Book Group: book suggestions

[poppy]

My suggestion (which is the book I have just started reading) is 'The Little Stranger' by Sarah Waters.

Brief synopsis:

It is a bit of a ghost story with a touch of the gothic (not in a vampirey way though). At the centre is a family of landed gentry, called the Ayreses, who have come into hard times. Their family pile, once a house of some grandeur, has fallen into some decay. The book is told through the eyes of a middle aged doctor who comes to visit the family...strange things soon start to happen.

...oh, and it was nominated for the Booker prize.

 

[Tegans Mama]

My suggestion is the Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

Short summary (doesn't tell much of the plot, sorry, but its the best I could find ) -

Once in a generation a novel comes along that taps a vein of universal human experience, resonating with readers of all ages. The Lovely Bones is such a book - a phenomenal #1 bestseller celebrated at once for its narrative artistry, its luminous clarity of emotion, and its astoniishing power to lay claim to the hearts of millions of readers around the world.

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."

So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on eath continue without her - her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling.

 

[poppy]

My suggestion is the Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

Short summary (doesn't tell much of the plot, sorry, but its the best I could find ) -

Once in a generation a novel comes along that taps a vein of universal human experience, resonating with readers of all ages. The Lovely Bones is such a book - a phenomenal #1 bestseller celebrated at once for its narrative artistry, its luminous clarity of emotion, and its astoniishing power to lay claim to the hearts of millions of readers around the world.

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."

So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on eath continue without her - her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling.

This is a great novel -it is completely different, especially the choice of narrator.

 

[Tegans Mama]

This is a great novel -it is completely different, especially the choice of narrator.

Oh I agree, I have read a LOT of books and never anything like this.

 

[mrsraggle]

Her Fearful Symmetry
by Audrey Niffenegger

Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers - normal, at least, for identical 'mirror' twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn't know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin ...but have no idea that they've been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt's mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins' mother - and who can't even seem to quite leave her flat. With Highgate Cemetery itself a character and echoes of Henry James and Charles Dickens, "Her Fearful Symmetry" is a delicious and deadly twenty-first-century ghost story about Niffenegger's familiar themes of love, loss and identity. It is certain to cement her standing as one of the most singular and remarkable novelists of our time.

 

[Pyrrhic]

Godmother: The secret Cinderella Story

A dark re-telling of the fairytale Cinderella


Open the door into magical New York, and be cast under the spell of this breathtaking story of love, loss and redemption. Carolyn Turgeon’s stunning novel is an enchanting new invention of that most beloved of fairytales, Cinderella.

What would you do if you could make dreams come true? If you could ensure that Cinderella met her Prince, that sparks flew, romance blossomed, and most of all, that everyone lived happily ever after?

Be careful what you wish for – because fairy godmothers are as flawed as the rest of us, and temptation is a terrible thing. Meet sweet, well-meaning Lillian, who opens the quiet bookshop in Manhattan’s West Village every morning, and whose dark past contains a desperate act, a dramatic banishment, and a guilty secret she has carried with her for centuries. Only one kind deed done for love will break the spell that has kept Lillian from home for so long – but can she succeed in making her own dreams come true at last?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Godmother-Secret-Cinderella-Carolyn-Turgeon/dp/0755351177/ref=pd_sim_b_3

I've never read it, but it's been on my list of books I'd like to read

 

[vickie83]

The only one I haven't read is the one suggested by rafwife so gonna go and order that now

 

[x-Rainbow-x]

just throwing in a bit of chick lit because i have it in the house and not read it yet!

LOUISE BAGSHAWE - SPARKLE

Crossing decades and continents, SPARKLES is the totally compelling story of the Massot family. Fabulously wealthy, internationally adored, the Massots own one of the last great aristocratic jewellery firms in Paris.

But where is its owner Pierre, missing presumed dead for 15 years? And what will happen to his beautiful young widow Sophie? The answers lie rooted in the past and form part of the future - in a way no-one could ever have guessed...

 

[Esque]

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga


Meet Balram Halwai, the 'White Tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells his story...

Born in a backwater village on the River Ganges, the son of a rickshaw-puller. He works in a teashop, crushing coal and wiping tables, but nurses a dream of escape. When he learns that a rich village landlord needs a chauffeur, he takes his opportunity, and is soon on his way to Delhi behind the wheel of a Honda. Amid the cockroaches and call-centres, the 36,000,004 gods, the slums, the shopping malls, and the crippling traffic jams, Balram learns of a new morality at the heart of a new India. Driven by desire to better himself, he comes to see how the Tiger might escape his cage.

