The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri - January 2024
At our January meeting we discussed The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri. The novel’s narrator is Niri Ibrahim. Niri and his wife Afra have fled from Syria due to the violence of the Syrian Civil War. After a long journey, they have managed to reach London, England. They are living in a lodging house with other refugees, as they wait to learn whether or not they will be granted asylum
They lived a peaceful life in the Syrian city of Aleppo where Nuri was a beekeeper and Afra an artist. They had a seven-year-old son named Sami. Nuri worked as a beekeeper with his cousin Mustafa. After violence of the war began to spread and to affect Aleppo, Mustafa sent his wife and daughter out of the country. Later, when Mustafa’s son was killed, Mustafa decided to flee the country as well.
One day, Nuri’s son Sami was killed by a bomb. Afra witnessed Sami’s death, and the trauma caused her to go blind. After Nuri narrowly escaped being forced to join a militia, he persuaded Afra to leave the country with him. The novel’s main storyline focuses on Nuri and Afra’s journey, which is told in a series of flashbacks.
The group agreed that it was very well written and delt with a number of important issues. People enjoyed the book but also felt that it was very sad in places.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - February 2024
At our February meeting we discussed The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. The novel follows the life of Nora Seed who is 35 and is depressed, has recently lost her job and her cat. She feels that everyone would be better off without her so she writes a suicide note and takes an overdose.
She wakes up in a library between life and death, with the opportunity to try out alternate versions of her life and find the one where she truly belongs. She might have been a pop star, an Olympic swimmer, a pub landlady or many other alternatives.
The majority of the group enjoyed the book and thought that it was excellent, well written and thought provoking. The book provoked one of the most wide ranging and interesting discussions that we have had in the group.
Old Baggage by Lissa Evans - March 2024
At our March meeting we discussed Old Baggage by Lissa Evans. The novel begins in 1928 with the main character, Matilda Simpkin (Mattie), being reminded of her past. In her youth she was a militant suffragette. who was jailed five times. Now in middle age, the closest she gets to the excitement of her old life is the occasional lecture on the legacy of the militant Suffragette movement.
After running into an old suffragette comrade, who became a supporter of Fascism, Mattie decides that there is a new cause she needs to fight for, and turns her focus to a new generation of young women. She forms the Amazons, a group created to give girls a place to not only exercise their bodies but their minds too, and ignite in young women a much-needed interest in the world around them.
But when a new girl joins the group, reminding Mattie of a tragedy in her past, things start to go wrong.
The majority of the group really enjoyed the book and thought that it was excellent, well written. One member said, “I thoroughly enjoyed “Old Baggage”. I found Mattie and “The Flea” and Ida admirable characters and by contrast, given my antipathy to right-wing politics, my opinion of Jacko and her Ilk was the exact opposite. Lissa Evans captured the spirit of that late-twenties period when the efforts of the suffragette movement were at last beginning to bear fruit whilst the horror of burgeoning Fascism as in the dictatorship of Mussolini in Italy were preparing the way for Hitler.”
However a minority of the group didn’t enjoy the book and another member said “It has lots of sub-plots and no focus ….in the end it just fizzled out”. An interesting afternoon.
Beartown by Fredrik Backman - April 2024
At our April meeting we discussed Beartown by Fredrik Backman . The novel is set in the small, rundown isolated town of Beartown in Sweden where most of the industry has closed down. The town's hopes and dreams are pinned on the junior ice hockey team, and the entire community is invested in their success. The story begins with the build-up to a crucial semi-final match, which is seen as the potential turning point for the town's fortunes.
The novel explores the relationships between its inhabitants. We meet the team's star player, Kevin, who is under immense pressure to perform, and his best friend, Benji, who is equally talented but lacks the same support. The team's coach, Peter, is a former player himself and is determined to lead the boys to victory, while his daughter, Maya, is a bright, independent girl who loves the game as much as anyone.
