2026 October - The hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer

 Weird book, every chapter told by one of about 5 people, but somehow it does hold together. A lot of the story builds on the previous book I think. I wouldn't read another of his. You do have to keep going to find out how it comes out. And some people are one person in multiple guises. 4-5?

2026-September Long Island by Colm Toibin

 This is a sequel to Brooklyn, but stands alone. 

It's a story of two women and one man, and Love. You don't know which way he is going to jump, and neither does he. The book is almost that everybody overthinks the situation.  I was going to say 'right up until the last page' but the indecision doesn't stop there. 

How would I mark it - 6 or 7. It was slow at first,but as Eilish starts to think about returning to the US of A, the tension builds up. 

2026-August Hardy Women by Paula Byrne

 General consensus is that no one enjoyed it. More like endured it. It came across as an Academic Analysis.  

There were interesting factual bits about Victorian Times, how hard it was for women teachers,  and also about the comments from the publishers to Hardy.

Other comments were stop/start and repetitive. 

I found it pleasant enough to read in short sessions, but to try and remember all of his women was not easy. 

The general mark of those that read it was 2,2,2, and 4. 

2026-July - The Pavilion in the Clouds - Alexander McCall Smith

 Anybody who has read previous books by McCall Smith wouldn't think this book would get much discussion at the book group.

I found it slow to get started because it was about a young girl talking to her dolls, then there was some intrigue to liven it up, and the last section 11 years later did a nice roundup of the story and everything ended happily ever after. Some of the thoughts  expressed by the adult women were far ahead of their time, little anticipating that the war would bring women into the workforce and able to express themselves more. Was it convenient that Bella's parents died in an air raid? 

Here are one set of comments from a reader who left the group some time ago but is now reading them alongside us:

DW: I was surprised when I read this book , I was expecting 'froth'  but it was an in-depth and thought provoking book. I liked the character of Virginia as she had original idea's,not only about her situation but about education, her thoughts on the empire and people her husband employed on the tea plantion. If the other wives on the same situation thought about these things we don't know as they never discussed them, only frivolous gossip. Once when Virginia raised a controversial thought she was accused of having suffragette thoughts. Henry her husband was having an affair, not with miss white as she and her young daughter Bella thought, but with her best friend heather . Heather councelled Virginia on her marriage this led to heather manipulation the situation for her own benefit . The relationship with miss white the governess was a game of one up manship, perhaps she did it to make herself important as it appeared she had little future being plain, clever and older. The situation was that to be a governess, not a servant but not accepted in upper society. She felt superior because of Virginia's lack of formal education. As for Bella , Virginia's young daughter, a lonely little girl of 8 far wiser than her years , clever but susceptible to fanciful ideas. Her only friends were 'Li Po and Po-Chai dolls, who were essential to her and she used them for council. She kept them while at university and beyond. Hope this is ok, left out the broken barrier and snake episode red herring's,not really what the book was about.  

Mark 6

There was a discussion about who Henry was having an affair with. Miss White said it had been Heather, but two of us thought that was a ruse of Miss White's in talking to the young ones to deflect from the fact that it was her. 

Marks from us all:  8/8/7/7/7 =   7

2026- June- Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

I found this book a bit slow to get into, and then got to the part where it is almost like an american novel with an American Super-rich superhero and his eccentric way of doing things. 

I moved on and now am at the part where Tony is lecturing and it comes across like a story by Ayn Rand.  

I am glad I kept on. It's a real conspiracy story with a powerful ending. 

A good discussion on the book and it's people and their reasons. 

it was commented that it was patchy, which considering the way it was written with the thoughts of the people and the action sort of works. 

Marks varied from 4 to 10 average 6. 

Would I read another of hers? response a bit iffy. Wait and see what it is like. 

2026-May The Three Graces

 H:  i enjoyed the writing style, nice development of characters but by page 100 the story line didn't seem to be going anywhere and I lost interest so didn't finish it.

Interesting. For me just after page 100 things started to happen.  I liked some of the philosophical arguments and also some of the discussions about current affairs.  There are some great sentences that embody the state of something that I wish I had recorded. She gets in most of the things that are in current (2026) news. And it all ties together at the end for a sort of happily ever after ending. I enjoyed it. 

MArks 7,7,7,7,7,5, so average about 7. 

2026-April Old God's Time - Sebastian Barry

 This is a book about a retired Detective called back to review a cold case that he was involved in, but I found the book very slow, as he kept on thinking about his family and his life without getting anywhere, or described in too great detail small trips.

At the end I don't think that he got into the cold case. There were episodes where you thought he was doing something, but it was all a dream. I couldn't recommend this book for somebody who wants something to happen. It takes place in Ireland in the middle of the 20th Century and involves boys and girls in convent accommodation, which can mean that nasty things happen.  

My mark- Perhaps 2.  

Quite Mixed thoughts.

Would we recommend it?  Don't know. 

It was described as a beautifully written load of tosh. 

It was well written with a good literary style, but too graphic in places, and the stream of consciousness writing meant that some of our better readers skipped the middle of the SoC parts. 

MArks: 5,8,8,6, and my 2:  = 6. 

It lead to a discussion of what was a good book: 

It has to have an excellent story and be well written, and you have to feel glad that you have read it when you have finished it.