Summer Reading for the Purple Book Club

This is the list of suggested books. Please make your 1^st and 2^nd choice in the comment box. I’ll collate the votes and publish the most popular book choice on the Book Forum

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood ( It is woven around the story of a Victorian Murderess, Grace Marks and is a tale of sexuality, cruelty and mystery. An explosive mixture of sex, murder and class conflict.)

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (A darkly comedic novel that centres on a troubled family headed by a man who is convinced he has cancer.)

Black Swan Green by David Mitchel (Set in the Malverns, it is about a 13 year old boys experiences, and is described as, ‘touching, funny, simple and profound’.)

Date Expectations by Paul Reizen (One man’s odyssey through a sea of lonely hearts - a hilarious true story about the highs and lows of trying to find happiness through a lonely hearts club.)

Plotting for Beginners. A novel for new beginnings by Sue Hepworth and Jane Linfoot ( A funny novel, easy and uplifting, an ideal summer read, especially for women who like to write - and lets face it, we know a few of them. Don’t we?)

The New Harry Potter JK Rowling

The Olive Sisters by Amanda Hampson (Light fiction with an interesting background of family histories.)

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell (A short novel about what defines madness and sanity It also touches family life, institutional life and the British Raj.)

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates (Set in Mt Ephrain, New York it is about an ideal family with a secret. Something happens on Valentines Day 1976; something is hushed up.)

These are the runners up from last time in case you are still interested in reading them as well.

English Passenger by Matthew Kneale ( A wryly humorous seafaring yarn set around an 1857 voyage to Tasmania.)

Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (She meets the love of her life when she is 6 and he’s 36, but he’s only really 8 years older than her. It’s not really science fiction, it’s more about two people coping with a situation beyond their control

Redemption Falls by Joseph O’Connor (This explores the enigma of life through a love story and tale of war in 1860s America.)

Unless by Carol Shields (This is about a woman who’s comfortable life is in turmoil when she finds her daughter is sitting on a Toronto street corner with a begging bowl in her lap.)

I feel I want to read them all but that isn’t possible. The one with the most votes will be the Summer Purple book.

Now make your 1^st and 2^nd choice of book in the comments box.