2015 April & May

Well, If nobody sends me the writeups, I can't post them. Alison  also has editing privileges.

So from my records of what I wrote and Alison and Chris's reviews, that's what you get.

April:   The Lie by Helen Dunmore

I expected better of Helen Dunmore. It's about a young soldier returned from the war in which his best friend, the wealthy Frederick, has died. They were together at that time. He is living in an old lady's house and has buried her without telling anyone when she died. Is this the lie? He keeps having flashbacks and telling his past history. I gave up on page 190 when Danny ended up kissing Frederick. The last page indicates that Danny kills himself.


May:- The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year   by Sue Townsend

I did like the comic elements in this book, which I had in fact read before. There were more serious points too although I'm not quite sure what they were. Perhaps that if you build someone upon a pedestal they are quite likely to have feet of clay. Sometimes books expect you to believe the unbelievable, and then when you see people in the plot not believing it, you begin to think, you're right, it is unbelievable, she was mad (in the loosest sense of yes, she had psychiatric problems). Still she could hardly be blamed with those terrible twins and philandering husband. Though I did like the open house and household arrangement, it seemed to almost work for a while. Even her husband's mistress fed her occasionally.

One of the saddest fallouts from the whole plot seem to be the poor Chinese boy who was out of his depth with the conniving Poppy. His poor parents.

I give it 7 as an easy comic read but made up, almost, of caricatures. Fizzled out a bit at the end. Ali.


The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year

Loved the quirkiness of the beginning. Laughed (although not outloud) at the development of story during first two thirds of the book. Felt dismay at Eva's downhill slide towards the end and felt the tale fizzled out at it's finale. Was this ending a "don't try this at home" warning to the thousands of people Sue Townsend thinks are in desperate straits? She paints a ghastly picture of modern youth that just doesn't chime with how I remember my children and their friends at that age. She may well abhor the callous and vitriolic comments made on social media but isn't this just that the nutters who have always been there now have a more efficient way of making themselves heard?
Score 7 Chris

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After 1 1/2 pages I knew it was going to be a depressing book. Children starting at university was totally unrealistic. The children were unrealistic. The writing style was juvenile(?) and light, and did not draw you into the book. I would have laughed at the idea of the husband being locked out if it wasn't so depressing. Gave up after less than a dozen pages.  Mark 0. P.

March 2015- The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith(Rowling)

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling)

Most of us enjoyed this book, as we tend to ignore the bad language these days. (is that a sign that we are getting immured to it as we are so constantly bombarded with it).

It was a quick, undemanding book, but quite complex in concept. We thought that the characters were empathetic and distinctive. J.K. Rowling is excellent at characterization but we thought she was patronising the way she wrote about lower class speech. It took some thinking about why the guilty man would hire a detective to investigate the murder he did, but as it stood when Lula died the money went to her mother, and John was desperate for funds to get him out of a fix, and had heard that Lula was going to leave everything to her brother, which was him. He needed to find that other will. He was a bit of a nutcase and someone in the book was pretty sure that John had set up the death of his younger brother when they were children.

We liked the discussion of cost of clothing, None of us are in the market for the type of clothing Lula kept buying, and would never have thought of handbags with removable liners..

We wondered how much longer Robin's relationship with her Fiancee would last. I found it difficult to relate to the passing of time, as I thought that Robin stayed working for Cormoran for longer than the three weeks that she initially was going to do. Cormoran kept going out and investigating and disappearing for indeterminate periods.

Her next book, Silkworm is better, but the film of the book didn't map well on to the book.

We all agreed a mark of 7, with one dissention due to the language.The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling)

February 2015 - Zorro by Isabel Allende

ZORRO by Isabel Allende

Written in Spanish and translated into English, it was a commissioned novel by the authors of the original films about Zorro and owners of the screen rights. The Author was living in California so was ‘on set’ for a good deal of the book.

