Purple Coo Book Group Summer Read 2020

To vote please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below. If you are unable to leave your vote there please let me know your 1st and 2nd choices via Purple Coo 'Behind the Bike Sheds' Book Group Comments. Or you can PM me if that suits you better. Once all the votes are in, the book that gets the most votes becomes our Purple Coo Book Group Summer Read for 2020.

Grown Ups by Marian Keyes

A family saga set in Ireland, a self-made business woman is trying to run her life and hold all her family together, lots of twists and turns in relationships to keep you reading and wanting more.

The Beekeeper’s Promise by Fiona Valpy

Set mostly in the South West France before and during WW2 the book follows the stories of two women, one English and once French, generations apart, who must use adversity to their advantage and fond the resilience deep within.

The Once and Future King by T H White

As it’s a sequence of novels we’d better go for the first one of this truly epic series that are all based on Le Morte d’Arthur. So on offer is The Sword in the Stone - not the Disney version.

Till the Cows Come Home by Sara Cox

A heart-warming memoir of a Lancashire childhood by a well know BBC radio and TV presenter.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

I can honestly say this is the most original book I’ve read for a very long time. Set in the coastal marshes of North Carolina, it’s a murder mystery, a most unusual coming of age story and a lyrical celebration of nature all at the same time.

Purple Coo Book Group Spring 2020

To vote for your preferred books for our Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2019 please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below.

If for an reason you are unable to write your comment in there, please let me know your two favourites via the Facebook Book Group comments box. 

As soon as everyone has voted I'll add up the votes and the book with the most votes becomes our Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2019.

Mr Godley’s Phantom by Mal Peet

Set in 1945, ‘part ghost story, part crime thriller and part something else entirely.’

Martin Heath returns from the war a broken man, but his new employer, a strange and preoccupied recluse, has his own hidden demons to deal with. (Something close to a masterpiece – The Guardian)

Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson

A witty and humorous travelogue following Bill Bryson’s extensive 1990 trip around Europe, with many flashbacks to two summer tours he made as a young man in 1972/73

Surviving Me by Jo Johnson

The story of an out of work young man in a crisis, Surviving Me  tends to focus on the challenges facing men today by dealing with depression, dysfunctional families and degenerative disease in an honest, life affirming and often humorous way.

The Crock of Gold by James Stephens

First published in 1912, and widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest novels in the Irish comic tradition, The Crock of Gold is a medley of fantasy, satire and humour all wound up in a magical narrative.

The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary

Written in 1942, just seven months before the authors untimely death, this book is considered to be one of the classic texts of World War II

(Not the easiest reading but well worth the effort)

(The picture is A change in the Seasons by Cheryl Culver)

 

 

Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2019

To vote for your preferred books for our Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2019 please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below.

If for an reason you are unable to write your comment in there, please let me know your two favourites via the Facebook Book Group comments box. 

As soon as everyone has voted I'll add up the votes and the book with the most votes becomes our Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2019.

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

A series of brilliant vignettes set in the cannery district of Monterey USA during the Great Depression. Disturbing but life affirming, a truly Great American Novel.

Bookworm by Lucy Mangan

An all absorbing memoir of what is was like to be a bookish child in Margaret Thatcher’s South London.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

A coming of age story. Over 6 turbulent months 17 year old Cassandra relates the adventures of her eccentric family and their struggle to live in genteel poverty in a ruined Suffolk castle during 1930s.

Love is Blind by William Boyd

Set at the end of the 19^th C young musician Brodie Moncur seizes the chance to flee his strict Edinburgh father to start a new life in Paris. A typical Boyd tale of dizzying passion, dangerous consequences and brutal revenge.

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay

The real life secret diaries of a junior doctor, now turned successful comedy writer, this book is almost too painfully truthful and very nearly as painfully funny.

(The picture is A Hinds Daughter by James Guthrie)

Purple Coo Book Group Summer Read 2019

Remember, to choose your preferred books for our Purple Coo Book Group Summer Read 2019, all you have to do is make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below. If you are unable to comment for any reason, let me know your two favourites via the Purple Coo Main Site or tell me through Face Book, Behind the Bike Sheds.  As soon as everyone has voted I'll publish our favourite and that becomes our Purple Coo summer choice. I think you'll agree we've got something  to suit everyone this time. 

All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison

It’s 1933 and young Edie is all set to spend her life, like her family before her, on an impoverished Suffolk farm when an outsider from London arrives, determined to record what she see as fading rural traditions and beliefs. But this glamorous stranger is not all that she seems. This is a novel about how in the wrong hands, nostalgia can wield a dangerous and seductive power.

My Kind of Blue by Ken Clark

The memoir of a well-respected Tory maverick and jazz aficionado.

