General Chat

The books chosen for August are - The Family Tree by Carole Cadwalladr and Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Books for August book club list Lighter reading The Family Tree by Carole Cadwalladr. First novel – exploring 3 generations of mistaken marriages and dubiously fathered children, much of the novel is based around nurture versus nature debate. The narrator explores her own family history during the course of the book with the added twist that she is married to a geneticist. Review Your Family Tree issue 25 The Sunday Philosophy Club Alexander McCall Smith. (The author of the No 1 Ladies detective Agency). Behind Edinburgh’s regimented Georgian facades, its moral compasses are spinning with greed, dishonesty, lust and murderous intent. Isabel Dalhousie knows this. Isabel, in fact, rather relishes it. Which is probably why, by instinct, she is an amateur sleuth. And instinct tells her the man who tumbles to his death in front of her eyes after a concert in the Usher Hall didn’t fall. He was pushed. Review back of book Secrets of a Family album by Islar Dewar Obsessively neat Lily, a writer who writes about writers, is asked to interview the enigmatic journalist and photographer Rita Boothe. Leafing through a book of Rita’s from the early seventies Lily notices a picture of an incandescently sexy young woman sitting in a limousine swigging Jack Daniels. It’s her Mother, Mattie. Lily isn’t shocked she is jealous. She wants to be like that, beautiful, abandoned. But Mattie is no longer meltingly gorgeous, in their neglected house she and her husband scrape by and bicker. Upstairs, grandpa flirts on the Internet. Marie, Lily’s sister is facing a custody suit and her brother Rory avoids coming home. Lily is usually the one to sort the family out, but she is tired of being boring and dependable. She wants to let go, be a woman of wicked mystery and intrigue. Like the one in the photograph. Taken from back of book The Times: Observant and needle-sharp – very funny. Classic Northanger Abbey Jane Austin Catherine Morland, an unremarkable tomboy as a child is thrown amongst all the 'difficulties and dangers' of Bath at the ripe age of 17. Armed with an unworldly charm and a vivid imagination she must overcome the caprices of elegant society, encountering along the way such characters as the vacuaous Mrs Allen, coqquettish Isabella and the brash bully John Thorpe. Catherine's invitation to Northanger abbey, in her eyes a haven of coffins, skeletons and other gothic devices, does lead to an adventure, though one she didn't expect, and hr misjudgement of the ambitious, somewhat villainous General tilney is not wholly unjustified. However, with the aid of the 'unromantic' hero Henry Tilney, Catherine gradually progresses towards maturity and self knowledge. Taken from back of book. Ann glos

Classics Sketches by Boz - Dickens Sketches by Boz collected a rich and strange mixture of reportage, observation, fancy and fiction centred on the metropolis. It was Dickens's first book, published when he was twenty-four, and in it we find him walking the London streets, in theatres, pawnshops, law-courts, prisons, along the Thames, and on the omnibus, missing nothing, recording and transforming urban and suburban life into new terrain for literature. Sketches is a remarkable achievement, and looks towards Dickens's giant novels in its profusion of characters, its glimpses of surreal modernity and its limitless fund of pathos and comic invention. Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain The tale of a boy's life in a small town on the banks of the Mississippi River. Tom skips school and with his friends, Huck Finn and Jim, spends his days on mad adventures - some real, some imagined. Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain Huck, the disreputable boy in 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer', was beaten whenever his drunken father was sober enough to hold the strap. He was 14 when he got away from him, and met old Jim, also on the run. Together on a raft they tumbled in and out of experiences Non classics Under the skin - Michael Faber Brilliantly told and beautifully written that defies categorisation, Under the Skin introduces Isserley, a woman obsessed with picking up male hitchhikers - so long as they're well-muscled and alone. But why? As the novel unfolds and the reason is made explicit, the reader is drawn inexorably into a completely unexpected and increasingly terrifying world. Never Look Back - Lesley Pearse This novel tells the story of one woman's journey from the slums of 19th century London to the gold rush of San Francisco and the Opulence of New York's 5th Avenue. The reviews are all courtesy of Amazon Dee xx

I hope we get a few more than this.

OK Dee? I've changed it from July to August - comes of working a month in advance and a senior moment!! Ann Glos

Ann Just put it down to the heat, I did!! Dee xx

Hi Ann Ahh you guessed!!! No Books not arrived yet....will check the Post Office today to see if any message to pick up a parcel..I have to go into town to the main Post Office to pick it up. Nothing yesterday. Can't wait.....and be sure you will know when they do arrive!!! My sister told me to change my name....she suggested Oleander.....mine are Pink and Yellow but she has a lovely deep Pink that I must have!!!! Jacquie xxx Thought for a minute you were changing the Books for July!!! Hope to get one of them as I said my visitors are trying to get one to bring.