A thoroughly enjoyable romp. At times it does read a bit like looking at a 'painted-by-numbers' picture as she ticks off attributes of the finished article that she has to provide origins for in a coming of age prequel, but it is after all a comic book character that she is building and so I don't really take issue with this or with her tongue in cheek approach to the narrative. I particularly liked the impossibly difficult initiation into Justicia, the secret door behind the fireplace in his father's house and the parrot that suddenly appeared on the shoulder of the pirate chief as they waved goodbye to him and Juliana. I did occasionally wonder who the narrator was but didn't immediately think of Isobel so zero out of ten for me from Ms Allende. I didn't read ZORRO as a child and until now had only a vague idea that he was some kind of swashbuckling Robin Hood type figure so I had, and still have, no great emotional attachment to the character and no idea whether aficionados will be satisfied with this as a back story, but as an introduction it worked for me.

It was very well written of course, as one expects from Ms. Allende. I was sure that Diego was going to turn to Isabel, (with her wandering eye), so I was wrong there. Not convinced by him acting the fop, I didn't feel he could have kept up being a simpering fool with just a handkerchief as a prop, rather Scarlet Pimpernel. Characterisations were a bit hard to get a handle on, varied according to the circumstances, except for the baddie.

Didn't she write originally that Bernardo stopped speaking for the next few years, yet did he ever actually start speaking normally again?

It dragged a bit in the middle, in Barcelona. Some bits were too descriptive and detailed and we wanted the story to move on. We thought that we learnt a bit about the history of the region and the discussion ranged from California to the Alaska and the Louisiana Purchase. Some of us weren’t enamoured of it, thought it very much a ‘boys’ book, and kept picking it up and reading bits. Somehow Zorro was too young to have accomplished all that he did by the time he was 21. He went from being a silly teenager to a serious hero in a very short time. It wasn’t the sort of book that appealed to many of the group, though there were good aspects. M liked the Indians, R liked the tongue in cheek way of writing, and the fact that the baddy was a true baddy – a comparison with the Sheriff of Nottingham.

If you liked this, you might like:

The three Musketeers,

Count of Monte Christo,

Flashman or

All the Pretty Horses by Conrad McCarthy

There are four films of the story of Zorro, one a silent film, the Classic from 1940 with Tyrone Power, the 1975 version with Alain Delon, and the 1998 one with Antonio Banderas.

Chris writes: Can thoroughly recommend visiting old Spanish missions if you're ever wondering what to do in California. Very peaceful but interesting places to spend time and at the right time of year you see the flower trails that marked the Camino Real that connected them.

We gave it a mark of 6.

TheLouisiana Purchase(1803) was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million dollars.

http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/louisiana-purchase Very interesting because of the interaction between France, Spain and the US.

On March 30, 1867, the United States reached an agreement to purchase Alaska from Russia for a price of $7.2 million. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/alaska-purchase

From Fantastic Fiction:                  (www.fantasticfiction.com)

A swashbuckling adventure story that reveals for the first time how Diego de la Vega became the masked man we all know so well

Born in southern California late in the eighteenth century, he is a child of two worlds. Diego de la Vega's father is an aristocratic Spanish military man turned landowner; his mother, a Shoshone warrior. Diego learns from his maternal grandmother, White Owl, the ways of her tribe while receiving from his father lessons in the art of fencing and in cattle branding. It is here, during Diego's childhood, filled with mischief and adventure, that he witnesses the brutal injustices dealt Native Americans by European settlers and first feels the inner conflict of his heritage.

At the age of sixteen, Diego is sent to Barcelona for a European education. In a country chafing under the corruption of Napoleonic rule, Diego follows the example of his celebrated fencing master and joins La Justicia, a secret underground resistance movement devoted to helping the powerless and the poor. With this tumultuous period as a backdrop, Diego falls in love, saves the persecuted, and confronts for the first time a great rival who emerges from the world of privilege.

Between California and Barcelona, the New World and the Old, the persona of Zorro is formed, a great hero is born, and the legend begins. After many adventures -- duels at dawn, fierce battles with pirates at sea, and impossible rescues -- Diego de la Vega, a.k.a. Zorro, returns to America to reclaim the hacienda on which he was raised and to seek justice for all who cannot fight for it themselves.

