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WELCOME TO THE WOMAN ZONE BOOK REVIEW PAGE.                   
​This is where members of the WZ Book Club get to share their thoughts on titles seen on the shelves of our Women’s Library. All reviews are unsolicited and only those attending the WZBC may borrow and review books.
The Woman Zone Book Club meets on the 2nd Saturday of every month between 2pm and 4pm at The Women’s Library, ground floor, Artscape.  All are welcome.
​
We welcome your reviews of women-authored books. Send between 200-500 words and cover pic if possible to info@womanzonect.co.za or hipzone@mweb and we will post it here! 

Charlene - In search of a princess

3/19/2023

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​Author: Arlene Prinsloo
Publisher: Jonathan Ball
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
Ever since she was a little girl, author and veteran journalist, Arlene Prinsloo has been fascinated by tales about princes and princesses.  She traces her love affair with fairy tales from when her mother would tell her stories about them. As she says, “I still have the well-worn books she read to me.” Her enchantment with the lives of royals has seen her covering royal news as a blogger for Sarie magazine and Netwerk24. It’s no wonder her unauthorised biography of Her 
Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco is here.  Besides thorough research, the author got input for this book from Charlene’s friends and old swimming mates. She approached Charlene through official palace channels but got no response.
“My passion for the lives of royals has taken me to Britain for the weddings of Prince William and Prince Harry. I was one of the thousands of admirers who wanted to drink in the atmosphere and get a glimpse of royalty,” Arlene Prinsloo. She even travelled to London for the funeral of Princess Diana.
In this book the author takes the reader on a tumultuous journey into the astounding life of South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock, a compassionate, down-to-earth woman who in 2011 married into royalty when she wed Prince Albert Grimaldi of Monaco. Their star-studded union was watched by millions around the globe. To those watching the spectacle, this must have solidified their belief in a modern day fairy-tale. Here was our golden girl from obscure Benoni, with middle-class upbringing, marrying into the grand Grimaldi dynasty who have ruled, the picturesque principality and playground for the rich and famous, for over 700 years.
I must admit I don’t follow the royals that much but the Grimaldi empire is intriguing. Like her late mother-in-law – the larger than life, Oscar-winning Hollywood actress Grace Kelly – Charlene is a commoner who married into royalty. And royal life seems to be quite stifling. From the beginning, her marriage has been rocked by scandals about Albert’s love children and her unhappiness at the life she now lives in Monaco. Her health battles are fodder for the media who scrutinise every single aspect of her life. Nothing is sacrosanct to the paparazzi.
For all the opulence that royal life offers to one, I’m sorry it’s not for me.  Not only does one not have any privacy, the archaic set of rules one must follow would drive me to the asylum. I can just only imagine the tremendous sacrifices one has to make, and the isolation you must feel, especially as a commoner when marrying into royalty. The immense pressure to fit in with the royal family must be debilitating. I now fully understand why some parents are today refusing to read fairy tales to their little daughters.   
Good luck to Princess Charlene, Prince Albert and their twins. And respect to Arlene Prinsloo for holding on to the dream. 
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Bloomer

3/14/2023

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Author: Anne Schlebusch
Publisher: Modjaji
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
There’s just not so much to look forward to as you get old. You have more time, but then again, less time. There’s also the spectre of…well, failing health, fatigue and, dare I say it, finality. There is however the wealth of experience and the treasure chest of memory to compensate. There are also choices.
Both Maggie, Bloomer heroine and Anne Schlebusch, her creator, have chosen the 
​upbeat path – and both have plundered their banks of experience and memory for the journey. And might I add, their well-honed sense of humour.
Not usually a topic for bestsellers, despite being universal, the issue of ‘oldies’ nonetheless came up a lot during COVID, they being amongst the most vulnerable across the world – and it was this that for Schlebusch seems to have trigged Bloomer and its cast of venerable, warm, wise and witty characters, collectively known as ‘Invictus’ and all of whom are residents at The Hazyview Mansions Retirement Home.
The prime mover and shaker (and is she ever) of the Invicti of HMRH is Maggie. But although Schlebusch swears she is not Maggie, it is hard not to conflate the author with the artist (amongst other skills Maggie is an award-winning creative) as they both have a shared age (clue: not 21) and a colourful past on which to draw. Schlebusch, like Maggie, also has a firm grip on the language (should that be lingo) of today as well as the social media vehicles that support it.
Bottom line, Bloomer and the adventures therein is/are very, very funny. Not only funny, but smart (in a non-clever-dick kind of way) and full of love and learnings, tough and tender – what Maggie refers to as her ‘old bird wisdom’. If Schlebusch has her way, the Bloomer attitude and joie de vivre could soon go viral. Viva!
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Mad Honey

