2025-November - Ann Tyler - Noah's Compass

Liam Pennywell, forced into retirement from teaching at 61, Is robbed and loses his memory of the incident. He spends the rest of the book trying to find his way around his three daughters, ex-wife, and possibly new love interest, without finding a way into happy retirement.  Not inclined to read another like this. Mark 4

General comments - it got boring in the middle.

It was a typical ending for Ann Tyler. Nothing conclusive, not tidy

Like a A Man called Ove but not as good.

Noah's Compass  - A book that went nowhere. 

Liam was frustrated, he let life carry him, but he did have principles. 

H didn't like a single person in the book, T though it was a great read. She liked the characters, and the interaction with the grandson.

Marks  5.5, 3, 4.5, 6, 4, 8   Average 5

And then you read about this fellow, and how people have lost their view of risk:  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/12/britain-needs-more-lunatics-like-my-father/

from that article above: 

“: exuberant, determined, amazingly capable, and very far from risk-averse.

But that never deterred him. He saw risk as an entrepreneur sees it. Not as something objective and imposed from outside, but as something he could always shape himself through energy, charm, persistence… to make good things happen.

That view of risk shaped everything he did,”

And I feel that I have never taken the risky path, but have always taken the secure path of having an employer, when so many of my fellows set up their own companies.  [ It was pointed out that I did have a young family that I was responsible for.]  My father jumped at the opportunity to join the RAF in 1943 and then emigrate to Canada in 1952, and I did take the big step of  returning to England from Canada,  but I have never been adventurous enough to strike out on my own. 

2025- October - Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris

Declared the best book of the year (so far)  The marks averaged at 9. 

Very well written, and good signposts throughout.

We had discussions about the takeover of New Amsterdam to be New York, and how the cities mentioned look now. 

For me, it was a good read. The second half was slow  and drawn out with all the writing  and reminiscing that Ned was doing, but wow, what an ending.  Very well researched, though I suppose he put words in peoples mouths, as  he would have to do.  I would love to go to New Haven and see if the structure is still the same. The Highlight of the book was the ending. 

From FW: I, too, really enjoyed the book. 

I do wonder if other episodes in English history had been written in this form whether I'd be a history (ish ) whizz by now, as I found it absolutely fascinating. The characters were real, if more than zealous, and so well painted. I haven't read any other books by Robert Harris and now feel they need to be on my Christmas list 😁

I'm going to give it an 8 as I don't think I'll have time to read it again with the pile I have waiting for me. If I were thirty years younger it would have been a 9 ( but I wouldn't have had the time to read it!!)

From TC: I really enjoyed Act of Oblivion and rate it 10/10.  I thought it might be a bit boring and heavy but found it well written, good pace and I could engage with the characters. 14/10/2025

It wouldn't suit being made for television. I suppose it is hard to get actors to be hung, drawn, and quartered.

2025-September - Elephanta Suite, by Paul Theroux

 

FW

I should have read a little about it before diving in—I expected more overt linking between the three sections. Only afterwards did I realise they were indeed connected through different experiences of Americans in India. Duh!

I found it quite thought-provoking, especially the last story, which had an unexpected ending. I’d heard of the author but never read him before. I liked his style, even though I might have avoided the book if the blurb had revealed more about the content.

Rating: 6/10

SC

Started off okay and was well written, but I lost interest due to all the sordid affairs and exploitation of young indigenous girls. I read about 150 pages and scanned the rest—didn’t think it was worth my time.

Rating: Barely 5/10

Agreed with Dwight when he asks on p.167:

“How had he been corrupted so quickly... prey?”

And on p.244:

“Most things that people... with it.”

Did the three main characters link up? Must have missed that bit!

HB

I read the book while traveling to Amsterdam and Bruges. Got strangely hooked on it during the Eurostar journey two weeks ago. It was well-crafted, and I looked forward to reading it. I even paused occasionally to stare out the window and ponder how I’d react if something in the plot happened to me.

However... writing this two weeks later, I can’t remember anything about what I read. It was totally forgettable. I didn’t “get inside” any of the characters’ heads. The book didn’t linger in my brain afterwards. I read it, then moved on with my life.

