Within Val McDermid's oeuvre are a number of psychological books, the Wire in the Blood series are, in particular, but they are violent, graphically so, and I wouldn't want to lead a book club for say The Wire in the Blood (same link as before) without those involved being aware of the violence. This particular book was written after Val McDermid met Jimmy Savile and was published in 2010, Savile's crimes were fully investigated in 2012, following his death in 2011, although there had been some concerns before his death..
Of the two books I've suggested above, the first one, A Place of Execution is psychological, looking back at everyone involved in investigating the disappearance of a child, from the distance of 35 years.
Within Val McDermid's oeuvre are a number of psychological books, the Wire in the Blood series are, in particular, but they are violent, graphically so, and I wouldn't want to lead a book club for say The Wire in the Blood (same link as before) without those involved being aware of the violence. This particular book was written after Val McDermid met Jimmy Savile and was published in 2010, Savile's crimes were fully investigated in 2012, following his death in 2011, although there had been some concerns before his death..
Of the two books I've suggested above, the first one, A Place of Execution is psychological, looking back at everyone involved in investigating the disappearance of a child, from the distance of 35 years.
A Place of Execution sounds good, and I see from googling that it won awards. I like stories that switch between past and present - the Barbara Vine ones do that. I'd be up for reading it, and I see from scrolling up the page that Huia also expressed interest in reading a Val McDermid novel. I find when books are suggested, often not many people say anything, but people still join in the reading and the discussion. Though if people really are getting fed up of reading murder books and want a different sort of book, they could make some suggestions.
By the way, Curiosity, have you ever read any Barbara Vine novels, and if so, did you like them? It was just occurring to me they might be the kind of novels you like too, and they tend to have a good sense of place, particularly the ones set in London. When King Solomon's Carpet was first published, the critics were saying that it was as if the London Underground itself was the main character. I haven't actually read that one yet, and looking at the list of Gold Dagger winners reminded me I want to read it sometime. Anyway, if it turned out people were still enjoying reading murder mysteries, and wanted to read more of them, I would be happy to lead a discussion on that one at some time or other.
I don't get on well with murder mysteries and haven't read anything by Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine. King Solomon's Carpet looks interesting, though, and I'd like to have a go at reading it and joining a discussion. I have to make the proviso that I'm starting a course in September and there's a lot of reading associated with that so I might be more time-limited for other reading.
@fineline - I have read most of Ruth Rendell's books, particularly the Inspector Wexford series and some of Barbara Vine's but with a quick look through I couldn't remember which. For which I read it depended what was available in the local library when I wandered in.
I'm going to suggest we read A Place of Execution by Val McDermid for September as I think there's more interesting in that one without being too graphic. It's very much set in the time of the Moors Murders, early on as the first children disappeared, and there is a lot about how the police worked at that time, and the fear that everyone with children felt, as another child disappeared.
I think A Place of Execution too.
I know we did a Matt Haig a couple of years back but I really liked his The Midnight Library, that I read a month or two ago. It isn't a murder mystery, and I agree I think we should be avoiding those for a while after having read so many recently.
I am interested in reading The Midnight Library too. Both these books are inexpensive to buy as kindle books on Amazon UK. The Midnight Library is £3.59 and A Place of Execution is £4.49. I might go charity shop shopping for them instead though, as I haven't done that for ages, and I like buying books from charity shops.
SeptemberA Place of execution by Val McDermid led by @Curiosity killed OctoberThe Midnight Library by Matt Haig led by @Sarasa (?) November December Something Christmassy
I was wondering if anyone would like to read 'Call the Midwife', the first book in the series by Jennifer Worth on which the T.V. series is based? The stories are based on real events from when Worth worked as a midwife.
A couple of excellent books I have read in teh past year or two that I would be happy to lead on:
(1) The Dry by Jane Harper. Set in a drought parched Australian farming village, with threat of bushfire looming it could be appropriate in light of recent heat waves in both northern and southern hemispheres. But it's a murder mystery, of which the group has probably had enough this year, so may be best left to next year. Published by Pan McMillan it shd be readily available internationally.
(2) East West Street by Philippe Sands. Non-fiction, but beautifully written and IMO gripping, though not everyone's idea of 'light reading' It centres on 4 lawyers and their families, all linked to what is now the city of Lviv in Ukraine, but changed its name 8 times in a century as its rulers changed with the fortunes of war and empires. Two of these lawyers were Jews, who between them brought the concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity into international law, in time for the Nuremberg trials of 1946. A third was the Nazi commander for the region, who was responsible for the deaths of almost all the extended families of the other 3, not to mention thousands of others. INspiring in its way.
