Book Choices - March 2025

Our next meeting is at 8.00pm on Thursday, 27th March 2025 at The Ash Tree in Ashendon. We will be discussing Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

Here are the book choices for our next book. 

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

A beautifully written historical relationship tale with real bite. This is about the relationships with family, community, fear, nature, and the more obvious love. A work of fiction inspired by history, the story begins on Christmas Eve in 1617 when a sudden and violent storm takes the lives of forty fishermen, leaving the stunned womenfolk learning to survive on their remote Norwegian island. Still reeling from the tragedy, their lives turn in the most frightening direction when the King brings in sorcery laws and a commissioner is installed to root out evil. This is Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s debut adult novel. The prologue hits with a huge, sad inevitability. Kiran Millwood Hargrave writes with a sensitive and considerate pen; the descriptions are breathtaking. While there are some savage shocks in store, The Mercies is still a warm, thoughtful and touching read.

Roots by Alex Haley

Tracing his ancestry back to Africa, through six generations: slaves and free men, farmers and blacksmiths, lawyers and architects, Alex Haley discovered a sixteen-year-old youth, Kunta Kinte. It was this young man, who had been torn from his homeland and in torment and anguish brought to the slave markets of the New World, who held the key to Haley's deep and distant past.

The Reading List by Nisha Adams

An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to connect with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list… hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again. 

Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale

Thirteen of us joined our long-awaited return to the now community-owned, local pub: The Ash Tree in Ashendon. 

We welcomed our two new members, Annelise and Ellie, and then settled into our chat about our latest read: Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale. 

We had a short debate about previous books we had read by this author, and we settled on Notes From an Exhibition, which we read way back in 2008. So we can't really classify ourselves as stalkers! Some of us admitted our devotion to the author and had personally enjoyed A Place Called Winter and Rough Music. My checks for accuracy revealed that there are still plenty more Patrick Gale stories to read!

Anyway, here is the summary of our shared reading experience of Take Nothing With You. 

One of our group chose not to read the book, she felt it was just another story about other people's lives and cannot see the point in reading books like this. This decision was made based on the sample read opportunity offered online! In the face of friendly fire, she stuck to her minority opinion and everyone else agreed to differ having read and enjoyed the story.

One final point regarding the 'other people's lives' bit: the story does feel autobiographical. The author says it isn't but he did draw from his experiences as a gay child of the 1970s, the agonies of adolescence and his life and love of music. Some characters were based on people in his own life. 

The characters are well-developed, and it was an easy-to-read novel but, in our opinion, the ending felt rushed after a relatively slow start. 

Of the characters: 

We loved Eustace and his life. Many of us could relate to him through shared experiences in our own lives. 

Dad was pathetic! and Mum - well!!

The Weston Super Mare friendship group were wonderful and Vernon was a stand-out mate (with a brilliant father). As were his music school friends Freya and Naomi but not Turlough who, we concluded, was a dislikeable control freak.

Patrick also gave us a wonderful insight into Weston Super Mare and we enjoyed the descriptions of the town and its character. 

The end did not give us what we wanted to hear about the relationship between Eustace (the main character) and Theo, his long-distance and not yet-met boyfriend—some wanted more! Others liked the sudden ending, and others (well, there were 13 of us) felt Theo simply served the purpose of being something for Eustace to look forward to. Most of us are hoping for a sequel!

The big question is: Would we recommend this book? Except for one, the answer is a big YES! Some already had.

Our next book is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and we will meet again at The Ash Tree in Ashendon at 8pm on Thursday 27th of March 2025. 

Book Choices - January 2025

Our next meeting is at 8.00pm on Thursday 30th January 2025 at The Ash Tree of Ashendon. We will be discussing Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale.

Here are the book choices for our next book. 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre ranks as one of the greatest and most perennially popular works of English fiction. Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit, and great courage.

She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer, and a rigid social order. All circumstances  circumscribe her life and position when she becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious, sardonic and attractive Mr Rochester.

