Waterloo School

34,541 pages read and 4,609 team points

Team members

Susannah

7,929 pts

(6,283 pages read)

The 113th Assistant Librarian

By Stuart Wilson

0 stars

Currently reading with my 10 year old.
Mazarine

By Charlotte Grimshaw

0 stars

Currently reading. It's already started well and I'm finding it very compelling.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

By J.K. Rowling

5 stars

I am reading this with my 11 year old and finding it an absolute joy. It is so much fun to read this book aloud, with cleverly crafted sentences, very funny and exciting scenes, and lots of accents to put on. Doing Dobby's voice is a bit of a strain on the throat though!
The Garden Party and other stories

By Katherine Mansfield

5 stars

Katherine Mansfield has an incredible ability to capture a moment in time so vividly. Her characters thoughts and actions are written so well tay even though these are short stories, I felt like I understood the characters very well. I was surprised by how many stories had death as a theme. I made a few notes about some of the longer stories too: At the Bay - a delightful snapshot into various people's lives on a single summer's day. Just beautiful writing. The Garden Party - such delicate writing to evoke two different moments of life - celebration and death. The Daughters of the Late Colonel - Mansfield's characters are so full of life as they navigate the week following their father's death. Mr and Mrs Dove - a marriage proposal that almost goes wrong but I think he would have been better to keep walking away!
rental person who does nothing

By Shoji Morimoto

4 stars

This was a quirky, entertaining non-fiction book about a Japanese man who offers himself out to people to do nothing. He'll sit with you through a concert, wave you off at the train station, walk around Toyko with you, but won't offer advice, won't say much and won't even charge for his time! He calls himself Rental Person and then tweets about his experiences. He has a large social media following and this has helped spread the word of Rental Person. This is a fascinating insight into the psyche of the Japanese people and their culture. The book was full of dry humour, odd requests he's received, and a constant reminder that he does nothing.
Intermezzo

By Sally Rooney

5 stars

I really like Sally Rooney's characters: I like how she makes them talk and how she writes about the intricacies of life. Grief, love, intimacy, relationships. Peter and Ivan are brothers, 10 years apart in age, navigating the journey of grief after their father's death. A complicated and beautiful novel.
Cobweb

By Michael Murpugo

5 stars

Read with my son, this was a heart warming story of a dog named Cobweb, and the adventures he gets up to as a drover's dog, travelling from Wales to London during the time of the Napoleanic wars. I enjoyed reading it aloud to him.
The Art of Winning

By Dan Carter

4 stars

This book is a culmination of lessons that Dan Carter has learned during his career as a rugby player and into retirement as a UNICEF ambassador. He writes about finding your purpose and identity, team culture, recovering from setbacks and recognising pressure as a privilege. He is a very thoughtful and honest writer and I really enjoyed this.
James

By Percival Everett

5 stars

James is an alternative take on Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", written from the perspective of his family's slave, James. It was a captivating read, very hard to put down, but also anger inducing; what Black Americans endured during the years of slave labour was so horrendous and one can certainly understand how the impacts of generational trauma are still impacting US society. This was short listed for the Booker Prize and is highly recommended.
By Any Other Name

By Jodi Picoult

1 stars

"His hands were dry, like leaves in autumn". This is the sort of writing I'd expect from a Year 10 remedial English class but alas, it is from Jodi Picoult. This was my first novel by this author and it's safe to say it will be my last, and the only reason I finished it is that it is my book club's next book. My dear friend chose it because of the potentially interesting topic of exploring the conspiracy theory that Shakespeare did not, perhaps, write all his own work, and it explores the theme of how difficult it is to be female in a man's world. But this book did not hit the mark for me, and indeed provided me with a nice reminder as to why I generally avoid any book that comes under the genre of "chick lit". Both the modern and historic sections of the book were full of such boring clichés and romantic encounters worthy only of a Mills and Boon book. I don't think I've ever rolled my eyes whilst reading a book as often as I did with this one! I'm sure we'll have some lively discussion about it at book club.
The Granddaughter

By Bernhard Schlink

5 stars

This was a fascinating book about the reunification of Germany and the impact on the lives of the main characters. It begins in 1965 and finishes in the present day, following one family across three generations. The subject of German national identity following reunification is so fascinating and complex. The main character, Kasper, finds himself trying to understand and connect with his granddaughter, Sigrun, who has grown up in the former GDR with parents who have far-right, traditional völkisch beliefs. It was both alarming and fascinating to get an insight into their belief system, and incredibly relevant for today's political landscape. The book was very well translated into English and I can highly recommend it.
Straight 8

By Kieren Read with Scotty Stevenson

4 stars

I really enjoyed this. As a Crusaders and All Blacks fan, it was so interesting to read his insights into his rugby career; his thoughts about different coaches who he's played under, as well as team mates and rivals. It was tough reading about the various injuries he's gone through. He broke his foot 5 minutes into the 2015 Rugby World Cup final and played on with only a shot of local anesthetic at half time to keep him going!
Orbital

By Samantha Harvey

5 stars

This book was exquisite and everyone should read it. It follows 6 astronauts for one day on the International Space Station as they complete 16 orbits of the Earth. The vocabulary with which the author describes the planet, the astronauts and their lives is so thoughtful and creative. I found myself reading some passages twice because they were so beautiful. "Our lives here are inexpressibly trivial and momentous at once. Both repetitive and unprecedented. We matter greatly and not at all. To reach some pinnacle of human achievement only to discover that your achievements are next to nothing and that to understand this is the greatest achievement of any life, which itself is nothing, and also much more than everything. Life is everywhere, everywhere." A worthy winner of the 2024 Booker prize.
My Friend Walter

