December: The Dry by Jane Harper
What a delightful first novel. All 8 of us enjoyed reading it, though Alan had some reservations about the accuracy of details of the plot!
A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper. In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier.
But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds bleed into new ones.
We gave it a score of 4.1 which was the same as Goodreads from over 230 ratings.
November: Metamorphosis by Penelope Lively
Of the 5 of us present, 4 preferred full length novels. However, most of us enjoyed this collection of stories that explore the theme of metamorphosis of human lives. Death, marriage, adultery, relationships and travel are explored as moments in time when a life can take a sudden turn and be upended. She writes about people in everyday situations but she does it so well. Gets under the skin and describes things in a detailed but understated way and the result is a compelling human situation. The reader is slowly hooked, played and landed in the nicest literary way. This group of stories, some new, is an excellent example of her work and skills. We liked A long night at Abu Simbel where a tour party had many bickerings but all said how wondereful it had been in the end, In Olden Times had good descriptions of what it is like to be a hard working middle class woman. We gave a score of 4.2 compared to Goodreads score of 4.01
October: Tidelands by Philippa Gregory
Tidelands is a historical novel set at the end of the English Civil War. The narrative covers the trial and execution of King Charles I, but only as a minor subplot. The text inhabits the world of the era’s downtrodden poor, drawing inspiration from lives that never made the pages of history. Our main character is Alinor Reekie, a herbalist and midwife who must walk a fine line if she is to avoid being accused of witchcraft. With her negligent husband lost at sea but not confirmed dead, Alinor is caught in an uncomfortable limbo, neither a wife nor a widow. Her struggles are confounded by dire poverty. Alone, she struggles to raise her adolescent children, Rob and Alys, and to maintain her independence. Alinor shelters this mysterious stranger for the night, despite him being a Catholic spy. Sha becomes pregnant by him, which didn't ring true as she was a midwife, and eventually when he returns she turns him down and goes off with her daughter.
September: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
This was more of a novella being only 120 small pages but was an interesting read as a classic and the majority liked the book. We felt that every word contributed to the plot, the descriptions of the characters were true especially for the era it was written in, and the tension and drama built up well. One comment was that there wasn't really a plot, and some found it difficult remembering the names Candy, Curley, Crooks the black worker, and Carlson. We gave a score of 3.7 compared to Goodread's 3.9 from over 2 million votes.
August: Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
This very long book of nearly 700 pages was well written and enjoyed by most of the group. Two members didn't get into the book for 150 pages and then began to connect with the characters. There were many characters, not surprising with such a long book, and it did span the entire life of Marion Graves a fictitious aviator of the last century. The plot was complicated as was the number of men and women she slept with in her lifetime, but the book was well written and we gave it a score of 4.1, exactly equal to Goodread's.
July: the Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Nora's life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived.
No-one particularly enjoyed this strange book about a life between life and death. We decided that we were of an age where people didn't give up at the first setback, we just carried on and got on with life. It was readable and well written apart from a long list of extra lives that Nora tried and discarded. We all skipped that list - too long and not interesting or relevant to the story. There were certainly some original ideas but our scores ranged from 2.5 to 3.5 with an average of 3. this compared to Goodreads average of 4. We think it may well be our ages that influenced our score.
June: Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver
Although we all enjoyed the book, we didn’t really find it creepy or chilling. We didn’t really think the device of the letters and diary at the beginning was particularly helpful - mostly because we had forgotten all about it by the end. Maud was a product of her time although we were a little disappointed that she never really made much of a bid for freedom, we would have liked her to go off into the world and have adventures, but she seemed quite happy to stay ay home with her fens and her animals. Perhaps that ending was a bit too modern! We thought the writing about the fens was atmospheric and realistic - in fact some of us thought that was the best thing about the book. We also liked the writing from Maud’s point of view as a child which was quite convincing. We had an interesting discussion about the influence of superstition by adults over young people and the effect that demons and evil spirits probably still had at the beginning of the 20th century in rural England.
Overall, we thought it was an entertaining read but didn’t really reflect all the excellent statements on the cover. We gave it a score of 3.
May: The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage
We had a good discussion about ‘Power of the Dog’ although we couldn’t find any BC questions as a guideline. Another book of life in early USA on a ranch in Montana. mWe were all pleasantly surprised to find that we enjoyed the book although initially the setting wasn’t one we usually read about. It was a story of domestic tyranny, brutal masculinity and concealed homosexuality. We thought Phil was a vicious sadist who was desperately hiding his inner feelings. George was gentle and quiet and didn’t really seem to know what was going on under his nose. Phil resented Rose who he routinely humiliated and eventually drove to drink. Peter was the dark horse - Phil may have labelled him sissy but he had inner strength and his actions probably saved Rose from self destruction. The ending was a neat twist.The average score was 4
April: Little fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
This book was well written and enjoyed by most of us, though it did take some people until half way through to get into the story.It wold the story of an American family the richardsons, who lived in a 'perfect house', in a 'perfect street' in a 'Perfect town' Shaker Valley. The book explores the relationships that spring up between this family and Mia, who is renting an apartment from them in a poorer part of the town, just 10 minutes walk away. Mia has a daughter Pearl, who makes friends with the children and realises that things are different for them. Many issues are covered in this novel eg surrogacy, motherhood, custody of children, peoples reasons for doing what they do. We gave it a score of 3.8 compared to Goodread's 4.1.
March: The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
This was a delightful book, though not as intense as February's novel. It told the story of a young girl Alice from England, who married an American and travelled to Kentucky with her husband and father-in-law. It is set in 1925 and shows life in the outback of Kentucky with 3 friends and Alice running the packhorse library. Good descriptions of travel on horseback, the long winters and various people's lives and problems are beautifully grafted together making a feel-good novel. We gave it 3.9 compared to Goodreads 4.3 as one or two in the group thought it was a bit too much like a Mills and Boon novel!
February: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
We all absolutely loved this book. The pace was very slow and initially took some getting used to but the language and layout of words was exquisite. We all had a delightful phrase or incident which we wanted to share with the rest of the group as it was so enjoyable. The story of The Count, who was under house arrest in the Metropolitan Hotel in central Moscow for 35 years doesn't sound that exciting but it was so well told with many a droll or humerous remark that we all finished it. The ending was a little ambiguous but it almost had to be like that. Lovely characters were Nina, Anna, the Triumverate, Marina, not to mention the hotel receptionist Andrey and the head chef. Such a gentle book. We gave it 4.6 cf Goodreads 4.3 from over 400,000 votes.
January:The Power by Naomi Alderman
This book provided a lot of discussion. The action took place after a Cataclysm caused by young women finding they had an electric power in their hands which could ignite anything, even a cigarette. They managed to show older women how to utilise this power, which came from a skein in their necks. The book follows the stories of 4 people who were affected by this Power. Allie (who became Mother Eve), Roxy, Margot an American politician and Tunde a male journalist/reporter.
They all had their own motives as well as acquiring the Power to dominate men. How the story plays out was well written and at the end it appeared that the women had not made any better job of running the world than the men had. Mainly because of corruption in high places. There was a lot of violence and unnecessary swearing in our opinion and we all agreed that our age group (70+) did not like the language or the swearing at all, but accepted that ayounger age group (20+) most likely would take all this as being normal.
The average score from the 10 of us was 1.7. a new low, but Goodreads managed 3.7 from over 23,000 reviews so obviously some people liked it.