Reading Choices to Lighten Up Unprecedented Times

We will meet for the second time by Zoom on Thursday 23rd April, for our virtual meeting. Our book choices are the result of Sue's research into 'uplifting' books for a period of lockdown. Here they are:

What Ho!: The Best of Wodehouse: The Best of P.G.Wodehouse 

We all know Jeeves and Wooster, but which is the best Jeeves story?
We all know Blandings, but which is the funniest tale about Lord Emsworth and his adored prize-winning pig? And would the best of Ukridge, or the yarns of the Oldest Member, or Wodehouse's Hollywood stories outdo them? This bumper anthology allows you to choose, bringing you the cream of the crop of stories by the twentieth century's greatest humorous writer.

There are favourites aplenty in this selection, which has been compiled with enthusiastic support from P.G. Wodehouse societies around the world. With additional material including novel extracts, working drafts, articles, letters and poems, this anthology provides the best overall celebration of side-splitting humour and sheer good nature available in the pages of any book.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

On 21 June 1922 Count Alexander Rostov – recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt – is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol.

But instead of being taken to his usual suite, he is led to an attic room with a window the size of a chessboard. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely.

While Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval, the Count, stripped of the trappings that defined his life, is forced to question what makes us who we are. And with the assistance of a glamorous actress, a cantankerous chef and a very serious child, Rostov unexpectedly discovers a new understanding of both pleasure and purpose.

The Switch by Beth O'Leary

Leena is too young to feel stuck.
Eileen is too old to start over.
Maybe it's time for The Switch...

Ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, Leena escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some overdue rest. Newly single and about to turn eighty, Eileen would like a second chance at love. But her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentlemen... So Leena proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love, and Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire.

But with a rabble of unruly OAPs to contend with, as well as the annoyingly perfect - and distractingly handsome - local schoolteacher, Leena learns that switching lives isn't straightforward. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, and with the online dating scene. But is her perfect match nearer to home than she first thought?


We will meet to discuss our current read: A Month in the Country by JL Carr at 8pm on Thursday 23rd April, by ZOOM.  Jitsi was also suggested as an alternative to Zoom because it offers unlimited time, but having sent details out to various members of our group by various methods I was concerned someone would get missed if we changed tack this time. So, the meeting will only last 40 minutes, limited by the software licence so please try to join 5 minutes before, with choice of beverage to hand, so we can make a prompt start. We can always take a quick break and start another session if we need/want to. And let's discuss the Jitsi option if we have time, hopefully I will have managed to test it between now and then.