The Universe Versus Alex Woods

7 of our group met to discuss our latest read and we were all keen to get on with talking about our reading experience.

"I was hooked from the start!" - we all agreed. 

"I loved it - 5 Stars!" - we all agreed. 

Ashendon Book Group in complete agreement with regard to the book is a rare occurrence, so it was a little worrying we might 'agree to agree' and have little to discuss. But no, the discussion was lively and flowed through the many different subjects, situations and experiences the author has so cleverly stitched together. 

This is a truly brilliant read, that touches on some very serious subjects. It is as thought-provoking as it is hilarious. Wonderful characters and scenarios, with thoughtful explanation where necessary, create a story that illustrates the humour and sadness that comes with friends and relations. You never know what is going to happen next, nothing is predictable.

We did dwell on plausibility for a while - is Alex plausible? are the scenarios plausible? Some members of our group felt the author was trying to put himself into the shoes of a young person and, in so doing, made it hard to believe in that person. Others felt that, if one thinks about the capabilities of young people as e.g. young carers, then Alex's behaviour is highly plausible. We concluded that yes, this fascinating character could well have have found himself in the situations described. 

The story is very visual and would make a great film - we are looking forward to the film should anyone choose to make it. 

Would we recommend it? Well, yes! 

Our next read is two stories in one book: Gigi and the Cat by Colette and we will discuss these at 8pm on Thursday 14th March in The Hundred of Ashendon. 

Our next book choice coincides with the release of a a film focused on the life of the author: Colette. and perhaps some of our group will have the chance to see this film alongside the book. 

Reading Choices for January/February 2019

Happy New Year everyone. Another year will undoubtedly bring us another six fabulous reads! For 2019 let's continue with  our shared joy of reading and our eclectic choice of books!

Gigi by Colette

Gigi is a short novella about a girl raised by courtesans to be a courtesan in the late 1890's, without ever realizing that that's what she's supposed to do. It's also one of those books where the movie based on it is famous enough that most people don't realize that there is a book. So I should note now that Maurice Chevalier's character was invented for the musical and doesn't exist in the book. Very sad, I know.

Young Gilberte is growing older, but she sees no reason why things need to change because of this. Her grandmother and great-aunt Alicia on the other hand, are starting to get nervous, because she lacks "sense". Courtesans in their youth, they are worried that Gigi won't be able to attract the right kind of man. So they begin training her intensively. However, it's clear early on that Gigi doesn't think like they do, so when she accidentally attracts an wealthy family friend, will she be ready to take the plunge or will Gigi take matters into her own hands and break with tradition once and for all.

This extremely short novella is perfectly plotted, and an extremely fun read. Highly recommended for everyone who loves a good story. Even if you never liked the musical.

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall-Smith

The story revolves around the comings and goings at No. 44 Scotland Street, a fictitious building in a real street in Edinburgh. Immediately recognisable are the Edinburgh chartered surveyor, stalwart of the Conservative Association, who dreams of membership of Scotland's most exclusive golf club. We have the pushy Stockbridge mother, and her prodigiously talented five-year-old son, who is making good progress with the saxophone and with his Italian. Then there is Domenica Macdonald who is that type of Edinburgh lady who sees herself as a citizen of a broader intellectual world.

In McCall Smith's hands such characters retain charm and novelty, simultaneously arousing both mirth and empathy. 44 Scotland Street is vintage McCall Smith, tackling issues of trust and honesty, snobbery and hypocrisy, love and loss, but all with great lightness of touch. Clever, elegant and funny, this is a novel that provides huge entertainment but which is underpinned by the moral dilemmas of everyday life and the characters' struggles to resolve them.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Okonowo is the greatest warrior alive. His fame has spread like a bushfire in West Africa and he is one of the most powerful men of his clan. But he also has a fiery temper. Determined not to be like his father, he refuses to show weakness to anyone - even if the only way he can master his feelings is with his fists.

When outsiders threaten the traditions of his clan, Okonowo takes violent action. Will the great man's dangerous pride eventually destroy him?








We will choose our next book at our meeting at 8pm on Thursday 17th January 2019, at The Hundred when we will discuss our current read: The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence.

