Book Club - nominations for Jan/Feb read(s)

[midnightcatprowl]

Hi All, if you are interested in the idea of a 'Book Club' please nominate one book or two books for our read(s) for January and February(ish) reads.

Nominate whatever appeals to you: fact, fiction, novels, short stories, poetry, whatever. Nominations will run until midnight Monday 2nd January and then a voting thread will be set up to choose the items to be read and discussed.

N.B. You are a member of Book Club and can nominate & vote if you are interested and want to take part, there are no other requirements.

[midnightcatprowl]

I'd like to nominate:

"The Brief" by Simon Michael

This is probably best described as a 'thriller' set against a background of the gangland culture (and the matching corruption of some police force detectives) of London in the swinging sixties. The main character is a young barrister who suddenly finds himself on the opposite side of the law and fighting for survival. This is not my usual sort of reading but I came across this book by walking into Waterstones before Christmas and finding the author, dressed in full barrister outfit of wig and robes, signing copies of his books and chatting to customers. Simon Michael only retired from the bar in the first half of 2016 and he grew up in the London represented in his books though, like me, he now lives in Bedfordshire. He told me that his books (which look at the court process largely from the barrister's point of view) are different in that things such as court papers are included. At the time I just thought this was typical author comment but couldn't resist the temptation to buy copies for two book loving friends and I've already had rave reviews from one who couldn't stop reading even in the waiting room for an operation and who says the book is genuinely 'different'.

"Lolly Willows" by Sylvia Townsend Warner

This is a book I've read many times but I'm always happy to read it again and every time I do I experience it in a different way. I was reminded of it today when it was featured in The Guardian even if I don't agree in all details with the writer's comments about this book. I suspect that some people will regard this as a feminist book but it is not, though feminists are bound to like it I'd suspect that many men will like it too and find it reflects their own experience and feelings. Lolly is a useful and uncomplaining family member useful to her relatives until

Until the day Lolly’s inchoate longing for solitude and rural seclusion – the urge to be “standing alone in a darkening orchard” – crystallises in the snap decision to move to a small village in the Chilterns

It is a book which is rich small happenings and which may appeal to introverts and to those who sick and fed up with the constant pressures to conform in certain ways for no particular reason.

[carrie80]

Thanks for getting us started midnightcatprowl!

I nominate:

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Way-Small ... 473619815/

This was an extremely successful self-published space opera novel that was picked up by a traditional publisher - it has been on my to-read list for a while. I can't find the reference now, but I think I heard it described as being like Star Trek from a crew point of view.

When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The Wayfarer, a patched-up ship that's seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past.

But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer. The crew is a mishmash of species and personalities, from Sissix, the friendly reptillian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the constantly sparring engineers who keep the ship running. Life on board is chaotic, but more or less peaceful - exactly what Rosemary wants.

Until the crew are offered the job of a lifetime: the chance to build a hyperspace tunnel to a distant planet. They'll earn enough money to live comfortably for years... if they survive the long trip through war-torn interstellar space without endangering any of the fragile alliances that keep the galaxy peaceful.

But Rosemary isn't the only person on board with secrets to hide, and the crew will soon discover that space may be vast, but spaceships are very small indeed.


Wishful Drinking, by Carrie Fisher
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wishful-Drinki ... 1847397832

I think Carrie Fisher was a fascinating woman and have been thinking about her in the wake of her recent death. I saw her show based on this Hollywood showbiz memoir a few years ago, and think that it would be an interesting and entertaining read.

In Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher tells the true and intoxicating story of her life with inimitable wit. Born to celebrity parents, she was picked to play a princess in a little movie called Star Wars when only 19 years old. "But it isn't all sweetness and light sabres." Alas, aside from a demanding career and her role as a single mother (not to mention the hyperspace hairdo), Carrie also spends her free time battling addiction and weathering the wild ride of manic depression. It's an incredible tale - from having Elizabeth Taylor as a stepmother, to marrying (and divorcing) Paul Simon, and from having the father of her daughter leave her for a man, to ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.

[DiamondEcho]

Our Man in Havana - Graham Greene
Per Amazon: 'MI6’s man in Havana is Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Charles Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true…
First published in 1959 against the backdrop of the Cold War, Our Man in Havana remains one of Graham Greene’s most widely read novels. It is an espionage thriller, a penetrating character study, and a political satire of government intelligence that still resonates today.'
---------------------

What I especially enjoy with Greene, is how he succinctly develops characters, and yet so deeply. He conjurers a scene, the characters and mood of a place. You are then left to the nail-biting bulk of the book, having a solid context. There are several others of his right up there too IMO, but this one is a good entry-point for those new to him.

[MistyMeena]

Argh! Only just logged in after ages and ages. Delighted to find this board and the Book Club up and running Thank you to Midnightcatprowl.

A bit passed the deadline but as the voting thread hasn't been started perhaps I could throw in one more nomination? (It can always be rolled over to next time!)

The Leopard by Tomasi Di Lampedusa

In the spring of 1860, Fabrizio, the charismatic Prince of Salina, still rules over thousands of acres and hundreds of people, including his own numerous family, in mingled splendour and squalor. Then comes Garibaldi's landing in Sicily and the Prince must decide whether to resist the forces of change or come to terms with them.

The blurb doesn't give much away but I was intrigued by a recommendation given to it by Baroness Susan Greenfield in the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/201 ... ise-robots

[DiamondEcho]

Perhaps The Leopard has had a recent re-awakening? I received a copy from my father many years ago, that he dated inside the cover as bought in 1965. I've recently had it on the chair by my bed, still awaiting being read. He was and is possessive of his books, so presumably he gave it to me for a reason, and perhaps more than just because he quietly rates it.

Time to log-off and get reading perhaps!