Category: Wenvoe Page Turners

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‘Lucky Dips’ At Christmas

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It has become somewhat of a tradition for a ‘lucky dip’ at Christmas for the Page Turners group. Everybody wraps a book and it is pot luck what you pull out of the hat. At our January meeting, members share their surprise gift.

This year was no exception with some members delighted with their find and others less so as gifts ranged from known and loved authors to short stories (as ever varied), to one person who was lucky enough to receive 2 books and one of them even had 2 books within 1!!!

A brief synopsis:

• Maggie O’Farrell’s, “This Must Be The Place” was agreed to be read by the group for a future meeting as all had previously thoroughly enjoyed her writing.
• “The Essex Serpent” by Sarah Perrin had been read by the group many years ago and was enjoyed by a new member.
• “Cold Comfort Farm”, short stories by Stella Gibbons, whilst easy reading was recommended as a group read.
• “The Sky Beneath Us” by Fiona Valpy, again described as a simple read but not recommended for the group.
• “Ghost” by Robert Harris, whilst described as excellent by the reader, was felt not to be up to his usual very high standard of research and analysis.
• “Burmese Days” by George Orwell didn’t go down a storm as the characters were described as unlikeable and uninteresting, the setting equally so.
• “The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts” by Louis de Berniere was confusing initially and at times hilarious to read.
• “The Woman on the Ledge” by Ruth Manseni, a thriller, was a great page turner;
• “Mrs Harris Goes to Paris” AND “Mrs Harris Goes to New York” was great and the New York book built on her Paris adventures.
• “Mystery Guest” by Nita Prose was described as written by an amateur Agatha Christie and not recommended for book club.

Once again we were fortunate enough to sample Babs’s Christmas cake which was up to her usual very high standards!!

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“White Teeth” by Zadie Smith

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White Teeth is the author’s debut novel which was published in 2000 to rave reviews. Smith was only 21 years old when she started writing the book and 24 when it was published. The whole group felt that this book did show that she was a talented author but that it did contain some immature writing throughout.

The book is about the lives of two main characters, Archie and Samad, who met in the second World War. It follows them living in multi-cultural London and chronicles their lives crossing and weaving together over many years as they try to reconcile where they fit into modern Britain. It brings in their wives, children and other people that they meet along their journey and focuses on them getting through their lives as best they can. The group felt that the plot meandered along without focus and although it intertwined, it didn’t connect easily. Many of the characters were not developed and were boring. The group didn’t engage with the story and said that their attention wandered while trying to read the chapters. There were a few glimpses of humour, a lot of swearing and some unbelievable situations. For all the group, the book lacked warmth and emotion, and nobody felt that it’s a book that they would recommend to others. The average score was 4 out of 10.

 

Many thanks to Lynne for hosting and providing festive refreshments

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“Still Life” by Sarah Winman

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This novel engendered a lively discussion and was generally considered an enjoyable and involving read.

The many characters are diverse and their lives are documented over four decades. Much of the story alternates between England and Italy, where the descriptions of Florence are highly evocative: several Page Turners remembered happy visits, although one reader had an unwelcome reminder of a bottom-pinching experience while there!

Much of the book explores the nature of enduring loyalty and friendship and how these survive absence.

Claude, the talking parrot, was deemed ridiculous, but entertaining. For some, the lack of quotation marks was irritating, but others thought conversations flowed more effectively as a result. Some varied comments: well-written with flashes of brilliance; disjointed; too many descriptions of meals and coffee breaks.

Two Page Turners enjoyed listening to the novel on eAudiobooks via the BorrowBox service at the Hub. A great read with score of 7 out of 10.

 

Many thanks to Sandra for hosting and providing delectable cakes.

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“Drift” by Caryl Lewis

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Why do people join Book Clubs? To widen their reading choices and read new genres? To have interesting, challenging or informative discussions about books? To sit in comfortable surroundings and socialise? To eat delicious cakes? If so, all boxes were ticked at the latest meeting of the Page Turners at May’s house.

The book choice was, Drift, a winner of the Welsh Book of the year, by Welsh author, Caryl Lewis. This was her first book written in English; one Page Turner who is a fluent Welsh speaker believed her Welsh language novels were more accomplished.

Drift is based in Wales, and has a cast of Welsh characters and a prisoner in the local army camp from war-torn Syria. Drift is described as a love story with a difference, a hypnotic tale of lost identity, the quest for home and the wondrous resilience of the human spirit.

Most Page Turners agreed it was written very well with beautiful language and vivid descriptions of the sea and Welsh coastline. Some enjoyed the magical, mystical aspects of the story and became immersed in the story and the characters. Others found it confusing and didn’t like the descriptions of war, torture and conflict. Some found the ending confusing and there was some discussion about what happened…or didn’t happen.

Scores ranged from 10 to 5, with an average of 7.5. Is it a book for you? It’s different…give it a try. Everybody agreed that May’s lemon cake was worth a 10!!

