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Recommendations
Book Club Favourites #7
by Brandon King
How to be both by Ali Smith
A much celebrated novel about looking. You will either find this book complex and enjoyable, or deeply confusing! It’s not an easy read, but if you can get beyond the layers of the story there is a lot to reward you, including some strong female characters.
Village of secrets: defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead
Non-fiction title about the remarkable efforts of the inhabitants of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and the other villages of the Plateau Vivarais to save several thousand people from the concentration camps in WWII. This book was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Award in 2014. Equally there are those who say that it misrepresents the story. Judge for yourself.
On the road by Jack Kerouac
On the Road swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat. An epic journey of self discovery.
The shock of the fall by Nathan Filer
An extraordinary portrait of Matthew, a young man who suffers from schizophrenia. Filer writes this novel in such a way that you cannot help becoming emotionally entwined with the story and its characters. This is one that you will remember long after you have finished it.
Heartbreak hotel by Deborah Moggach
Heartwarming tale from the author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Retired actor Buffy moves from London to rural Wales to run a failing B&B. He realises he needs to fill the beds – and fast. Enter a motley collection of guests with varied personalities and problems. Under Buffy’s watchful eye, this disparate group of strangers find they have more in common than perhaps they first thought.
The martian by Andy Weir
Mark Watney is one of the astronauts on the Ares 3 mission to Mars. Unfortunately, when the Ares 3 mission leaves, Mark is left behind, presumed dead… Edge of the seat drama. Read the book before Ridley Scott’s film comes out later this year.
The storyteller by Jodi Picoult
Sage Singer has a past that makes her want to hide from the world. When she strikes up an unlikely friendship with Josef Weber, a quiet man old enough to be her grandfather and respected pillar of the community, she feels that finally, she may have found someone she can open up to – until Josef tells her the evil secret he’s kept for 60 years.
The old ways: a journey on foot by Robert Macfarlane
Robert Macfarlane sets off from his Cambridge home to follow the ancient tracks, holloways, drove-roads and sea-paths that form part of a vast network of routes which criss-cross Britain. There is a bit of everything here, travelogue, some history and some local interest.
Sapiens: a brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, this book challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power and our future.
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
In a small town in the south-east of Ireland in the 1950s, Eilis Lacey is among many of her generation who cannot find work at home. So when she is offered a job in America, she leaves her family to start a new life in Brooklyn, New York.