“A full encompassing family story of three generations making peace with their heritage, the essence of who they are and ultimately, how does that then fit within the cultural streamlines of white America.”

Rafaella, Ruth and Daisy – three women with expectations, secrets, resentments and yet linked by kin and kind to draw each other and ‘speak to each of home’.

From 1950s Puerto Rico to Mid-Western USA and then suburban New York to return full circle to the place where their roots were established.

Powerful, confronting new novel from the author of American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins must now receive the recognition for her cross-culture narrative that has been denied to her until now (after undeserved controversy and backlash to her book American Dirt). She takes her life’s experiences and floods each page with honesty and a reflective lens to tell the tale she deeply needs to through her engaging array of characters.

Speak To Me is not weighed heavily with themes of racism but instead, woven through beautiful descriptive phrasing that firmly plants you in the cultural vibrancy of Puerto Rico. We gain understanding of what it is really like to be uprooted from all that is familiar.

Superb unmissable read that left an imprint in my mind and a worthy winner of my number one read for 2025.

Sue Reid

Read By Reid NZ

Hachette Publishers

ISBN 9781472288813

“There was enough adrenaline coursing through my veins as I devoured the latest thriller from A A Dhand to match the clever mindset and chemical equations of Idris Khan – A K A ‘The Chemist’.”

Idris is the endearing community pharmacist serving the drug-addled community of The Mews poorly funded by the NHS in Leeds.

His clientele are complex but Idris is both empathetic and a deliverer of justice which provides the strength of this fast-paced novel.

Heinous power-playing drug lords find new lows in how to keep their drugged and vulnerable communities in line. Idris and his good friend Al-noor are heroic, giving the novel bouyancy and clear, stark direction.

Whilst the ending gives resolution, I already await the sequel and The Chemist sets itself up with a strong cast of characters we become invested in.

Book Club questions can be based on themes of mis-use of power and the plight of illegal immigrants which is topical in this modern age as we witness vast movements of people across continents.

Sue Reid

Read By Reid NZ

Harper Collins Publishers

ISBN 9780008645847

“Only Wally Lamb can bring the pieces of one’s life to the fore, examine and peel back the layers to reveal a broken human spirit…”

In 2017, a depressive spiral and a collision of tragic choices leads Corby to his incarceration, but can his time behind bars ever absolve him of his guilt, shame and sorrow? A prisoner’s time isn’t just served by them but so too does a parent, spouse and child – there’s an impact and Wally Lamb explores it all.

As Corby serves his time, the bordering Wequonnoc River comes to symbolise so much for not only Corby but for his fellow inmates too. The river remains in his fragile mind as he navigates his prison sentence at Yates Correctional Facility, Connecticut.

Not hardened to life nor venturing on the normal route that leads to incarceration, Corby’s character personifies a father, husband, son having to survive inside a powerhouse of rules and protocols.

Vulnerable and yet finding allies. Having a gentleness that does a desperate teen’s bidding. A confidante for his tender-hearted cellmate and a librarian that brings much needed breaths of hopeful human lightness. These are the facets of Corby we discover and redeems the initial bristling we, as the reader, may start with.

Whilst The River Is Waiting is a commentary of a prisoner and the system, the tale has tentacles that reach out to a wider social study on the where, why and how punishment and reform fits within our society. It’s sobering, thoughtful, confronts fears and ultimately, in the the closing chapters it’s sad but finally understood.

Sue Reid

Read By Reid NZ

Simon Schuster Publishers

ISBN 9781668211861

“There are moments in time when we may ponder, ‘What if?’ How may my life have differed? This is the them underpinning this remarkable debut novel.”

With her daughter Maia, Cora walks to register her newborn son and officially bestow his name. There are consequences for Cora’s choice and in a heartbeat, her decision at the registry office re-charts the course of time.

The Names is an imagination of three separate scenarios of her son’s life as Bear, Julian or Gordon – a sample of a ‘sliding doors’ narrative.

Cora is a portrait of a domestically abused woman protecting her beloved children but at what cost?

A powerful written work from an imaginative debut that challenged my emotional and reasonable mind.

A sharp insight into a gracious woman’s mind as she orders her life under the deep, dark shadows of her husband’s cruel rule.

Dark, but not heavy, The Names is focused on the bonded affinity between an mother and her children – and a brother and sister.

A story told in three parts, but like a cord of three strands, it is a strong bold novel.

Book Club questions could centre around the meaning of names and does this affect life outcomes?

Sue Reid

Read By Reid NZ

Hachette Publishers

ISBN 9781399624039

“In Michigan 1999, Jack Fawcett is looking in the rearview mirror of his extraordinary life…”

In 1929 Jack traveled with his parents to the Brazilian Amazon Basin for his Father’s new job as key manager in Henry Ford’s brainchild Fordlandia. Set up for a reliable source of rubber for the shrewd American industrialist. The corporate Ford company in Detroit, Michigan required a huge supply for rubber for tyres and the Amazon provided all that was needed, albeit at a huge, exploitive cost to the rainforest, flora, fauna, vulnerable tribal groups and the rubber tapper workforce from Michigan.

Combining a fascinating history, this novel is to be appreciated when read slowly. I found myself pausing and re-reading a phrase. Big lofty observations of the world are neatly packed into sentences.

Unlikely friendships and alliances are like snapshots of light and hope throughout this harsh geographical environment and workplace brutality.