Adam Thorpe – Pieces of Light

Just six of us met to discuss this book, with additional input from two ‘roving’ members and one ‘abstainer’. It was a mixed response which made for an interesting discussion. Those of us who have read and loved Adam Thorpe before (including Ulverton) all enjoyed this book, as did some of us who were new to his work.

In summary the results for this book are:
4 liked it
3 didn’t start it
1 didn’t like it
1 was not sure

This is a long book and it is quite a hard read and that itself put three of our group off reading it at all. Another felt she would not finish it. One member, though, read it twice: once to get the gist of it and a second time with the benefit of that she felt a better understanding for the story and the characters. Knowing the ending doesn’t spoil the experience and it helps to give clarity to the story.

It is easy to get lost and confused but, even the dissenters came round to thinking that this book is a very rich read, that offers a lot to the reader who perseveres!

The story starts and finishes in Africa, with the authors fictional town of Ulverton (England) in the middle and focuses on the life of a boy whose wonderful childhood did not continue into a wonderful adulthood.

We all agreed this book would make a great film.

Would we recommend it? We felt that even if you don’t want to/can’t read it all then the first half of the book is really worth a try. So if that can be considered a recommendation then: YES!

Our next book is The Universe versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence. We will meet next year, on January 17th 2019 at 8pm in The Hundred. Please come along and join our New Year conversation.

Reading Choices for November/December 2018

So our last read for 2018 will be selected from the following:

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

Here is a story told inside out and back to front Five Dunbar brothers are living - fighting, loving, and grieving - in the perfect chaos of a house without grown-ups.

Today, the father who left them has just walked right back in. He has a surprising request: Who will build a bridge with him? It is Clay, a boy tormented by a long-buried secret, who accepts. But why is Clay so broken? And why must he fulfil this extraordinary challenge?

Bridge of Clay is about a boy caught in a current, a boy intent on destroying everything he has in order to become everything he needs to be. Ahead of him lies the bridge, the vision that will save both his family and himself. It will be a miracle and nothing less. At once an existential riddle and a search for redemption, this tale of five brothers coming of age in a house with no rules brims with energy, joy and pathos.

Written in Markus Zusak's distinctive style, it is a tour de force from a master storyteller of the heart.

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

Alex Woods knows that he hasn't had the most conventional start in life.

He knows that growing up with a clairvoyant single mother won't endear him to the local bullies.

He also knows that even the most improbable events can happen - he's got the scars to prove it.

What he doesn't know yet is that when he meets ill-tempered, reclusive widower Mr Peterson, he'll make an unlikely friend. Someone who tells him that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make the best possible choices.

So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at Dover customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes on the passenger seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he's fairly sure he's done the right thing.

A tale of an unexpected friendship, an unlikely hero and an improbable journey, Alex's story treads the fine line between light and dark, laughter and tears. And it might just strike you as one of the funniest, most heartbreaking novels you've ever read.

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

More commonly known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo's Romantic novel of dark passions and unrequited love, Notre-Dame de Paris, is translated with an introduction by John Sturrock in Penguin Classics.

In the vaulted Gothic towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral lives Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bellringer. Mocked and shunned for his appearance, he is pitied only by Esmerelda, a beautiful gypsy dancer to whom he becomes completely devoted. Esmerelda, however, has also attracted the attention of the sinister archdeacon Claude Frollo, and when she rejects his lecherous approaches, Frollo hatches a plot to destroy her, that only Quasimodo can prevent. Victor Hugo's sensational, evocative novel brings life to the medieval Paris he loved, and mourns its passing in one of the greatest historical romances of the nineteenth century.

John Sturrock's clear, contemporary translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing it as a passionate novel of ideas, written in defence of Gothic architecture and of a burgeoning democracy, and demonstrating that an ugly exterior can conceal moral beauty. This revised edition also includes further reading and a chronology of Hugo's life.

We will choose our next book at our meeting at 8pm on Thursday 15th November 2018, at The Hundred when we will discuss our current read: Pieces of Light by Adam Thorpe.

Their Finest by Lissa Evans

7 members of our group enjoyed a convivial evening at The Hundred of Ashendon, discussing ‘Their Finest’ by Lissa Evans.

