Category: Wenvoe Page Turners

“The Names” by Florence Knapp

 

“The Names” by Florence Knapp

The book describes 3 parallel universes where a boy’s character is affected, partly by his name, but as much by the malevolent presence of his father and the effect he has on his mother and sister as well. Navigating through the sequencing of three stories was often confusing and was a challenge for some!

Is it our name that forges our identity or living with decisions made by ourselves and others and the consequences they have on our personalities? Many Page Turners thought the book was more about the effects of the horrific domestic abuse that the mother had to endure, rather than the names the child was given. Indeed, many readers thought the descriptions of the abuse were overly graphic and extremely upsetting.

The book covered some interesting themes, including the maturity of the sister in protecting both her mother and brother in a maternal role, even though a child herself and a mother’s need to protect her children at all costs. But the violence Cora endured was the overarching memory of the book.

The overall score was 3, with scores ranging from 0 to 5. Not an easy read.

“The Wonder” By Emma Donahue

 

“The Wonder” By Emma Donahue

One review described this book as, ‘Absorbing, truthful, beautiful’. Another as, ‘Powerful, compulsively readable.’ One member of our book-club described it as – ‘Dark, dismal, disturbing.’

It is fair to say that most of us found the book compulsively readable rather than beautiful!

The story is set in post-famine Ireland and follows an English nurse, Lib and an Irish nun who have been commissioned to watch over, rather than ‘nurse’, a supposedly miraculous 11-year-old girl, Anna, who has survived without sustenance for four months. It appears that certain local people wish to claim her as some kind of miracle. Lib and the nun are to provide independent evidence. There is an unexpected ending to the story.

As with Emma Donahue’s most famous novel, ‘Room’, most of this story is set in one dark room in Anna’s house and indeed the impression of most of the novel is of darkness; the bedroom, the weather, the peat, the lack of artificial light – an old lamp has to be requested in order to ensure surveillance during the night as well as the day.

A film has been made of the story, and this too gives an impression of general darkness in the way it was filmed.

The story is perhaps most about faith versus science and certainly generated a very lively discussion on many fronts. Overall, the group scored it at 7.

“An Equal Music ” By Vikram Seth

 

“An Equal Music ” By Vikram Seth

He was a student in Vienna ten years ago, his name is Michael. He is a violinist who was in love with Julia, a pianist. Their paths separated; she got married to someone else and after ten years she enters into the life of Michael once again. It’s a story of Michael and his music quartet, and it’s a story of Michael and Julia and their love.

If you are a music lover, then this book will be for you; Seth talks about so much music throughout – there’s Bach and Schubert and Beethoven and Mozart and their musical pieces in great detail.

If you aren’t a music lover, you can just enjoy Seth’s poetic prose and his descriptions of London, Vienna and Venice. This is a moving story of two musicians who love to make music and love. There is always a constant threat of loss which maintains the book’s melancholy. They feel it. They make music from it. They move forward together and alone, but joined forever by their music.

One of the most extraordinary aspects of this novel is the way in which it manages to convey music through language. One Page Turner loved the way Seth writes about music and the way he integrates music into the lives of the characters (all professional musicians).

The book is very informative about music and quartets and about Bach and many other composers. Some felt the music descriptions were tedious and difficult to understand. Others thought Michael was not a likeable character, especially regarding his obsession with Julia. Ultimately this is a love story, a tragedy, a loving tribute to chamber music and insights into the world of performance and maybe a book for classical music lovers.

Scores ranged from 5 to 8, with an overall average of 6.

“The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store ” By James McBride

 

“The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store ” By James McBride

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania were digging foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of the well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighbourhood where Jewish immigrants and African Americans lived side by side.

In this novel about small town secrets and the people who keep them, James McBride shows us that even in dark times it is love and community that sustain us. The novel has been described by some as historical fiction and by others as a historical mystery.

The majority of the Page Turners almost forgot about the ‘body in the well’ and felt that the murder mystery element of the story was inconsequential. Instead, they enjoyed the description of life in a small community, the melting pot of cultures and ethnicities. There were many characters described in the book and it was difficult at times to keep up with them all and remember where they fitted into the story. Indeed, it was felt that many of the characters could have been the subject of a book in themselves!

A lively discussion was generated from the historical element and the effects of the Jim Crow laws on discrimination; to the delights of living in a community that felt at times like Wenvoe. Overall, the book was given a score of 7.

“The Place of Tides” By James Rebanks

 

“The Place of Tides” By James Rebanks

This book is set on a remote Norwegian island, and the author writes about his time on the island helping Anna, an elderly woman, as she works with a friend, to keep alive the centuries old practice of harvesting the down of the eider duck. This is used to make the traditional and extremely valuable eiderdowns. Rebanks is a farmer and shepherd in the Lake District and had contacted Anna, a woman he had met previously, to offer his help on the island as he was feeling overwhelmed with his own life and decided this may help him to find a way forward. He left his wife and children to look after their farm and spent six months on the island, and he writes about everything that happened from early Spring until early Autumn. He writes about watching Anna and her friend prepare nesting areas and shelters to encourage the eider ducks to return to lay their eggs. The ducks line their nests with feathers which they pluck from their chests to keep their eggs warm. When the ducklings hatch and leave the island, the ladies collect the feathers and meticulously prepare them to be sold. Rebanks gains Anna’s trust and she allows him to work with her to undertake the many tasks that need to be done to preserve a way of life that has been passed down the generations. Rebanks learns the value of routine and undertaking purposeful work and the island became a place of reset for him.

