Books in 2023
November
This month the two groups had a joint meeting and discussed “The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudsley” by Sean Lusk, while eating Christmas dinner at the Garden Centre in Bow.
We agreed that it is a beautifully written first novel with some fascinating characters.
Well researched with lots of descriptions of the automata around which the story is fabricated.
It also deals with lots of modern themes, and the second sight was a minor part of the story. It contains just enough background information about Europe in the 1700.
Some of us felt that the ending could have been better but on the whole it was an enjoyable read.
The food was great and the service was good and we all went home having enjoyed our Christmas outing.
October
For our October book we read The Island of missing trees by Elif Shafak
This is an epic tale of love, grief, exile - and trees.
Set in London and Cyprus between 1974 and the 2010s, it tells the story of the forbidden love between Turkish Defne and Greek Kostas on the island of Cyprus, an island torn apart by partition, and links the degradation of the birds and trees with the fate of the human protagonists.
Defne and Kostas meet and fall in love in the 1960s just as terrorist attacks and civil unrest start to turn their two communities against each other. They have no choice but to escape to London, where 40 years later their daughter has to make her own emotional journey when she uncovers the trauma of her parents' past.
If you are happy with a tree that talks, this book is for you. Personally I thought that having a tree as narrator was a step too far.
September
This month we discussed The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki.
This book deals with Schizophrenia, hoarding, friendship, loss and basically ‘things’. Here ‘things’ are given voices, value and discourse on their place in the world. Really makes you think, and tells the story from a range of viewpoints. Some of the members loved it others didn’t. But as the book says “everyone’s experience is different”.
August
This month we read Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Set in a time when misogyny was rife, the protagonist is a force of nature and an inspiration - both for us who read the novel and the multitude of characters she influences in the novel.
The story has so many twists and turns and characters that are interconnected.
All our readers liked the dog, six thirty.
An enjoyable read which was very funny despite having some serious themes.
July
This month we discussed Metronome by Tom Watson.
In a dystopian future society, Aina and her husband Whitney have been exiled to an isolated island for 12 years for a family crime - and are tied to the isolated croft by the need to take pills dispensed by a machine every eight hours in order to survive the polluted environment. As time has gone on and they have developed a degree of self-sufficiency, the couple have also noticed that supply drops have become irregular and subsequently stopped and abandoned boats have started to wreck themselves on the island. Finally, when their 12-year parole is due, the Warden does not appear as expected and cannot be contacted via the radio. The only thing that appears is a lone sheep - which leads to Aina becoming suspicious that they are not in fact on an island as she believes sheep cannot swim....
Some of us loved the book some hated it, so an interesting discussion.
June
This month we discussed Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier .
The fictionalised story of Mary Anning, the famous fossil collector from Lyme Regis.
A story of how women were kept on the periphery of scientific progress by dismissive men and how they were constrained in their expectations of marriage by class and ‘reputation’.
It was quite shocking to realise how little we understood of science and nature at the time. An enjoyable read.
May Meeting
Mother's Boy is a fictionalised biography of the Cornish poet Charles Causley.
Patrick Gale combines meticulous research with his remarkable storytelling skills to flesh out the character of this slightly prissy bookish little boy who grew up in Launceston in the early twentieth century, and bring him vibrantly to life. As the title implies, this is as much about Causley's mother as the man himself. Independent, fiercely proud and highly protective of her boy, she dominates large sections of the book, much as she dominated much of his life.
Some of our readers felt uncomfortable with fictionalising a real person, otherwise it was an enjoyable, easy read.
April
This month we discussed The History of Bees by Maja Lunde.
Three stories, one set in 1851, one in 2007 and the third set in the dystopian future of 2098.
All the stories are set around beekeeping and really made us all think about the the future without bees. Does the world take the bee for granted and what role does the human race and global industries play in the future the bee?
Everyone should read this book. Not everyone will enjoy it.
March
This month we discussed Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov translated by Boris Dralyuk.
Little Starhorodivka, a village of three streets, lies in Ukraine’s Grey Zone, the no-man’s-land between loyalist and separatist forces. Thanks to the war, only two residents remain: retired safety inspector turned beekeeper Sergey Sergeyich and Pashka, his “frenemy” from his schooldays.
With little food and no electricity, under ever-present threat of bombardment, Sergeyich’s one remaining pleasure is his bees. As spring approaches, he knows he must take them far from the Grey Zone so they can collect their pollen in peace.
This simple mission on their behalf introduces him to combatants and civilians on both sides of the battle lines: loyalists, separatists, Russian occupiers and Crimean Tatars. Wherever he goes, Sergeyich’s childlike simplicity and strong moral compass disarm everyone he meets.
But could these qualities be manipulated to serve an unworthy cause, spelling disaster for him, his bees and his country?
Written in 2020 about the conflict after the 2014 invasion, reading this book now, knowing that the places he writes about have probably been destroyed, really bring home the futility of the war.
Despite its themes, the book is written with a wonderful sense of humour and was enjoyed by the majority of our readers.
Feb 2023
This month the book groups discussed “The Foundling “ by Stacey Halls.
Described as the new Hilary Mantel, some of our readers thought it was more Mills and Boon.
It is historical fiction, well researched but with a Disney ending.
We were all surprised by the fact that the last residential pupil left the foundling hospital in 1954.
It was an easy read and moderately entertaining
Jan 2023
This month we discussed Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.
This month’s book had a very mixed reception. Some members loved it, others really didn’t like it , some of us still don’t understand it.