Sea Room by Adam Nicholson

Aged 21 the 5th Baron Carnock, hubby to Sarah Raven and grandson of Vita Sackville West, inherited the Shiant Islands, not far from the Isle of Harris and Lewis, to his mind one of the most beautiful places on earth. Sea room is an island history of birds, boat, hermits, fisher folk mixed in with the perils and pleasures of island living.

The Olive Tree by Lucinda Riley

The complex nature of relationships, families and family ties, lies and deceptions, love and intrigue. Set mostly in Cyprus, the story centres on a house called Pandora and those who have been touched and influenced by its magic.

The Templar’s Last Secret by Martin Walker

Bruno, gourmand and beloved chief of police in idyllic St Denis in the Dordogne sets out to unravel what lies behind a mysterious death and in so doing brings some ancient mysteries to light. An enjoyable Maigret type thriller and a celebration of French rural cuisine.

 The picture is  an illustration by Arthur Rackham for The Three Bears

Purple Coo Book Group Spring 2019

Now's the time to choose the next title for our Purple Coo Book Group Spring Read. If you fancy joining in, and remember all are welcome, please note your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below. If for any reason you are unable to write in the comments box please let me know your choices via Face Book or Purple Coo.  The book with most votes becomes our Spring Read for 2019.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

A US bestselling story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91 year old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and a teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one ever thought to ask.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

Described as a bit like Eleanor Oliphant only about a boy and set in Milton Keynes. It’s really a novel about difference and being an outsider who views the world in a surprising and revealing way. (Mark Haddon insists he didn't intend it to be about high-functioning autism, what do you think?)

The End of the Affair by Grahame Green

Obsession and jealously within an adulterous triangular relationship. Set in WW2 this is fourth and probably the best of Green’s so-called “Catholic Novels,” and a hundred times better than the two films.

The Unseen by Katherine Webb

Occult happenings, romantic passion and murder disrupt the peace of a Berkshire village in 1911.

Wish You Were Here by Graham Swift

 A testing and powerful story about a family and their farm: history, loss and disaster, love and relationships in a rural setting ... oh yes, and a dash of politics too.

The picture is Hares by Angela Harding

Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2018

To vote for your favourite books please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below, or let me know via the Purple Coo site or on Face Book, Behind the Bike Sheds. After a count up I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo main site.

Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley

First published in 1921 and Aldous Huxley’s debut novel, Chrome Yellow is a witty satire on upper-class English country life and is seen to be a parody of Garsington Manor, the home of Lady Ottoline Morrell.

Educated by Tara Westover

The memoir of a woman who, at 17 and completely uneducated, manages to escape from her fundamentalist Mormon family living a survivalist life in the Idaho mountains and become a successful academic.

Engerby by Sebastian Faulks

“My name is Mike Engerby and I’m in my second year at an ancient university,” is how Faulks introduces the character who turns out to be this gifted novelist's most difficult to fathom, odd and not particularly likeable, unreliable narrator.

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

Set in 1988, The Music Shop follows record shop owner Frank who has the rare gift of finding the perfect piece of music to remedy any emotional or psychological woes his customers may be suffering from. However his cosy world is under threat, not only from record companies plugging CDs rather than his beloved vinyl, but also the developers who would like to knock his shop down. And yes, there is a love story as well.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

A surprisingly joyous book based around a young woman’s tragically profound loneliness. A disturbing and unusual novel seen through the eyes of an extremely unreliable narrator, that somehow manages to be both eye wateringly hilarious and heartrendingly moving, often both on the same page.

The picture is by Grandma Moses. I couldn't find out it's name but it does make me think autumn is on the way.

Purple Coo Book Group Summer 2018

To vote for your favourite books please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below, or let me know via the Purple Coo site or on Behind the Bike Sheds, Face Book. After a count up I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo main site. 

Bring Me Back by B. A. Paris

A young couple on a driving holiday through France stop to get petrol. He goes to pay, she disappears. Sounds like an all too familiar trope, but this really is a well written, gripping thriller with a killer twist.

Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss

A subtle and complicated book written from two points of view. A retired successful New York lawyer and a well-known novelist with writers block, are irresistibly dawn to visit Israel to rethink their existence. Only once they are there, they find their lives being altered in a way they could never have imagined.

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan
A charming, clever, and quietly moving debut novel of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.

The Kites by Romain Gary

A novel of love and human dilemmas in France set in the period of the Occupation. A bittersweet masterpiece about enduring love, courage and resistance.

Scenes from a Vanished Life by Rose Tremain

An evocation of an era, Rose Tremain’s account of her unhappy upper-class childhood from post-war London to a Swiss finishing school.

The picture is Black Cat with Lily by Elizabeth Blackadder