Pounsley Road

Thank you Clare for hosting tonight and baking a ‘bon voyage’ cake for Liz – missing you already 😉

This months read is The Hundred- Year-Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared, by Jonas Jonasson and translated by Rod Bradbury, which sounds like a really quirky debut novel (synopsis below – £6.49 Waterstones and Amazon), to be discussed at Nicola L’s on 20th November.

Look forward to catching up with you all then xXx

It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not…Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan’s earlier life in which  –  remarkably  –  he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century …

Thank you Nicola for hosting both socially and in leading the discussion last month – I was sorry to miss both book discussions.

This months read is Gilead, to be discussed at Clare’s on 9th October.

Look forward to catching up with you all then – especially Liz!!!!  xXx

Mark Haddon’s, The Red House,  is not due out in paperback until Apr13, so perhaps we will leave that for a while.

J K Rowling’s, The Casual Vacancy, has no date for paperback publication at this time, so again a book for later.

In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames’s life, he begins a letter to his young son, a kind of last testament to his remarkable forebears. ‘It is a book of such meditative calm, such spiritual intensity that is seems miraculous that her silence was only for 23 years; such measure of wisdom is the fruit of a lifetime. Robinson’s prose, aligned with the sublime simplicity of the language of the bible, is nothing short of a benediction. You might not share its faith, but it is difficult not to be awed moved and ultimately humbled by the spiritual effulgence that lights up the novel from within.

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

Thank you Kate for a lovely relaxing evening last night.  It would be fair to say all enjoyed it and we were happy to have an honourary member join near the end!  

The next book to read is the Alchemist and it’s just over 200 pages – so get your copies if you haven’t already done so as the next meeting is only 3 weeks away.  That will be on 17th July, at Sally’s home. 

The read over summer was scheduled to be Little Stranger, Sarah Waters but there has been some interest in Fifty Shades of Grey – so we could swap if wished and can confirm at the next meeting – it certainly would be a different genre for the club!    M x

This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom points Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transformation power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.

Thank you Tania for your hospitality on Tuesday, it was a lovely evening – sorry we were so late!

The next book to read is the Golden Prince and it’s 440 pages so please buy it soon and start reading!  The next meeting is therefore 6 wks away – Tuesday 26th June and will be at Kate’s. 

The July meeting will be on 17th and I will send a separate email with choices for a short book, as there will only be 3 weeks between the two meetings. 

The read over summer will be Little Stranger, Sarah Waters and the discussion for that can be in September, so lots of time to read that one!    M x

Edward VIII became notorious for abandoning the throne for Mrs Simpson, but in the summer of 1911 he was a prince straight from the pages of a fairy-tale. Raised by the harsh disciplinarian King George V and his unfeeling Queen Mary, the prince longed for the warmth that had been deprived of him.  The high society Houghton girls’ lives however, were full of fun, both at their magnificent family seat Snowberry, and at the whirlwind of glamorous parties which punctuated their lives. When a moment of serendipity brings Edward and Lily Houghton together, the pressures of a stuffy court are replaced with the lightness that Edward has dreamt of.  But a future monarch could not choose his own Queen, and even an enduring love might falter under the furious gaze of a King. Could the devotion of Edward and Lily triumph against him and the impending doom of World War I? Or would they bow to the inevitable and set in train events that could bring down the Crown, and change the course of history forever?

Thank you Liz last night for your hospitality it was a lovely evening – sorry we were so late!

The next book to read is the Great Gatsby and it’s only a couple of hundred pages, so we have ambitiously set the date for the next meeting as Tuesday May 15th – Tania if you are still happy to host then could you please? 

Thanks a lot and looking forward to seeing you all again soon.  And wishing Georgina all the best for the coming weeks.  M x

Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the “roaring twenties”, and a devastating expose of the “Jazz Age”. Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is taken into the superficially glittering world of the mansions which lined the Long Island shore in the 1920s, to encounter Nick’s cousin Daisy, her brash but wealthy husband Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby and the mystery that surrounds him.

Thank you ladies, for the lively meeting last week – almost a fullhouse with the exception of Wenke – hope you are ok?

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 17 April 2012, at 7.45pm, and we will be discussing When God was a Rabbit, by Sarah Winman.  Could someone please volunteer to host this meeting?