The whole group felt the book was beautifully written and was calming and atmospheric and some felt it was a lesson on mindfulness. Anna lived a simple life on the island undertaking daily routines every day in all weathers; she was a guardian of the eider ducks and the island, battling all weathers and predators. Everything she did was essential to preserve this traditional way of life and the story about it gently unfolds throughout the book. Members of the group felt that there were some areas of the different characters that they would have liked to know about but, in the main, the book was well received and, after voting, we gave it an 8 out of 10.

 

Page Turners Reading List

 

Page Turners Reading List.

 

Secret Santa did an excellent job in giving preloved books to all the Page Turners. At the first meeting of the year, everyone was asked to provide a brief synopsis of their book (with no spoilers) and a recommendation for its inclusion (or exclusion) on the next Page Turners reading list.

We will be reading the following books in the forthcoming months. Why not read along with us and decide if you agree (or disagree..!!) with the reviews that are published in What’s On every month?

February The Place of Tides, James Rebanks

March The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, James McBride

April An Equal Music, Vikram Seth

May The Wonder, Emma Donoghue

June The Names, Florence Knapp

Happy reading

 

 

 

 

“This Must be the Place” by Maggie O’Farrell

 

“This Must be the Place” by Maggie O’Farrell

If you haven’t noticed, it’s the award season in the film world with Oscar and Bafta nominations for the best film and TV programmes from 2025 being discussed.

To start our December Page Turner meeting, a vote was taken to decide the best book we have read in 2025…and the winner was: This Must be the Place, by Maggie O’Farrell.

There are plenty of award ceremonies in the book world: the Booker Prize, Costa Novel Award, Pulitzer Prize for fiction etc. and now Wenvoe has its very own book award! The Wenvoe Page Turner BOAT prize. BOAT? The Page Turners choice for the Book of All Time. Our favourite ever read, from the 100 plus books we have read since our inaugural meeting over 10 years ago. The nominations, chosen by the 10 current members, were:

Where the Crawdads Sing

The Paris Wife

The Bell in the Lake

The Island of Missing Trees

The Seal Women’s Gift

The Marriage Portrait

…and the winner was…The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting, a story of mystery, history, relationships and intrigue set in 19th century Norway.

Do you agree with our choices of the winning books? Maybe not but that’s what reading and book clubs are all about, welcoming and celebrating and discussing the diverse nature of literature that is available for us to read

After all the discussions and voting for the two books, it was time for Secret Santa to provide everyone with their latest read over the Christmas period and eat some well-earned mince pies!

Happy reading in 2026

“The Women” by Kristin Hannah

 

“The Women” by Kristin Hannah

The first part of this book follows Frankie McGrath leaving her sheltered life, to become an army nurse in the Vietnam War. There is an emotional description of the gruelling conditions in the Evac hospital and the powerful friendships that developed between staff members. When she is transferred to a hospital closer to the front, conditions are even worse.
The second half of the book covers the difficulties Frankie meets on returning home – abuse from the public for Vietnam veterans, lack of recognition for the nursing skills she had developed, family rejection. Frankie suffers from PTSD but is unable to access help from doctors or the Vietnam Veterans’ Association. Her nursing friends from Vietnam support her. Several readers would have preferred more about these friends and less about Frankie’s romances. The book ends on a happy note welcomed by some, but too farfetched for others.
A good book makes you think. This book inspired many to research more about the Vietnam War, and reconsider what we knew of it in the 70s. It raised issues of women’s rights, racism, government misinformation and the horrors of war.
We would recommend it to others; score 9/10.

“Gabriel’s Moon ” by William Boyd

 

“Gabriel’s Moon ” by William Boyd

 

Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd was met with mixed reception by the group being thoroughly enjoyed by some but others felt that it was a disappointing read and wouldn’t recommend it.

The main character was a travel writer who somehow became embroiled in espionage and managed to gain entry to several different countries becoming involved with historic events such as the assassination of Lumumba in the Congo. As such there was a mixture of fact and fiction in the book.

There were themes in the book of the main character’s relationships with women – among others his psychoanalyst, the woman who became his ‘handler’ – his brother and contacts made in the field, while at the same time he was dealing with the childhood trauma of losing his mother in a fire. There were a lot of different threads within the book that many felt quite confusing.

Some felt the book was well written with good description of places visited but others found it ‘bitty’ and confusing with no real theme to the story.

The ending was ambiguous but this is the first in a trilogy so any loose ends may become clearer in future books.

One of the group has read a number of books by William Boyd and felt that the story followed previous themes.

Overall, the book was given a score of 5.

“Perfect” by Rachel Joyce

 

“Perfect” by Rachel Joyce

Rachel Joyce wrote the bestselling novel of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, so the Page Turners had high expectations for another of her novels, “Perfect”. Perfect tells the story of two 11-year-old boys who plot to save their mother after she has a car accident; an accident she is not aware of. Class divisions, mental health, emotional abuse are some issues running through the book, culminating in a terrific twist at the end. Some Page Turners thought the book was a slow, unhappy, dreadful story with characters they couldn’t warm to or like. Others thought Perfect was a tragic, moving , well written novel with many characters who found themselves to be victims of their circumstances. It was scored a 6…so far from Perfect. What are your thoughts?

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