There is great kindness and warmth in this epic love story, which is set against the magnificent backdrop of the Yorkshire moors. Ultimately the grand passion of Jane and Rochester is called upon to survive cruel revelation, loss and reunion, only to be confronted with tragedy.

This is How We Are Human

Sebastian James Murphy is twenty years, six months and two days old. He loves swimming, fried eggs and Billy Ocean. Sebastian is autistic. And lonely.

Veronica wants her son Sebastian to be happy … she wants the world to accept him for who he is. She is also considering paying a professional to give him what he desperately wants.

Violetta, a high-class escort, steps out into the night thinking only of money; her nursing degree; paying for her dad’s care; and getting through the dark.

When these three lives collide – intertwine in unexpected ways – everything changes. For everyone.

This Is How We Are Human is a searching, rich and thought-provoking novel with an emotional core that will warm and break your heart.

The Return of the Native

Now one of Hardy’s most popular novels, in 1878 he had difficulty finding a publisher due to the book’s controversial themes. The book takes place on Egdon Heath, a fictitious area of the Wessex of many of Hardy’s novels. 

Tempestuous Eustacia Vye passes her days dreaming of passionate love and the escape it may bring from the small community of Egdon Heath. 

Hearing that Clym Yeobright is to return from Paris, she sets her heart on marrying him, believing that through him she can leave rural life and find fulfilment elsewhere. But she is to be disappointed, for Clym has dreams of his own, and they have little in common with Eustacia’s. Their unhappy marriage causes havoc in the lives of those close to them, in particular Damon Wildeve, Eustacia’s former lover, Clym’s mother and his cousin Thomasin. 

The Return of the Native illustrates the tragic potential of romantic illusion and how its protagonists fail to recognize their opportunities to control their own destinies.

Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey

Eight of us gathered to discuss “one of the most talked-about books of the year.” 

The opening remark set the tone:

"It’s not what it says on the cover, is it?!”

Seven nodded in agreement. Ouch.

That could have been the end of our conversation. But, feeling some duty to justify this near-unanimous verdict and with one dissenting voice (me!) - we pressed on. Here’s a summary of our lively discussion.

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The Book in Brief

The story follows Maggie, a young woman under 30, who is navigating divorce proceedings 608 days into her marriage. Once deeply in love with Jon, her best friend from university, Maggie finds herself reeling from heartbreak and trauma. Her story is told with humour, self-deprecation, and moments of emotional rawness.

While Maggie is fictional, one group member (not me!) couldn’t resist Googling Monica Heisey and discovered parallels with the author's personal life. This led to an interesting debate about how much personal experience shapes fiction.

The book was amusing in parts - one of us found it consistently funny, and another admitted to a few quiet LOLs. But overall, it didn’t deliver on its bold cover promises: “Wildly funny, almost alarmingly relatable” (Marian Keyes), “Hilarious and profound” (Dolly Alderton), or “The funniest book I’ve read in a long time” (Raven Leilani).

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Why Didn’t We Love It?

1. Generational Divide
   Maggie is a millennial, and her experiences, especially the heavy presence of social media, felt disconnected from our lives. Though we could recall moments of technological upheaval (like the shift from face-to-face chats to everyone listening in on hallway phone calls!). 

2. Lack of Connection
   We struggled to care about Maggie or to warm to her. Was she too self-absorbed, too cynical, too navel-gazing?

3. Cringeworthy Humour
   Some found the humour more awkward than funny - though we acknowledged this might have been intentional.

4. Overhyped Relatability
   For those of us beyond our late 20s, the book simply wasn’t “alarmingly relatable.”

5. Distracting Breaks in the writing - such as Google Search Lists
   Maggie’s random, oddball Google searches were a recurring feature, but instead of adding depth or humour, they felt strange and unnecessary. (Curiosity piqued, one of us even checked our own search histories. Thankfully, results like “The Cooper 12-Minute Run Test” and “Naturally Radiant – Superdrug” were a tad more sensible, but just as mundane!)