See you all soon, M x

“1968. The year Paris takes to the streets. The year Martin Luther King loses his life for a dream. The year Eleanor Maud Portman is born. Young Elly’s world is shaped by those who inhabit it: her loving but maddeningly distractible parents; a best friend who smells of chips and knows exotic words like ‘slag’; an ageing fop who tapdances his way into her home, a Shirley Bassey impersonator who trails close behind; lastly, of course, a rabbit called God. In a childhood peppered with moments both ordinary and extraordinary, Elly’s one constant is her brother Joe. Twenty years on, Elly and Joe are fully grown and as close as they ever were. Until, that is, one bright morning when a single, earth-shattering event threatens to destroy their bond forever. Spanning four decades and moving between suburban Essex, the wild coast of Cornwall and the streets of New York, this is a story about childhood, eccentricity, the darker side of love and sex, the pull and power of family ties, loss and life. More than anything, it’s a story about love in all its forms.”

Hi ladies!

Lovely meeting nearly a fortnight ago!  Thank you to Nic for hosting.  We were very nearly a “full-house”, so we missed you Georgina, but of course, fully understand you are a little tired!  However, we welcome our new member, Wenke, who brings our membership to 11 ladies.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 13 March, 7.45pm, at my house – but Clare will be hosting.   We will be discussing Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brookes. 

The book to be read after that will be When God Was A Rabbit, by Sarah Winman and Clare has the ‘honour’ of choosing the title we read after that.  Clare please let me know if you need me to email the current book list and don’t forget ladies you can give me titles to add to it at any time. 

See you all soon, M x

“A young woman’s struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village. In 1666, plague swept through London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of leadminers and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that the damp fabric carried with it bubonic infection. So begins the Year of Wonders, in which a Pennine village of 350 souls confronts a scourge beyond remedy or understanding. Desperate, the villagers turn to sorcery, herb lore, and murderous witch-hunting. Then, led by a young and charismatic preacher, they elect to isolate themselves in a fatal quarantine. The story is told through the eyes of Anna Frith who, at only 18, must contend with the death of her family, the disintegration of her society, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit attraction. Geraldine Brooks’s novel explores love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggle of 17th century science and religion to deal with a seemingly diabolical pestilence. ‘Year of Wonders’ is also an eloquent memorial to the real-life Derbyshire villagers who chose to suffer alone during England’s last great plague.”

Hi ladies, the next meeting will be on Tuesday 24 January 2012, at 7.45pm, at Nicola Little’s.  We will be discussing The Help, by Katharyn Stockett, which I am very much looking forward to reading.

The meeting after that looks likely to be on 13 March – Nicola please could you choose the next book for us to read? I can resend the book list if you need it.

See you all soon, M x

“Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren’t trusted not to steal the silver…There’s Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son’s tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared. Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they’d be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell…”

Hi ladies!

Lovely meeting last Tuesday – thank you to Nic for hosting.  We were very nearly a “full-house”, so we missed you Georgina, but of course, fully understand you are a little tired!  However, we welcome our new member, Wenke, who brings our membership to 11 ladies.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 13 March, 7.45pm, at my house – but Clare will be hosting.   We will be discussing Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brookes. 

The book to be read after that will be When God Was A Rabbit, by Sarah Winman and Clare has the ‘honour’ of choosing the title we read after that.  Clare please let me know if you need me to email the current book list and don’t forget ladies you can give me titles to add to it at any time. 

See you all soon, M x

“A young woman’s struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village. In 1666, plague swept through London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of leadminers and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that the damp fabric carried with it bubonic infection. So begins the Year of Wonders, in which a Pennine village of 350 souls confronts a scourge beyond remedy or understanding. Desperate, the villagers turn to sorcery, herb lore, and murderous witch-hunting. Then, led by a young and charismatic preacher, they elect to isolate themselves in a fatal quarantine. The story is told through the eyes of Anna Frith who, at only 18, must contend with the death of her family, the disintegration of her society, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit attraction. Geraldine Brooks’s novel explores love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggle of 17th century science and religion to deal with a seemingly diabolical pestilence. ‘Year of Wonders’ is also an eloquent memorial to the real-life Derbyshire villagers who chose to suffer alone during England’s last great plague.”