pm, both days
- Level 3 (school years 5 & 6) : Wed 3/10 : 10am-12.30 then 1pm to 4pm. Bring lunch.
- Level 4 (school years 7 & 8) : Thur 4/10: 10am-12.30 then 1pm to 4pm. Bring lunch.
Eketahuna Library
- Level 1 (school year 1 & 2) : Mon 8/10 & Tue 9/10 : 10.30am to 12.30pm, both days.
- Level 2 (school year 3 & 4) : Mon 8/10 & Tue 9/10 : 1.30pm to 3.30pm, both days
- Level 3 (school years 5 & 6) : Wed 10/10 : 10.30am-12.30 then 1pm to 4pm. Bring lunch.
- Level 4 (school years 7 & 8) : Thur 11/10: 10.30am-12.30 then 1pm to 4pm. Bring lunch.
Pahiatua Library
- Level 1 (school year 1 & 2) : Mon 1/10 & Tue 2/10 : 1.30pm to 4pm, both days.
- Level 2 (school year 3 & 4) : Mon 1/10 & Tue 2/10 : 10am to 12.30pm, both days
- Level 3 (school years 5 & 6) : Wed 3/10 : 10.30am to 12.30pm, then 1-4pm. Bring lunch.
- Level 4 (school years 7 & 8) : Thur 4/10 : 10.30am to 12.30pm, then 1-4pm. Bring lunch.
After a super-fun evening throughout the district, the ‘4 Horsemen of the Potato Chips’ were victorious in retaining the title of District Champs. Thank you to everyone who participated, and a special thank you to all our generous sponsors. Here are just some of the photos – you can see them all in our Facebook album
Kratos – winning Eketahuna team
‘The Last Minute’ – winning Pahiatua/Woodville team
Staff – Leilani & Fiona in their recycled outfits
Staff – Wyn and Corinna
Eketahuna Library crowd
3 Assets and a Liablity at Dannevirke
Best Fancy Dress at Woodville – The 3 Rs, Yeh Right
Best Fancy Dress at Dannevirke, Tongue Twisters
The 4 Horsemen of the Potato Chips
S.M. Wilson has written a teen novel that seems like a blend of the Hunger Games and Jurassic Park. In this Earth, humanity has been relegated to the over-crowded continent of Earthasia, while dinosaurs rule the other rich and luscious continent of Piloria. Humans are in a dire situation, with resources diminishing at an alarming rate, and they cannot survive much longer. The leadership decide to launch another expedition to the other continent, the aim being to steal certain dinosaur eggs so that the scientists can try to establish methods of wiping out the dinosaurs to allow humans to expand.
Stormchaser is an orphan, and she has a secret affinity for swimming with dinosaurs. Lincoln wants to save his dying sister. They apply to join the expedition but only a few are selected, and competition is fierce and vicious. First they have to make it through the trials. Then, if they go to Piloria, they are risking their lives – in the past, most exploration parties have never returned – but the benefits are huge. Plenty of sustenance, and riches beyond imagining.
I enjoyed this dystopian fantasy adventure novel, and am looking forward to the second installment. Possibly the next big thing, I suspect. Highly recommended.
Natalie
Imagine discovering an underground sea, pristine for thousands of years and containing prehistoric marine life long extinct. Now imagine accidentally falling into that sea, to be faced with the looming maw of a giant Carcharodon Megalodon – a tasty treat for the huge precursor to the modern Great White shark, and an enduring mystery for your relatives, who never know your fate. That is what the main character in “Fathomless” by Australian author Greig Beck is trying to find out – Cate wants to know what became of her grandfather, missing for 50 years. Now a Professor of evolutionary biology, she identifies a remote place in Alaska that promises a fruitful investigation – primarily because of a fossil tooth and cave drawings found there. When her University won’t fund it, she persuades a Russian billionaire to invest $150 million to fund the expedition – his condition is that he is included in the team. But Valery has enemies – and when they realise he is leaving the United States, they embark on their own ambitious expedition to hijack the submarine and bring him back to Russia.
With great excitement, finally the US team accesses the subterranean sea. Their marine expert, Jack, an old flame of Cate’s, confirms there are many extinct species there, that died out above ground tens of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. Unfortunately, they have underestimated the danger, and combined with the Russian sabotage, some members of the team end up stranded in the cave… floating around on a rubber dinghy while the Megalodon searches for supper. I won’t tell you how that part of the story ends. Suffice to say that there are three or four threads to this story.
The Russian saboteurs accidentally cause a breach of the underground sea, which allows a Megalodon to escape, where it heads to the continental US coast, it’s ancient hunting ground. When the Coast Guard eventually realise that a mega shark, unlike anything they’ve ever known, has destroyed dozens of ships, they need to develop a plan to kill the Meg before she can give birth. Of course, nothing runs smoothly, especially when the custom-fortified whaling ship they are using to hunt the Meg is attacked by eco-warriors.