By Michael Morpugo

5 stars

I read this with my son, Leo. This story is about the ghost of Sir Walter Raleigh who visits a descendant of his, young Bess Throckmorton, who helps him right some of the wrongs from his past. It's a cleverly crafted book that we enjoyed reading.
Creation Lake

By Rachel Kushner

5 stars

Creation Lake was an astonishing read. I chose it based on the fact that it had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and started reading it with no expectations. It blew me away. It is a modern spy thriller, with a female narrator currently going by the alias of Sadie. She is infiltrating a group of eco-activists in rural France. This book takes the reader on an unexpectedly wild ride through the history of the Neanderthals, the rise of capitalism and the current crisis we face in the stage of late-capitalism, the complexities of human tragedy and connection, existential philosophy, and even an exploration into Polynesian navigation and how this challenges the Western notion of how we navigate through life, both literally and figuratively. All these things I've listed together sound most bizarre to come together in a modern day spy thriller, but it made the book challenging, enlightening and exciting to read. I loved it!
Tasman Trespasser II

By Shaun Quincey

4 stars

This was an incredible book about Shaun Quincey, who became the second man to row across the Tasman. His father had rowed from NZ to Australia in the 1970's and Shaun rows from Australia to NZ. It's a wild ride from the start of the project: boat building, sponsorship, training and preparation, to the voyage itself: whale encounters, 8 day storms, capsizing and finally reaching the shore of Ninety Mile Beach and the dangerous landing. What an amazing challenge, both mental and physical.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

By Suzanne Collins

3 stars

Goodness me what a violent book. I read this partly out of curiousity to see what my daughter was reading, but was also interested in the story that the prequel promised. It was a good story, but I'd forgotten how violent the Hunger Games books can be and didn't really enjoy that aspect of it.
Ash

By Louise Wallace

5 stars

This book was phenomenal. Set in rural New Zealand, this book is narrated by young mother and veterinarian Thea. It is incredibly inventive with quirky structure: at one point featuring another story within the story and whole pages full of existential questions or blurred conversations. The book simmers with feminist rage against the backdrop of a natural disaster, and I found it absolutely captivating. This is Louise Wallace's first novel, having previously only published poetry, and each word felt like a jewel in the story. Her writing style was, of course, incredidbly poetic, and I often found myself reading some of her sentences through twice because they were so stunning. I hope this will be in the running to win the Ockham prize next year, it was so stunning.
Wild Houses

By Colin Barrett

4 stars

Wild Houses is set in the small Irish town of Bellina, where some young people have got themselves in too deep in the drug dealing world. The characters are all beautifully portrayed: small moments in time are recalled, giving the reader a glimpse into why each person is who they are. The story unfolds very cleverly and I really enjoyed reading it, despite its dark themes. It was long listed for the Man Booker Prize.
Green Dot

By Madeleine Gray

1 stars

Ugh. I loved the start of the book - the main character Hera had funny insights into those around her, but as she enters the corporate world and begins an affair with an older colleague, she becomes a character who becomes obsessed with the green dot on her screen, indicating her lover's online presence. When things go wrong she masks everything with alcohol, shuns her friends and escapes to London, but even there she is a desperate loser who is incapable of finding new adventures. She returns to Sydney, reunites with her lover who still won't leave his pregnant wife, and it all ends badly. I just wanted these two people to break up because they were both such self-destructive people and I found it a painful read in the end. The book was a good reminder why I only survived 6 months in a corporate job and much prefer being a teacher too - corporate life is portrayed here as eternally dull where a toilet break is the only saving grace of the day. I only finished this book because of this reading challenge!
Victim

By Andrew Boryga

4 stars

Javier has had a tough upbringing as a Puerto Rican living in the Bronx, but doesn't really consider his experiences to be anything out of the ordinary. That is until he is writing his university application and has a school counsellor convince him to play up the role of being a victim of his circumstances to ensure he gets into a prestigious university. He quickly realises that playing the victim has many benefits and he starts to embellish his stories and bend the truth. Where will it lead?! This story was very cleverly written and has a very similar vibe to 'Yellow Face' by R.F Kuang.
Grand

By Noelle McCarthy

5 stars

This book was brilliantly written by Noelle McCarthy, an Irish born NZer. She writes of the difficult relationship with her mother and how it impacted upon her own life in significant ways. The timeline jumps all over the place and each chapter felt like a new cryptic challenge to solve: where and when are we in the story? It sounds challenging but it highlighted the nature of the mother/daughter relationship; one that was not easy but had its moments of both anguish and joy. I don't often cry in books and this one got me going! Highly recommended.

8 - 0 - 1

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Waterloo School

34,541 pages read and 4,609 team points

Team members

Susannah

ReadIt

MSchuler

Saz-OV

Suz

KHarrison

gchapple

Blondie

Susannah

The 113th Assistant Librarian

Mazarine

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The Garden Party and other stories

rental person who does nothing

Intermezzo

Cobweb

The Art of Winning

James

By Any Other Name

The Granddaughter

Straight 8

Orbital

My Friend Walter

Creation Lake

Tasman Trespasser II

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Ash

Wild Houses

Green Dot

Victim

Grand

Waterloo School

34,541 pages read and 4,609 team points

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