Feb 10: Books for all tastes

Friday, February 10, 2012 5:00

Memoir ...

Then Again, A Memoir
by Diane Keaton
HarperCollins, $40

Keaton the award-winning actress, I love; Keaton the author, I'm less enthused about. She writes well but this is an unusual book as it contains letters she writes to her dead parents.

She's a self-confessed neurotic, and there is a plaintive note to her tales. Romances with Woody Allen, Warren Beatty and Al Pacino ended badly for her. She realises that, approaching 50, she's a "single, white female" and childless. So she adopts two children. To her credit, she doesn't dish the dirt on her famous friends. There's no malice in her.

I wholeheartedly agree with this observation of hers: "Comedy is invariably relegated to second cousin to drama. Why? Humour helps us get through life with a modicum of grace."

- Graeme Barrow

Kids ...

Two Little Bugs
by Mark and Rowan Sommerset
Dreamboat, $29.99

This cute hardcover book is the second by the New Zealand couple. The first, Baa Baa Smart Sheep, won the Children's Choice section at the NZ Post Children's Book Awards.

Their latest little beauty is full of surprises. It's the story of two bugs on a leaf, one on top and one underneath. It is told in rhyme with cleverly positioned peepholes to give both sides of the story.

One bug wants to come out from underneath the leaf, while the other is interested only in chomping his way through it. Lovely story with a message of new beginnings.

- Linda Hall

Thriller ...

The Water Treatment
by Steven Radich, $29.95

This self-published novel is a fictionalised account of the mysterious disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope on New Year's Eve, 1997. They were on board a yacht in the Marlborough Sounds and then were never seen again. Scott Watson was somewhat controversially convicted of their murder, but we have not heard the last of this mystery.

The book is too long. It has its moments, but doesn't really convince. The author, in his prologue, writes that he hopes the family and friends of the people involved in this tragic mystery will not take umbrage at the way he has portrayed the events. I think he's being optimistic.

- Graeme Barrow