2017 reviews
NOVEMBER
The hen who dreamed she could fly by Sun-mi Hwang
This was a delightful little book. It could be viewed as a fable or an allegory of the modern world. It is the story of a hen who escapes from a battery cage into what she thinks is wonderful freedom only to encounter racism, bullying and cruelty. The story of her incubating and having overwhelming maternal love for a duckling touches on adoption, friendship, class, hierarchy. sexism and the strength and determination a mother will find to protect her child.
OCTOBER
Lion: A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierly
An engaging tale with no artistic merit. The style was journalistic and recounts what happened to a five year old boy who boarded a train at a local station and ended up thousands of miles away in Calcutta. He spent many years of his life making a conscious effort to remember what he could about his family and his town. After a happy childhood in Tasmania and when his future was secure he started to look for his home town using the internet. It was long and painful search but he did it eventually and went to meet his family. The book details his early life, his hazardous time in Calcutta, how he went to Tasmania and his life there.
Everyone enjoyed the book and saw it as a lovely story of a very determined little boy. His new parents were so kind and understanding that never at any time did he wish to replace one family with another. He was just grateful that he now had two different families and that he had roots again.
SEPTEMBER
The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovatt
A complicated tale with three strands. One was an historical one tracing the life of a book with notes in Shakespeare's hand (supposedly) from his time until its ownership at the time of the novel. This was generally agreed to be very interesting and obviously well-researched. The second was the love story between the hero and his wife who died before the start of the novel. Some enjoyed this part the most but it was thought that it could have been omitted all together. The third strand was the adventures of the hero after the book fell into his hands by not entirely legal means. You had to have your wits about you to follow the story and some were not entirely sure of the relevance of some of the actions of the hero.
It was a book that relied on huge coincidences such as the hero happening to pick up a book when far from home and finding a portrait of a women that looked like his wife. And that was just the start. It came as a surprise to some that people would kill for something that could be verified as genuine Shakespeare and more than one thought the violence and lost crypts etc were unnecessary. However, nearly everyone enjoyed it.
AUGUST
Girl Unknown by Karen Perry
This book is billed as a psychological thriller although most thought this a misnomer. It had rather a slow pace in the first half of the book but did speed up towards the end. It concerned a young adult who was adopted as a child telling a family man that she is his daughter. The book tells the story of how she manipulates and eventually destroys the family. Most of us found the father, whose actions dictate the way the story develops, frustrating. We wanted to shake him to get him to see what everyone could see. It was generally thought to be a clever story, skillfully written with the makings of a good novel. But there was no depth in the writing.
JULY
King and Maxwell by David Baldacci
This book is a fast paced thriller, with several strands of story cleverly interwoven together. The story starts off in a desert in Afghanistan, then quickly switches to a rain swept road in Virginia, and involves the White House and the Pentagon.
There are lots of plots and sub-plots which our heroes have to unpick, and a satisfactory conclusion.
It was well received by 7 of the 8 members present, with varying comments: "like a TV script" (the characters King & Maxwell have been serialised on TV in the USA), "compares well with other thriller writers like James Patterson", "better than Lee Child". "Cracking good read". One said that at times she couldn't read fast enough to find out what was to happen next, and that, although thrillers were not usually to her taste, she had enjoyed this so much that she would be tempted to read another by this author. Praise Indeed.
JUNE
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee
Again, mixed reviews. It was agreed that it was well researched and it was felt that the detail about the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong was informative. However, most felt that there did not seem to be logic about the book and the action of some people seemed to be out of character.
MAY
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
This was a book that was either liked or disliked. Mostly disliked and, in some cases, so much so that there were an unusual number that did not finish it. It was thought to have too much explicit sex and violence. It was generally felt to be badly written and the underlying premise that a selfish and spoilt girl would plan so meticulously not plausible. Those who liked it agreed with some of these comments.
APRIL
Mother's Milk by Edward St Aubyn
This is a book about the effect of mothers and the way they bring up their children on the kind of adults those children become. The book is the last in a series of four which detail the brutal way in which Patrick, the father in this book, was brought up and the neglect suffered by the mother, Mary. The two children that result from this marriage are neglected by one parent and smothered by the other. The first part of the book is a witty telling by the elder of the children from the time of his birth, literally, to the time his brother is about two. Some found the extreme precociousness of the child and the fact that he would not be able to remember his birth very annoying but most of us enjoyed the wit and the language.
The last three parts of the book take a much darker and rather surreal tone so that it difficult to think of it as being the same book. It still has some amusing moments and the use of language is fantastic but the behavior of the adults is often so outrageous that it spoiled the story for most of us. We found it difficult to relate to these people who are so self-centred that they do not care how their actions affect others.
MARCH
The Girl from the Savoy by Hazel Gaynor
This book was loved or enjoyed as a light read. It is an upstairs-downstairs novel following the heroine's transition from one to the other. A rags to riches story.
On the positive side, it was well researched. It gave a lot of information about the running a large hotel and its domestic staff. It was felt that the portrayal of Britain after the First World War and its effect on those who survived and those who were bereaved was believable. The lives of the wounded and the women who had to go back to domestic service were well described.
On the negative side, the plot depended on a number of co-incidences that appeared to treat London as a small town or village in which paths kept crossing to further the story. It was all a bit too convenient.
It did not have the normal ending for a light novel and we were left with the feeling that there might be another novel from the missing years and unfinished connections.
FEBRUARY
No Place to Hide by Susan Lewis
Opening in Culver Indiana in the present day the story alternates between there and the UK fourteen years earlier. Mum in Culver with youngest daughter hiding a terrible secret and Father left behind in London. The perfect family with everything has been shattered by the death of their talented eldest daughter along with their friends' children at the hands of their son, Ben. Father stays in London to be near the imprisoned son while Mum flees to Culver, her childhood home, with their youngest
child.
Lots of discussion. Ranging from the perfectness of the families life before the tragedy, to the parents lack of appreciation of the seriousness of their son's problems while concentrating on the their talented musical daughter. Unlikely turns of events, hidden family mansions, discovery of valuable paintings and the forgiveness of the families whose children Ben had killed added to the varied opinions about the book.
JANUARY
Dominion by C J Sansom
This is an alternative history book. Its basis is that in 1940 Chamberlain's government accepted Hitler's peace terms and became a satellite of the German empire. The reason for the decision was that the country could not afford an extended war and would be brought to its knees. Germany were still fighting the Russian war in the 1950s and was taking everything it could from Britain to support the war. With the drive to manufacture armaments, the government having no little independence and the SS controlling security, the resistance movement was growing with Churchill at its head.
In this depressing, smog ridden country are a geologist who has mental problems and knows more about the manufacture of atomic bombs than is good for him and the members of the resistance whose job is to get him to the USA. We read how he learned the secrets, why he was put into a mental institution and about the conditions in the asylum. We have members of the resistance travelling the country with the German appointed to find the scientist hard on their heels.
Opinion was divided. Nobody really disliked the book and some thought it was wonderful. It was generally agreed that it had been well researched and a lot of the detail of the period, including how people thought and behaved, was fairly accurate. There were disquieting parallels with the xenophobic and racist attitudes of some today. Some thought it was difficult to get into but were gripped when they did. Some thought it was a bit padded and should have been shorter. But on the whole an enjoyable and interesting read.