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“Act of Oblivion” by Robert Harris

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An historical novel that imagines one of the greatest manhunts in history: the search for two Englishmen involved in the killing of King Charles I and the merciless foe on their trail—an epic journey into the wilds of seventeeth-century New England, and a chase like no other.
1660 England. General Edward Whalley and his son -in law Colonel William Goffe board a ship bound for the New World. They are on the run, wanted for the murder of King Charles I—a brazen execution that marked the climax of the English Civil War, in which parliamentarians successfully battled royalists for control. Ten years on and the royalists are back in power and under the Act of Oblivion have tried the 59 men who signed the death warrant and found them all guilty of treason. Some have already been hung drawn and quartered but there are two,
Whalley and Goffe who have escaped to The New World. On the run and dependant on help from people with an award of £100 on their heads. Whalley and Goffe have to survive in an inhospitable, if magnificent, unknown wilderness and harsh weather conditions. The exceptional writing of Harris paints a picture of their surroundings. Living under a cellar in virtual imprisonment, having to develop survival skills, learning from and bartering with Native American Indians.
Fascinating story, great atmosphere- fear, danger, – incredible description- well researched, good pace, were comments heard during the discussion. Most of the group thought it was well researched and skilfully written. The incredible description of survival in caves and underground rooms for months on end in a very dark period in history. We were greatly helped to understand this period in history by Helen, one of our members. But none of us liked the ending which was imagined by the author and seemed implausible. .
A very enjoyable and thought provoking afternoon with our hostess Babs providing us with delicious cake. Overall the score was 8.5.

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“Akin ” by Emma Donohue

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A retired New York professor’s life is thrown into chaos, when he takes his great-nephew to the French Riviera, in hopes of uncovering his own mother’s wartime secrets.

Akin is a tender tale of love, loss and family, from Emma Donahue, the international best selling author of Room. It is a funny, heart-wrenching story of an old man and a boy who unpick their painful story and start to write a new one together.

In the main, the group thoroughly enjoyed the book with two even scoring it 9 and found it a definite page turner! Most felt that it was nice to read a straight forward book without numerous characters and eras that involved going back time and again to remind oneself of characters and events. The description of the developing relationship between the two was well written without being over emotional. Nice was brought alive both present and the WWII history.

Two members of the group found the book less well written in comparison to Room which they had both found extremely good.

Overall the score was 7.5 and made all the more enjoyable by sitting in beautiful sunshine, in a most delightful garden with good company and of course the obligatory moreish lemon drizzle cake!

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“The Guest List ” by Lucy Foley

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Old Friends. Past grudges.

Happy families. Hidden jealousies.

Thirteen guests. One body.

The wedding cake has barely been cut when one of the guests is found dead. And as a storm unleashes its fury on the island, everyone is trapped. All have a secret. All have a motive. One guest won’t leave this wedding alive…

A dream wedding off the windswept Irish coast becomes a living nightmare for its trapped and terrified guests in this nerve jangling thriller.

For many of us it was not our usual choice of reading material and therefore presented a welcome challenge. The book was written in short paragraphs devoted to an individual character in the story. The setting was very dramatic, made more so by the description of the imminent storm. It was agreed that the subject matter and characters perhaps gave an interesting reflection on an area of British society.

We all agreed that the characters came from an unfamiliar part of society to us and did not share our values. As a result, none of us felt able to empathise with any of the characters who were described as shallow, boring, cardboard cutouts, wishy washy and dysfunctional.

However, this did not detract from the suspense of the story that left all of us unable to guess the surprise ending. Overall, the book received a score of 4 out of .10.

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“Nocturnes” by Kazuo Ishiguro 

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This could be the shortest Page Tuners book review ever as there was almost universal condemnation of their latest book choice. The group had previously read, and enjoyed some of Ishiguro’s novels and were looking forward to this series of 5 short stories. The book’s cover promised stories of Music and Nightfall and reviews had described it as a ” lovely, clever book”. Not one member of the book club used these words to describe their thoughts on the book, and many found it hard to remember what the stories were about as they were so unmemorable! Ishiguro tied the stories together with a musical theme; the PageTurners tied the stories together with these words…disappointing, silly, stupid, mundane, unfulfilling, unsatisfactory….do I need to continue? An overall score of 3, surprisingly, considering the very lively, negative views expressed! Have a read and see if you share our thoughts

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“Memphis” by Tara Stringfellow

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This is Tara Stringfellow’s debut novel; she is a former attorney and known for published poetry and prose and her love and use of language is displayed throughout the novel. The story follows four strong women over three generations and is based around the family home in Memphis. The author uses her own family history to base the novel on and some of our group felt that this intimate family connection led to a positive bias of the women in the story compared to the men, whose story was not told in any detail. The story has lots going on in it and does have some upsetting content but is also filled with joy and laughter. Stringfellow writes about each of the women in different chapters and the story moves back and forth between different eras; this means that the story jumps around. The majority of our group felt that to enjoy the novel, they had to continually refer back to the family tree to establish which character they were going to read about and what period they were in. The book did split the group’s view of it, with one member rating it extremely highly and a “must read” where others struggled to find a connection to the story. The majority of us enjoyed exploring the characters and following the story through the years.

The average marking of the group was 6

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“Christmas is Murder” by Val McDermid

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A book of twelve short stories with different themes: detective, revenge, supernatural and historic. The settings were varied. Several readers felt that short stories worked well for bedtime reading. The stories were generally felt to be well written, but not chilling. Members who enjoyed other books by Val McDermid, felt that these tales were not up to her usual standard. Our favourite story was ‘Holmes for Christmas’ because it incorporated real historical events and the famous Sherlock Holmes. Our least favourite was ‘The Girl Who Killed Santa Claus’, since it was too predictable. Score 6/10.

 

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