I think you've mentioned The Dry before @Tukai . I agree a good one for next year. Would you care to lead the discussion in a month of your choosing?
Updated programme:
September A Place of execution by Val McDermid led by @Curiosity killed
October The Midnight Library by Matt Haig led by @Sarasa (?)
November Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth led by @mili?
December Something Christmassy
Any Christmas ideas? I did wonder about Jenny Overton's The Thirteen Days of Christmas which seems to be still in print, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to get hold of.
A couple of excellent books I have read in teh past year or two that I would be happy to lead on:
(1) The Dry by Jane Harper. Set in a drought parched Australian farming village, with threat of bushfire looming it could be appropriate in light of recent heat waves in both northern and southern hemispheres. But it's a murder mystery, of which the group has probably had enough this year, so may be best left to next year. Published by Pan McMillan it shd be readily available internationally.
(2) East West Street by Philippe Sands. Non-fiction, but beautifully written and IMO gripping, though not everyone's idea of 'light reading' It centres on 4 lawyers and their families, all linked to what is now the city of Lviv in Ukraine, but changed its name 8 times in a century as its rulers changed with the fortunes of war and empires. Two of these lawyers were Jews, who between them brought the concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity into international law, in time for the Nuremberg trials of 1946. A third was the Nazi commander for the region, who was responsible for the deaths of almost all the extended families of the other 3, not to mention thousands of others. INspiring in its way.
As regards the latter: an excellent read.
My personal Lviv connections were and are DPs ( displaced persons); Ukrainian Greek Catholics who fled the Soviets post WW2 then emigrated. Of course pre-WW2 they were Polish citizens; for 30-odd years post WW1 the city was Polish and was known as Lvov ( & still is to the Poles)
OK I'll lead on "The Dry" sometime in the new year.
Another broad suggestion... I greatly enjoyed the couple of African novels the group read in the past couple of years, and wouldn't mind another. But someone more familiar with them than me would have to choose and lead.
On that note -- not an African novel per se, but a novel about African immigrants to the US by a Ghanaian-American novelist: Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi, was a favourite of mine last year. Her first novel, Homegoing, is also very good, but I liked Transcendent Kingdom even better and really liked some of the questions it raised about religion and spirituality among other issues. If there's any interest in that and if it's available enough for people to get a copy, I'd be glad to lead a discussion on that book at some point in the future.
Living in a country where 25% of the population was born overseas (including most of my immediate family) , I am always interested in books about the immigrant experience.
I think the pandemic paused our efforts to try to read more books by ethnically diverse authors as it was hard to access lesser known books. I would be happy to read one of Trudy's suggestions. I made a few earlier on, but they are lost on last year's thread and I'm sure these books will be as interesting.
Another on the same note (though this one is set in Africa not the US) is The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare ... we didn't already have that one, did we?
I like the sound of both Transcendent Kingdom, by and The Girl with the Louding Voice@Trudy , I'll put them on the list for next year along with The Dry. Any months suit you best to lead on these @Trudy and @Tukai, assuming you don't mind leading?
I'm also thinking we ought to do a classic or two. We've done Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell recently. I really loved Margaret Oliphant's Hester that I read for another book group earlier this year. It's an easy read, but a long one, so I'm not sure how keen people would be devoting time to that. The same goes for a Dickens. Maybe we should go further back and try something like Clarissa or Tom Jones, books I've never read but maybe should, but I guess they may be even longer.
2022 Book Suggestions so far Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare The Dry by Jane Harper
A Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell?
The rest of this year's programme is below. Anymore Christmas suggestions?
September A Place of execution by Val McDermid led by @Curiosity killed
October The Midnight Library by Matt Haig led by @Sarasa (?)
November Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth led by @Mili
December Something Christmassy
The proper milieu in which to read Clarissa is during the late 1700s while you are immigrating to North America on a wooden sailing ship with absolutely nothing else to do and plenty to worry about in the present and near future. It keeps your mind off stuff, so there's that.
A 'classic' author, though from the early 20th century , whose books are reasonably short is Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness, for instance, though often described as "the first modern novel" is complex and deep but only 120 pages in the Penguin edition.
I like the sound of both Transcendent Kingdom, by and The Girl with the Louding Voice@Trudy , I'll put them on the list for next year along with The Dry. Any months suit you best to lead on these @Trudy and @Tukai, assuming you don't mind leading?