2/21/2023

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Author: Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
​Reviewer: Beryl Eichenberger
There’s no doubt that this book is already a best seller and rightly so. Jodi Picoult deals with current, contemporary issues and dissects, researches and reaches into the darkest corners to pull out all that is important. Mad Honey is no different but in this novel she has worked with another 
author, which for me was the interesting part. And the back story here is what got me! Jennifer Finney Boylan had a dream in 2017 of her writing a novel with Jodi Picoult. Boylan is transgender, has written many novels and an acclaimed memoir ‘She’s Not There’ and was on Picoult’s radar. The dream involved ‘a young trans girl who had died, her boyfriend who had been accused of the murder and the boy’s mother who was torn between the compelling evidence of her son’s guilt and the love she bore him in her heart’.
Her tweet ‘I dreamed I was co-authoring a book with Jodi Picoult’ got a DM from Picoult and the rest, as we say, is history.
This is a masterful story, seamlessly written as it opens up the world of transgender rights in a way that makes you sit back and think deeply about your own reactions. What would happen if your child or a friend revealed they were trans. Nothing of course is the answer – you love them for who they are not what they are, but as we know this is often not the case and Mad Honey is the lens through which we see this.  
Lily and her mother Ava have moved to a small to a small town in New Hampshire. Ava is a tough woman, a ranger, whose protection of the environment is as fierce as she protects her daughter.  This fresh start is what Lily needs to begin her new life.  A talented cellist, gentle, kind and highly intelligent she is trans. At school she becomes friends with the outgoing Maya, best friends with Asher. Asher’s mother Olivia and Ava have much in common – they both escaped abusive marriages when their children were threatened, Olivia returning to her hometown to take over the family bee-keeping business. Complicated backgrounds for these two teenagers who fall in love. As their relationship develops Lily feels she is safe enough to tell Asher the truth. Then Lily is found dead and Asher is the accused.
That we can never truly leave the past behind is inescapable. It follows you, shapes you and can tear you apart, and this story explores the wounds, the depths of hurt, abuse, jealousy, and how we struggle to heal.
As the narrative flips between characters and past and present, a compelling story unfolds, one that has an authentic voice that speaks from the heart. How well do we ever know those we love, how hard will we fight for them and what happens when we doubt them. The book plays out the courtroom drama, the uncertainties of belief and human failing that leads to tragedy.
Tensely emotional the story is raw in places, predictable in others but Picoult and Finney have produced a fine book that speaks to the trials we face by being the person we know we are and assuming our identity. And the juxtaposition of the bees alongside the story is a clever analogy between the workings of nature and human societies which sharpens the focus. It is a book that will incite conversations that need to be had and one that dives deep into a subject that is part of our humanity. ​
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The Antbear Cabin

2/20/2023

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Author: Elana Bregin
Publisher: Wobbling Earth
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
In my view, there can be no hard a role on earth than that of a refugee, twice over. One, for having to leave the embattled place of your birth and two, for being unwelcome in your place of refuge. The frying pan, the fire. So it is for young Emmanuel who, with his mother, makes a desperate escape from the DRC only to arrive in the hostile streets of Durban. It’s not an uncommon story, except 
that Emmanuel arrives in South Africa alone.  A child.
This lone young refugee is the protagonist of The Antbear Cabin, the other is Winter, his elderly white-woman ‘rescuer’. Both are outsiders, but what they also have in common is loss. Emmanuel’s loss is not just that of his country but of his whole family, principally his now missing mother.  Although it is not expanded on, Winter’s loss is her son, Taylor. He makes an appearance only through his painting set that Winter bequeaths to Emmanuel. The young man is initially reluctant to be this eccentric woman’s ‘rescue project’ – but things change as the two find common ground, quite literally through nature, and eventually, through shared stories.
Fittingly, this self-published book is dedicated to ‘all the many displaced people of Congo and other conflict zones, in their search for home and wholeness’. But there is an unmistakeably personal undertone to the story. On her website, Elana declares “Most of my writing is based on my own experiential knowledge of what I write. I’ve hunkered down at the Bushmen fires in the Kalahari Desert (Kalahari RainSong); seen firsthand the wild beauty of Congo lakes and forests (The Antbear Cabin)” so you know that she has witnessed, and felt, a large part of what she is talking about, and that she is moved to pass it on. I know now, for instance that amongst other things, the antbear is a good mother – a small but significant detail.
Years ago, around 2004, I had the opportunity to read Kalahari RainSong, the book that Elana co-wrote with Belinda Kruiper wife of the late poet and artist Vetkat Regopstaan Boesman Kruiper. In the author’s note she talks about her ‘own feelings of being different, an outsider’. So to read The Antbear Cabin, is not just to learn some of the cripplingly hard lessons that a refugee suffers on the streets of South Africa, but also some of the writers worldview, wisdom and knowledge.  
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Not for Sensitive Viewers

