March's title was The Fever Tree by Jenny McVeigh, set in 19th century South Africa. The book promised much - complicated relationships, set with a backdrop of small pox and diamond mining in South Africa. Although many of us enjoyed the book, most felt that more could have been done with the subjects mentioned - what could have been an in-depth exploration of a tumultuous period was rather lighter in context. The storyline was formulaic, but well written. However, as one of our group pointed out, the book's protagonist was a young inexperienced woman and what we had was very much her perspective - not some mature, intellectual deliberations. As a first novel, this book showed promise, and I for one will be interested to see how Jenny McVeigh develops in the future.
Other titles we discussed included:
The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill
The Lewis Man by Peter May
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick de Witt (this is fabulous in my opionion and Emily and Charlotte agree - happy to lend out my copy)
and finally, Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, which is the sequel to Wolf Hall. Much praise, although the annoying 'he' references that had us all confused as to who he was at any given time, are now all qualified by he (Cromwell) etc. But, try as you might, you cannot get away from the fact that Hilary Mantel is an incredible writer.
Now for a bit of unashamed publicity. My friend Paul has recently published his first novel. I have yet to read it but the reviews on Amazon have been positive. The White Swan is about a psychic entertainer, based in York. His website can be found here:
http://www.paulmorrison.co.uk/hello-world/
The ebook is only about £1.50 for download onto Kindle.
For those wishing to get ahead, July's title is not a title but we're working on a Scandi theme - so this could be The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or it could be The Hundred-Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared or any title written by a Scandinavain author or set in Scandinavia. Let's see what we all come up with!
Finally, I'll be taking a bit of time out after July's meeting and if anyone in the group would like to take over as 'chair' then please do get in touch. I'm happy to resume or relinquish the responsibility in September 2014 when I'm back from maternity leave. I'm even hoping to be able to come and join you in some of the meetings later in the year (yes I have forgotten what it is like with a young baby!)
Next time:
What Maisie Knew by Henry James
9th May 2013