I'm fine with leading discussions of both my suggestions if both are wanted, and I think any month next year is good for me as far as I know now. I'd rather have the two of them spaced out a bit not back to back, but that's my only preference.
Hmm Heart of Darkness sounds a good idea. I've never got anywhere with Conrad, so maybe it is time to start. Having watched some of the documentary on Hemingway on the BBC recently I'm wondering about him too. Fiesta is one of my favourite books, but I don't know his other novels well.
Thanks Trudy, that will be great to lead those. I see the Gysai was up for the Women Prize for Fiction this year. It was won by Suzanne Clarke's Piranesi, which I think a couple of us have read. We could give that a whirl, as I'd like to re-read it.
I studied Heart of Darkness for O level English literature, along with something else by Conrad I don't loathe with quite so much passion as I did that book, I suspect it was Youth. (Plus Far from the Madding Crowd by Hardy, which put me off his books, more to my sorrow, and Henry V. Poetry was presented unseen in the paper.)
Heart of Darkness, according to Wikipedia, was the inspiration of Apocalypse Now, and has been panned by Chinua Achebe in An Image of Africa, (link to Wikipedia). It's pretty horrific, on several counts, the actual story and the appalling racism.
Piranesi is a wonderful suggestion; I'd love an excuse to revisit that.
I did Heart of Darkness in first-year university and would not love a chance to revisit it, so I guess my experience is similar to @Curiosity killed's with that book.
Sarasa: you can pencil me to lead on "The dry" in February next year.
(In February this year it would have been a bit close to the bone, as the big drought culminated in the bushfires of December and January. But we have had reasonable rain this year, with green grass around and many farmers looking forward to very good yields.)
@Tukai I'll put you down for The Dry in February. I'll start a new thread for next year in October. It seems a tad early now.
BTW not at all what's happened above with various bits of cutting and pasting.
Just confirming I am happy to lead in November I was tempted to suggest 'East Lynne' by Mrs. Henry Wood (Ellen Wood) for a classic for next year, but it's a bit long and melodramatic! Basically a soap opera in novel form. Although it's probably no more sensationalist than modern period shows such as Bridgerton.
Thanks for confirming about leading on Call the Midwife, @Mili . I've dipped into that while working in the charity bookshop I volunteer in, but I'm looking forward to reading it properly.
The programme for the rest of the year is:
September A Place of execution by Val McDermid led by @Curiosity killed
October The Midnight Library by Matt Haig led by @Sarasa
November Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth led by @Mili
December Something Christmassy
If there are no other suggestions for December I'll chose something short and appropriate and slot it in
Right so far for next year (2022) we have:
January
February The Dry led by @Tukai
March Transcendent Kingdom led by @Trudy
April
May
June
July
August
September The Girl with the Louding Voice led by @Trudy
October
November
December
@mili, I love East Lynne. My grandfather was, according to my grandmother, thrown out of the theatre for laughing at the 'Dead and never called me mother', line. I'd be happy to re-read it. I'd also love to get every one's views on Hester by Margaret Oliphant. Another triple decker novel, but one that has lots of interesting things to say about women and their role in 19th century society.
What do other people think about Wuthering Heights. Iread it as a precocious pre-teen, but when I went back to it years later I wondered how I'd ever managed it.
I think I'd like to do Hemingway's Fiesta/The Sun also Rises as it's pretty short and still feels pretty modern. I was also wondering about Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square, one of those books I've always intended to read and never got round to.
So many books, so little time....
Any more ideas about a Christmas read?
Have we done A Christmas Carol recently, as a way of reading some Dickens? Or there's Elizabeth Goudge's Christmas Book, which is a collection of short stories around Christmas (it looks like extracts), but I'm not sure how available it is. It doesn't look as if it's on Kindle. I'll head to a laptop and look.
We did A Christmas Carol a few years back (four? five?) but at the time I remember promising myself to re-read it every year as it made quite an impression. Needless to say I haven't so I'm happy to revisit.
I was wondering about I Saw Three Ships by Elizabeth Goudge, but I'm also not sure how easy it is to get hold of.
Looking at the Elizabeth Goudge it's seven extracts and two short stories, and the extracts come from Herb of Grace, Towers in the Mist, the Dean's Watch, The City of Bells and at the Sign of the Dolphin, from digging. Plus impossible to get hold of.
Nor is I Saw Three Ships on Kindle. Herb of Grace is on Kindle and that ends with Christmas, if I remember it correctly (haven't read it for a while).