2/17/2023

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​Author: Elana Bregin
Publisher: Wobbling earth
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
I said it before and I’ll say it again; don’t judge a book by its cover. A mistake, I’m afraid to say, I’ve made maybe twice since reviewing books. Honestly, the first time I laid my eyes on the cover and read the title - thoughts of crime riddled stories overwhelmed my mind.  I put it aside numerous times afraid to read what awaits me inside. Sanity, and bravery, prevail at the end and I gave it a go. Elana 
Bregin, an award-winning author, put her time, love, blood and sweat to write this book. I had no merit to be stalling. And what a gem it is. In the end it was hard to tell what is fiction and what is not. The stories come from the heart and are written with truth and compassion. “My allegiance is to the Great Unseen that motivates me, rather than the human judge that finds me or my writing wanting,” Elana Bregin.
This is a collection of twelve stories that span a time period from 2003 to almost 2023. The stories are the author’s view of the world and her belief systems. The thread that runs through them is on ethical living, the endless devastation humans beset on animals and the planet, and atrocities committed against the most vulnerable in society under the guise of the Greater Good.
Some of my highlights:
Missing Mama Afrika. Brilliantly written, the story is about colonisation and the ruin to the land, its people and animals. It’s also about the renewal that is possible on the African continent.
They. Tables are turned in this tale as humans are reduced to nothing but the status of lab apes. The hunter becomes the hunted.
Not for Sensitive Viewers. A story about an impending death. Thoughts on death and the afterlife. Relates the void that death leaves to the living ones.
The Shining Path. If you also struggle with the big questions about the meaning of life; why are you here? What’s your real purpose? Why you exist at all? This story is profoundly insightful in dealing with these uncertainties.
Exit to music. Chronicles the journey that is life. Absolutely beautifully written. It’s a gut-wrenching read at times but, a necessary. If there’s one story, I’ll urge anyone to read in this collection, especially women, this is the one.
I salute the author for shinning a spotlight on the suffering of animals, and the unabated destruction of the world. We are truly our own worst enemies.  Greed and unrelenting consumerism will surely be our down fall.
Finally, thank you for taking me on a great tour of Durban. Your vivid description of your city in the book, mentally transported me there.  ​
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The People on Platform 5

2/8/2023

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Author: Clare Pooley
Publisher: Bantam Press
Reviewer: Beryl Eichenbeerger
If you’ve ever been a commuter on British Rail you’ll note that people don’t talk to each other and make every effort to avoid eye contact or anything that could be construed as communication. Everyone stays locked in their bubble as the train speeds through to its final destination spilling its travellers out of the doors for another day at the office.  One may glance around surreptitiously and make up stories and names about the regulars but never, ever speak to them except perhaps in a
dire emergency. And this is where this deliciously funny, heart-warming, feel-good story begins. There we are on the ten stop morning commute from Hampton Court to Waterloo. Eccentric Iona is sitting in her usual seat with pet bulldog Lulu perched beside her. Staggering in on her stilettos, she always arrives early to make sure no one takes the seventh aisle seat on the right facing forward in carriage number three but there is a tacit agreement between travellers that the wildly over- dressed middle-aged woman ‘owned’ that corner. From her capacious bag she takes a flask and dainty cup and saucer and pours her morning green tea – a ritual that is not unnoticed by the regulars. She surveys the carriage, takes note of the regulars – ha, even Smart-but Sexist -Surbiton is here this morning sitting next to a pretty red head (Emmie). But it is when SSS (aka Piers) chokes on a grape that things start to happen. Sanjay – (Too-Good-to-be-True New Malden) a nurse - saves the day with the Heimlich Manoeuvre and gets his chance to speak to Emmie whom he has admired from afar for so many months, with very unsatisfactory results. But the ice has been broken and the event has started a chain reaction. When teenager Martha is virally shamed by her fellow schoolmates and her stress causes her to vomit over Piers computer, Iona takes up the baton on her behalf (after all she is a magazine agony aunt) and the story starts to gather momentum. And the unexpected happens as we learn the real stories of each of these relatable five.
Clare Pooley has concocted a vivid story that has at its core the outspoken but marvellously extravagant Iona whose age is now a liability at her magazine and whose home life centres around her beloved Bea. As each of the characters give up their secrets to the empathetic Iona their lives will irrevocably change but when the chips are down and Iona is in trouble will they rescue her?
What I simply delighted in was how Pooley has captured the essence of assumption and how, when we open ourselves up to sharing (within reason of course, after all these are Brits) how different the reality is. When we are kinder and more open to communication we learn so much about our fellow humans. She is an astute observer who has taken her experiences as an advertising executive and  commuter on London Transport (even down to the vomit event) and used it to create a deliciously good read that will resonate will all of us. ​
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The Veil of Maya

