Hello reader…
I’ll admit – I wasn’t sure anyone would show up for this month’s gathering, what with the Super Bowl and all…but I was happily surprised that friends still came to chat about books!
So, without further ado…
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
Our hour opened with a lengthy quote from this novel set in World War II about a young woman who discovers a sense of community and a love of reading at her local bookshop.
Charles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography by Edzard Ernst
A short and sweet quote was shared from this soon-to-be-published work on Prince Charles and his obsession with alternative therapies. The author scrutinizes the evidence and holds Charles’ views to the light.
Ma’am Jones of the Pecos by Eve Ball
A reader picked this up at a local book sale. It’s an oral-history-ish non-fiction about settling the eastern part of New Mexico in the mid-to-late 1800s.
Billy the Kid was involved but the story is more about Ma’am Jones, a strong pioneer woman who had 9 sons and 1 daughter, and nursed, doctored, and fed everyone who came to their door.
The Jones family originally hailed from Virginia. Our reader explained that Virginia split because of the War between the States. Heiskell (Mr. Jones) couldn’t take up arms against the South and couldn’t stay in their county if he refused to go into the Union Army – he had promised his wife he could never fight.
So they migrated to Arizona for a while before settling in New Mexico. Our reader really enjoyed this book.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The “Ma’am Jones” reader also read this Gaiman novel and said that it was “most excellent!”.
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
This is Erdrich’s newest publication and “fascinating” according to our reader…touching on the pandemic, BLM, etc. Erdrich won a Pulitzer Prize for an earlier publication, The Night Watchman.
Station Eleven by Emiuly St. John Mandel
The Sentence reminded another one of our readers of Station Eleven, a novel about the impact of a fictional deadly pandemic on a troupe of actors and a violent cult that they encounter.
The Binding by Bridget Collins
Although well-written and intriguing, this was a DNF for our reader, who felt they needed a lighter, happier read.
It’s about bookbinders who extract specific memories from people, bind them in books and lock the books away in vaults. Naturally, some folks use this to their advantage for nefarious purposes.
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Recommended by a reader who said this is a book for those who want an unreliable narrator…hmmm! The same reader also read Lethem’s Chronic City and loved it…and was thus disappointed in Motherless Brooklyn.
Too Much and Not the Mood by Durga Chew-Bose
A first book for this author and essay-ish, but in a stream-of-consciousness way. Very autobiographical. The author grew up in Montreal…lived in New York…is apparently back in Montreal. In the book she talks about a lot of things and goes in a number of directions.
Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin
This is about a ‘toy’ that has a camera behind its eyes, which allows a person to see into the life of the owner of the toy. This becomes a problem when people try to take real life intervention into things they see through the toys.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
This novel has been making the rounds through our group and most readers enjoyed it. It’s a series of short stories loosely tied together by the theme of a young woman exploring alternative lives that might have been. One reader mentioned that this book is particularly easy to listen to as an audio book, in short bursts. She very much enjoyed it!
Our next gathering will be on Sunday, March 13th at 1pm SLT. All are welcome – bring a friend!
The Reading Room 