Rating: 5/10

PM (Review from 2013)

Not finished. It was a depressing book made up of three stories about different Elephanta Suites. In all stories, Americans come to India.

• In the first, Mr. & Mrs. each have a brief affair with an Indian. They are effectively thrown out and possibly killed.

• In the second, a businessman becomes enthralled with a young girl. His partner leads him into eastern mysticism. Dwight gives up everything to pursue it, handing over the American business to Shah, who eagerly grabs it.

• The third is about a young girl in an Ashram who tries to leave.

Rating: 1/10

2025-August Days from a Different World - John Simpson

 His 4th Autobiography. His earliest years remembered. What he remembers himself from those times, with the turbulent state of his mothers household, and also added in things about British and world history that make it more interesting, as well as what other people were doing at that time - 1944-1952.

 It was difficult to get started because it was not exactly linear, but more interesting finding out about what was happening in the world later in the book, because this was my time. 

It seems that quite a few people skimmed through the middle of the book and just read the beginning and end.  It was the kind of book that you could pick up and put down, and just read bits. 

There was lots of discussion about his early life, and the things that he thought he saw. His life was reflecting the decline of England?  

The book was well written. The overriding comment was that people  were glad to have read it, but didn't enjoy it.

MArks - 4-6-6-7-6-6-8-5-5 = 53/9 - about 6. 

2025- July - We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

 We had a blank month on our library reading list, so we chose this book.  It's different, it's suspend belief funny, and enjoyable. 

Retired detective Steve Father in law of Amy, a close protection officer, whose blood has been found at three murders of customers of her company, Lots of possible villains who all have a finger in it somewhere, and people who are nefarious behind their innocuous cover stories.   Amy is protecting a very rich female author, who when asked if she has something says 'yes, I think I've got one somewhere', or 'Doesn't everyone have a private jet?'  And she is horny as hell. 

My Mark 8 - I would read another of his stories along this line. 

9,9,8,8,7,5,4,2.5  Avg: 6.5

2025- June- A pocketful of Happiness - Richard E Grant

 This is the story of his wife Joan's death from cancer, interspersed with reminiscences. It is hard to give any feelings about it. You can't believe that it was written as a money making thing. It is very personal, so why publish it aside from a few copies for the family. 

Nobody thought very much of it, too many references to celebs that he knew and we had never heard of. 

Agreed mark of 3. 

2025- May - A Man Called Ove by F. Backman

 I have enjoyed this book. It is very emotional at the end when a new family of the same sort of mindset is looking at his house. I loved his hate of the white shirts bureaucrats and the way that he treated them and the way that he looked after his neighbours, if somewhat unwillingly.   Mark - 9 from me. 

PH: A man called Ove is one of my favourite books.  A gentle, easy read, original story line and well written, with great bits of humour too.  As a cat lover, I loved the cameo roles played by the cat.   Not exactly a literary classic, but a very nice book – hence a 9 out of 10 from me.

Books for 25-26

 

SIMPSON                  DAYS FROM A DIFFERENT WORLD                 29/07/2025 THEROUX                 ELEPHANTA SUITE                                            26/08/2025 HARRIS                     ACT OF OBLIVION                                             23/09/2025 TYLER                       NOAHS COMPASS                                            28/10/2025 MACINNES               IN ASCENSION                                                   15/11/2025 FALLON                    JUST GOT REAL                                                 16/12/2025 BROAD                     ABROAD IN JAPAN                                             27/01/2026 DENCH                     SHAKESPEARE: THE MAN WHO PAYS THE RENT  24/02/2026 BARRY                     OLD GOD'S TIME                                                24/03/2026 CRAIG                      THREE GRACES                                                 28/04/2026 CATTON                   BIRNAM WOOD                                                   26/05/2026 MCCALL SMITH       PAVILION IN THE CLOUDS                                 23/06/2026

2025- April The year of the Flood by MArgaret Atwood

From Google Gemini:   A precis of Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood:

Set in a near-future world ravaged by a man-made plague, the Waterless Flood, the novel follows two women who survive in different ways. Ren, a trapeze artist, is locked down in a luxurious health club called Scales, while Toby takes refuge in the MaddAddamites, a garden-based, religiously inclined group who foresaw the coming disaster.

