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Book Choice 2

We meet on the third Tuesday a month in St John's Church Hall, Milford at 2:15 pm.

Reading List

September 20th: Lustrum by Robert Harris (Introduced by Penny)
October 18th: The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R King (Introduced by Rosemary)
November 15th: Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada (Introduced by Fran)
December 20th: Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (Introduced by Mary)
January 17th 2012: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg (Introduced by Sandra)
February 21th 2012: The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad (Introduced by Valerie B)
March 20th 2012: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Introduced by Kirsten)
April 17th 2012: The Road Taken, An Autobiography by Michael Buerk (Introduced by Nina)
May 15th 2012: Gallows Thief by Bernard Cornwell (Introduced by Carol)

Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall (Introduced by Sandra)
A historical novel, published by Fourth Estate, won the Man Booker Prize 2009. 'Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a fictionalized biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex in the court of Henry VIII of England...'
More at Wikipedia

Stella Gibbons: Cold Comfort Farm (Introduced by Penny)
'A comic novel, published in 1932, which parodies the romanticised, sometimes doom-laden accounts of rural life popular at the time, by writers such as Mary Webb...'
More at Wikipedia

Mary Ann Shaffer: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Introduced by Nina)
Is set in Guernsey during World War II and is the result of a collaboration between Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece, children's author Annie Barrows who helped complete the book when Shaffer's health became too poor.

Daphne du Maurier: Parasites (Introduced by Val & Jenny)
First published in 1950 this is the story of the Delaney family who led complex and frequently scandalous lives; their strange relationship with each other closed their circle to all outsiders; the world in which they lived was sophisticated, gay, and sometimes tragic...
More at Wikipedia

Tracey Chevalier: Remarkable Creatures (Introduced by Carole)
Is 'the story of Mary Anning, who has a talent for finding fossils, and whose discovery of ancient marine reptiles such as that ichthyosaur shakes the scientific community and leads to new ways of thinking about the creation of the world...'
More at author's site

Louis de Bernières: Notwithstanding (Introduced by Carol)
This this is a collection of short stories revolving around a fictional English village and is loosely based on Wormley, the village where he grew up, and the nearby villages and towns of Godalming, Chiddingfold, Hambledon and Haslemere. He says the stories are a celebration of the "quirky people" he remembers from his childhood in Surrey.
More at Wikipedia and at the author's site

Kate Atkinson: When Will There Be Good News? (Introduced by Fran)
Winner of Richard & Judy's 'Best Read of the Year' - British Book Awards 2009 and the Sounds of Crime Award 2009 (BBC Audiobook)
More at Wikipedia and at the author's site

Stieg Larsson: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Introduced by Sandra)
This is the first book in the Millennium Trilogy, a political thriller set mainly in Sweden. The main characters are the charming, crusading journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, and the dysfunctional freelance private investigator, Lisbeth Salander, with her photographic memory and advanced hacking skills. The books were not published until after his death in 2005.
More at Wikipedia and at the author's site

Haruki Murakami: Kafka on the Shore (Introduced by Kirsten)
This book has won many awards and has been described by John Updike as "real page-turner, as well as an insistently metaphysical mind-bender". The plot consist of two distinct but interrelated stories, the narrative runs back and forth between the two, taking up each plotline in alternating chapters.
More at Wikipedia and at the author's official US site