Bonny, Tilly and Moggy respectively barked, yapped and said 'Hello' to six other sensational bookclubbers at 2A High Street on Wednesday 13 May 2026 - but not to our three casualties
2-caps - socialising elsewhere with Nobby and a torn shoulder tendon
Margy - nursing a not so funny hairline fracture of her humerus
So the sensational six were Julie, Kathy, McLassie, Cherilyn, Sue and Cherrie - although the discovery of Cherrie's bum hamstring during the evening suggested she wasn't so sensational after all.
After an intense inspection and interrogation of Mog's knitted vest (moss stitch; circular needles; one knitted piece; hard wool; older, simple but now lost pattern), Mog took us to her book selection 'Murder on North Terrace' by Laini Anderson. Starting life as a journalist, Laini completed her PhD on Kate Cocks, SA's first policewoman, at UniSA. Now holding a number of positions within the history fraternity of SA, Laini lives in the Adelaide Hills and will probably write more of her 'petticoat police mysteries'. Suggested by McLassie as an uncomplicated and interesting read during Mog's moving time, we embarked upon an historical tour of Adelaide in 1917. We were jumping in and out of hansom cabs with Miss Cocks and her jujitsu practising offsider, Ethel Bromley, visiting AGSA where the body of the AGSA Board governor was found beneath the controversial new acquisition 'Sowing new seed', and moving across the inner suburbs returning by tram to home base (Landrowna Tce which was actually in now Victoria Square).
Most readers agreed Ethel was the star of the show, with Kate Cocks' distinctive Methodist morality a little wearing as she chased down different avenues with her big stick - yet it created an entree for the book to offer us an insight into Adelaidean hypocrisy of the time. The scales of justice were clearly tilted in favour of wealth and gender, as the attention given to socialites was contrasted with working class victimisation, and female detective work contrasted with 'real' policing. 1922 photo of Landrowna Tce
(from State Library)
All agreed it was thoroughly researched and brought the atmosphere of an earlier Adelaide to life onto its pages, making it a thoroughly enjoyable read. Great selection Mog and suggestion McLassie. (The Death of Dora Black, the first mystery book is doing the rounds for those interested - with similar themes percolating through).
We somehow morphed easily from WW1 Adelaide to present day Seoul and Cherrie's selection, 'Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop' by Korean author, Hwang Boreum. (ed note: collecting Cherrie's 3 pages of research summarising the book was a big miss by your interlocutor, so if they arrive in my inbox I'll link them in to this blog). It was the story of the bookshop and bookshop owner you want to have in your neighbourhood - GOAT coffee, book suggestions tailored to each reader (a novelty as Cherrie remarked), growing book clubs and hosting book talks by authors, and more. We learnt Yeongju, the owner, quit her high pressure job, divorced her equally high pressure husband, and took a leap of faith opening the bookshop. Starting alone, on her journey she found peace and happiness along with likeminded characters - readers' favourite Minjun (barista extraordinaire), Jimi the coffee roaster, knitter Jungsuh, Mincheol, the young student looking for a mentor (enter Yeongju), and Seeungwoo, the kind hearted grammatical pedant.
There were some little pearls of wisdom dropped throughout the book - such as 'characters in novels are imperfect and that's how they lend their voice to the average person' (p 80); 'have we become the person we wanted to be?' followed by 'each day is a successful day surrounded by good people' (p 242, 254). And then there was reading teaches you to 'reflect on yourself - and so hope to become a better person one day' (p 68). Fabulous!!! In the end its folksy but gracious message was that by self reflection, you will find yourself, and when you have found yourself, you will find your people. Yeongsu found her people. Everyone enjoyed the book and the characters, finding it an uplifting read (despite the Korean names that were hard to keep track of).
Cherrie's fabulous quince cake came out as we reflected on the two uplifting books and how positive it was to read them in these difficult times. Post book chat turned to films - 'The Sheep Detective' could be a new adventure for Hugh Jackman after 'Song Sung Blue'. Cherrie suggested reading 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog' by Muriel Barbery, and we talked about our next scheduled meeting in July. Possible switches were discussed, then Kathy suggested we stay with the date at her place, and leave it open to Megan to attend and/or choose a book. One book to discuss, we decided, would be perfectly fine.
As we started to drift off, and Moggy gave everyone a farewell plant, we all reflected that if we're ever walking in the Victoria Park dog park (dogs on lead area), keeps your eyes open for an aggressive man with a small dog on a lead - and if spotted run up and knee him in the balls compliments of Julie.
Next meeting: Wednesday 8 July at Kathy's place.
Kathy's choice: 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' by Shelby Van Pelt. (Netflix has just released a telemovie of the same name starring Sally Field).
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