Arun Valley

Book Circle Three

We meet on the second Friday of each month from 10.30am to 12 noon at The Roundabout Hotel. We enjoy lighter, easy to read fiction. Our books are chosen by each member in turn. The individual who has chosen the book leads the discussion and then each member adds his/her views. This usually leads to an interesting discussion; it is very rare that every member likes the book!

If you are interested in joining this group, please contact Steve via the General Enquiries button on the Contacts page.

Below is a list of some of the books we've enjoyed most plus all those that we've read last year and in the current year. We asked our members to rate the books to give other readers an idea of which appealed to us most.

Ratings : 6 – Excellent, 5 – Very Good, 4 - Good, 3 – Quite good, 2 - Not that good, 1 – Don’t touch it. The asterisk * is the “Marmite” indicator, i.e. some loved it, others thought that it was really not that good.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. Light Fiction. Rating 4.7
Don Tillman has got his love life planned out, although he’s never had a second date. So he devises the Wife Project, a scientific test to find the perfect partner. Enter Rosie - 'the world's most incompatible woman'.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. General Fiction. Rating 4.8
It is summer in the Appalachian mountains. From her outpost in an isolated mountain cabin, a reclusive wildlife biologist watches a den of coyotes, but is caught off guard by a young hunter who interrupts her solitary life.

Where the Crawdad Sings by Delia Owens. General Fiction. Rating 5.6
For years, rumours of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So when Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect the so-called Marsh Girl.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towley. General Fiction. Rating 4.4*
In 1922, Count Rostov, deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, is sentenced to house arrest in the elegant Hotel Metropol. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room.

The Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers. General Fiction. Rating 3.7
A story of loss and second chances tells of the mysterious Agnes Morel whose acts of kindness touch the lives of others. But when her past is exposed, Agnes has to face up to the truth of her origins.

The Lost Man by Jane Harper. Crime. Rating 4.6
Two brothers meet at the remote border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of the outback. They are at the stockman’s grave, an old landmark, but the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother.

A Perfectly Good Man by Patrick Gale. Serious Fiction. Rating 3.6
On a crisp summer's day in Cornwall, a young man carefully prepares to take his own life, and asks family friend, John Barnaby, to pray with him. Barnaby - priest, husband and father - has always tried to do good, though life hasn't always been easy.

Love, Nina: A Nanny Writes Home by Nina Stibbes. Light Fiction. Rating 2.7*
In the 1980s Nina Stibbes wrote letters home to her sister in Leicester describing her trials and triumphs as a nanny to a London family

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. Serious Fiction. Rating 3.7
Twin sisters grow up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities.

Unholy Harmonies by Elizabeth Aston. Light Fiction. Rating 3.1*
A stylish, heart-warming comedy of marriage and love, rich in irreverent wit and infused with music and magic

Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce. Light Fiction. Rating 4.1
In 1950, in a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and decides to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. Serious Fiction. Rating 4.9
Lydia lives in Acapulco. She has one son Luca but in a city in the grip of a drug cartel, she has no choice but to flee with Luca and go north to the USA. The journey is dangerous.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. General Fiction. Rating 4.0
Nora's life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library, where she is given the chance to try out each of the other lives she might have lived.

Should we fall behind by Sharon Duggal. Serious Fiction. Rating 4.0
This book is about the passing of time and the intricate weaves of joy and suffering, love.

All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison. General Fiction. Rating 3.9
The autumn of 1933 is the most beautiful Edie can remember, though the Great War still casts a shadow over her beloved farm. When Constance arrives from London to write about rural traditions, she takes an interest in 14-year-old Edie.

Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton. Thriller. Rating 4.5*
In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, a school is under siege. Pupils and teachers barricade themselves into classrooms, the library, the theatre.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. Serious Fiction. Rating 4.0
A sweeping saga of a family's struggle to survive set against the backdrop of The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl of America's Plains states

More Group Pages
Art Appreciation Ballet and Dance Beer, Bus and Chat Book Circle One
Book Circle Three Book Circle Two Computer Help Croquet
Dance Appreciation Film Group Flowers and Gardens French Conversation
French in Storrington Guitar History Improv
Longer Walks Lunch group Music Group Natural History
Opera Appreciation Poetry group Science and Technology Scrabble
Spanish Conversation Spanish Group 1 Storrington Coffee and Conversation Table Tennis
Walking group
More Group Pages
Art Appreciation Ballet and Dance
Beer, Bus and Chat Book Circle One
Book Circle Three Book Circle Two
Computer Help Croquet
Dance Appreciation Film Group
Flowers and Gardens French Conversation
French in Storrington Guitar
History Improv
Longer Walks Lunch group
Music Group Natural History
Opera Appreciation Poetry group
Science and Technology Scrabble
Spanish Conversation Spanish Group 1
Storrington Coffee and Conversation Table Tennis
Walking group