However, the town's unity is shattered when a tragic incident occurs at a party, leaving Maya traumatized and the community divided. The aftermath of this event forms the crux of the story, as the town is forced to confront uncomfortable truths about its values, loyalties, and the lengths to which people will go to protect their own interests.
As sometimes happens with our group we were dramatically divided in our opinion of the novel. The majority of the group really enjoyed the book and made comments like “compulsive reading”, “ I couldn’t put the book down, it was utterly gripping”, “very well written with well drawn characters” and there was a lively discussion about the motivation of the main characters.
However a minority of the group didn’t like the book and didn’t finish it. One member said “Beartown was dreadful. I know nothing about ice hockey I am not in the least interested. I didn't like any of the characters and was totally disinterested in who won the match and I hated the brutality that the immigrant boy had to endure. I gave up after that.”
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte - May 2024
At our May meeting we discussed The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. The novel is written as a series of letters from Gilbert Markham to his friend about the events connected with his meeting a mysterious young widow, calling herself Helen Graham, who arrives at Wildfell Hall, an Elizabethan mansion which has been empty for many years, with her young son and a servant.
Contrary to the early 19th-century norms, she pursues an artist's career and makes an income by selling her pictures. Her strict seclusion soon gives rise to gossip in the neighbouring village and she becomes a social outcast. Refusing to believe anything scandalous about her, Gilbert befriends her and discovers her past.
In the diary she gives to Gilbert, she chronicles her husband's physical and moral decline through alcohol and debauchery in his dissipated aristocratic milieu. Ultimately she flees with her son, whom she desperately wishes to save from his father's influence.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is considered to be one of the first feminist novels. In leaving her husband and taking away their child, Helen violates not only social conventions but also early 19th-century English law. It was seen as shocking to Victorian sensibilities and it was an instant, phenomenal success; within six weeks it had sold out
The majority of the group thought that it was an important book which highlighted the position of women in 19th-century English society but they also thought that because of its style it was a difficult book to read. Members agreed that they were pleased that they were born in the 20th-century when the position of women in society had improved enormously
Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene - June 2024
At our June meeting we read Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene, The novel is set in the 1960s and is narrated by Henry Pulling, a conventional bank manager who has taken early retirement and who now little to look forward to except for tending the dahlias in his garden.
His life suddenly changes when he meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over 50 years at his mother's funeral. Despite having little in common, they form a bond. On their first meeting, Augusta tells Henry that his mother was not truly his mother, and we learn that Henry's father has been dead for more than 40 years. Henry finds himself drawn into Aunt Augusta's world of travel, adventure, romance and criminality.
The majority of the group found the book easy to read and enjoyed the amusing story but some members were put off but the old fashioned attitudes of the characters.
The Only Story by Julian Barnes - July 2024
The Only Story is narrated by Paul who is looking back on his life and trying to make sense of what happened. The story begins in the 1960s when Paul meets 48-year-old Susan when they're partnered in a mixed doubles tennis tournament at their local club during his first summer home from university in the early 1960s.
At 19, he is cynical, about people like his parents who live complacently in the suburban "stockbroker belt" outside London, and he begins an affair, creating a scandal which results in them being expelled from the Tennis club. Eventually Susan leaves her husband and Paul and she move to London but Susan sinks into depression and alcoholism.
We all agreed that the book is very well written and a number of the group have read and enjoyed other Julian Barnes novels. However as one member said “I enjoyed the book mainly because Julian Barnes writes so well but I found the story somewhat unconvincing. The very fact of a nineteen year-old having an on-going relationship with a middle-aged woman and the strange situation that he was a semi-permanent resident in her household with the full knowledge and acceptance by her peculiar husband failed to convince.”
As usual it was an interesting afternoon’s discussion.
Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris - August 2024
At our August meeting we discussed Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris. The historical novel starts in 1660 when after Cromwell’s death Charles II returns as the new king. Under the Act of Oblivion all crimes committed during the English Civil War are forgiven except for the people who signed Charles I death warrant.
