Purple Coo Book Club Autumn Read 2014

 

 

Five suggestions: two  non-fiction, two fiction and one sort of half and half. Once again I think you'll find it very difficult to choose a favourite, but  as always, to vote, please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below. After a count up, the title of the most popular book will be posted on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes our Purple Coo Book Club Autumn Read for 2014

 

Chris by Mary Mackie

A moving, funny and heart-warming biography of a man who survived a bad beginning and made good. (I can only find this book on kindle, not paperback) 

Mary Anne by Daphne du Maurier

Regency flashback, set in London at a time when Paris is undergoing a reign of terror, this is a story of a woman’s struggle to get by in a man’s world. Born in a slum but determined to be a ‘success’ she ends up first with a disastrous marriage, then as the mistress of great men, with the inevitable scandal or two thrown in. 

Mr Mack and Me by Esther Freud

It’s 1914 and architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife have moved to war-torn Waberswick in Suffolk only to find he is suspected of working as a German spy.

A skilled interlacing of fact and fiction, the story is told through the eyes of local publican’s son, who has a drunken father and 6 brothers in the local graveyard. 

Philomena by Martin Sixsmith

A true story, also made into a film, about a woman and the son she was coerced into giving away because she was an unmarried mother.  

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

Widely considered to be one of the ‘Great American Novels’ this book is set in the roaring twenties and is largely about about a mysterious millionaire and his passion for a beautiful, spoiled young woman. Decadence, idealism, hubris, excess, this book has it all and more.

 

 The illustration is by Charles Rennie Mackintosh of course.

 

Purple Coo Book Club Summer Read 2014

Five suggestions this time and for the first time ever 4 of them are non-fiction, but they are all such startling stories, I'm sure you'll have difficulty choosing your favourite. 
As always, to vote, please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, after a count up, the title of the most popular book will be posted on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes our Purple Coo Book Club Summer Read for 2014

Angel in the Rubble By Genelle Guzman-McMillan

(Non fiction) A true account of the miraculous rescue of the last person to be brought out alive from the rubble of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. Genelle is trapped for 27 hours in what she describes as a “...sealed coffin of concrete and steel.” Unable to get out and aware of the likelihood of her approaching death, she has time to reflect on the life she’s lived and how she’s drifted from the faith she once knew. It is only when she remembers the miraculous recovery of her aunt in Trinidad that Genelle starts to have the hope ... just maybe ... God has a miracle for her as well.

Summer by Bill Bryson

(Non fiction) A compelling account covering the happenings of the summer of 1927, the year Linbergh flew from New York to Paris and Al Capone was arrested.

Priscilla by Nicholas Shakespeare

(Non fiction – Nicholas Shakespeare is Priscilla’s nephew) A fascinating account of his aunt’s adventures, including her arrest and internment by the Gestapo, liaisons with high ranking German Officers and two marriages: to a French nobleman and an English mushroom farmer no less.

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain

(Non fiction) A magnificent and brilliantly written account by Vera Brittain, of how she was about to go up to Oxford when WW1 broke out. Four years later her life – and the lives of her whole generation – has irretrievably changed. A brilliant suggestion for this Centenary year. (If you liked Crimson Field – this is the real thing and infinitely better)

The Collector of Dying Breaths by M J Rose

A novel of suspense and intrigue set in Florence, Italy – 1533. An orphan, plucked from poverty becomes Catherine de Medici’s perfumer, and brings with him secret recipes not only for exotic fragrances and potent medicines, but also  covert poisons and a formula said to reanimate the dead. Yet he little knows the tragic and personal consequences for which his lethal potions will be responsible.

(The image is by Robert Delunay)

Purple Coo Book Club Spring Read 2014

Only 5 suggestions this time, so choosing your favourite two should be really easy. As always, to vote for your favourite, please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, after a count up, the title of the most popular book will be posted on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes our Purple Coo Book Club Spring Read for 2014

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

An old man is seduced into marriage by a gold digging glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcee. Needless to say his grown up family totally disapprove and do their utmost to interfere. Expect some wry smiles, a few out and out laughs and a timely reminder of some parts of Ukraine’s tragic past.

A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri

A multilayered story of twin sisters in Iran and what happens when their paths separate. Un-put-down-able and beautifully written, though it comes with a warning of being rather cruel in parts.

Stoner by John Williams

Despite the title, this isn’t a book about drugs. It’s a profoundly moving story about the life of an unhappily married man - an English professor in a Midwestern university - who’s unlucky in love and frustrated in his career. Doesn’t sound that promising does it? But rest assured it’s a brilliant read.

Tainted Angel by Anne Cleeland

An exhilarating Napoleonic adventure in Regency style. Vida Swanson, both notorious and beautiful, is working as an ‘angel’, trying to coax incriminating secrets from powerful men who may be traitors of the crown. A gripping historical tale of double agents, intrigue and romance.

 The Ghost of Alice Fields by David Cameron

The adopted daughter of a Balkan’s scholar had been killed by a blow to the head. Jude Oswald is profoundly affected when he chances upon the crime scene reconstruction near his Edinburgh home. When he then uses his newspaper column to accuse the murdered girl’s adopted father of her murder, his already troubled life going into free fall.

 The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

A creatively told tale dealing with mental illness and grief (winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2013)

‘I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s Simon. I think you’re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.’

 (The paintings by Miro but unfortunately I can't remember what it's called.)