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Broader Reflections

The discussion then veered toward broader questions about the book and its themes:

• Why did the author choose this tone? We speculated it was to avoid making Maggie seem pitiable.
• Is it a critique of GenZ's openness? Does being so open about feelings automatically breed anxiety? Possibly, since openness invites judgment.
• Did the Canadian setting matter? Not really. Toronto is like any other big city.

Ultimately, while we appreciated Maggie’s candour and moments of humour, the book didn’t resonate with most of us.

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Final Thoughts

Even at 370 pages (or a daunting 870 if read on a phone), the book is a quick read. 

Would we recommend it? Not enthusiastically—but we are curious to see how younger readers respond. We’re passing it along to our children/younger contacts and eagerly awaiting their verdicts.

Our next read is Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale. We’ll meet at 8pm on Thursday, January 30th, and, after two long years, we’re thrilled to say we will meet at the pub. Cheers to that!

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

Notes from the Book Club Meeting on 26th September 2024.

As ever, we had a lively discussion about this book, concluding that it was a little bit of a “Marmite” read: some people liked the book, others liked it less…

So what is the storyline of “The Bee Sting”? 

The novel tells the story of the Barnes family, a once powerful and wealthy family in Ireland, now facing financial difficulties after the Great Recession of 2008. The patriarch of the family, Dickie Barnes, operates 2 local car dealerships and workshops that he inherited from his father.

So, what were the main thoughts about the book?

For the people who did not enjoy it so much, the criticism was that they found it boring, too long (650 pages) and the pace fairly slow. The characters were somehow not all that 'likeable' except for the young son PJ who had a very endearing personality. 

With one particular character (Imelda) her chain of thoughts is written in a very similar style to Virginia Woolf’s stream of consciousness, and those entire sections in the book lacked punctuation which was not enjoyable and was found to be very confusing.

Those who enjoyed the book more were particularly engrossed in the story when one of the characters (Frank) dies. At that point, the story tips towards a more engaging style with an in-depth description of their past lives and journeys. This is when we started to sympathise and become more fond of the characters, even though the choices made were often poor. The comic tragedy of some of the scenes makes some really good reading as well as the description of some characters’ anxieties due to money pressures.

And for me, the best section of the book was its ending. Without revealing too much, the ending of this book is one of the best cliffhangers I have ever read and written in its very own unique style!

The style of the book as well as its storyline had many similarities with the books from Jonathan Franzen’s (“The Corrections”).

The “Bee Sting” is a good read.

However, the overall feeling from our reading group’s members was that it was just too long and too dark and that a lighter read was needed for next time!

So, our next read will be: “Really Good, Actually” by Monica Heisey.

The next meeting will be on Thursday 14th November 2024 at 20:00 and we will meet at Vanessa’s.

This is Happiness by Niall Williams

An interesting and animated debate ensued during our meeting to discuss this book.

The story is set in Ireland, in 1958 and follows young Noe (short for Noel) who becomes witness to the transformative journey of the village where his grandparents’ farm is. The novel grapples with themes such as love, the Balance between Tradition and Progress (the resistance to the introduction of electricity), and the complexities of human relationships. 

Irish History is the background to this book’s story, particularly the famine or Great Hunger.

During the 1840s, Ireland had a population of 8. 2 million. 

Tenant farmers were poor and forced into growing the quickest and easiest crop: the potato.

The disease known as potato blight disseminated the potato crop. This triggered a domino effect of defaulted rents and great debt. Many people were left homeless and starving. 

Around 1 million people died of starvation and roughly another 2 million people emigrated on "coffin ships", so named as small ships, high numbers and poor conditions caused high death rates. 

The Great Hunger was one of the worst tragedies of the 19th century and profoundly affected Ireland and the Irish people. Even today Ireland has not reached pre-famine population levels. (Today’s Irish population is 4.5 million).

During our discussions, there were diverse opinions.

