Purple Coo Book Group Spring Read 2017

Don't forget, my Purple Friends, that to vote for your books you need to list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below. If for any reason you can't let me know there, try leaving me a message on the Purple Coo site itself or via Facebook, I'll be Behind the Bike Sheds. After a count up I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes the Purple Coo Book Group Spring Read 2017 - so  let's get on with some more Happy reading.

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

When a handsome young stranger arrives in 1746 New York wishing to cash an order for £1000, can he be trusted or is he a smooth talking swindler? Racy and pacy, with wonderful twists and turns, I’m half way through this book already and it reminds me of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones. I love it. This has to be the best read I’ve come across this year.

Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

It’s 1922 and the war’s been over for four years. When a genteel grieving widow and her spinster daughter take in a married couple of the ‘clerk class’ to make ends meet, snobbery abounds. The spinster daughter is trapped by her home circumstances and the flighty young wife is bored and although it’s an unlikely companionship they're soon very close friends, and as a result of their relationship, dire troubles emerge.

Travels With My Aunt by Graham Green

A humorous novel about a retired, conventional bank manager who meets his eccentric and amoral aunt at his mother’s funeral. Before long they are setting off on journeys together, with momentous and life changing results.

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

On the face of it, this is a novella relating a four day affair between a lonely farmer’s wife and a visiting National Geographic reporter. But somehow it transcends the mundane to be about what it is to love and be loved, in such an intense way life is never the same again.

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

20 years after Bill Bryson was let loose to travel around Britain (remember Notes from a Small Island?) he’s been at it again to see what’s changed. Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath gets the predictably enjoyable Bryson treatment as he seeks out the ridiculous, the disreputable and the downright appealing.

(The illustration is a Hogarth Cartoon, The Rakes Progress)