2/8/2023

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​Author: Chantal Stewart.
Publisher: Minimal Press
Reviewer: Gail Gilbride
The Veil of Maya is an exquisitely written love story set mainly in the Cape, Swaziland and 
finally the UK. Chantal Stewart takes us on a lyrical journey as she pulls us into Magdalena’s world of medicine, science and stars. As a geneticist, the beautiful Lena is first and foremost a scientist. And yet she straddles the worlds of mysticism, traditional African wisdom and Science. Her interest in Astronomy is what leads her to Gabriel, a highly rated expert in his field. It is precisely her critical questioning of aspects of his talk that lead to a first invitation and later to a hauntingly beautiful love affair. This is no ordinary romance, but rather the meeting of two commanding minds, who connect on a soul level.
When Vusi, Lena’s translator in Swaziland, brings her to meet Chief Ingovuzama in an attempt to help her understand the rural patients she is researching, her scientific beliefs are gently challenged and she slowly opens herself up to a new way of looking at life. Her interactions with Ingovuzama add a new richness to her own tapestry and memories of a childhood culture, mingle with the Western one she has embraced.
Gabriel’s world of Astronomy and love of the night sky prove to be far more complicated than they first appear. Gabriel himself is mysterious and elusive. Lena soon realises there is a lot she doesn’t know about his life. How she engages with him and moves seamlessly through the worlds of stars, science and differing cultures, is at the core of this powerful story of love and life. Stewart’s masterful use of language and attention to detail make this novel stand out as one which deserves to be at the top of an awards list!
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The Silence of the Shadows & Breathless

2/5/2023

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​Author: Cathy Donald
Publishers: Silence of the Shadows (Kwarts) Breathless (Build Universes)
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
Posed with the question recently, ‘why do we read?’ and ‘why do we read what we read?’ – got me thinking ‘why do we write?’ and ‘why do we write what we write?’
Guru Stephen King says it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. Others have said they write because they can’t not. 
I would imagine this last is certainly the case for Cathy Donald who, despite a role as a medical doctor in both urban and rural settings, in general practice, hospitals and telephonic helplines, has ‘written for as long as she can remember – stories, scripts for plays and musical productions.’
In the last five years she’s written four novels including The Silence of the Shadows (2020) and Breathless (2022), so she’s not been idle in her leisure hours.
In terms of ‘what’ she writes, all her books, she says, ‘celebrate family and friendship and the life-affirming values that mean so much to her.’
There’s much to be said for the practice of writing of as a way of processing your thoughts, experiences – and values. In Shadows Donald weaves together the lives of five very different women living in Cape Town. We find out more about them, their circumstances and relationships – but also about abuse, abusers and the abused.
In Breathless, she offers more from her immediate experience as a medic. It’s a journey through the landscape of Covid through the eyes of frontline healthcare worker Emily. It’s a reminder, in case you’ve forgotten, of how Covid infiltrated its way into our lives, and in this case, loves and losses – as well as hospitals. Along the way we also learn about Covid treatments, medical overload and burn out and the impact of the pandemic on families. All of which Donald must have experienced first- hand. There are some additional reflections on infidelity, apartheid, dealing with adolescents and aged parents. In all, much to be learned in both these books, and with the experience she has why wouldn’t she want to pass it on. I suspect there may be much more to come from the desk of Cathy Donald. And interesting to note that last year, Silence of the Shadows, won the Jury Prize at the Milan International Literary Awards.
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Livid