For the positive points, it was felt that it had been an interesting read for several reasons:

• the scenes were beautifully described using  evocative and highly descriptive language 
• the story offered some really charming and poignant scenes about friendship and the coming of age of an adolescent ( Ex: "The kiss" scene) through the eyes of a much older person
• the descriptions were very insightful giving a quite moving feel to the characters’ thoughts and emotions 
• during most of the story, the tone is full of humour with charming naïvety and sweet innocence
• you could not help reading the story without hearing Irish accents for all the characters as well as lively and vibrant  Irish music in the pubs. In fact, the whole story would make a brilliant synopsis for a film
• the book title fits well with some of today’s culture of "living in the now” and essentially being ALIVE and wanting to declare: "This is happiness!"
• the author is a talented author using beautiful language and offering some very humourous phrases such as: " … as clean as a bishop’s rectum"!

For the more critical opinions, it was felt that sometimes the book's pace was slow and, simply not enough things were happening. 

Overall, the feeling was that it had been a good read. 

Would we recommend this book to others? The response would be a BIG YES!

"I have already bought a new copy for a friend!"

“On Earth we’re briefly gorgeous.” By Ocean Vuong

8 or 9 of us met to discuss our reading experience. 

This was a highly-debated book: some people loved it and some people liked it much less….

The book is a challenging read, in terms of its contents rather than its style. 

The book is in the form of a letter written at the age of 28 by an aspiring American Vietnamese poet to his illiterate mother. 

The letter relates the story of a young Vietnamese boy living in a town in New England, USA, raised by his Vietnamese single mother and grandmother. The mum earns a living working in a nail salon, working long hours, coming home exhausted. Both ladies have suffered trauma during the war in Vietnam, and hardly speak any English.  “Little Dog” (that’s what they call the little boy) is greatly cherished but at the same time treated with great harshness, even sometimes beaten up. It’s a hard environment, but still intimate amongst the two ladies, but poverty and racism are omnipresent.

Soon, “Little Dog” reaches the age of 14 and can work. He discovers a new world, working for a tobacco company, working in the tobacco fields and learning how to pick and deal with the tobacco leaves. This is where he meets Trevor who is the manager’ son and a love affair unfolds. It is a sexual awakening fueled with dope- smoking and young love discoveries. Trevor is also a substance addict and succumbs to a heroin overdose. The loss is immense for “Little Dog” and this was in the book, the writing becomes very poetic, close to a lament, the sheer pain of the loss vividly expressed in some stunning prose.   

This is a semi-autobiographical novel.

The book got mixed reviews from the members of our group: some loved it, some found it a difficult but interesting read and some could not finish it.

One thing is for sure, it did not leave people feeling indifferent, moved by the difficult topics related to this story: the trauma of the war in Vietnam, the difficulty in integrating a new society, class, labour, poverty, abuse, sexuality and mental illness.

The book should carry a word of warning though, as some scenes make a very difficult and very shocking read. Crude language is used as well, making some scenes quite disturbing.

“ I loved it! “ said one person at the very start of our debate. This person had not read the book but had listened to it on audible; what made the listening really special was that it was actually read by the author, making the experience very personal. Could it be that the story had a different impact as it was read by the author himself as opposed to simply reading the pages of a paperback?

Other views were that it was a bleak story but extremely well-written, with the use of beautiful poetic language. But, one criticism was that maybe the writing was too polished. And the lack of chronology was found irritating with some different stories jumping forward and backwards in time.

The tobacco industry in the USA was well-described and was interesting to discover.

The images evoked in some scenes were very vivid and tender, particularly the scene where the grandma makes “Little Dog” steal some flowers so she can have colour in her life or when “Little Dog” lies down next to his mother.

The overall consensus of our discussions was that the story in this book was a bleak one, not an uplifting story but a very moving one with the use of the most beautiful and clever language.

Our Summer read is “ This is happiness” by Niall Williams. We will meet on Thursday 11th July 2024, at 20:00 at Sue Lewin’s House (well, hopefully her beautiful garden) to discuss this book.