Book Group

March 2011: Over Christmas, the group read “The Painter of Battles” by Arturo Perez-Reverte; it was an unfortunate choice for the festive season as it was a very dark book. The writing was undoubtedly good but many of us found the violent content distressing. Our latest book was a complete contrast. “A Guide to the Birds of East Africa” by Nicholas Drayson, was basically a light love story, which told us a lot about the class system in Kenya, in addition to the birds of the area. We all found it enjoyable.

At the moment, I have a vacancy in the Book Group. We meet once a month in my house and I get the books from the library.

 

November 2010:  Our first book for discussion after our summer holiday was ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ by George Orwell.  It provoked a lot of discussion and memories for some of us.  I spent my youth in a Nottinghamshire mining village and our living conditions bore no resemblance to those that Orwell described in Lancashire.  It is hard to realise that housing conditions were so bad in the 1930s.

In October we read ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ by Mohsin Hamid, who comes from Pakistan.  It was an intriguing and well-written book.  I learnt a lot about Pakistan and now understand better their grievances with the West.

Our November book was ‘The Zig-Zag Path’ by Anita Desai.  Some of us were disappointed in this book written by such a well-known author.  The ending was abrupt and unsatisfactory.  However, it taught some of us about Mexico and its customs, whilst the language was very descriptive and set the atmosphere very well.