Archive | 2015

The Brave, by Nicholas Evans   The Blurb: The motto of the boarding school to which Tommy Bedford is dispatched is ‘Fortune Favours the Brave’. It’s 1959 and the school bristles with bullies and sadistic staff. Tommy, a quirky loner, obsessed with cowboys and Indians, needs all the bravery he can summon. Salvation comes when […]

  ‘More fool me’ is the 3rd volume of autobiography by Stephen Fry. The first two cover his childhood, teenage and university years, so this picks up the story in the late 1980s and early 90s as his career really takes off and stopping short of his breakdown in 1995. The first 60 odd pages […]

  On the surface this book by Gavin Extence was  light-hearted. It started with a bang wanting to make you read on, although that first chapter also gave away where the book was heading which was towards the much heavier theme of assisted dying (not hinted at on the cover at all). It is told in […]

  Paula Hawkins’ debut novel is a psychological thriller, which shot to the top of the bestseller lists in January of this year. The central character, Rachel, commutes into London each day, and a regular stop at a signal allows her to observe one couple as they breakfast on their deck. She imagines the perfect lives […]

Burial rites by Hannah Kent Collected thoughts from the Book Club 09/07/2015 Burial rites is set in 19th century Iceland and is a fictional account of the true story of Agnes Magnusdottir, the last woman to be publicly beheaded in Iceland. Whilst Agnes is waiting her execution she is place in the care of a […]

‘Small Island’ is set in 1948, and focuses on the experience of Jamaican immigrants who, have left the Caribbean for what they hope will be a better life in England, the “Mother Country” for which the men have fought during the 2nd World War. It is told through the alternate voices of 4 main characters […]

Wild: a journey from lost to found by Cheryl Strayed Collected thoughts from the Book Club 01/05/2015 This is a deeply personal and honest account of Cheryl Strayed’s 1,100 hike alone up the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert to northernmost Oregon. A novice hiker when she set out, the journey took her 3 […]

Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) was enjoying positive reviews from professional critics accompanied by modest sales for his ‘first’ novel. However once the true identity of the author was revealed the book leapt up into the best sellers lists. J.K. Rowling’s second published work for adults is in the classic detective genre and with her […]

In Lisa Genova’s book we meet Alice in her early 50s, a very successful Harvard professor, still excited by research and sought after for her opinions, who initially blames the symptoms she experiences on the menopause. This brings home that dementia is no respecter of education or position, but also allows the author to present […]