2014 summary

BOOK REVIEW 2014

AN OFFICER AND A SPY - Robert Harris........................................8

AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED - Khaled Hosseini.............……8

COLD COMFORT FARM - Stella Gibbons........................................8

FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLLS - Ernest Hemingway.......……....8

LIGHT BETWEEN THE OCEANS - M.L Stedman...............…….....8

PURE - Andrew Miller.........................................................................7.5

UNACCUSTOMED EARTH -Jhumpa Lahiry ……………................7

BRING UP THE BODIES - Hilary Mantel..........................................7

WOOL - Hugh Howey.........................................................................7

THE LOWLAND –Jhumpa Lahiri........................................................7

WINTER OF THE WORLD -Ken FoI1ett............................................6.5

TOBY’S ROOM -Pat Barker.................................................................6.5

ME BEFOREYOU -Jojo Moyes............................................................6

THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY -Rachel Joyce..5.5

THE SPOILS OF POYNTON - Henry James.........................................5

COMING HOME - SueGee…….............................................................5

WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD - E.M.Forster……....................4

THE SILENT TIDE -Rachel Hore..........................................................3.5

HALF THE HUMAN RACE - Anthony Quinn..............…....................4

A LADY CYCLIST'S GUIDE TO KASHGAR -Suzanne Joinson..…...5

A POSSIBLE LIFE - Sebastian Faulks....................................................?

January 2015 - The Luminaries

As in 2015 we are down to one book a month due to changes in the Library system, and we usually have a long one over Christmas, we had this book for two months to read.

The Luminaries  -- Eleanor Catton

This book caused a full discussion, all members of the group who were present voiced their views and the other members who were absent e-mailed their thoughts in. There were still unanswered questions and we believe that none of us had the total plot under control; all had different questions and theories.

It was hard to define what the book was about as it touched on many subjects, it was decided that it was a mystery story about the gold rush in a mining town in New Zealand. The ponderous writing with its lengthy descriptive style seemed as if written in the early 1900's and it felt that the end of each chapter had the dramatic effect as if it was serialised, but it was written recently. The book was cleverly constructed introducing the many characters who contributed to the plot, but it was felt that the ending was very weak, the last few chapters were so short, some of only half a page, many in the group didn't like this. It was if Eleanor Catton was trying to tie up all the loose ends and rushed in case she forgot something, she did re-cap through out the book to bring all the facts together as it was a complicated plot, therefore if you ‘lost the thread' you could pick it up again, some of our group found this annoying and unnecessary. Many said they would re-read the book as they felt a second time around might bring more insight into the book. The Luminaries did win a Booker prize.

29/1/15

I think the luminaries were the gentlemen who were in this room at the hotel to discuss a mutual problem when Moore interrupts them and becomes part of the story.

November 2014 - The Lowland, & The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans  -- M L Stedman                    27/11/14

This book was a real gem; the majority of the group enjoyed it. It was recommended by Oonagh and Val and we were grateful to them. Comments from the group varied from especially moving, good book, well constructed, all characters came to life, perfect title, but one said some of it didn't ring true and there were inconsistencies in the story line. One of the quotes on the book cover said “An extraordinary and heart rending book about good people, tragic decisions and the beauty found in each of them”. (Markus Zusak - The Book Thief). Another was '' This is a story about right and wrong, and how sometimes they look the same". These we will agree with.

It started with a story of a light house keeper Tom Sherbourne and his wife Isabel, you got caught up in their lives and the people surrounding them, it was a multi layered book. The story was set on Janus, a rocky island off the Western Coast of Australia between the Indian and the Great Southern Ocean's. The 1st World War lived inside Tom. He isolated this part of himself which made him withdrawn, he won the Military Cross and Bar for bravery, and throughout this book you realised that the war affected many others too.

The pair set up home on the island and in spite of their isolation they were very happy together, Isabel desperately wanted a baby but she was unable to carry a child full term. The last time she was pregnant she lost the baby at 7 months and this was the catalyst to the events in the book. They had buried their baby three weeks earlier when a boat was washed up on their beach, inside was a dead man and a baby girl, a few weeks old wrapped in a ladies cardigan. The baby was distraught and Izzy took care of her, she loved her from the moment she saw her and saved her life, because Izzy had milk from the baby she had just lost, so she breastfed the baby girl. The main story followed that Izzy persuaded Tom to let her keep the baby as their own and the great lie began, she convinced herself that the baby's mother had died, therefore the baby was orphaned. She was a gift from God.

