March 2013 Book Choices

Tuesday 12th March 2013 is our next meeting when we will be discussing 'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel - don't worry if you haven't finished it I believe a few of us have struggled with it. 

Here are the choices for our next book:

A Young Doctor’s Notebook by Mikail Bulgakov

In this collection of short stories, drawing heavily from the author’s own experiences as a medical graduate on the eve of the Russian Revolution, Bulgakov describes a young doctor’s turbulent and often brutal introduction to his practice in the backward village of Muryovo. In a sharply realistic and humorous style, Bulgakov reveals doubts about his competence and the immense burden of responsibility, as he deals with a superstitious and poorly educated people struggling to enter the modern age. 

This acclaimed collection contains personal and insightful observations on youth, isolation and progress.

Year of Wonder by Geraldine Brooks

When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

First published in 1958, Our Man in Havana is an espionage thriller, a penetrating character study, and a political satire that still resonates today. Conceived as one of Graham Greene's "entertainments," it tells of MI6's man in Havana, Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true.