April 2020- Becoming by Michelle Obama / MArch- Bird Box by Malerman

Ok, so we can't meet because of Coronovirus lockdown, but if you send me your impressions I'll  try and make a coherent document of it.

The Previous book 'Bird Box' by Josh Malerman was a book that no-one wanted to read after seeing the preview. We had read Room a year or so ago and thought that this would be on the same line. It was about people being cooped up, as we all are now. Here is the Amazon Review - Watch out for the Coronovirus!

"Most people ignored the outrageous reports on the news. But they became too frequent, they became too real. And soon, they began happening down the street. Then the Internet died. The television and radio went silent. The phones stopped ringing. And we couldn't look outside anymore.

Malorie raises the children the only way she can; indoors. The house is quiet. The doors are locked, the curtains are closed, mattresses are nailed over the windows. They are out there. She might let them in. The children sleep in the bedroom across the hall. Soon she will have to wake them. Soon she will have to blindfold them. Today they must leave the house. Today they will risk everything."

Becoming: My thoughts: 
It seems to me to be obviously ghost written, but it is an easy if long book. I skipped part of her upbringing, and by the time that they were esconced in the White House I had had enough. Obviously about the trials of being a partner to an untidy brilliant man who can't work to a clock. Even with those constraints it raises my esteem of Barack Obama.   Mark - 6

Other thoughts from Zoom on-line meeting
- We think it is written by a ghost writer. the way it is written is not how a person trained as a lawyer would write. 
- We got how she was reluctant to go to the White House
- It was informative rather than Literature (No Plot!)
-  Comments about how once she was in the white house, she wasn't allowed to just go into teh kitchen and make something for herself, she had to prepare a menu all the time. Before they went to the White House they had a chef to make their meals becasue they were so busy on the campaign trail, and they took him to the White House with them.
- Comparison between Alison son-in-law and Obama!

2020 February Trancription by Kate Atkinson

Minster Readers – February 2020    Transcription - Kate Atkinson

(Extract from the Guardian review, Sept 2018)

Transcription explores  the lies and inventions that make up a life, particularly during a time of war when all prior certainties – including identity – have been upended. Juliet Armstrong has more than her share of such lies. Recruited to the Secret Service at the beginning of the war, she has learned to shift between various names and personae. “And then there was Juliet Armstrong, of course, who some days seemed like the most fictitious of them all, despite being the ‘real’ Juliet. But then what constituted real? Wasn’t everything, even this life itself, just a game of deception?” The inventions she inhabits are created for her by others, mostly her male handlers at MI5, all of whom appear to be living fiendishly complex double or triple lives themselves. In the aftermath of war, trying to locate the source of an anonymous threat, Juliet finds the multiple deceptions she has practised,  and had practised upon her, accumulate to create a creeping paranoia in which “things are seldom what they seem’.

In 1940, Juliet is employed by MI5 to transcribe recordings of meetings in a bugged flat between a group of fascist sympathisers and a man named Godfrey Toby, whom the fifth columnists believe is a Gestapo agent but is actually a British spy monitoring his informers. Toby (who is based on a historical character) is a shadowy figure whose fate becomes entangled with Juliet’s through unexpected tragedy.

The second strand of the narrative, set in 1950, begins when Juliet – now working for the BBC – encounters Toby again, and his reappearance seems to trigger a series of reckonings for the lies she told during the war, and is possibly still telling.

This idea of consequences, and of every choice exacting a price later, runs through Transcription. Juliet’s inner commentary channels a British stoical humour, finding the absurd in the tragic even as she upbraids herself for being too “flippant”.

The main story is sandwiched between two short sections set in 1981, as Juliet lies dying she thinks back over her life. The year is significant; a royal wedding is imminent, and with it a new groundswell of patriotism: “... a sacrificial virgin was being prepared somewhere up the road, to satisfy the need for pomp and circumstance. Union Jacks draped everywhere.”
The question of sacrifice in the name of patriotism is one every character has to face, even as they must also define – then as now – what “England” and its values mean to them.



Minster Readers’ comments

We found this a complicated book to follow, set as it was in 3 different periods of time. It was difficult to keep track of the different men and their secret roles. It was also tricky to fathom which of them Juliet actually worked for. Although believable as a character, she too was a complex character: naïve, husband hunter or idealistic patriot? By the end of the book we wondered how reliable a narrator she had been throughout the story: she certainly by her own admission made up some of the transcriptions. She had, however, played her part in breaking  up a group of Nazi sympathisers even at the cost of lives – one of them innocent.
Opinions varied on whether it was  a complete page- turner or totally unmemorable. We agreed that there were some very amusing parts – especially in Juliet’s asides.

Scores : Average – 6   Range: 4-8

Our Book list for 2020

Minster Readers Book List 2020

Kate Atkinson                    Transcription                                      30/01/20

Josh Mallersman              Bird Box                                               27/02/20

Michelle Obama               Becoming                                            26/03/20

A.J. Finn                           Woman in the Window                       30/04/20

Steve Cavanagh                Liar                                                    28/05/20

Liane Moriarty                   Nine Perfect Strangers                     25/06/20

Heather Morris                 Tattooist of Auschwitz                      30/07/20

Celeste Ng                          Little Fires Everywhere                  27/08/20

Elly Griffiths                       Stranger Diaries                              24/09/20

Anthony Horowitz           Word is Murder                                   29/10/20

Edward Stourton              Auntie’s War                                      26/11/20

Raynor Winn                      Salt Path                                           17/12/20

Note that the date is  when the books are available. Our meetings are the last Thursday



























of each month  which is when the books are distributed as we discuss the previous book. 

Therefore Transcription was given out in January and discussed in February.

