2023- November - Border Songs by Jim Lynch

Difficult to describe this book.    A good discussion about it however.  Three plus groups, the Border Patrol, The Marijuana growers/smugglers, and the farmers and others along the border. Lots of smuggling of people and drugs across the Canadian/US border and the Border patrol, including Brandon, the autistic son of one of the farmers, and the farmers who in some cases are being paid to allow the smugglers across their land. Brandon is keen on Madeline, a neighbour, who has got involved in growing MaryJane, and he is excellent at discovering smuggling happening. Eventually John his father has a stroke, and he leaves the BP to run the farm, and Madeline gives up the drug habit and is coming to him. I love the descriptions of how Brandon recognises Birds, and of his temporal art. 

C commented that it was quirky at the beginning and gathers pace at the end. 

It kept me reading - Marks: Mostly 7 with one 6. 

2023 - October. Silent Intruder G. Hammond

Easy to read, largish print. Good story about someone using their house while they are away, and then the bad guys coming to get the intruder and involving Michael and Hilda. Tie this up with them getting married and sisterly really bad feeling and it's an light read. 6

A:    Well I enjoyed it as a relatively uncomplicated read in one sense - but there seemed to be a whole hierarchy of villains who just became more names to remember. The made up genealogy joke played on the snobbish sister just seemed puerile and I don’t think it would make her suddenly see the light - oh am I like that, so sorry ! 

Not looking for other books by the author. 

F:    I found Silent Intruder a straightforward read with a rather unsatisfying ending. The writing style seemed quite abrupt, but maybe that's what a police action book needs? I might read the same author again to see if the style altered according to the plot, but I'm not rushing to do this! 5/10?

2023 - September The Secret Barrister, by The Secret Barrister

 This month we met in Colehill Library for the first time in a few years, with most of us seeing it for the first time. They were impressed. If you are visiting the area you should drop in and say hello to the volunteers.

We felt that the book was like a textbook, and could do with more examples throughout to make it more readable.  It was very interesting and informative, but difficult to read in large doses. Some of us had had experience of the law and thought that the book was spot on. A lot of the time was spent describing our own experiences.  

Only one of us had read it completely and would give it a 9 because of the way that it related to her experiences. the other marks would be 7-8. 

2023- August - This Much is True - Margolyes

It's the autobiography of Miriam Margolyes, foul mouthed actress.  

It's all about her, but you don't learn anything about her. It's what she has done, who she has worked with, all the people she calls her closest friends. Some nice wording in the book occasionally, but she does like to try and shock.

Marks were 4.5, 5, 6 7 7.   comes out as 6. 

2023- July Sweet Caress by William Boyd

 This book comes across as an autobiography of a remarkable woman who discovers via an uncle the camera, and it is her life from then on. It includes the blackshirts marches in London, being a war correspondent, and then finally being a Vietnam war correspondent. She has lovers who help her on her way. It is a very descriptive book , and it really works. Her description of her married life as the wife of a laird is very good. I was gripped through the second half of the book. 

FW: Although I couldn't empathise with the heroine, her emotions (or, lack of??) being extremely unclear to me,  I found this book to be an interesting mixture of historical events/ likely happenings and fiction. Many sections blurred this distinction, and the photos, I felt, helped this intriguing fusion.

I did not, however, appreciate the comparative descriptions of the different men's "members"; this would normally have put me off a novel straightaway, but I persisted because it was a book club book!

I hadn't read any books before by this author and I might well be tempted to try another, as the book was, I felt, both well and differently written.
Marks out of 10? Probably 5 (esp for the for historical interest )

The marks from the rest of us were 7,8,8,8,8,9 with one comment that the reader didn't like Amory Clay, but did like the book. 

2023-June True Blue by David Baldacci

 Here are my few scrubby notes about it, until someone else wants to send me a proper review.

"Not his best. Two sisters, one a police chief, and one just out of prison, go seeking justice for the false imprisonment. A dead body causes them to work on another thing, that leads them to a couple of high ups in Government secret circles going Rogue. It includes a loaned female russian assassin. but Mace never learns who shafted her. A couple of people are helped during the book, via a wealthy do-gooder. Almost super-hero stuff."

The comment was made that it would be a good B-Movie. 

We enjoyed discussing it from Juliettes beach hut overlooking sandbanks and the English Channel from the Isle of Wight to Old Harry Rocks. 

Marks were from 4 to 7 averaging at 6.

2023-May The Sellout by Paul Beatty

 Not looking good at the start of the month.

H says: I spent an hour reading the new book for this month and decided I had better things to do than read further. So I'll come to next meeting purely to hear what everyone else thinks about it. 

P adds to that: Having ‘tried’ to read the book before, I knew it would be a tough one – so I’ve bailed on reading and am listening to it as an audio book and really, really enjoying it.  It makes sooooo much more sense listening!! 

PM:  it is wordy, but some bits do have me laughing, and some bits make you think, for instance, about a motto for your area or more importantly, local government and Racism in your community.

Of us, three didn't get very far,  it marked 9 and an audiobook story, but 8 and 7 as a book.  Two hated the language, but it did get better as the book progressed, though it was still wordy.  Was the author trying to show his intelligence and education I wonder?

The first chapter was hard work as it was stream of consciousness  and difficult to understand   with a lot of American jargon. Why was it necessary to have such an extreme beginning?

It cleared up as it went along, but questions arise as how he got all the money to do the things he did, and with the education that his father had given him, how was he so erudite and able to give latin quotations. 

I wrote down a comment that it was 'racism done in a different way'

It would probably go down well in schools because of the racism content and discussion and also because of the different writing style. 

Is that why it was on a British reading group list?