Walsham le Willows

Reading Group

The Reading Group was formed in early 2003 by a group of people who were interested in discussing with others the books they had been reading and extending the range of authors and genres they were familiar with. The group now has in excess of one dozen members and a large back catalogue of modern fiction, classic novels, science-fiction, biography and travel books that have been shared. Monthly meetings are held on a Friday evening in various members' houses where they discuss the last month's book and choose new titles over a drink or two and nibbles. The format of the meeting is very informal with everyone free to speak as little or as much as they wish and of course it is always more lively when opinion is divided on the merits of the book under discussion. The books are either bought individually or they may be borrowed from the local library. The reading group does hold a library card which entitles them to borrow books for an extended period. There are no fees but every member takes a turn in hosting one of the monthly meetings and with the present membership this would then occur roughly once each year. New members are always welcome, and for more details contact Jeanette:01359 259186

Future Titles and Authors

Date Author Title
Friday, October 12th Andy Waldman The Submission A jury gathers in Manhattan to select a memorial for the victims of a devastating terrorist attack. Their fraught deliberations complete, the jurors open the envelope containing the anonymous winner's name and discover he is an American Muslim. Instantly they are cast into roiling debate, about the claims of grief, the ambiguities of art, and the meaning of Islam. The memorial's designer is Mohammad Khan, an enigmatic, ambitious architect. His fiercist defender on the jury, is its sole widow the mediagenic Claire Burwell. But when the news of his selection leaks to the press, Claire finds herself under pressure from outraged family members, and in collision with hungry journalists, wary activists, opportunistic politicians, fellow jurors, and Khan himself. All will bring the emotional weight of their own histories to bear on the urgent question of how to remember, and understand, a national tragedy.
Friday, November 9th J.D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye is the ultimate novel for disaffected youth, but it's relevant to all ages. The story is told by Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Throughout, Holden dissects the 'phony' aspects of society, and the 'phonies' themselves, the headmaster whose affability depends on the wealth of the parents, his roommate who scores with girls, using sickly-sweet affection. Lazy in style, using slang and swear words, it's a novel whose interest and appeal comes from it's observations rather than it's plot intriques(in conventional terms there is hardly any plot at all) Salinger's style creates an effect of conversation, it is as though Holden is speaking to you personally, as though you too have seen through the pretences of the American dream and are growing up unable to see the point of living in, or contributing to, the society around you. Written with the clarity of a boy leaving childhood, it deals with society, love, loss, and expectations without ever falling into the clutch of a cliché.
Also on Friday, December 7th Edith Wharton Ethan Frome With this intensely short novel Edith Wharton set out to 'draw life as it really was' in the lonely villages and desolate farms of the harsh New England mountains. Through the eyes of a visitor from the city, trapped for a winter in snowbound Starkfield, readers glimpse the hidden histories of this austere and beautiful land. Piecing together the story of monosyllibic Ethan Frome, his grim wife, Zeena, and Mattie Silver, her charming cousin, Wharton explores psychological dead-lock frustration, longing, resentment and passion. First published in 1911, the novella stunned its public with its consummate handling of the unfolding drama,and has remained for many readers the most compelling and subtle of all Wharton's fiction.

Previous Titles

Author Title
P. D. James Death Comes to Pemberley
Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending
Mohsin Hamid The Reluctant Fundamentalist
W.G. Seebald Rings of Sarum
Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre
Simon Sebag Montelfore Jerusalem
Colin Toibin Brooklyn
Mitch Albom The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Nick Hornby Juliet, Naked and How to Be Good
JG Farrell The Troubles
Roma Tearne Brixton Beach
Iain Banks The Steep Approach to Garbadale
A.S. Byatt The Children's Book
Haruki Murakami Norwegian Wood
Alice Munroe Runaway
Patrick Gale Notes from an Exhibition
Markus Zusak The Book Thief
Janice Frey A Million Little Pieces
Sarah Dunnant In the Company of Others
Kate Atkinson Case Histories
Amos Oz A Tale of Love and Darkness
Anton Chekhov Lady with Lapdog and other stories
Adrei Makine Le Testament Francais
Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Gambler
Bruce Chatwin Song Lines
Peter Carey The True History of the Ned Kelly Gang
Tim Winton Breath
Miles Franklin My Brilliant Career
Doris Pilkington Garimara Rabbit Proof Fence
Khalid Hosseini A Thousand Splendid Suns
David Mitchell Black Swan Green
William Boyd Brazzaville Beach
Ann Tyler Breathing Lessons
Amitav Ghosh The Glass Palace
George Orwell Burmese Days
Emma Larkin Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Teashop
Chimamnda Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow Sun
The Book of Illusions
Jonathan Raban Badlands
Carlos Castaneda The Art of Dreaming
William Boyd Restless
Sarah Waters Night Watch
A.M. Holmes This Book will Save your life
Anthony Trollope The Way We Live Now
Stef Penney The Tenderness of Wolves
Carlos Castaneda The Art of Dreaming
Claire Tomalin Samuel Pepys
Joseph O’Connor Star of the Sea
Peter Ackroyd English Music
Monica Ali Brick Lane
Simon Armitage Little Green Man
Margaret Atwood Surfacing
Beryl Bainbridge According to Queeney
Justin Cartwright White Lightning
Tracy Chevalier Girl with a Pearl Earring
JM Coetzee Waiting for the Barbarians
Michael Cunningham The Hours
Louis de Berniere Birds Without Wings
Charles Dickens Great Expectations
Sebastian Falkes Human Traces
Karen Joy Fowler Jane Austen Book Club
Jonathan Franzen The Corrections
Mark Haddon The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner
Kazuo Ishiguro When we were orphans
Henry James The Bostonians
TE Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Ursula Le Guin Left Hand of Darkness
Andrea Levy Small Island
Anne Marie Mac Donald The Way the Crow Flies
Yann Martel Life of Pi
Alexander McCall Smith No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
Ian McEwan Atonement
Jon McGregor If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things
Ann Michaels Fugitive Pieces
Julie Myerson Something might happen
Audrey Niffenegger The Time Traveller’s Wife
Orhan Pamuk My Name is Red
Ann Patchett The Magician’s Assistant
Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea
Salman Rushdie Midnight’s Children
Carol Shields Unless
Paullina Simons Tully
Dava Sobel Galileo’s Daughter
Abi Smith The Accidental
Manil Suri Death of Vishnu
Graham Swift Waterland
Amy Tan The Kitchen God’s Wife
Rose Tremain Music and Silence
William Trevor The Hill Bachelors (short stories)
William Trevor Lucy Gault
Ivan Turgenev Fathers and Sons
John Updike Beck is Back
Jill Paton Walsh Knowledge of Angels
Virgina Woolf Mrs. Dalloway

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