Benfleet

Book Club

Interest Group Contact: PAT CLUNESS.
Send message using our Book Club webmail.

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CURRENT STATUS: JOIN WAITING LIST
Please contact Pat Cluness using the Book Club webmail contact link to go onto a waiting list.
With 3-4 people waiting the Interest Groups Coordinator will be asked to form another group - will require 1 or 2 waiting members to become the Group Contact(s).

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Meeting on: Monthly - usually first Monday in the month.

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What we do: each month a book is chosen for all group members to read. At the meeting opinions on the book are reviewed (often very diverse views) and summarised in the 'previous reads' below.

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Group News and Reviews

Next read: The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesly by Sean Lusk
Next Meeting: 2pm Monday 4 November 2024.
Very, very good reviews. We’ll see!

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Previous Reads

September 2024: Howards End by E M Forster
This book was thoroughly loved by one and while the rest of the group definitely didn’t hate it, they certainly didn’t love it either. I personally found the language impenetrable at times, flowery almost. Good story with characters that you could hate/despise. The main son had a wife that was described as worthless, but their marriage survived. The women all had their own money and were able to do what they pleased to some extent.

One subject that intrigued me was hay fever. They seemed to suffer very badly from it. I was watching QI one evening and Stephen Fry said that hay fever did not exist until 19th century. The book commenced early 19th century. Interesting I think. Why did it not exist before 19th century? Hey ho.

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September 2024: Forever Home by Graham Norton
A novel about 2 main families and all its characters, a dead body and its disposal written with humour. I did smile a couple of times, especially when he described how one of the characters dressed.

Quite a far-fetched story in my opinion and one other member. The rest of the group loved this book very much indeed. Myself and one other were not really captivated but didn’t hate it.

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August 2024: The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway
Sort of enjoyed by every member but not understand regarding satire etc. It was described as a fable, which we all thought was a story, often involving an animal and with a moral tale. This was beyond us all. We read about effort and hard work; it didn’t seem to go on from that. We are obviously missing something.

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July 2024: The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
When I started it I thought oh no here we go again. A baby born in Ireland, the mother thrown out of her home, a hunch backed nun who found an adopter. The child adopted by an extremely affluent, “different” couple.

The child grows up to become not only gay, but an amazingly rampant and promiscuous gay with very few scruples. I then got into the book and enjoyed it. This was the opinion given by all the group. I am glad I read it. If I had not “had” to read it, I might well have put the book aside and lost out. The Irish words often defeated me as to meaning but you could guess at most of them.

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May 2024: The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon
It was about West Indian people trying to carve out a life here in cold dark London in the fifties.

Well, I just don’t know what to say. I’d never heard of the author but apparently very well known and respected. One person sort of liked the story but for the rest it was a no no. I could not penetrate it all. He wrote in the vernacular of the West Indies, which is considered very clever but I do know that writing down dialect etc. is very hard to master. So, clever, but almost like a foreign language. The group did start to “get” some of the words like “her” instead of “she” but “test” eluded us all apart from perhaps meaning a white man. I am at a point where I am thinking I’ll never find a good book again and that’s very depressing.

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April 2024: Exactly What You Mean by Ben Hinshaw.
It would be lovely to review this book in the usual way, but unfortunately no one could understand what it was all about. One member said it was the worse book we have read in all the years we have had a book club. Everyone agreed.

I had chosen the book from a selection offered on the BBC programme Between The Covers, which ranks as one if my favourite programmes. It came as highly recommended. I read a review online but it still didn’t SAY anything apart from it being set in parts in Guernsey. I don’t know what else to say.

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February 2024:The Seven Husbands of Evelyn by Taylor Jenkins Reid
An unusual book, based on characters in the film industry in Hollywood. Phenomenal egos presented plus explicit sex.

A very mixed reaction from group members from dislike to a good read. No one was anxious to read another book by the same author. I found it very predictable apart from the ending.

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January 2024: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
This book was so illuminating and could be compared to modern day events. It was written during the pandemic but it is about American depression during the 1930s. It was hard to believe the poverty that existed during America’s depression. The dust, the drought, the travelling for work.

There were state benefits in California but only after a year. People lived in the most appalling conditions. The main character was strong and resilient. She had a bad relationship with her teenage daughter - again comparable to modern times all over the world. When they eventually got a dwelling on a cotton farm, they were unbelievably exploited. Some comparisons with slave labour could be made.

The 2nd World War seemed to bring some sort of ending to the terrible situations that people lived under.

Disappointing ending. Descriptions of scenes contained too many adjectives. Apart from these points, a very enjoyable book. This view was shared by whole group. An easy reader that was hard to put down.

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Book reviews: These are available on the page above and/or select on the right hand column on this page.

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More Group Pages
Art 4 Beginners Art 4 Beginners 2
Art Blue Art Turquoise
Badminton1 Book Club
Canasta Card and Board Games
Culinary Experience Current Affairs
Darts Discussion
Drawing and Painting Exploring World Faiths
Flower Arranging French
French Beginners Gardening
German Beginners Local and Essex History
Local Interest Lunch Club
Macs and Wellies Gardening Meditation
Naval & Military History Out and About
Outings Photography
Play Reading Scrabble
Singing Spanish
Ten Pin Bowling Vintage Films
Walking over 5 miles Walking up to 5 Miles
Wildlife Women in History