The reader will ponder Jack as a twelve-year-old, then Jack as he faced huge personal losses – onto Jack trying to be the man he is expected to be. All the versions of Jack in his aged years, trying to make sense of his lived life to fit into some sensical order.

Profound, poignant and sensitive, Everything Lost, Everything Found will provide book clubs with thoughtful dialogue comparing the ages and stages of Jack’s life.

Author Matthew Hooton is from the same publishers of Trent Dalton and you can see the similarities of a beautiful crafted tale.

‘All The Shimmering Stars’ by Trent Dalton is a genuine comparison.

Sue Reid

Read By Reid NZ

Harper Collins Australia

ISBN 9781460765869

“Sequel to Wild Swans, Jung Chang’s expose still matters and those affected by regime rule need their voice more than ever…“

How do you pour into the pages all the circumstances, brutality and life under Chines regime rule? How do you convey that of a family torn apart, reunions, imprisonment and managing to keep a sane mind?

Yet this is Jung Chang’s gift in writing. She’s completed another poignant, truthful memoir – her sequel to Wild Swans, still banned in China.

Jung Chang uses her meticulous research, eyewitness accounts and interviews to bring an authentic expose of life in Mao China, post Mao, the economic reforms of the nineties and now the revival of Mao systems under China’s modern rule.

A fascinating insight through significant, devastating cultural change and dominance but also a testament to how families still held onto their intrinsic value, kinship was treasured and their future was still hoped for.

Daily routines of work, study and hopes for their children still existed within systematic brutality and where mistrust was their first instinct.

At great personal cost, Jung Chang gives us her story after Wild Swans.

Book Clubs can discuss the extraordinary life of Jung Chang, her dedication to education and how writing brings truth into the light.

Sue Reid

Read By Reid NZ

Harper Collins Australia

ISBN 9780008661083

“Two women, twenty three years on from a war-zone – but how will they remember their actions to absolve guilt and heal from war trauma. How will they rebuild their friendship that shattered in the battle? Can they trust their memory?”

A truly powerful and refreshing novel of two women, a village in North Caucasus then its eventual war zone.

Australian boarding school friends reunite in a remote village in the Dagestan region, one a humanitarian doctor, the other a journalist chasing a story as unrest in the region looms.

The Revisionists puts the spotlight on foreign correspondence, the difficulty to reintegrate into society when you are vastly different from the one you left behind in the war zone. You can flee to safety when others cannot.

It is rare to read novels with themes of foreign war, cross-culture clashes and reconcile that with these villages that live with devastation, threat and instability whilst you can return to safety. This is the strength of this tale as Christine and Frankie find a way to rebuild scarred lives. A literary gem.

Sue Reid

Read By Reid NZ

Harper Collins Australia

ISBN 9781460762721

“Two stories align in the most clever way and the lead to this finale will bring a chill to your bloodflow…

Australian author Trent Dalton is an artist that paints with words.

An exploration of an aged and weathered marriage sits alongside a criminal investigation after investigative journalist Noah Cork receives cryptic messages in his front letterbox. This information leads to the grim discovery of a body. A cold case is re-opened.

A series of storms in suburban Brisbane uncovers more evidence for Noah’s investigation and echoes a storm in Noah’s own marriage – his wife’s sudden muteness and his own hidden secrets.

Clever crafting of cold cases, missing people and startling revelations are all sewn together for the perfect tense and pacy ending that you will need time set aside to devour in one sitting.

Sue Reid

Read By Reid NZ

Harper Collins Australia

ISBN 9781460759851

“A powerhouse of tension from this debut author. A summer holiday in the 80s on Wellington’s Kapiti Coast.”

Set over summer of 1985, Alix’s family book a bach on Wellington’s Kapiti Coast to take time out in more ways than one – a last chance for her parent’s marriage and an older sister intent on carving her own way.

A tense tale told through the lens of ten-year-old Alix and Kahu her new friend and fellow holidaymaker.

With Alix as narrator, the reader is positioned to ‘knowing more’ (through our adult lens) and our heart leaps at the oddities Alix notices and the risks she will take.

What lurks in the summery shadows and who is the neighbour perched high on his deck with his eyes set in their direction?

Keep in mind that these are the eighties and no cellphones, tech and surveillance nor a strong awareness of risk and stranger danger. The narrative will have your brain sparking as you notice all the sinister clues.

A Beautiful Family is breath-holding, rapid page-turning through to the end and danger is the lone thread through the normality of a simple holiday.

Sue Reid

Read By Reid NZ

Allen & Unwin Publishers New Zealand

ISBN 9781761472015

This is the third installment of the Detective Inspector Nyree Bradshaw series that is again compelling and intriguing.

Set in Pahia, Northland, Catherine Lea has firmly established herself in the crime fiction genre here in New Zealand to rival Australian authors Jane Harper and Chris Hammer.

DI Bradshaw has served in her police role over a long career at considerable personal cost. Her flawed character and ‘mother guilt’ brings the human side to the police procedural narrative.

Called to a brutal murder scene on a privately owned Paihia island, juggling her complicated personal life, DI Bradshaw must navigate the controversial ownership of the island, local iwi, contested wills, scandals and the new revelations of a cold case on the island site.

With pace and unexpected directions, Catherine Lea provides depth and curiosity for the reader.

Author Catherine Lea adds to the ever-growing crime fiction genre and her strength is in a crime mystery set with a backdrop of essential social and political issues New Zealand faces. This provides great discussion points in book clubs.

Sue Reid

Read By Reid NZ

Bateman Books

ISBN 9781776891467