Showing posts with label book club book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book club book. Show all posts

Monday, 18 May 2015

Rowan Coleman: The memory book

When Claire starts to write her Memory Book, she already knows that this scrapbook of mementoes will soon be all her daughters and husband have of her. But how can she hold onto the past when her future is slipping through her fingers...?

A heart-breaking story about how a family is affected by early onset Alzheimer's disease. It tells the story from several characters' perspectives and shows how distraught a patient is, when life seems to slip away. A lovely story about love and motherhood.

Monday, 16 March 2015

Karen Perry: The boy that never was

Three-year-old Dillon vanished in the middle of the night. His father Harry can't forgive himself for not protecting his only child. Yet Harry isn't blamed by his wife Robin: she bares her own secret guilt. Five years later, thousands of miles away, Harry spots an eight-year-old boy in a crowd - a boy he is convinced is Dillon. Desperate to find his missing son, Harry's obsession tears apart his marriage, exposing shameful secrets and shattering the one thing he and Robin had left - trust. Why won't Robin believe Harry? What is she hiding? Can the boy really be Dillon? And how far will Harry go to find their lost son?

This is another story about communication or the lack thereof in a relationship. Both Harry and Robin have their secrets and actually tear their relationship apart rather than attempting to fix it. The story is told from Robin's and Harry's perspective so that the reader can identify with both quite easily. I must admit that I do not really like Harry for his unfaithfulness, but his conviction and obsession to find the dead boy is amazing. Interesting story.

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Emma Healey: Elizabeth is missing

Meet Maud. Maud is forgetful. She makes a cup of tea and doesn't remember to drink it. She goes to the shops and forgets why she went. Sometimes her home is unrecognizable - or her daughter Helen seems a total stranger. But there's one thing Maud is sure of: her friend Elizabeth is missing. The note in her pocket tells her so. And no matter who tells her to stop going on about it, to leave it alone, to shut up, Maud will get to the bottom of it. Because somewhere in Maud's damaged mind lies the answer to an unsolved seventy-year-old mystery. One everyone has forgotten about. Everyone, except Maud...

This was a fantastic story. Maud is a loveable character and her difficulties with her memory cause her and thus the reader great distress. The storyline is gripping, and as a reader I was keen to find out more about Elizabeth and why she is missing. The way the story is written is unique and it actually makes the reader feel as if you were the one that has got dementia, which is somehow a little disturbing, as it shows how other people around you will react to you, and how you feel when you are lost like Maud. A fantastic read!

Monday, 9 March 2015

Celeste Ng: Everything I never told you

Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee; a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, James is consumed by guilt, Marilyn is determined to make someone accountable, Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is convinced that local bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest in the family - Hannah - who observes far more than anyone realises and who may be the only one who knows what really happened.

This is an interesting story about a family whose members keep their own wishes, wants and needs secret from everybody else. And so it happens that wishes are imposed on others and actions are interpreted wrongly, which in turn leads to further complications. A heart-felt story about communicating with your loved ones and how important it is to stay true to yourself. Hannah, who is the youngest and therefore not quite as adept at playing emotional games, turns out to be the most perceptive and honest character of them all. But then she also doesn't struggle to fit in, unlike Nath and Lydia whose looks make them stand out quite prominently. A great story.

Friday, 6 March 2015

Karen Joy Fowler: We are completely beside ourselves

This is the story of an American family, middle class in middle America, ordinary in every way. Meet the Cooke family: Mother and Dad, brother Lowell, sister Fern, and our narrator, Rosemary, who begins her story in the middle. She has her reasons...

I was ready to give up on this story. I had gotten to page 75 or so, and I still couldn't really understand why this book had been praised so much recently. Well on page 77 came the revelation and this changed the nature of the book so that actually I was eager to find out the full story about Rosemary, Lowell and Fern. A fantastic read and I would love to be able to discuss this with a range of people in a book club or so.

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

John Green: The fault in our stars

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

What a fantastic YA read. This is a funny, poignant tear-jerker about Hazel, Isaac and Augustus. The storyline was somehow predictable in a way, and yet this is still a fascinating read and very insightful as far as the Professionally Sick are concerned...

Sunday, 19 October 2014

Nathan Filer: The Shock of the Fall

‘I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s Simon. I think you’re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.’

