What to Read As the Days get Shorter and the Evenings get Longer

by Amy Riach

While Easter in the Northern Hemisphere signals the beginning of long spring days, Easter on this side of the world means changing the clocks to mark the end of daylight savings, as the days get shorter, and we start lighting the fire in the evenings once again. There is no better season than Autumn for curling up with a good book, and now that it gets dark before 6:00 pm, the evenings that many of us look forward to are showing up even earlier. I still have a whole pile of books, that with the best intentions and a Uni timetable, I have yet to read - but I’ve already formed a few favourites!

The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon - Richard Zimler

Erudite and poetic, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is entirely transportive, a literary mystery set among a secret sect of Jews living in Lisbon in the sixteenth century. The year is 1506, and the Inquisition has reared an ugly and violent head. When Abraham Zarco is found dead, murdered in a hidden synagogue with a young girl by his side, the streets of Lisbon begin to seethe with a palpable fear. Abraham was a renowned kabbalist, a practitioner of the arcane mysteries of Jewish tradition, at a time when Jews living in Portugal were dragged to the baptismal font and forced to convert to Christianity. With Abraham among them, many of these New Christians continued to uphold Jewish tradition and prayer in secret, and the shrouded sect of kabbalist Jews survived in hiding. His killer unnamed, Abraham’s death is a mystery which drags Berekiah Zarco into a world of vengeance.

A talented manuscript illuminator, Berekiah is a kabbalist keeping the written word of Jews alive, and as he investigates his beloved uncle’s murder, he discovers in the Kabbalah clues that lead him into a labyrinth of religious secrets, in which the Jews of Portugal sought to hide from their persecutors. Berekiah seeks answers among Christians, New Christians, Jews; and among the fellow kabbalists of his uncle and their beautiful words, whose secret language and codes by turns light and obscure the way to a fundamental truth.

The Jane Austen Remedy - Ruth Wilson

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a book can change a life. Or perhaps more accurately, six of them can. The six novels of Jane Austen shape Ruth Wilson’s ‘remedy’ for life, and this is an uplifting and delightfully bookish memoir about an 89-year-old woman, who reclaims her life by re-reading each of Austen's novels. As she approached the age of 70, and finally began to feel herself ageing, Ruth Wilson began to have recurring nightmares about losing her voice. And her voice is one thing she is determined to keep. Unable to dismiss her feelings of unexplainable sadness, Ruth retreats from her conventional, white-picket fence life with her husband, to a sunshine-yellow cottage in the Highlands where she will live alone for the next decade. From the first moment she encountered Pride and Prejudice in the 1940s, Ruth looked to Jane Austen's heroines as her models for the sort of woman she wanted to become, and in an effort to reclaim her voice, she resolves to re-read Austen's novels and rediscover the heroines who had inspired her. Published the year Ruth turns ninety, the lessons learned from Jane Austen span nearly eight decades, Ruth resolves herself to read between the lines of both the novels and her own life, and Wilson’s ‘remedy’ talks beautifully of the curative power of reading. The book is a poignant reminder that it's never too late for a second chance, and for Austen fans who have already watched ‘The Jane Austen Book Club’ an impossible number of times, this should be next on the list.

Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrel

There are books we read because they are uplifting, full of laughter and hope. And there are books we read because they are devastating, and beautiful. Hament is one undeniably of the latter, a book just as haunting as the play which inspires it. Agnes is a woman feared, a woman scorned, and a woman loved. It is Warwickshire in the 1580’s, and on Henley street in Stratford, she raises three children.

First Susanna, the beautiful daughter, and then two bright twins, Judith and Hamnet. All of them muses, all of them marked by fate, their lives and loves making their way into poetry. And then in 1596, aged eleven, Hamnet dies. Four years later, his father will write a play called Hamlet. It is written in his name and performed in his honour, remaining Shakespeare’s most powerful, grief-filled work.

A loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, Hamnet imagines the very heart of a timeless and enigmatic tragedy, and the lives of all its players. Written in prose so beautiful it might be poetry, Hamnet is an unforgettable portrait of a child history has all but forgotten.

As local MP for Waimakariri I am acutely aware of the importance of our farming sector, and often say that when farmers do well, we all do well.

New Zealand farmers are the backbone of electorates like Waimakariri, support the wider national economy, and are world leaders in their field.

Last year, New Zealand’s agriculture exports totalled $41 billion, or 63 per cent of our goods exports. As such a key part of our economy, it’s been disappointing to watch the sector face unreasonable and often unmanageable demands from a Labour Government hellbent on bureaucracy at all costs. Labour has introduced or changed more than 20 new or amended regulations that directly affect the ability of businesses in the agricultural sector to operate.

I have spoken to farmers in our district who are becoming increasingly frustrated with the hoops they are expected to jump through, with many seriously considering the future of their farms. Wetlands are so poorly defined that farmers are having to go to court to determine whether the land can be farmed, while others have to navigate having a Significant Natural Area (SNA) on their land.

Because farmers are spending so much time trying to work with Labour’s new rules, they have less to invest in their farms, risking lower productivity. Costs are passed on to consumers so we all end up paying for Labour’s over-regulation. It’s no surprise then the cost of food in New Zealand is at a 30-year high. Labour has overridden local communities and imposed one-size-fits-all rules with massive compliance costs for farmers, often for limited or no environmental gain.

National’s recently-announced Getting back to Farming package will cut the red tape to help farmers get on with doing what they do best – farming. And when they get back to farming the rest of us will benefit.

We’ll ensure farming regulations are fit for purpose, and protect our environment, as domestic and overseas consumers expect.

We will also return the management of local issues to local councils rather than running everything out of Wellington. National will deliver a professional, competent regulatory system that targets environmental outcomes without telling farmers how to run their businesses, and while imposing the minimum compliance costs on them. This country does not need more rules, it needs better regulation. National will be announcing more policy on agriculture in the coming months. In government, we will deliver results to ensure all New Zealanders get ahead.

Matt Doocey MP for Waimakariri

Rangiora Office

Level 1, Conway Building, 188 High Street 03 310 7468 waimakariri@parliament.govt.nz

Kaiapoi Office

137 Williams Street, Kaiapoi 03 327 0514 kaiapoi@parliament.govt.nz