Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2017

To vote for your favourite books please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, following a count up, I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo  main site and in Behind the Bike Sheds on Facebook. If you are unable to vote below, please let me know your choice via the Purple Coo main site or via Facebook

A Life of My Own by Claire Tomalin

The autobiography of a talented writer better known for her works on the lives of other authors such as Austen, Hardy and Dickens.

Mount by Jilly Cooper

An effortless easy to read book about bonking and horses – need I say more?

Pekin to Paris by Dina Bennett

A true story of how Mr and Mrs Bennett buy a vintage 1940 GM La Salle and, despite having the day dreaming, carsick Dina as navigator, actually set off on a 7,800 mile race from China, across Mongolia, Russia, taking in the Baltic States, Poland and Germany along the way, with the intention of ending up in the Place de Vendome Paris 35 days later.

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Two girls, both mixed race and from similar backgrounds, have an overwhelming love of dance and musical theatre. Friends since childhood, they grow up to follow very different destinies, one is a super-talented dancer, the other merely as dogsbody PA to an international rock star. (Man Booker short list 2017)

Skin Deep by Laura Wilkinson

When struggling art student and former exploited child model, Diana sets out to liberate the disfigured child, Cal from his world of enforced isolation among the low life of Manchester’s Hulme Estate, she maintains she’s acting in the child’s best interests. But Diana, ambitious for success in the avant-garde art world also recognises the vulnerable Cal as her muse.  But triumph and fame means Diana must follow an increasingly bizarre path, one that brings her into conflict with the needs of the now teenage Cal.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

It’s 1893 and newly widowed Cora Seaborne and her troubled son move away from London for the promise of fresh air and refuge in Colchester. Once there Cora, a keen and rational amateur naturalist, becomes embroiled in the Essex Serpent myth, a legendary beast said to be back roaming the Aldwinter coast. Suspecting an undiscovered species, she sets out to find out the truth, only to find herself entangled in a local legend, and the life of Aldwinter’s charismatic vicar as well

The painting is Pines and Tracks by the very talented Cheryl Culver

Purple Coo Book Group Summer Read 2017

To vote for your favourite books please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, following a count up, I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo  main site and in Behind the Bike Sheds on Facebook. If you are unable to vote below, please let me know your choice via the Purple Coo main site or via Facebook

A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

One of the great novels of its time, this is James Joyce’s first book and it traces the religious and intellectual awaking of Stephen Dedalus, Joyce’s fictional alter ego. The ‘hero’ questions and rebels against Irish conventional life, in particular the repressive strictures of the Catholic Church, 

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

An amusing high comedy. It’s the 1950s and a clergyman’s daughter/mild mannered spinster – an excellent woman – manages to get totally embroiled in the lives of her new neighbours. This book opens up and lays bare a whole world of vanished manners and repressed desires.

Sarum by Edward Rutherford

A masterpiece epic novel over 1000 pages long, Sarum traces the turbulent course of British History via five families. In so doing it covers a rich tapestry of civilization through the ages, from the creation of Stonehenge to the present day.

The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide

At only 140 pages, this book is a jewel. A young workaholic couple rent a cottage on a large estate near Tokyo and a cat invites itself to stay. Life suddenly has more promise, more colour and the couple start to feel much more joy and meaning in their life together. Then something happens and all is changed.

The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne

A creepy thriller. It’s hard enough coping with the death in an accident of one identical twin daughter, but when the remaining twin, Kirstie, claims to her parents that they have mistaken her identity for that of her sister, Lydia, the couple’s world comes crashing down.


The picture is Regatta at Argenteuil by Claude Monet

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)

Purple Coo Book Group Winter Read 2016

To vote for your books, please make you 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, after a count up I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes our Purple Coo Book Club Autumn Read 2016

A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor DSO OBE

Aged 18, in 1933, the author set out to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. This is the first volume of a trilogy taking the reader as far as Hungary. Wonderful descriptions of countryside, culture and the people he meets of course, but with a fascinating undercurrent hinting of the political turmoil about to upset the whole of Europe.

Keeping On, Keeping On by Alan Bennet

Alan Bennet’s superb and playful memoir that shows him to be much more of a Tigger than an Eeyore. You may have heard some of this on radio 4 recently. I did while driving to the supermarket and had to stop my car I was laughing so much.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

It’s 1893 and on leaving London for Colchester, a widow and her boy hear rumours of a strange mythical beast that’s said to roam the marshes claiming human lives. A keen and rational naturalist, she sets out to seek the real truth.  Essex Gothic? This is the book everyone is raving about. Waterstones Book of The Year no less. In hardback it would make a lovely Christmas present.

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Ostensibly a day in the life of a society lady sorting out the last minute details of a grand party, but as the day unfolds the reader discovers not only the woman’s troubled past but that of her friends as well that drives one of them to ... I won’t say more and spoil the plot but this is a landmark novel and the a mark of true genius.

The picture is by one of my favourite artists, Cheryl Culver

 

Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2016

To vote for your books, please make you 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, after a count up I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes our Purple Coo Book Club Autumn Read 2016

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Acclaimed as a tragic and brilliant book that exposes the unimaginable gulf between the traumas of what happened in WW1 and the present day. A story of love and heartbreak spanning three generations, dark, romantic and surreal. Described as a cross between Farewell to Arms and The English Patient, a rewarding but not easy read.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

Not to be confused with the rather sanitised version made into a film starring Audrey Hepburn. Set in 1943, the real Holly Golightly is a fragilely glamorous teenage New York café society girl who makes her way in the world by socializing with wealthy men. Although she survives by accepting their money and presents, she’s not quite a prostitute, more an American geisha with  quirky view of life.

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet

A tricksy, yet gripping crime novel giving an evocative insight into the tough, brutal existence of Highland crofters. It tells of the trial of a 17year old boy living in 1896 Ross-shire, who beat the local constable and two other people to death.  Yes, that’s right, a crime novel good enough to be shortlisted for the recent Booker Prize.

The Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins

Rachael, the slightly overweight, divorced alcoholic heroine, is sacked from her job and staying with a long suffering friend. Obsessive and bitter, she fantasises about other people’s lives, while keeping up the pretence she is still working and coping well. In reality she is in total pieces. This book is flavour of the month, but be warned, its masterful deployment of unwitting unreliable narration evokes the aftershocks of abuse and trauma, making it neither an easy nor comfortable read.

Slaughterhouse 5 by Curt Vonnegut

An absurdist classic and satirical anti-war novel about the world experiences and journeys through time of Billy Pilgrim, American WW2 soldier/ alien abductee.

The Painted Lady by Maeve Haran

A well written romp through 17^th century England. A vulnerable young lady arrives at the restoration court to find her innocence and beauty highly attractive to King Charles II, who will stop at nothing to make her his mistress. But she’s not a girl who gives in easily, if at all… Topical in that it covers not only the Great Plague, but also the Fire of London.

The painting is a cottage on Iona, by Cadell

Purple Coo Summer Read 2016

To vote for your favourite, please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, after a count up, I'll post the title of our most popular book on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes our Purple Coo Book Club Summer Read 2016

A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor

In the faded coastal village of Newby, everyone looks out for - and in on - each other, and beneath the deceptively sleepy exterior, passions run high. Beautiful divorcee Tory is painfully involved with her neighbour, Robert, while his wife Beth, Tory's best friend, is consumed by the worlds she creates in her novels, oblivious to the relationship developing next door. Their daughter Prudence is aware, however, and is appalled by the treachery she observes. Mrs Bracey, an invalid whose grasp on life is slipping, forever peers from her window, constantly prodding her daughters for news of the outside world. And Lily Wilson, a lonely young widow, is frightened of her own home. Into their lives steps Bertram, a retired naval officer with the unfortunate capacity to inflict lasting damage while trying to do good. ( A Virago Modern Classic)

How to Measure a Cow by Margaret Forster

Tara Fraser leaves London to start a new life in a Cumbrian town selected at random. She plans to obliterate her past, which contains a shocking event that had serious consequences, by becoming a completely different personality from her previous volatile self. She is going to be quiet, even dull, and very private. 

But one of her new neighbours, Nancy, is intrigued by her. She wants to become her friend. Equally determined not to be discarded are three old friends who Tara feels let her down when she most needed them. 

Tara fights to keep herself to herself, but can she do it? And does she really want to? Slowly, reluctantly, she discovers the dangers of trying to suppress the past and reject other people.

My Brilliant Friend by Elana Ferrante  

Much acclaimed when it came out and likely to be a real antidote to our miserable summer, My Brilliant Friend is the first book of the trilogy, The Neapolitan Novels and apparently is an addictive epic about two girls in Naples and the pathways they take into life.

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

Famous for his bestselling travel book, Notes from a Small Island, The Road to Little Dribbling is Bill Bryson’s latest book about Britain and covers his journey from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, so that just about covers us all in I would think. Given the changes about about  to come because of the Brexit result, this could be a timely read.

The colourful painting is by Wassily Kandinsky

Purple Coo Book Group Spring 2016

To Vote for our Purple Coo Book Club Spring Read 2016 please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below, or let me know via the Purple Coo site or via Facebook. The most popular book will be announced on Purple Coo as soon as I've had the chance to add up your votes. Only 5 books to vote for this time, and all of them very worth reading, so it's going to be a close run thing. 

Girl on a Swing by Richard Adams

By the author of Watership Down, but a much different tale, no dear little wandering rabbits in this one. Girl on a Swing is a spooky supernatural thriller. Think, young married couple, a mysterious antique, strange influences, worrying noises in the night, faint sounds of a child crying in the garden, with the promise of more troubling things to come.

Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

The novel that won the late Anita Brookner the Booker Prize.

Edith Hope, a determinedly unmarried novelist seeks exile and solace in the Hotel du Lac. Among the assorted pampered female guests is Mr Neville, and Edith is tempted by this final chance to change her life. A subtle, elegiac, charming and thoughtful novel.

Queen of Silks by Vanora Bennett

Part love story, part thriller, a masterly piece of storytelling set around the intertwining fates of two beautiful sisters during the reign of Edward IV. One woman is mistress to the king, the other the court silk weaver, both find out secrets perhaps they shouldn’t know.

Red Fortunes by Hugh Fraser

Set in Russia between the tangled years of 1914 – 1929, this is a page turning tale around love and romance, language difference, class, revolution, prostitution and vodka. Nostrovia!

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The first of the comedy science fiction series, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a real blast of original, mind bending mirth. Fabulously funny … but then I guess you’ll know that already.

The picture is of Dorothy Johnstone by Anne Finlay 1920, currently on show as part of the Modern Scottish Women Painters and Sculptors exhibition in Edinburgh