Will the Megalodon triumph or will the humans? Read it and find out! Recommended to all fans of action and adventure. – Natalie
PS – The Meg movie (2018) is based on the novel/s by Steve Alten, which I personally found superior to the movie both in plot and character development. The movie was a bit of a let down to me, after having read the books.
© Badger Bloomfield
© Badger Bloomfield
© Ian McClunie
© Ian McClunie
Examination of a life and love
I went walking among the talking
And in the space, I saw your face
As it was meant to be
And in that magic grace I found
A depth of love, so profound
That I was bowed with sorrow for
The loss of time that was before
When all your love was spent on me
And I so blind I could not see
That what I needed was just to be…
And rest for a time, in thee
© Barbara Mawson
Who I am
I am the night dancing in the trees
I am the clouds shifting in the breeze
I am the sunlight splintering the waves
I am the darkness echoing in caves
Luminosity
Impetuosity
Egocentric, concentric, eccentric
Comparing
Fearing
Caring
Anticlockwise,
Round and square,
Cutting tracks, new paths, here to there
A journey with no end
A path? a gate? lost? and fear
then indecision. the plan has gone
I am alone and something’s wrong.
To keep on going is scary stuff
I must step out, I’ve had enough.
A choice is there, decision made
A new found freedom to engage
The fear has gone, the “story” lost
and now I find the journeys cost
Is paid in joy, and love, and hope
Luminosity, generosity, possibility
© Barbara Mawson
Resurrection
Snow silently enshrouds sleeping shrubs,
Which wait,
Naked and forlorn,
Until Spring, dancing gaily through the garden,
Brings verdure,
And vibrant colours to adorn.
© Penny Simpson
Poems
Ideas,
Tumbling in a rhythm all their own.
Succinct, and yet sublime,
Like grass,
Which gives its fragrance when it’s mown.
© Penny Simpson
Untitled
To start this off, we are talking of a man,
Now 80 years old, his name is Sam.
From the day he was born in 1938,
His life had started with already a grim fate.
His mother, a heavy drinker and a father who died just before the war,
Abandoned, Alone and hurt at the age of four.
In and out of different homes trying to have a nights sleep,
Wondering when his 6 year old self would be abused by the next drunken creep.
Sam knew that he was different to the other kids in school,
Picked on for his clothing and behaviours, told by teachers he was a fool.
Safe to say Sam didn’t last at school long at all,
So he picked up a flagon and drank it, sat back and began to watch his problems fall.
He set of on a journey to find himself some work,
But around every turning corner, his depression would lurk.
Many times Sam found himself with his favourite loaded gun,
Until he met his soon to be wife Mary, hair pulled back tightly in a bun.
Ten years of marriage was washed down the track,
Sam opened the door to another man, with Mary’s hair down his back.
Again Sam went spiralling to that all familiar place,
His gun pulled out again, another day he can’t face.
Sams been found by the police on the side of the street,
Screaming that he wants to die, never being discreet.
Admitted into an inpatient unit, as he can take no more,
His body still feeling shaken from the all alcohol the night before.
Security trying to put him into a place he’s never before been,
Restrained, involuntary now under an Act, so on the wall he leans.
While the staff of Doctors and nurses are trying to do their best,
They learn that getting Sams trust will be their greatest test.
What they need to understand is Sam is as scared as can be,
As all the memories come flowing back to that little boy just over three.
Now in a rest home and he hates it just as much,
He tries his hardest not to be upset with the male nurses or such and such.
He feels as though is now not being heard as Sam,
Their replies are often “oh stop it you silly old man”.
His life a whirlwind from the start – we wouldn’t have any clue,
It is important to always remember what it’d be like to wear another persons shoe.