Wuthering Heights would definitely produce a variety of opinions for discussion. I and almost everyone else in my English Class hated it, but that was inevitable if you were expecting sympathetic characters. Years later, it was much more readable as a symbolic, anti-romantic work where everyone (except Nelly Dean) is supposed to be horrible.
As we've started talking about Elizabeth Goudge, as another possible book to read next year, can I suggest The White Witch as something to read next year? It's set in the English Civil War and is available from Amazon and Kindle (I doubt it will be in any English libraries).
I've never managed to read Wuthering Heights although I did read Jane Eyre young (about the age Jane was at boarding school with her friend dying).
Everything I have heard about it has put me off bothering with Wuthering Heights, even though I have walked through the wild moors of the 'Bronte country'
But, if people want a Bronte book, somewhat surprisingly I wasn't too put off by Jane Eyre, when our class at an all-boys boarding school was obliged to read it. Perhaps the tales of the gruesome boarding school Jane attended resonated with us.
I agree Jane Eyre would be a good choice. I have read it and Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre is definitely an easier read with a few more likeable characters and lots of interesting themes to discuss.
Let's put Jane Eyre down as classic for next year then. I know it's a book that lots of people love, but I've never really 'got' it. It would be interetsing to see if I can be persuaded.
If Wuthering Heights is not an option, has the club recently done a book by a Canadian author? My suggestion of WH was not meant to segue to a different Bronte sister.
Classics always seem to go down well, hence Jane Eyre seeming a good idea.
However Canadian authors also seem worth looking at. Any suggestions as to any books we could discuss @caissa?
I tend to see the Bronte sisters as interchangeable, which I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate and I guess Caissa and people who read them more closely or prefer one author over another would also find annoying! Sorry about that Caissa. I quite liked Wuthering Heights when I had to study it in high school, but it can be pretty heavy going and I don't think I have been able to read it all the way through again since. I think I read it twice at the time to get all the characters straight as so many of the younger generation are named after relatives.
Comments
Of the two books I've suggested above, the first one, A Place of Execution is psychological, looking back at everyone involved in investigating the disappearance of a child, from the distance of 35 years.
A Place of Execution sounds good, and I see from googling that it won awards. I like stories that switch between past and present - the Barbara Vine ones do that. I'd be up for reading it, and I see from scrolling up the page that Huia also expressed interest in reading a Val McDermid novel. I find when books are suggested, often not many people say anything, but people still join in the reading and the discussion. Though if people really are getting fed up of reading murder books and want a different sort of book, they could make some suggestions.
By the way, Curiosity, have you ever read any Barbara Vine novels, and if so, did you like them? It was just occurring to me they might be the kind of novels you like too, and they tend to have a good sense of place, particularly the ones set in London. When King Solomon's Carpet was first published, the critics were saying that it was as if the London Underground itself was the main character. I haven't actually read that one yet, and looking at the list of Gold Dagger winners reminded me I want to read it sometime. Anyway, if it turned out people were still enjoying reading murder mysteries, and wanted to read more of them, I would be happy to lead a discussion on that one at some time or other.
I'm going to suggest we read A Place of Execution by Val McDermid for September as I think there's more interesting in that one without being too graphic. It's very much set in the time of the Moors Murders, early on as the first children disappeared, and there is a lot about how the police worked at that time, and the fear that everyone with children felt, as another child disappeared.
I know we did a Matt Haig a couple of years back but I really liked his The Midnight Library, that I read a month or two ago. It isn't a murder mystery, and I agree I think we should be avoiding those for a while after having read so many recently.
September A Place of execution by Val McDermid led by @Curiosity killed
October The Midnight Library by Matt Haig led by @Sarasa (?)
November
December Something Christmassy
Any ideas for the gaps?
(1) The Dry by Jane Harper. Set in a drought parched Australian farming village, with threat of bushfire looming it could be appropriate in light of recent heat waves in both northern and southern hemispheres. But it's a murder mystery, of which the group has probably had enough this year, so may be best left to next year. Published by Pan McMillan it shd be readily available internationally.
(2) East West Street by Philippe Sands. Non-fiction, but beautifully written and IMO gripping, though not everyone's idea of 'light reading' It centres on 4 lawyers and their families, all linked to what is now the city of Lviv in Ukraine, but changed its name 8 times in a century as its rulers changed with the fortunes of war and empires. Two of these lawyers were Jews, who between them brought the concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity into international law, in time for the Nuremberg trials of 1946. A third was the Nazi commander for the region, who was responsible for the deaths of almost all the extended families of the other 3, not to mention thousands of others. INspiring in its way.