This book reminded me of Mark Haddon's "Incident with the dog in the night-time" in that we are given a perspective that we cannot usually see - that of a person suffering from a mental health issue. The story is easy to follow despite the many voices and jumps, as we grow used to the workings of Matthew's mind. A fascinating, but sad and yet strangely uplifting read.

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Jane Shemlit: Daughter

THE NIGHT OF THE DISAPPEARANCE: She used to tell me everything. They have a picture. It'll help. But it doesn't show the way her hair shines so brightly it looks like sheets of gold. She has a tiny mole, just beneath her left eyebrow. She smells very faintly of lemons. She bites her nails. She never cries. She loves autumn, I wanted to tell them. She collects leaves, like a child does. She is just a child.
ONE YEAR LATER: Naomi is still missing. Jenny is a mother on the brink of obsession. The Malcolm family is in pieces. Is finding the truth about Naomi the only way to put them back together? Or is the truth the thing that will finally tear them apart?


After "Before I go to sleep" this book was not as chilling and thrilling, but the characters were well developed and you could identify with the family and each member. I was disappointed with the ending though, as this was a little too stilted and unrealistic in my view.

Monday, 22 September 2014

S J Watson: Before I go to sleep

What if you lost your memories every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story.... Welcome to Christine's life!

A fantastic read and great thriller. I woke up one night thinking I was Christine myself. This really was chilling. And the ending is just as great....

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Lucie Whitehouse: Before we met

A Hannah Reilly has seized her chance at happiness. Until the day her husband doesn't come home... Can you ever really know what happened before you met?

This was a fast-paced novel about love and how love makes us blind and careless at times. Hannah is an interesting and in no way naive woman whose marriage starts to fall to pieces when she realizes the lies her husband is telling.

Sunday, 22 June 2014

Jane Fallon: Getting rid of Matthew

What to do if Matthew, your secret lover of the past four years, finally decides to leave his wife Sophie and their two daughters and move into your flat, just when you're thinking that you might not want him anymore. PLAN A: Stop shaving your armpits. And your bikini line. Tell him you have a moustache that you wax every six weeks Stop having sex with him. Pick holes in the way he dresses. Don't brush your teeth. Or your hair. Or pluck out the stray hag-whisker that grows out of your chin. Buy incontinence pads and leave them lying around. PLAN B: Accidentally on purpose bump into his wife Sophie. Give yourself a fake name and identity. Befriend Sophie. Actually begin to really like Sophie. Snog Matthew's son (who's the same age as you by the way. You're not a paedophile). Buy a cat and give it a fake name and identity. Befriend Matthew's children. Unsuccessfully. Watch your whole plan go absolutely horribly wrong.

This was a funny chick-lit story told from the perspective of a mistress who suddenly no longer wants the responsibility of a relationship, when her boyfriend suddenly leaves his wife and children. The characters are well described and it is easy to identify with all characters apart from Matthew who is a cheat and a liar, who never changes his ways. Having read "Sekeletons" I knew that I would enjoy this unusual perspective, too.

Saturday, 8 March 2014

Saskia Sarginson: The Twins

Isolte and Viola are twins. Inseparable as children, they've grown into very different adults: Isolte, a successful features writer for a fashion magazine with a photographer boyfriend and a flat in London, and Viola, desperately unhappy and struggling with a lifelong eating disorder. What happened all those years ago to set the twins on such different paths to adulthood? As both women start to unravel the escalating tragedies of a half-remembered summer, terrifying secrets from the past come rushing back - and threaten to overwhelm their adult lives...

Although I found the changing perspectives slightly confusing at the beginning, I genuinely enjoyed the story and was keen to find out more about Issy and Viola. The stories around their mother Rose, their friends Michael and John and their little step-sister Polly were gripping and some twists weren't foreseeable either. The fact that the story is set in 1972 and 1987 makes for an interesting change, as modern technology hadn't got the hold it has nowadays. Some questions remain unanswered, but that makes the story more credible and less clichéd.

Friday, 11 January 2013

JK Rowling: Casual Vacancy

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

After all the reviews and critiques I was keen to see for myself, what everyone was talking about. At times the story is hard to take, especially where Krystal and her family are concerned. But Somehow the book was written in such a way that I was keen to find out more about each of the 34 characters in the book. Very different from Harry Potter, but still a great read in my view.