Jacqui, sorry to confuse you, Dee pointed out my senior moment!! I Lanzarote they have mainly the pink O;eander. we had one here a couple of years ago, had it in a container for a couple of years but it got left outside andd succombed to a bad frost. Ann Glos

Message from our leader Choice thread kept going from now really until 26th (Sun) then voting until 29th? Announcement of winner 30th? Ann Glos

Ann Good to hear Mike has been in touch, is he going to let us have his choices for August, did he say? Dee x

Yes, this evening, he is trying to think of a classic. Ann

Mike's choices Here are my choices for August. Light Reading: The Shadow of The Wind --- Carlos Ruiz Zafon Life and Limb -- Jamie Andrew The Time Travellers Wife -- Audrey Niffenegger Classic: Animal Farm -- George Orwell War of the Worlds -- H G Wells All details can be found on Amazon. I've chosen the classics as books I have read as a schoolboy, but would like to read again. I'll do a list of all the choices on Sunday so it'll be easier for people to see when voting.

So the list of choices will be on here Sunday evening as I am away fro the weekend. Ann glos

Any more sugestions? Ann Glos

Thought I would add a synopsis of Mike's books, in case people wanted to know what they are about Dee x The Shadow of The Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon Synopsis Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the 'cemetery of lost books', a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out 'La Sombra del Viento' by Julian Carax. But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in his find. Then, one night, as he is wandering the old streets once more, Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a character from La Sombra del Viento, a character who turns out to be the devil. This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax's work in order to burn them. What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julian Carax and to save those he left behind. A page-turning exploration of obsession in literature and love, and the places that obsession can lead. The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffenger Synopsis This extraordinary, magical novel is the story of Clare and Henry who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into his past or future. His disappearances are spontaneous and his experiences are alternately harrowing and amusing. The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's passionate love for each other with grace and humour. Their struggle to lead normal lives in the face of a force they can neither prevent nor control is intensely moving and entirely unforgettable. Life and Limb - Jamie Andrew Synopsis 'Like Joe Simpson, Andrew has discovered a latent talent for writing that only a mountaineering epic seems to have allowed him to uncover. And like Touching the Void, Life and Limb is brilliantly written and utterly un-put-down-able. If ever a tale evokes the phrase 'life affirming' then this is it.' -On the Edge magazine; 'His courage, determination and sense of humour shine through the words of this remarkable book...Life and Limb is a genuinely life-enhancing read.' -Scottish Mountaineer; Jamie Andrew's survival and rescue after five nights trapped by a ferocious storm in 1999 has passed into Alpine legend. It was a miracle that he survived; but Jamie had to come to terms not only with the death of his close friend, Jamie Fisher, who died beside him - but also with the loss of all his limbs to frostbite. Since the accident, Jamie has struggled painfully and successfully to overcome his disabilities; not only has he learnt to walk (and run) on his prosthetic legs, but also to ski, snowboard, paraglide - and even take up his beloved mountaineering again.

Thanks Dee ann Glos

Couple of suggestions for classics - sorry can't put synopsis on as I am at work lol Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe Maz. XX

Hi, I would not mind reading, The Time travellers Wife The Full Cupboard of Love,--- Alexander McCall Smith Sacrament,--- Clive Barker Jill xx(regards to Mike)

Jill Is the Alexander McCall Smith one of a series (i.e. No 1 Ladies detective agency) or a stand alone title? Ann Glos

Message from Mike Hello GReaders, Here are the choices for August Books. Voting is from now until 29th -- remember this time there is a choice of one 'light' and one classic . You cannot vote for your own books. You can send your vote direct to me if you prefer. The chosen books will be announced on the 30th. Light Books: The Family Tree -- Carole Cadwalladr The Sunday Philosophy Club -- Alexander McCall Smith Full Cupboard of Love -- ' ' ' Secrets Of A Family Album -- Islar Dewar Under The Slain -- Michael Faber Never Look Back -- Lesley Pearse Sacrament -- Clive Barker The Shadow of The Wind -- Carlos Ruiz Zafon Life and Limb -- Jamie Andrew The Time Travellers Wife -- Audrey Niffenegger Classic Books : Northanger Abbey -- Jane Austen Sketches by Boz -- Dickens Tom Sawyer -- Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn -- Mark Twain Rebecca -- Daphne Du Maurier Moll Flanders -- Daniel Defoe War of the Worlds -- H G Wells Animal Farm -- George Orwell Please note re the Full cupboard of love the proper title is The Full Cupboard of Life - it is in the Ladies Detective Series (which is brilliant) and its not the first one, so may not be a good choice if people haven't read the others???!! Perhaps in September we can suggest the first in the series. Unless people are happy to read something out of sequence, sometimes these kind of books can stand alone. That means votes to be either sent to Mike (not to me) or put on this thread. Thanks Ann Glos