The book was originally titled ‘Their Finest Hour and a Half’ but was shortened when the story was made into a film and the opening line of our discussion was “have you seen the film?” Some had and some hadn’t but everyone agreed it is a film to watch (or watch again).

The next question was: “was this a good book?” the response was mixed. Four immediately said ‘Yes’ but two said they had nearly given up at the start and one liked the start but didn’t enjoy much more. Our ‘virtual’ eighth member stated she had ‘slogged through the book’ and felt there was a lack of sense of direction. So we were squarely on the fence on this one and the debate was open!
The debate didn’t really materialise however as, despite initial reactions, we all felt similarly ambivalent. Overall we felt the story is hard to get to grips with, especially at the start but it all comes together in the end. So it is no surprise that the majority of the group felt it was hard to get going, and into, the story.

The story is about Second World War London with several characters, and their circumstances, introduced chapter by chapter. They all have London, and the war in common and it is possible to gain some understanding of wartime for Londoners, and what it was like for civilians living through the Blitz. That was interesting and thought-provoking to read but didn’t really give the reader any sense of an underlying story.

One key theme throughout the story is working women and it illustrates how some were able to move into jobs that would have been considered ‘men’s work’ before the war. Those who were given the opportunity to break into the men’s world did, of course, do very well in their roles!

We gradually realised that there are wonderful characters, and storylines in the book that really did not achieve their potential to add a lot more value and vibrancy to the story. Here, the penny dropped: this was one of the rare occasions where the book has been made into a far better film. That is to say, the film is better than the book!  In fact, one of our group remembered her copy had arrived free with a Sunday paper and was a promotional copy released for the film. Oh, and the book title was changed for the film.

So, would we recommend this book? well, it was not our finest but yes if it's a plane or beach read you are looking for. We would, however, most certainly recommend the film (even those of us who have not seen it!). 

Our next read is Pieces Of Light by Adam Thorpe and we will meet at 8pm on Thursday 15th November 2018 at The Hundred to discuss this.

Reading Choices for October/November 2018

Pieces Of Light by Adam Thorpe

Hugh Arkwright's remote childhood in the Central African bush, and its sudden disruption leaves him with a legacy of magic, mystery, and tragic loss.

Late in his life, he returns to the gaunt house in Ulverton where he was brought up by his eccentric uncle and finds that the old ghosts still walk. The more he excavates his own past, the deeper he finds the traces of ancient horrors. The autumnal air of Ulverton begins to take on the taint of corruption, and a mystery starts that ends with vengeance, murder and a sudden, staggering revelation. The mild English manners of the village of darkness beneath the heart of oak.

PIECES OF LIGHT is a modern novel steeped in a resonant past; where rural England and colonial Africa collide. Densely wrought and vividly imagined, Adam Thorpe's return to Ulverton is a fictional triumph - thrilling and unforgettable.

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Vanity Fair is an English novel which follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Emmy Sedley amid their friends and families during and after the Napoleonic Wars.

The novel that chronicles the lives of two women who could not be more different: Becky Sharp, an orphan whose only resources are her vast ambitions, her native wit, and her loose morals; and her schoolmate Amelia Sedley, a typically naive Victorian heroine, the pampered daughter of a wealthy family.

Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg

One snowy day in Copenhagen, six-year-old Isaiah falls to his death from a city rooftop. The police pronounce it an accident. But Isaiah's neighbour, Smilla, an expert in the ways of snow and ice, suspects murder. She embarks on a dangerous quest to find the truth, following a path of clues as clear to her as footsteps in the snow.

We will choose our next book at our meeting at 8pm on Thursday 27th September 2018, at The Hundred when we will discuss our current read: Their Finest by Lissa Evans.

La Belle Sauvage – The Book of Dust Volume 1 – by Phillip Pullman

7 members of our group sat in the garden of our local pub (The Hundred of Ashendon) on a beautiful summers evening to chat about this book.

La Belle Sauvage, tells the tale of 11-year-old Malcolm Polstead, who lives with his parents at The Trout Inn in Wolvercote. This book is the first book of the not yet completed The Book of Dust trilogy. The book, the first in a three-part prequel to Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials and tells the story of the key characters in this trilogy.

