Category: Wenvoe Page Turners

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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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“The Marriage Portrait” by Maggie O’Farrell

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Regular readers may remember that we reviewed this book briefly last month; it was received by one of our group from our “lucky dip” read in December. Our group member recommended that we should all read it as our January book.

The author Maggie O’Farrell has based this book loosely on historical characters who lived in 16th Century Italy. Lucrezia de’ Medici was a 16 year old who, it is rumoured, may have been murdered by her husband. The author came across a very small oil painting of Lucrezia and felt that she could imagine the life of this young girl who died at such a young age.

In 2020 O’Farrell started writing a novel about this imagined life. The book focuses on Lucrezia who was the third daughter of the Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici of Florence. Her older sister was betrothed to 27 year old Alfonso, Duke of Ferra. Sadly, this young woman died before they married and it was decided that the 13 year old Lucrezia would become Alfonso’s wife. The marriage is one of political convenience and Lucrezia is a pawn in this power union. The story starts one year into the marriage and Lucrezia is convinced that her husband is intent on killing her. The narrative rewinds to show the reader what has happened in Lucrezia’s life to reach this point. O’ Farrell’s writing is descriptive and she paints vivid images. She beautifully illustrates life in an Italian court in the 16th century and the insignificance of women in the courts of powerful men at that time. The story alternated between two time periods and several members of the group did not enjoy this, stating that it was difficult to follow.

The group also spent time discussing whether this book could be classed as a historical novel or a novel with historical content. The majority of the group felt that they became emotionally engaged with the characters especially the main one, Lucrezia and enjoyed the surprise ending.

Although two members of the group felt that this was not one of Maggie O’ Farrell’s best novels, the rest thoroughly enjoyed the story and gave it strong recommendations. The overall score was 8 out of 10

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Various Books Read over the Holidays

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During the December meeting of The Page Turners each member contributed a book to a lucky dip. Whichever book was drawn, was to be read by that member and then discussed during the January meeting. The results are briefly summarised below and each book scored out of 10:

A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW by Amor Towles. This novel tells the story of Count Alexander Ros-tov, who in 1922 is sentenced to house arrest and is imprisoned in an attic room in the Hotel Metropol in Moscow for many years. A book with humour and interesting characters, a very good read which is recommended and scored 8.

MRS VAN GOGH by Caroline Cauchi. The artist Vincent Van Gogh died in 1890, penniless and un-known. Joanne, married to Theo Van Gogh, Vin-cent’s brother, is determined to bring Vincent’s talent to public attention and works tirelessly for many years to achieve that goal. Our reader thought the novel, although slow at first, became very interesting and gave a score of 7.

THE BULLET THAT MISSED by Richard Osman. The third in The Thursday Murder Club series, it is recommended by our reader that the previous books in this series be read first. A really enjoyable novel with lots of humour scored 9.

CHRISTMAS IS MURDER by Val McDermid. This collection of twelve short stories is perfect for reading before going to sleep at night. Well written and atmospheric with various interesting characters. Al-so the perfect book to put on the bedside table in a guest room. Score 8.

THE OLIVE READERS by Christine Aziz. Our reader describes this book as a cross between the novels “1984”, “Harry Potter”, “Lord of the Rings” and “Animal Farm”. A dystopia novel set in a future with no past and is not recommended. Score 2.

THIS MUST BE THE PLACE by Maggie O’Farrell. An ex film star goes to live in the wilds of Ireland. This is a book about family and love, full of interest-ing characters, beautiful words and descriptions. Thoroughly enjoyed by our reader scored 9.

THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT by Maggie O’Farrell. Historical fiction inspired by the true story of the young Italian Duchess, Lucrezia de Medici, daughter of the Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici of Florence. At the age of 15, Lucrezia was married to 27 year old Alfonso, Duke of Ferrera, and becomes convinced that he is planning her death. Beautifully written, descriptive and interesting. Score 9.

 

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“The Labyrinth of the Spirits” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

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The first few pages of this 500 page novel giving the description of Regina Aeronautica’s bombardment of Barcelona during The Spanish Civil War and the subsequent escape of Alicia Gris, the heroine, was extremely evocative and the brutality of the Franco Fascist era from 1936 until his death in 1975 particularly well written.
The story is basically a detective novel where Alicia Gris acting as a police agent is commissioned to find Don Valls who has mysteriously disappeared.
The novel is gritty, gripping but at times very dark with several difficult passages of graphic details of gruesome tortures.
Despite the fluency of the narrative the writing occasionally becomes rather mundane and the momentum is lost but Zafón soon rectifies these passages by introducing an absorbing twist.
Apart from two dissenters the group found the tome fascinating and a real page turner with most of the group awarding marks of 9 and 10. The overall mark was 7.
Thank you must go to our hostess, Jill, who provided us with delicious cake

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