© April Brown
Life Alone
Without you life would still go on
And I may not remain alone
But no one ever could replace
That loving, caring tender face
And life could never be the same
For in my dreams I’d call your name
And hunger for the days gone by
When you were here by my side
I never could forget the way
We shared our lives from day to day
I love you more than words can say
I’ll love you till my dying day
And if I find that you have gone
I know I’ll have to carry on
But lust for life would disappear
Loneliness remain my only fear
And if I must live life alone
My memories of you will hold
More precious love than I have told
To stay with me while I grow old
© Stephen Baker-LeMay
Passed
Though some ones gone their life has passed
The meaning of that life can last
Throughout all times in different ways
They’ll stay with us throughout our days
We’ll sit around and talk and laugh
About the times of our tin bath
And memories will come flooding in
And those who’ve passed will live again
And if we’re sad and need a lift
We’ll remember funny things they did
And tell our children and theirs too
So they can share the laughs we knew
And by our telling they’ll live on
As happy thoughts in our young
Who one day needing a story to tell
Will remember something they know well
And people that they never knew
Will once again come into view
And new generations smile and laugh
About the people that have passed
© Stephen Baker-LeMay
A Technological Block
Here I am at this desk,
Trying to do my best
But I can’t
Trying to be ideational
And come up with something inspirational
But I can’t
Working out what I want to convey
Trying to not be cliché
But I can’t
You see
It’s three
In the morning
And I’m on a clock
This is my last shot
To write something
But here I am sitting
Unable to write anything
At the messiest table in history
It’s not great for my OCD
The keyboard is clunky
And the computer itself chunky
It doesn’t have chrome
So I trying on my own
To operate Internet Explorer
I know, a 21st century horror
The wi-fi is slow
My battery is low
And I have nothing
I wish I had something
For pursuing
What am I doing
I rearrange the pens
Give the counter a cleanse
Colour co-ordination
A wonderful transformation
A calm order
To replace the torture
I pack away the highlighter
And pull out a typewriter
Hidden away
Waiting for this day
As I type at the keys
I find an idea to seize
The musical taps of metal pieces
Slowly reaches
My heart
This is writing
An organism that you find biting
Away at you inside
As ideas and fantasies collide
But when it all subsides
You are left with a story
An allegory
of your soul.
© Day-eth Smit
SOUL TRAIN
You’re standing on a platform
All alone in a swarm
Of bodies
People shuffling mindlessly
Holding on tightly
To memories from before
Yet they lose them as they
Step through the door
Your ticket stub is torn
As you step off the platform
Speakers overhead say the train is departing
Your journey is just starting
You board the childhood express
Wide eyed and innocent
Bless
Cherish this moment
One day you’ll know
What it meant
To be young
You pull up at the next station
And with a sense of frustration
Step off the cart
Hearing the whistle blow
As it departs
You wait for a second
The adolescent track beckons
From afar
So you step up into
Its car
And the southbound journey
Continues
You wish this train would runaway
You liked it better
Yesterday
But you signed up of your own accord
And so the next train
You must board
At the next junction
The subway can’t seem to function
Rush hour has begun
No one ever said adulthood was fun
This is the mainline
You can board at anytime
The terminal that’s next
Isn’t the best
We wish you luck
Your gonna need it
Why’d you choose
To be a commuter
You should have just taken
An Uber
Mind the gap
You can’t go back
It is time
Welcome to the end of the line.
© Day-eth Smit
The Art
She was serving food and coffee
So she could buy paint and canvas
Her oval Scandinavian face was at its best when etched with a smile
Only once I didn’t see the smile
We shared a year of birth
Love of expressionism
Politeness
An eagerness to be eager
Without the stumble and fall of flounderers
How could I be in love
So quickly –
Again this year
This month
Is it this week already
When she had the canvas and paint
She painted
In my cavernous laundry
The coffee was fabulous
The art?
The art of being supportive
Regardless
© Keith Nunes
Ladies of the parlour
She clomps down the echoing hallway
Baby steps in size 10s
Flashing eyes light the bare-naked rimu floor
Face-colour clash with zippy wall paint
Donning of wig bangled paraphernalia
‘Whoop whoop whoop’ at the teeny tiny King Charles dancing on Victorian rug
Splashes of ochre sun breaking through stains of window glass
Red Buddha mantelpiece blind binoculars point kaleidoscopes at flinty fingernails
Lined up in chorus lines singing ladies of grandeur
Ninety years each of finery and feather boas
Spriteleys in heels of yore
‘From the top’ and they run it through to the bottoms
Seated with rinsed tea and chockies
Euphonia of euphorias in crickle-back tune
‘Give me an mmmmmm’
And they give freely of their mmmmmm’s
© Keith Nunes
PS – this entry was received within the competition dates, and was submitted to the judge, but was accidentally overlooked for publishing. Sorry Keith!
The author spreading superphosphate for hand sowing (1948)
both poems by © Trevor Tyler
Below are the entries for our competition (click on title). The overall winner has been selected by our esteemed judge, author Lyn McConchie, which is detailed in a separate post. However, we also will be awarding a People’s Choice award as chosen by votes online (closed).
And the winner is …. “A winter morning” by Allie Lundon. Congratulations to Allie, who has received a $25 voucher. Thanks for voting people!
The Stockman (overall winner)
A winter morning WINNER of People’s Choice
Pohu – Burst
The blessing (for mother, child, sister)
Examination of a life and love
Tararua Library