2019-October The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

Everyone was disappointed with this book and many gave up half way through or less.
Nervous laughter greeted the usual enquiry as to who had read the book. Of the seven present only three had  got to the end, and that for two of them at least had involved semi-demi-skimming at best. The common reaction was “oh good! It’s not just me”, and “this was hard work”.

Searching for credit  found instances of excellent descriptive passages, and vivid accounts of some experiences, notably in the Kashmir section, but overall there was considerable disappointment. People found the characters hard to identify, partly because of their names, partly because of the complexities of the various castes, their culture and clothing and partly because, apart from Anjum and Musa, they did not engage us. The early interest roused in the unusual life of the hijiras, more oucast than the untouchables but a part of everyone’s life for celebrations, was left unsatisfied as the book moved to political themes, known only superficially by most western readers, and largely tragic eg Gujarat, Srinagar and Shiraz. The fantastic setting in the graveyard, while well imagined and described was so unlikely to have gone un- noticed or persecuted by the police for hush money over 20 years that it lost credibility, and it’s “Utmost Happiness” at the end was presumably ironic.

It had taken 20 years to write, during which many ideas and sub-plots had occurred to the author, many of which would have made good stories in themselves, but we felt that she liked so many places and episodes so much that she could not bear to leave them out. It desperately needed a thorough edit.

The Indian life style is not that well known here and the references to different items of clothing, castes etc. were not understood.

The many characters were difficult to keep up with.

The story is of clashes and fighting between India and Kashmir. Major Amrik Singh is a cruel leader who appears to kill for fun.

There was an interesting piece well into the book where Tilo and Musa escape into Kashmir to spend some time together and Mr Singh somehow discovers the river boat they are hiding on. Singh believes he has killed Musa when in fact it was the boat owner who died.

The couple meet up again later in the story.

The time scale was around late 1980's early 1990's and maybe Asians would find the book very interesting but not our group.

The people entitled to mark it gave  it   3,  4,  5. Average 4

My comments:

This book should be called the Ministry of Utmost UNHappiness. It is depressing from the first page. I didn't know whether the name used was between trees or other plants talking to each other or what. Then I discovered it was about a child born as a hermaphrodite who as he grows up goes to live in a hostel of either prostitutes or other hermaphrodites, it is not made clear, that are rented out to parties among other things.

Not my type of book. Page 38 is it.

2019-September The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

First off, this book does not compare to the Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, other that the main character is a loser.  It's a more pleasant read with a nicer ending.

My initial comment was that it is a love story about Frank and Ilse. Frank has a record shop in a run down area of Stockton, and Ilse collapses in front of it. She says she wants to learn about music and has weekly meetings with him, where she falls in love with him. Then they learn that she is actually a musician but can't play any more and they fall out and she returns to Germany while he goes downhill and his shop collapses. 20 Years on Ilse returns from Germany and finds his friends and then him and Love blossoms again.

Different people liked different characters in the book, basically Peg and Kit.
Frank didn't have the nerve to be positive in life, basically due to the overpowering upbringing by Peg. Philip Larkins poem about parents was referenced.

The waitress in the cafe where Frank and Ilse met sort of reminded you of Julie Walters in the Acorn Antiques skits.

No one guessed that Ilse was a musician. We thought that Frank would be humiliated by finding out that he had been tutoring a musician who probably knew more than he did.
Pegs information about the composers was interesting.

It was pointed out the interesting commentary about racism  in the daubings on the walls.

There was not much plot or story in it. It was somewhat like a Nick Hornby story with some Mills & Boon thrown in. A bit sacharine. The gap of 20 years was just a convenient fiction element.  Could Ilse with the arthritic hands pick up an unknown, untuned violin and play the Messiah?

Carrie and I both thought that it was a pleasant read in half-hour sections. But we kept reading! Other comments were that it spent a pleasant hour and had a few laughs. But we wouldn't bother reading another by her.

Marks came out at 6 1/2.

2019-July - The Whistler - John Grisham

The Whistler - John Grisham - July 2019

High Peter, thought you could perhaps copy or print out my notes on the book, for the folder.

Judge Claudia McDover has pushed through legislation to build a Casino on an Indian reservation, backed by Vonn  Dubose, a rich property building giant and the Chief of the Indians. It turns out to be a huge success, and is added to by building condos on the land.

All the Indians benefit by receiving payments from the proceeds of the Casino. Dubose and Claudia and their staff cream off the proceeds of gambling to line their own pockets.

An unknown 'Mole' is aware of the goings on and via Greg Meyers, tells Lucy and Hugo who's job is to ensure that all Judges are Clean and beyond corruption. They endeavour to find the truth of what is going on.

Lucy and Hugo are asked to meet someone on the reservation late one night. They drive into a trap where their vehicle is hit head on and Hugo is so badly injured when his seat belt doesn't work, and he dies. Lucy is also badly injured and their boss ask the FBI to investigate the crime. They have video

footage from a store where the criminals parked waiting for the arrival of Lucy and Hugo.

The end result is the end of judge McDover and the breakup of the ‘Coast Mafia’ gang.

Margaret

This one got marks of 8 from those present.

2019-August - No Book Chosen

We discovered that there was not a book on our book list for August, so after an email discussion suggesting we choose a classic, with the suggestions of 'Jude the Obscure' and 'Siddhartha', we wait to see what people have read. Both these books are available as free ebooks from Gutenberg.org.

Jude the Obscure:
This could be made into a modern film I think, witha pregnant girl, in a shabby run down council flat, leaving the boy who has pretensions of getting an education. Well, maybe that last bit  differs.

I am up to page 62 on the ebook and he is making his way to Christminster, which is at the north of Wessex, where the leisurely Thames  strokes the fields. This can only be Oxford to my mind.