Category: Book Club

We all enjoyed ‘The Invention of Wings’ by Sue Monk Kidd. Set between Charleston, South Carolina and Philadelphia in the early 19th century it is a fictionalised account of the early life of Sarah Grimke, an abolitionist, writer, and member Read More …

Silencing Anna sparked a lot of discussion about domestic abuse which I suspect was Sadie Mitchell’s intention. The framing device of Anna in hospital in a locked in state, which was fascinating, hardly featured. The back story of Anna’s two Read More …

Beth Underdown has taken a real character from history – Matthew Hopkins – who was behind a surge in executions for witchcraft in Essex during the Civil War, and retold his story through the eyes of a fictional sister. In Read More …

We were all agreed that this book was a quick and easy read, a page turner – more than one of us had completed it in two days. However the general feeling was that the plot lacked credibility with poorly Read More …

Gilead takes the form of a long and rambling letter from an elderly preacher to his young son. John Ames is ailing and wants to leave a letter to his much beloved son whom he will not see become an adult. Read More …

‘Elinor Oliphant is completely fine’ turned out to be a good read – we had all enjoyed it to various degrees. Some of the group were very taken with Elinor and her quirks whilst others took longer to warm to Read More …

We read a volume of poetry this month – a challenge for many of us (the last time I had seriously looked at poetry was school). Helen Dunmore died in 2017, and the collection was written through her last months Read More …

First published in 1974 Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy is John Le Carre’s features George Smiley – a spymaster who has been forced to retire following the failure of an operation.  After evidence of a soviet mole is behind the failure Read More …

Published in 1924 A Passage to India is set in the fictional city of Chandrapore during the British Raj. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and is regarded as a classic. Newly arrived in India, Adela Read More …

We were hoping for a festive read and David Baldacci’s book promised a ‘heart warming holiday tale’. It focuses on Tom Langdon, a disillusioned journalist as he travels from Washington to LA to be with his current girlfriend by Christmas Read More …

The structure of Victoria Hislop’s book is unusual – a set of short stories with what feels like two framing devices. First we meet Ellie who has received a series of postcards from Greece intended for a previous occupant of her flat. Read More …

One Hundred Years of Solitude is often cited as Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s finest and most famous work – part of the canon that led to him being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It tells the story of the rise Read More …