Sunday, 19 February 2012

William P Young: The Shack

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

A fantastic read. I wasn't too sure as it was advertised as a "Christian" book, but in a way it reminded me of "Sophie's world", where difficult concepts were also simplified to be more accessible to the public. I fully identified with Mack and found the ending particularly emotional and tearful. This is a book to keep and re-read.

Saturday, 16 July 2011

Rachel Hore: A place of secrets

The night before it all begins, Jude has the dream again ...Can dreams be passed down through families? As a child Jude suffered a recurrent nightmare: running through a dark forest, crying for her mother. Now her six-year-old niece, Summer, is having the same dream, and Jude is frightened for her. A successful auctioneer, Jude is struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband. When she's asked to value a collection of scientific instruments and manuscripts belonging to Anthony Wickham, a lonely 18th century astronomer, she leaps at the chance to escape London for the untamed beauty of Norfolk, where she grew up. As Jude untangles Wickham's tragic story, she discovers threatening links to the present.
Advertised as a great mystery story, this was slightly disappointing. The historical storyline was great, but the storyline set in the present was flat and didn't really add to the mystery, but slowed the pace down too much. A shame...

Sunday, 19 June 2011

Clare Morrall: The Man Who Disappeared

What would you do if, out of the blue, your reliable husband disappears? Then you are told he has been involved in money-laundering. Surely the man you know intimately couldn’t be a criminal... could he? When Felix Kendall vanishes, his wife Kate is left in turmoil. As she and their children adjust to a hand-to-mouth existence, she looks back on her marriage and Felix’s orphaned upbringing in search of clues, confronting the possibility that she has badly misread him.
A fascinating read about how a family's life is shattered by one member's bad decision. Felix eventually comes back, but actually causes more disruption to his family whose members have by then rebuilt their lives without him. A wonderful book!

Thursday, 26 May 2011

Katherine Webb: The Legacy

In the depths of a harsh winter, following the death of their grandmother, Erica Calcott and her sister Beth return to Storton Manor, a grand and imposing Wiltshire house where they spent their summer holidays as children. When Erica begins to sort through her grandmother's belongings, she is flooded with memories of her childhood - and of her cousin, Henry, whose disappearance from the manor tore the family apart. Erica sets out to discover what happened to Henry, so that the past can be laid to rest, and her sister, Beth, might finally find some peace. Gradually, as Erica begins to sift through remnants of the past, a secret family history emerges; one that stretches all the way back to turn-of-the-century America, to a beautiful society heiress and a haunting, savage land. As past and present converge, Erica and Beth must come to terms with two terrible acts of betrayal - and the heart-breaking legacy left behind.

This was a good mystery story about family history and how individuals can impact future generations within a family. Erica and Beth were very believable and the story was interesting, but it would have been better to discover Beth protecting Erica, as this would have been more surprising to find the weaker character actually turning out to be the stronger one. The story about Caroline's life was, however, well-developed and particularly gripping.

Monday, 28 March 2011

Rebecca Skloot: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Born a poor black tobacco farmer, her cancer cells -- taken without her knowledge -- became a multimillion-dollar industry and one of the most important tools in medicine. Yet Henrietta's family did not learn of her 'immortality' until more than twenty years after her death, with devastating consequences....

What an unbelievable story! The way Skloot put together hundreds of hours of interviews with factual research into medical trials and research projects and the private story of one poor family made for great reading. I would have wished for more details about the Lacks family and less of a discussion about the ethics of clinical trials. However, it still makes for good reading.

Sunday, 27 February 2011

Rosamund Lupton: Sister

When Beatrice gets a frantic call in the middle of Sunday lunch to say that her younger sister, Tess, is missing, she boards the first flight home to London. But as she learns about the circumstances surrounding her sister's disappearance, she is stunned to discover how little she actually knows of her sister's life - and unprepared for the terrifying truths she must now face. The police, Beatrice's fiance and even their mother accept they have lost Tess but Beatrice refuses to give up on her. So she embarks on a dangerous journey to discover the truth, no matter the cost.

What a gripping family story about sisters with a thrilling mystery included. The ending was particularly surprising but somehow slightly disappointing. A great story!