1/28/2023

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​Author: Patricia Cornwell
Publisher: Grand Central
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
100 million people can’t be wrong, I thought. It may be some people have bought more than one, but roughly, that’s how many copies of Patricia Cornwell’s books have been sold, to date. Making her, I’d say, deserving of the title ‘international phenomenon’. You have to gasp – she’s written damn nearly 40 (though I abandoned the count), and 26 of them have been in the Kay (medical 
​examiner) Scarpetta series. The first one Postmortem was written in 1990, the latest Livid in 2022 – with a few beats in between, that’s pretty much one a year. Impressive hey!
Someone refers to Cornwell’s ‘fanatically loyal fan base’ – someone else inferred that you need to have a bit of background on Ms Scarpetta to make sense of the latest. But what I say is Phew! Can you imagine all those words around one woman – can you imagine all those words from one woman. And from one woman with a story of her own. Cornwell’s father walked out on the family when she was five. Ruth Bell Graham (wife of evangelist Billy) was a key figure in her upbringing (and about whom she wrote a book which seems to have soured the relationship), she was a promising tennis ace, worked as a reporter, suffered anorexia, molestation and depression at different stages and had three novels rejected before the first, Postmortem, was published. With a personal story like that, why would you write about anyone else?
It’s been suggested that Kay Scarpetta is Cornwell’s alter ego – but then she’s also had a long time obsession with Jack the Ripper, about whom she wrote a book called Portrait of a killer - Jack the Ripper, Case Closed. I rest my case.
All of this is a lot to process in an author’s background. But intrigued, I gave Livid, the latest in the Scarpetta series, a go. Truth to tell, I was a bit overwhelmed. Drowned in detail and razor-edged dialogue. The opening chapters of snapping court cross examination set the tone – but I soldiered on. Finally, the take home factor for me, was learning a lot about the American way of speaking, smoking, eating, drinking and thinking – I also found out what livid, and also birddogging, really means. But phewy, I take my hat off to the 100 million devotees – but more especially I take my hat off to Ms Cornwell, and look forward to her autobiography – unless she’s already done it.
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Feeding The Soul

1/26/2023

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​Author: Tabitha Brown
Publisher: William Morrow
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
Affectionately known as “America’s Mom,” Tabitha Brown is an actress, a vegan food star and an award-winning social media personality with millions of followers. In this book she candidly shares her life lessons, her career path, health, faith and family journeys. With all the turmoil and uncertainties within us and around us, with this book she aims to   
nhelp us find our way to joy, love and freedom with a good dose of soulful vegan recipes .d, inspirational quotes in the mix.  
The book is made up of five parts: That’s Your Business, Have the Most Amazing Day, Don’t You Dare Go Messing Up Nobody Else’s, Like So, Like That and, Very Good. It’s a mesmerising read, an ode to the resilience of the human spirit. Looking at her now and reading about her amazing achievements, I could hardly believe that she’s the same woman who struggled with migraines, anxiety, depression and autoimmune illness. That she was miserable and felt so lost at some point in her life she did not think she would ever make it out of the darkness.
In the book she talks about living with intention, living life without fear, living in peace and kindness, discovering your true self (and trusting yourself), being grateful, and most of all believing in your dreams. As she says, “Don’t you dare talk yourself out of your dreams.”
After reading Feeding the Soul, I wholeheartedly believe that dreams do come true if you have faith and perseverance. And don’t allow background noise to dim your vision. Tabitha is a living testimony to this. Born and raised in Eden, North Carolina, she knew from a very early age that she wanted to be an actress. In school she did theatre, and performing in community theatre. She was in acting class for years and auditioned for all kinds of roles, taking up some that didn’t even pay just for the experience. She had seen highs and lows and highs again. Battled with disillusionment. Cared for her dying mother.
Her journey has seen her work two jobs, at just nineteen, to afford rent in California. She has laboured as a caregiver in an assisted living home. Held a nine-to-five, doing hair in her home on the side, working on her stand-up on the weekends and driven for Uber. There were times when she wanted to turn her back on her dream. It took the author twenty-three years of pursuing a career in acting. Success is indeed a marathon.
What I know for sure is that in life we all have our fair share of trials and tribulations. Good things don’t happen overnight. In this book, the author urges us to embrace all our new journeys. Not focus on what we used to be, but who we are right now and can be in the future. “Change means we’re still growing and we’re still alive to do so,” Tabitha Brown
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