Book Choices - May 2025

Our next meeting is at 8.00pm on Thursday, 22nd May 2025, at The Ash Tree in Ashendon. We will be discussing The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.

Here are the book choices for our next book. 

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred, Lexington, who became America’s greatest stud sire, Horse is a gripping, multi-layered reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America.

Kentucky, 1850

An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union.

On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamour of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954

Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019

Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse - one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success. 

The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane

A journey on foot.

Robert Macfarlane travels Britain's ancient paths and discovers the secrets of our beautiful, underappreciated landscape.

Following the tracks, holloways, drove-roads and sea paths that form part of a vast ancient network of routes criss-crossing the British Isles and beyond, Robert Macfarlane discovers a lost world – a landscape of the feet and the mind, of pilgrimage and ritual, of stories and ghosts; above all, of the places and journeys which inspire and inhabit our imaginations. 

Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell

Brave, illuminating and inspiring, Somebody I Used to Know is the first memoir ever written by someone living with dementia. What do you lose when you lose your memories? What do you value when this loss reframes how you've lived, and how you will live in the future? How do you conceive of love when you can no longer recognise those who are supposed to mean the most to you?

When she was diagnosed with dementia at the age of fifty-eight, Wendy Mitchell was confronted with the most profound questions about life and identity. She had to say goodbye to the woman she used to be all at once. Her demanding career in the NHS, her ability to drive, cook and run - the various shades of her independence - were suddenly gone.

Philosophical, profoundly moving, insightful and ultimately full of hope, Somebody I Used to Know gets to the heart of what it means to be human. A phenomenal memoir - the first of its kind - it is both a heart-rending tribute to the woman Wendy once was, and a brave affirmation of the woman dementia has seen her become.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Ten of us met at The Ash Tree in Ashendon to discuss our reading experience, which for many of us involved re-reading a book from our teenage years.

Initial reactions ranged from loving it to finding it annoying. Here’s why it annoyed:

• It is very wordy, which for some was just too much.
• Sentence construction and descriptions were far too lengthy.
• It is way too introspective.

One of our group said that the style in which it was written took the joy out of reading!

Three of our group turned to audiobooks - 1 mixed audio and reading. Another admitted to using AI to get an overview of the final 10 chapters because time simply ran out! The audible audiobook was 22 hours long, but one listener had sped up the reading pace and cracked through it, which made us laugh. 

One great thing about reading a classic is the different editions we all bring along. Vanessa had her grandfather's copy - a second edition. Another had notes at the back on the Latin and French references in the story. Some had an introduction included, some didn't. 

We recognise that this is a classic book, written by a woman and published in 1847. It is a work of its time and should be valued for the insight into a world we were not part of. 

For second (or more) time readers of this book, it was generally agreed that the experience as mature women differed from that of our younger selves. Life experience and a different outlook led us to the following observations:

• I read this book at school and found it overwhelming - this time round, I understood it much better
• I forgot the beginning bit
• The child abuse made me really angry
• I wish I could remember how this book made me feel when I first read it
• Jane comes out as a strong woman - when I was younger, I thought she was whiny

The description of an English Summer evening was cited as a great example of how beautifully written it is, despite its wordiness. 

Our discussion focused on why Jane had chosen Mr Rochester. Was it because he was the one man who had shown her affection and/or wasn't abusive towards her, or was it simply chemistry that could not be explained? There was certainly a strong love between these two unlikely matches. 

Of the characters:

Bertha Moon - we felt she had been badly treated, as had Rochester, but perhaps she would have been worse off in an asylum.

St.John was coercive - not a nice man. We wondered if he was capable of ever loving anyone.

Jane - we liked that she was assertive and independent of mind. She was aware of the injustice that had come her way and loved that she simply got on with life as it was. She was also generous of spirit and appeared to hold no grudges.  

Rochester - we warmed to him but we had some doubts over what he was prepared to do in order to marry Jane. 

Would we recommend this book? Yes!

Well, everyone loves a classic, and on balance, although it would be very hard if all books were written this way, this is a must-read for the language and characterisation. 

Our next book is The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and we will meet again at The Ash Tree in Ashendon at 8pm on Thursday, 22nd May 2025.