Updated programme:
September A Place of execution by Val McDermid led by @Curiosity killed
October The Midnight Library by Matt Haig led by @Sarasa (?)
November Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth led by @mili?
December Something Christmassy
Are you OK doing the Worth in November @Mili.
Any Christmas ideas? I did wonder about Jenny Overton's The Thirteen Days of Christmas which seems to be still in print, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to get hold of.
As regards the latter: an excellent read.
My personal Lviv connections were and are DPs ( displaced persons); Ukrainian Greek Catholics who fled the Soviets post WW2 then emigrated. Of course pre-WW2 they were Polish citizens; for 30-odd years post WW1 the city was Polish and was known as Lvov ( & still is to the Poles)
Another broad suggestion... I greatly enjoyed the couple of African novels the group read in the past couple of years, and wouldn't mind another. But someone more familiar with them than me would have to choose and lead.
I'm also thinking we ought to do a classic or two. We've done Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell recently. I really loved Margaret Oliphant's Hester that I read for another book group earlier this year. It's an easy read, but a long one, so I'm not sure how keen people would be devoting time to that. The same goes for a Dickens. Maybe we should go further back and try something like Clarissa or Tom Jones, books I've never read but maybe should, but I guess they may be even longer.
2022 Book Suggestions so far
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
The Dry by Jane Harper
A Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell?
The rest of this year's programme is below. Anymore Christmas suggestions?
September A Place of execution by Val McDermid led by @Curiosity killed
October The Midnight Library by Matt Haig led by @Sarasa (?)
November Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth led by @Mili
December Something Christmassy
The novel has many brilliant passages, but yes, it goes on and on; I wound up skipping probably around a quarter and jumped to the final chapters.
I'm fine with leading discussions of both my suggestions if both are wanted, and I think any month next year is good for me as far as I know now. I'd rather have the two of them spaced out a bit not back to back, but that's my only preference.
Thanks Trudy, that will be great to lead those. I see the Gysai was up for the Women Prize for Fiction this year. It was won by Suzanne Clarke's Piranesi, which I think a couple of us have read. We could give that a whirl, as I'd like to re-read it.
Heart of Darkness, according to Wikipedia, was the inspiration of Apocalypse Now, and has been panned by Chinua Achebe in An Image of Africa, (link to Wikipedia). It's pretty horrific, on several counts, the actual story and the appalling racism.
I did Heart of Darkness in first-year university and would not love a chance to revisit it, so I guess my experience is similar to @Curiosity killed's with that book.
(In February this year it would have been a bit close to the bone, as the big drought culminated in the bushfires of December and January. But we have had reasonable rain this year, with green grass around and many farmers looking forward to very good yields.)
BTW not at all what's happened above with various bits of cutting and pasting.
The programme for the rest of the year is:
September A Place of execution by Val McDermid led by @Curiosity killed
October The Midnight Library by Matt Haig led by @Sarasa
November Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth led by @Mili
December Something Christmassy
If there are no other suggestions for December I'll chose something short and appropriate and slot it in
Right so far for next year (2022) we have:
January
February The Dry led by @Tukai
March Transcendent Kingdom led by @Trudy
April
May
June
July
August
September The Girl with the Louding Voice led by @Trudy
October
November
December
@mili, I love East Lynne. My grandfather was, according to my grandmother, thrown out of the theatre for laughing at the 'Dead and never called me mother', line. I'd be happy to re-read it. I'd also love to get every one's views on Hester by Margaret Oliphant. Another triple decker novel, but one that has lots of interesting things to say about women and their role in 19th century society.
I think I'd like to do Hemingway's Fiesta/The Sun also Rises as it's pretty short and still feels pretty modern. I was also wondering about Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square, one of those books I've always intended to read and never got round to.
So many books, so little time....
Any more ideas about a Christmas read?
I was wondering about I Saw Three Ships by Elizabeth Goudge, but I'm also not sure how easy it is to get hold of.
Nor is I Saw Three Ships on Kindle. Herb of Grace is on Kindle and that ends with Christmas, if I remember it correctly (haven't read it for a while).
Or there is A Christmas Carol, last read in 2014.
I've never managed to read Wuthering Heights although I did read Jane Eyre young (about the age Jane was at boarding school with her friend dying).
But, if people want a Bronte book, somewhat surprisingly I wasn't too put off by Jane Eyre, when our class at an all-boys boarding school was obliged to read it. Perhaps the tales of the gruesome boarding school Jane attended resonated with us.
However Canadian authors also seem worth looking at. Any suggestions as to any books we could discuss @caissa?