Thank you Sally for a lovely evening  on Tuesday – only 5 of us this time – I think that was one of the shortest book discussions yet!                   

The read over summer was scheduled to be Sarah Waters’ Little Stranger,  but there has been some interest in Fifty Shades of Grey  – so we have agreed that members can read either or both books.  Should make for an interesting meeting in September when both books will be discussed!                                                              

The next meeting will be on 4th September at Nicola Mac’s.  The next title to read will be Mark Haddon’s The Red House and this will be discussed at October’s meeting.  However, I can only see this available as hardback currently, so perhaps delay buying until nearer the time, as I think the paperback must be due out soon?                     

We have also decided to start a new book list.  This is so we can keep it fresh.  This doesn’t mean the books on the current list are off limits – they can be nominated again and should be if you particularly champion a title, especially as some were recently added.                                                         

Please could I ask that each member gets online or to a bookshop to pick 2 or 3 titles to nominate.  I would like to have this list ready before the next meeting.   This will give me a chance to circulate the list prior to that meeting and give people a chance to veto titles they don’t fancy.                                             

I have summarised the current list at the end of this rather long post (the full list with synopsis is at https://pounsleyroad.com/book-club-titles/                    

Enjoy the summer, M xXx

Fifty Shades of Grey, E L James 528p    Romantic, liberating and totally addictive, FSoG is a novel that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever. When literature student Anastasia Steele interviews successful entrepreneur Christian Grey, she finds him very attractive and deeply intimidating. Convinced that their meeting went badly, she tries to put him out of her mind – until he turns up at the store where she works part-time, and invites her out. Unworldly and innocent, Ana is shocked to find she wants this man. And, when he warns her to keep her distance, it only makes her want him more. But Grey is tormented by inner demons, and consumed by the need to control. As they embark on a passionate love affair, Ana discovers more about her own desires, as well as the dark secrets Grey keeps hidden away from public view…

The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters, 512pages   In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, its owners – mother, son and daughter – struggling to keep pace. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.

Ladies, this list is the most up to date I have 😉     Animal Farm, George Orwell   /  Burning Your Boats: Collected Short Stories, Angela Carter   /    The Colour Purple – Alice Walker   /   The Casual Vacancy – J K Rowling   /   East, West,Salman Rushdie   /      The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje   /   Irma Voth – Miriam Toews   /     The Island – Victoria Hislop    /   The Long Song – Andrea Levy   /   The L-shaped Room – Lynne Reid Banks   /   Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady, Kate Summerscale   /     Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck   /One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez   /   Oranges are not the only fruit, Jeanette Winterson   /   The Postmistress – Sarah Blake   /    Room – Emma Donoghue    /    Sanctus – Simon Toyne    /   Schindler’s List – Thomas Keneally   /   Seize the Day: How the Dying Teach Us To Live, Marie de Hennezel   /   The Sea, John Banville   /    The Sorrows of an American – Siri Hustvedt   /   The Story of Beautiful Girl – Rachel Simon   /   The Tapestry of Love – Rosy Thornton   /   The Tennis Partner – Abraham Verghase   /   The Turn of the Screw, Henry James   /   This Beautiful Life – Helen Schulman   /   Three Thousand Miles for a Wish – Safiya Hussain   /   Three Weissmanns of Wesport – Cathleen Schine   /   To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee   /     The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes   /   Treblinka – Jean Francois Steiner   /   The Underground Man – Mick Jackson   /   The Vesuvius Club – Mark Gatiss   /   Wanting – Richard Flanagan   /   Water for Elephants – Sarah Gruen   /   The Wilderness – Samantha Harvey  /   Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel