Purple Coo Winter Read 2009

Winter Reading for the Purple Coo Book Club

Here is the list of books that have been suggested by Purple Coo members. Please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comment box below. I'll collate the votes and announce the most popular book on the Purple Coo Book Club Forum.

Family Album by Penelope Lively

This book offers the shiny, surface of family life, but before long the murkier layers of secrecy begin to be revealed. Sounds like classic Penelope Lively country to me. Should be a brilliant read.

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls.

This book is about "a sassy straight-talking heroine for whom saving lives, taming wild horses and beating ranch hands at poker are all in a day's work. The story of a woman’s life as told by her granddaughter.

Lilla’s Feast by Francis Osborn
At the end of her life, Frances Osborne's one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother Lilla was as elegant as ever. To her great-grandchildren, Lilla was both an ally and a mysterious wonder. Her bedroom was filled with treasures from every exotic corner of the world. But she rarely mentioned the Japanese prison camps in which she spent much of World War II, or the elaborate cookbook she wrote to help her survive behind the barbed wire.

Miss Garnet's Angel by Sally Vickers

A journey of mystery and self discovery, set against a Venetian Backdrop, with more than a hint of Tobias and the Angel. A word of mouth best seller.

The Love of Stones by Tobias Hill

The reviewers called it a ‘bold and intricate novel, a complex tapestry that ranges across time and space, but with a single theme: the manipulative power of exceptional jewels.'

'A compelling thriller... Slicing through six centuries in a single sweep,’ with a theme about greed and ambition.'

The Horse Boy by Rupert Issacson

When his son Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson was devastated, afraid he might never be able to communicate with his child. But when Isaacson, a lifelong horseman, rode their neighbour’s horse with Rowan, Rowan improved immeasurably. He was struck with a crazy idea: why not take Rowan to Mongolia, the one place in the world where horses and shamanic healing intersected?

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The story of four Chinese-immigrant women and their American-born daughters. Each of the four Chinese women has her own view of the world based on her experiences in China and wants to share that vision with her daughter. The daughters try to understand and appreciate their mothers' pasts, adapt to the American way of life, and win their mothers' acceptance.

The 19^th Wife by David Ebershoff

The intertwined narratives of Brigham Young’s expulsion of his own wife from the Mormon Church and a modern day murder mystery.

White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway

Set in Hong Kong in 1967, two girls tumble into their teenage years against an extraordinary backdrop both sensuous and dangerous. A tale of sacrifice and solidarity and the kind of intense, complicated love that only exists between sisters.