Love in a Time of War by Adrienne Chinn. First in an expected trilogy about three sisters in the years leading up to WW1, which was a time of great change – many young women left home for the first time, travelled overseas unchaperoned, did work which was usually done by men, and started to look beyond the traditional boundaries of how they were expected to live. One of the sisters – Cecilia – is studying German and falls madly in love with her teacher, but him being German is a bit problematic when the war starts. Jessie is a nurse who ends up on a hospital ship during the Gallipoli campaign and then on to Egypt; and Etta is studying art and mixing with a very bohemian crowd, much to her mother’s horror. Nice historical family story with the ties that bind and all that. 

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay. This is not new – but I was desperate to find a book which is available in store – everything is running so late at the moment – and it’s just started screening on both TVNZ and TVNZ on Demand. It’s the diaries written by the author when he was in medical training from 2004 to 2010 and is a real insight into what it’s like to be a doctor in the health system – UK admittedly but ours probably not too much different;  97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more than you. It’s very very funny – he subsequently left medicine and took up a career in comedy – but also heart breakingly sad. And all of this was pre Covid, so imagine what it’s like now! I’ve only watched the first episode of the series and loved it. 

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