 

[~KACI~]

A Women for All Seasons.
BY Julie Ellis


This is the blurb....
An epic 20th-century saga of family values and artistic ambition, set against the backdrop of the earliest days of Hollywood. In this vintage Julie Ellis novel, a strong woman fights for her family's survival and to keep her own integrity in a fast-changing world. Elisabeth Woolf is born into a rich London family, raised in privileged surroundings by her doting but domineering father. He has definite ideas about how a young Edwardian lady should behave; they do not include higher education, nor attending the theatre. Yet, at seventeen, Elisabeth meets and falls in love with a young actor not of her own faith. Before she realises the full consequences of such a perilous action, she is made an outcast. She flees with her young lover to Melbourne, where he has been offered work. Here Elisabeth discovers her own talent for acting. But before she can establish her career, tragedy intervenes and she must escape again, this time to the USA. Now it seems that nobody wants stage actresses, but in California there is talk of some strange new medium: cinema. From the First World War to the 1950s, Elisabeth and her descendants are at the heart of the emerging entertainment industry.

 

[lozzy21]

I got this book for christmas and i think its great.

Giselle Green, Pandora's Box

Rachel's life has been on hold since the diagnosis of her daughter Shelly with a debilitating -and fatal-illness.

So when Rachels mother offloads a box of her old possession, including a diary, Rachel feels compelled to escape into a past - which on the surface - was carefree. But opening up the box unearths memories best left uncoverd.

Shelly, meanwhile, is juggling a secret romance with planning her own death. Convincing Rachel that she would like to spend her 15th birthday in Cornwall where she spent so many summer holidays, she devises a dignified exit.

But nothing is as is seems and hearthache and surprise lie in store for both mother and daughter

 

[poppy]

Loads of great choices! I am away to buy her fearful symmetry

 

[xpinkness87x]

im going to be cheeky and have alook at the books i havent read

*Edited* Here is my suggestion.

Tony Parsons - My Favourite Wife
A sizzling Shanghai tale of sex, romantic struggles and second wives from the bestselling author of Man and Boy Hot shot young lawyer Bill Holden and his wife Becca move with their four-year-old daughter to the booming, gold-rush city of Shanghai. It is a place of opportunity and temptation, where fortunes are made and foreign marriages come apart in spectacular fashion. Bill's law firm houses the Holden family in Paradise Mansions -- a luxury apartment block full of 'second wives': beautiful young women like JinJin Li, ex-school teacher, crossword addict, dedicated roller skater and the Holdens' neighbour. After Becca witnesses a near-tragedy, she returns temporarily to London with Holly -- and Bill and JinJin are thrown together. Bill wants to be a better man than the millionaire who keeps JinJin Li as a second wife. Better than any man who cheats. Beccas is his best friend. But in the end, can he give JinJin anything different -- can he give her the love she deserves? And can he love his wife too?


I have read one of his other books and that was good... I have two of his books on my shelf that i havent read haha... You should see the amount of unread books i have x

 

[mrsraggle]

Suggestions are fab!

 

[poppy]

Out of the books suggested, why don't we do a brief poll to see which one everyone would like to read. The only thing about drawing a title out of the hat, is that we could end up with a book that not many people want to read and they might all end up opting out.

What do you think? I could post a poll just to get an idea and then we could decide if we go with that choice or not.

xxx

 

[Tegans Mama]

If thats what you wanna do Poppy then aye. We just need a few days to a week notice beforehand so we can all buy the book

 

[lozzy21]

Out of the books suggested, why don't we do a brief poll to see which one everyone would like to read. The only thing about drawing a title out of the hat, is that we could end up with a book that not many people want to read and they might all end up opting out.

What do you think? I could post a poll just to get an idea and then we could decide if we go with that choice or not.

xxx

I think we agreed this wasent a very fair way to do it and the point of the thread was to read a wider virarity of books not just the ones were comfortable with.

 

[poppy]

Ok - no probs. Then does someone want to draw the book out of the hat?

I also think Teagan's Mom has a good point when she said that we all need time to get hold of the book we are going to read - so it is probably a good idea to make it one that we can get hold of fairly easily (i.e. no really obscure titles that costs a lot to ship etc).

When do we want to make the first meeting?

xxx

 

[Tegans Mama]

Its up to you - I am good anytime I already have a couple of the books. I prefer eBooks these days, too many paperbacks crowding my house.

 

[Pyrrhic]

I can do the hat if you like will write them out now