Under the provisions of the Act, the fifty-nine men who signed the king’s death warrant and participated in his execution have been found guilty in absentia of high treason. Some of the Roundheads, including Oliver Cromwell, are already dead. Others have been captured, hung drawn, and quartered and some have fled abroad.
Two of these men, Colonel Edward Whalley and his son-in law Colonel William Goffe escape on a ship bound for the New England. In London, Richard Nayler, secretary of the regicide committee of the Privy Council, is charged with bringing the traitors to justice and he will stop at nothing to find them. A substantial bounty hangs over their heads for their capture—dead or alive.
Most of the group enjoyed the novel and thought that the book painted a vivid picture of life in 17th century London, including the plague and the great Fire of Lonon, and of life in New England colonies at that time. The one criticism that some of us had was that the book was too long, a common complaint we have of books written by successful authors.
The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton - September 2024
At our September meeting we discussed The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton. The book is a thriller set in Alaska in midwinter where beyond the Artic Circle there is 24 hours of darkness. Yasmin has flown to Fairbanks, with her deaf 10 year old daughter Ruby, with an ultimatum for her wildlife documentary-maker husband, Matt. He has been working for months in the Arctic night, has slipped, she thinks, into a relationship with an Inupiaq woman. They are met at the airport not by Matt, but by a policeman, who tells them that the village where Matt has been living, has been burned to the ground following a fire, the entire population has been wiped out and Matt is dead. However Yasmin doesn’t believe that Matt is dead so she sets off on a dangerous journey, with her daughter, into the Arctic circle in a desperate to find him.
We all agreed that Rosamund Lupton is a good writer but there our agreement ended, the majority of the group enjoyed the book with one member saying “I really enjoyed the book, it is quite a page turner.” Whilst another said “ What a read! I found it difficult to put the book down. Particularly interesting was how the same events were described from three different viewpoints.”
However a minority did not enjoy the book and one member said “It was ridiculous, stupid and unbelievable”. It’s amazing that even though we all read the same book our opinions can be so different!
The shadows of men by Abir Mukherjee - October 2024
At our October meeting we discussed The shadows of men by Abir Mukherjee. The novel is set in in 1923 in India at a time of heightened political and religious tension. When a Hindu theologian is found murdered in his home, Calcutta is on the brink of all-out religious war. Inspector Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee, officers of the Imperial Police Force, need to track down those responsible in time to stop a bloodbath. The investigation takes the detectives from a hot an humid Calcutta to a bustling Bombay.
The majority of the group really enjoyed the book and felt that it painted a vivid picture of life in India in the 1920s. People particularly liked the way alternate chapters in the novel were narrated by either Sam or Surendranath. This gave both a British and an Indian perspective of the Raj.
However as often happens in our monthly meetings a minority of the group didn’t enjoy the book.
A lesson in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - November 2024
The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce - December 2024
The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce begins in the late 1980s with the main character is Frank who runs a music shop in a street of struggling independent shops in a rundown English town. Frank’s shop is barely making any money because he refuses to stock formats other than vinyl. The shop attracts the lonely, the sleepless, and the adrift; Frank has a way of connecting his customers with just the piece of music they need.
Frank’s childhood, which we learn about in flashbacks throughout the book, has left him traumatised and unable to form relationships with people. Then, one day, into his shop comes a young Germann woman, Ilse, who asks Frank to teach her about music.
The majority of the group at the meeting did not like the book, one member said “I found, without exception, that every character was totally implausible and that their various actions were mostly irrational. Frank’s ability to assess the musical needs of any and everyone without a word being spoken was unconvincing,”
However some members did enjoy the book and one said “I think the basic story and the way that it's told is a wonderful concept and music is such a great way of expressing yourself. What would life be without it? These lovely warm characters are great foils for each other, every one quirky in their own way.“
Another interesting afternoon.