The rest of the story revolved around Tom who had previously lived his life by the rules and his wife Izzy's, their life with baby Lucy on the island, then the discovery of who the baby really belonged to. The real mother Hannah, had difficulty in connecting with her child Grace, (this was the name she was baptised with) and she in turn fought against being separated from the people she believed were her real parents, it was heartache for all concerned. It was a compelling story.

No-one in the town was blamed for the riot against Frank the baby's father, an Austrian, on Anzac Day which was the cause of the story, no-one ever spoke of this event again.

The other comments were how interesting the technical working of a lighthouse was and how the stars paid an enormous part in navigation. It was thought it was surprising that Tom was left on his own, it was thought that there would be two people on duty as backup for each other.

Two way radio's about at that time? This would have spoilt the story though.

Marks 9/8/7/8/8/9/10/7/9 = 8 DRW

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The Lowland   -- Jhumpa Lahiri                   

The group found this book compulsive reading, but most said that they would not buy or re-read it. The chapters were written by different people with no indication of who was writing until you fathomed it out. It was not written in chronological order, and the characters gave their version and feelings of what happened about the events that took place, this could be the end of the book relating to something at the beginning. On the whole the story lines were good, even though it was written in very short sentences, most needed to finish the book to find out how it ended, it was not an enjoyable read. We were not sympathetic to any of the characters only Subhash who was a good man.

There was the ongoing element within the book of the contrast between Indian tradition's and the American way of life, yet another version of the immigrant's dilemma which culture should you pass on to your children.

The book revolved around two brothers who in childhood were inseparable, Subhash the elder and Udayan the younger. Subhash was studious and Udayan was daring and

adventurous, this was the basis of their relationship.

Subhash finished his studies and went to a university in American to study Oceanography; he led a quite studious life keeping to himself, he had a short affair which gave him the idea of what life would be like if he found a partner. He expected his parents to arrange a bride for him in India, and would return to marry as he was a dutiful son.

Udayan on the other hand stopped his studies and joined a political movement called

Naxalite which supported the poor, very much in the context of communism. He rejected the life his parents set out for him, became an activist and undertook dangerous missions. He meets Gauri another student, they marry without either of their family's consent which leaves them dependant on Udayan parents, as was the custom. The couple move in with them and Udayan who is still regarded as the golden child, but his wife isn't so welcome. Although married, Udayan still belonged to the Naxalite movement and involved the unsuspecting Gauri in some of his missions. He was finally arrested and shot in front of the family, Gauri now a widow and pregnant, is left with her in-laws.

Subhash returned to India for Udayan's funeral and sees Gauri's plight and decides to marry her and take her to America with him. He felt in time they might be a family.

He does this for his brother as he can see how badly his parents treat her and her own

family have disowned her, there is no love between them. He plans to give her the

freedom she would never have had in India and hopes she would continue her studies in America.

Gauri is not a pleasant person, she is selfish and took advantage of him, initially she

stayed at home but gradually she became more adventurous and explored the campus and discovered the library where she spent most of her time. She had a baby girl Bela but didn't bond with the child whom she didn't really want, it was left to Subhash to tend and love the child whom he does with all his heart and soul. Gradually Gauri became more and more distant thinking only of herself and her studies, she didn't neglect the child but was disinterested in all aspects of Bela's life.

Subhash and Bela visit India because of his mother's ill heath when they returned Gauri had left them. The impact on this action affected Bela for the rest of her life and Subhash was left to cope.

Their life continued, but Gauri's actions left a deep scar on their lives and the closeness they had before vanished. Bela grew up to become a wanderlust, she returned home occasionally unannounced, spent a few weeks with Subhash then moved on again. Then Bela became pregnant. She decided to return home to Subhash, he was delighted but thought it was the time to tell her that he was not her real father, but her Uncle, this was something he and Gauri had put off telling her. She reacted by disappearing again, but on reflection she saw that Subhash was the one that really loved her.

Bela who had no partner, lived with Subhash and her daughter Meghna, in Subhash's

Rhode Island home and they care for Meghna together.