Through flashbacks, the novel reveals how their lives intersected before the plague, primarily through their connection to the enigmatic and morally ambiguous scientist, Crake, and his genetically engineered "Crakers." As the world collapses, Ren and Toby navigate the chaos and loss, eventually finding each other and grappling with the aftermath of the pandemic and the emergence of the Crakers as the new inheritors of the Earth. The story explores themes of environmental destruction, genetic engineering, religious fanaticism, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of catastrophic change. It acts as both a chilling cautionary tale and a testament to the power of connection and adaptation.

PR:  My feedback on the book, didn’t enjoy it at all.  Got to 50% on kindle and still have little idea who the characters are or what’s going on. I don’t find it particularly well written either.  Perhaps being the middle of a trilogy doesn’t help !  My score would be 3.  

SC: I'm afraid 'the Flood' didn't grab my attention sufficiently to read it when I was away and I couldn't relate to the characters - the language was too raw at times. As P mentioned, it may have been easier to start with the first book. I'd struggle to rate it!

PM: A dystopian fiction about the world after a couple of apocalypses, probably man-made, and a couple of women from a peaceable sect called the gardeners. Sort of easy to read, except  jumping around in time periods  from the beginning to the current time, which made it difficult. Gave up about page 130 as I couldn't see where it was going. A poor 4 from me. I wouldn't read another of hers. 

TC loved it, gave it an 8.

HB didn't get on with it and gave up.

So there were a variety of responses to the book. 

2025-March The Magician by Colm Toibin

 This is  a fictionalised biography of Thomas Mann, the Nobel Prize winning author. 

This is an article about him:

https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2024/11/thomas-mann-and-the-european-disease-of-nihilism

I found the book hard to get into  as I was thinking of it as a novel and not a biography. In the early pages I think he concentrates too much on Thomas's thoughts of homosexuality.  It is easy to read though. 

As the book goes on I find it hard to relate the things that occur to place and time, especially as the family moves from one place to another.  The declaration of war sets the time once. 

The part about them settling in Princeton reminds me of the book about John Von Neumann which I enjoyed.'Turings Cathedral' which was as much about John Von Neumann as Turing, it describes how Von Neumann took Turings famous paper and used it to build the first computer from which all future computers were derived. Includes all the famous people from the era of the Manhattan Project, and a couple of others like Ulam and Bigelow who were great at helping get it going. Some good quotes and comparisons in here.

1948 in Los Angeles. This is the very essence of a dis-functional family. The ending was a bit weak. He died in Switzerland. 

The aspects of German culture were interesting.

Does the book make you want to learn more about Mann, or should it tie ti all up. This is a general question about biographies.

The Hare with the Amber Eyes was another story about a family in Germany during this period, but a far better story.

2025- February - Red Bones by Ann Cleeves

 Book 3 in the Shetland series.

We liked learning about Shetland Life and some of the history. From one of us who had visited, it was thought to be true to life, very family oriented, and somewhat narrow minded. 

It was easy to read and not a literary book.

A nice enough story with a mildly disappointing end. 

Marks in the 6's and 7's, about 6 1/2

A bit of a discussion about how we read books, T read hers immediately she got it and had forgotten a lot after a month, I read in short bursts and it takes me a month to get through it, Others are reading it in the last few days to find out how it ends before the meeting. 

2025 -January - Night Watch by Sarah Waters & Violetta by Isabel Allende

 No meeting in December so two books to discuss in January. 

Night Watch

Some of us tried it, two of us read it. three of us got to about 100 pages and couldn't see where it was going. It was in three parts going backwards in time and it was thought it would have been better being done in chronological order. Pointed out that as the publisher was Virago it was a feminist book. Lesbianism and Heterosexual relationships in it. No one could make out the young lad who was the centre of the book. Relationships weren't developed satisfactorily.  Marks of 4,3,1.5

Violetta

Again, some people thought that the relationships weren't developed enough. Plenty of excitement in the life of Violetta from 1920 to 2020 - Time of the Flu epidemic to Covid. I wish that I had looked at the Wikipedia page for  Salvador Allende  while reading the book, I would have had a much better idea of the story. 

Marks 4,5,6,7,8,8,8,8 =avg 7