First impressions, when choosing a book, can be lead to missed opportunities – some of us would not have chosen to read this book had it not been a book group choice. Decisions would have been based on the size (it look huge), the target audience (young people) and the genre (fantasy). How wrong we would have been!

The size of the book is daunting to those of us who squeeze their reading in around busy lives – the text though is also large! Big text = big book but the time to read was no more than a typical, average book.

The target audience – it may be targeted at young people but it is a really good read for any age. Don’t be put off by that.

And, fantasy – well, yes it got a bit extreme, overly magical and odyssey-like in the second part but ‘fantasy’ (it turns out) does not mean ridiculous or fairy tale or overly complex or even unrealistic.
It was actually quite a realistic read for us as we live close to Oxford and we thoroughly enjoyed the setting. It is easy to visualise many of the locations, even with ‘author license’ applied. The description of The Trout is spot on, including the peacocks, there is a ruined convent just beyond the Trout AND there is Oxford has a Polstead (Malcolm’s surname) Road (probably named after the village of Polstead near Stroud in Gloucestershire).


(UNRELATED?) FACT


While putting these notes together, I found that Lawrence of Arabia lived at number 2 Polstead Road from the age of 8. Lawrence was a talented translator and his work included translation of the epic poem The Odyssey of Homer and of The Forest Giant.  

Anyway, having got over the ‘do I want to read it?’ hurdle we all enjoyed this read very much. (Including one of our group who thought she would have to be tied to a chair to read it but after the first chapter she had got over that thought!)

The fantasy element of fairies and daemons was uncharted territory and some of the group had more trouble getting to grips with this concept, than others. Daemons though we concluded are an absolutely brilliant concept and we spent a while discussing what our own might be. The pain of being separated from your daemon was painful to read. And the relationship between Malcolm and Lyra’s daemons (Astra and Pantalaimon) was very touching.

The content is quite dark and there are some quite explicit references to sex, which we discussed with regard to the likely young audience (some of us know readers of Phillip Pullman as young as 10 years old) and concluded that it would be interpreted differently and the subject of sex and rape had been well handled in the book.

The League of St. Alexander which has schoolchildren hunting out atheists and heretics led to some particularly chilling scenes. We dwelled on this a while as Pullman is known for his dislike of organised religion and we pondered on the purpose of the concept. Well, in his own words: “In my view, belief in God seems to be a very good excuse, on the part of those who claim to believe, for doing many wicked things that they wouldn’t feel justified in doing without such a belief.”

Because this is a fantasy the time in which the story takes place is irrelevant but we were intrigued by the mix – there were no cars, no mobiles, no TV. There were hot air balloons, a gyrocopter, and motorboats. There were disposable nappies!

The story is beautifully written. The description of the canoe (La Belle Sauvage) is fabulous. We hope all comes good with regard to the canoe in later books.

Of the characters, we loved Malcolm (Mal) he was so responsible for his age and exceptionally caring. We also enjoyed seeing Alice ‘blossom’ on the journey with her love for Lyra, her growing awareness of her feminity (the fairy makeover scene is particularly touching) and as her friendship grew with Malcolm.

Bonneville and his awful daemon made for horrific yet intriguing reading. We loved the Giant (even though at this point the book was getting just a little bit silly.) We would like to know what happened to the Nuns and hope for more news in the second book in this trilogy.

Overall, this is a very rich book, with so much to discuss and so little time to do so - we only just got started on the Nuns and didn’t even get to discuss Lord Asriel or the Gyptians.

We concluded that this is a modern day Enid Blyton ‘rollicking good adventure with a baby’.

So would we recommend this book? yes definitely. Our one member who hadn’t yet got hold of a copy of the book, but came along for the chat anyway, grabbed at the chance to borrow a copy and rushed off into the sunset to make a start!

The rest of us eagerly await the Book 2 (The Secret Commonwealth), which is yet to be published. If we are lucky it may be ready for our 2019 Summer Read!

Our next read is Their Finest by Lissa Evans and we will meet at 8pm on Thursday 27th September 2018 at The Hundred to discuss this.