After at least 20 years Gauri gets the urge to contact Bela and discovered that she is in

Rhode Island, Gauri visits, but Bela is cold and distant towards her as you would expect. The book ends with the feeling that there is a ray of hope that Gauri and Meghna may become Grandmother and Granddaughter, but the feeling was that she didn't deserve it.

Marks 7 DRW

October 2014 - Coming Home & An Officer and a Spy

Coming Home --  Sue Gee             31/10/14

This book wasn't well received by the group; in fact the majority disliked it and thought it DULL! DULL! DULL!

Sue Gee first wrote it, then after her second book came out, which was a success, they published it hoping it would fly on the back of the other book. The group wondered what the point of the book was and couldn't see what Sue Gee was trying to say. It was nice descriptive writing but the story line was dreadful and they were glad when it was finished.

The book was about a family who came home to England after the fall of the Raj, they tried to adapt but found it difficult.

The only discussion about the book revolved around:

- Father - tedious life.

- Flo - mentally ill, stigma about mental illness.

- Freddy - who was sent to boarding school, where he was bullied, homesick and felt unwanted. His father had said the saying ‘You’re no son of mine' and Freddy believed this and always thought he was adopted. There was also evidence of paedophiles at the school.

Some of the group said they could relate to the 50/60's which was the era the book was set, so Sue Gee got that right. We were reassured by Lis that we shouldn't be put off by reading another Sue Gee book as she really was a good writer.

Marks 5 DRW.

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An Officer and a Spy   --   Robert Harris

The majority of the group couldn't put this book down until they had finished it, others thought this book was difficult to get into and kept picking it up but couldn't find the flow, but the contention was that it was a good book. As always with Robert Harris, the book is exceedingly well written and researched using Dreyfus and Picquart's own words taken from court records. The difficulty was the movement in time, which period the chapter you were reading related to.

The book was about a true event in France in 1895. Captain Albert Dreyfus was detained and charged with being a spy. The evidence was so flimsy that the Statistical Section, a shadowy intelligence unit within the army falsified many documents, going so far as to forge letters and telegrams pointing to his complicity. Albert Dreyfus was not a popular officer, he flaunted his wealth, intelligence and abilities, and he was efficient but kept himself apart from the other officers. He was disliked because of all these things, but most of all because he was a Jew. (We all were surprised how the Jews were vilified in France at this time) After the trial he was deported to Devils Island supposedly for the rest of his life, and because he wouldn't confess he was subjected to barbaric treatment which nearly cost him his life.

Major Georges Picquart an officer on the general staff who was instrumental in connection with the conviction of Dreyfus was promoted to the rank of Colonel, much to his dismay, was given the position of head of the Statistical Section. The officers who made up this secret section believed he would be an acting head only, and would leave them to carry out their work as before. Picquart was a hands-on officer and involved himself in all the departments of the organisation wanting to know who does what and how they went about their duties. He uncovered discrepancies in the Dreyfus affair as it become to be known, and questioned the evidence. He believed another officer could be the spy and Dreyfus was innocent. Picquart took his findings to his superiors who stalled him in every way as they could not back down in fear of being exposed as corrupt. He was convinced that there had been a miscarriage of justice and being a man of principles he went to such lengths that he was imprisoned himself. Throughout Dreyfus's internment Picquart was sent to Tunisia in the hope he would get into the conflict there and die, but he stubbornly lived, this only produced another spell in prison for him.

Emil Zola took up Dreyfus's cause and went public with accusations that the Army knew who the real spy was and demanded a re-trial. After lengthy chapters, the outcome of the trial exonerates both Dreyfus and Piquart, They were both reinstated into the army with higher ranks. In Piquarts case he became a General and Minister of War. The relationship between Major Albert Dreyfus and General Georges Picquart was still distant but respectful.

Robert Harris was clever through out the book, as Dreyfus was dislikeable.

The culprits in framing Dreyfus all get their comeuppance:-

General Mercier, General Boisdeffre, General Gonse, Colonel Sandherr, Major Henry. Captain Lauth, M. Gribelin, Colonel du Paty, Esterhazy.

Marks = 8 DRW