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.)

Purple Coo Book Club Winter Read 2013

A thousand pardons if any of your book titles didn't make the final 7 this time, but we've had so many brilliant suggestions.

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 Winter Read for 2013

A Dark Enchantment by Roland Vernon

A debut novel, part love story, part political thriller, with a colourful main character in an exotic setting – i.e. Greece – what’s not to like, eh?

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd

In Fennie’s words ‘weird but excellent.’ Science and discord in the heart of civil war-torn Africa. A gutsy female anthropologist makes a shocking discovery about apes and man.

Have the Men Had Enough by Margaret Forster

Unsentimental about the desolation of old age. Narrated alternately by a 17 year old and her mother, this book is about the decline into senile dementia of an elderly relative, ‘Grandma.’

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

First published in 1951, a mystery romance set in Cornwall - I bet most of us have read this book at one time or another – but it’s well worth another read, not least because I bet few remember the twists of the plot.

The Earl’s Bargain by Cheryl Bolen

Historical regency Romance full of escapist fun, action and humour and dark secrets.

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

A young girl witnesses a shocking crime that changes everything – murder, mystery, thievery and enduring love. The secret history of three strangers from vastly different worlds.

Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd

Set in Vienna in 1913, a young neurotic English actor meets a beautiful woman in a psychiatrist’s office and their affair leads to destructive consequences – a world of sex, scandal and spies – classic Boyd in fact.

The picture is an oil pastel by the talented Cheryl Culver

Purple Coo Autumn Read 2013

 

Hi Everyone

please check out the list below and type your 1st and 2nd choices in the 'comments' box.

As soon as everyone has voted, I'll collate the votes and announce the Purple Coo Autumn Read 2013 on the Purple Coo main site. Please note, with the exception of the new title suggested by Wester Witch, the titles are the same as last time as many of you commented then you'd like the chance to vote on them all again.

 

Alex and Me  by Irene M Pepperbeg

How a scientist and a parrot discovered a hidden world of animal intelligence and formed a deep bond in the process.

 

If Wishes were Horses by Susanna Forrest

A memoir of an Equine Obsession

 

Island Wife by Judy Fairbanks

Aged 19, Judy leaves her predictable life to marry a wild adventurer. Two children later (with more to come) she ends up on a Hebridean island. This is her story.

 

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

A Mexican magical, mythical, moving story of love, sacrifice and simmering sensuality – and recipes too. Anyone who’s’ seen the film will know this is pretty hot stuff – quite literally if you remember the final scene. Wow!

 

Life of Pi by Yyann Martel

I guess many of us will have seen the extraordinary film. If anything the book is even more fantastic or maybe I should say bizarre. This is not your usual shipwrecked at sea adventure story.

 

The Fox in the Cupboard by Jane Shilling

Poignant memoir of growing up and family and then, as a single mum learning to ride and experiencing fox hunting for the first time.

 

The Perfume Garden by Kate Lord Brown

A gripping story of lost love and family secrets set between modern day Valencia and the Spanish Civil war.

 

The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

Another dual strand narrative, this time set in the 1920s and the 1950s. Bored socialite newlywed receives a sizable inheritance from someone she’s never met. She goes off to France to investigate her benefactor and tracks the unknown woman from  New York to Monte Carlo and a perfumery in wartime Paris.

The picture is by Edward Henry Potthast.

 

 

Purple Coo Book Club Summer Read 2013

Hi Everyone

please read the list below and type your 1st and 2nd choices in the 'comments' box.

As soon as everyone has voted, I'll collate the votes and announce the Purple Coo Summer Read 2013 on the Purple Coo main site. I think you'll agree there's some really interesting suggestions this time.

 

Alex and Me  by Irene M Pepperbeg

How a scientist and a parrot discovered a hidden world of animal intelligence and formed a deep bond in the process. 

Extra Virgin by Annie Hawes

An ideal summer holiday read about a woman settling in  a little Italian village in Liguia and taking on an olive grove, much to the dismay of the locals. Warm and funny. 

If Wishes were Horses by Susanna Forrest

One for the all those who love horses. It's a  memoir of an Equine Obsession 

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

A Mexican magical, mythical, moving story of love, sacrifice and simmering sensuality – and recipes too. Anyone who’s seen the film will know this is pretty hot stuff – quite literally if you remember the final scene. Wow! 

Life of Pi by Yyann Martel

I guess many of us will have seen the extraordinary film. If anything the book is even more fantastic or maybe I should say bizarre. This is not your usual shipwrecked at sea adventure story. 

The Fox in the Cupboard by Jane Shilling

Poignant memoir of growing up and family and then, as a single mum learning to ride and experiencing fox hunting for the first time. 

The Perfume Garden by Kate Lord Brown

No, not 'The Perfumed Garden' tsk! tsk! This is a gripping story of lost love and family secrets set between modern day Valencia and the Spanish Civil war, not the the exotic sex manual translated by Richard Burton...  no, not the actor ... the  Victorian explorer.

The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

Another dual strand narrative, this time set in the 1920s and the 1950s. Bored socialite newlywed receives a sizable inheritance from someone she’s never met. She goes off to France to investigate her benefactor and tracks the unknown woman from  New York to Monte Carlo and a perfumery in wartime Paris.

Midnight in Pekin

Real life crime that is as strange and as startling as fiction. A true story of a murdered girl and her distraught father's search to find the truth in wartime Pekin.

 

Purple Coo Book Club Spring Read 2013

Please make your first and second choices in the comments box below.
As soon as I've collated the votes, I'll announce the most popular on the Purple Coo main site and the most popular becomes our Purple Coo Book Club Spring Read 2013

 

Anna Kerenia by Leo Tolstoy

Much more than just a doomed love affair between the society beauty Anna and the specious Count Vronsky. To my mind this is one of the greatest Russian novels ever written.

 

 

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

The first one of her brilliant Jackson Brodie books. A most complex and moving literary detective novel.  Back on the list by popular demand.

 

 

 

Heartstone by C J Sansom

An historical crime novel set in 16^th century, during the reign of King Henry VIII. Matthew Shardlake is given an intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen Cathering Parr.

 

My Policeman by Bethan Roberts

The dual narratives of Marion and Patrick reveal the painful, tragic story of their sham marriage. It is a tale of wasted years, misguided love and thwarted hope at the time when Britain was on the verge of change. A raw and tender novel about a dismal age.

 

Wesley: The Story of a Remarkable Owl by Stacey O'Brien.

The true tale of a young owl brought up by a human. A very moving and beautifully told story. A young biologist takes on the care of a young owlet with a damaged wing and so starts a funny, poignant story of their two decades together. A most remarkable 19year saga. Lots of photographs too, from a helpless ball of 4 day old fluff, to gorgeous golden and white adulthood. A complex, heart-warming, emotional story.

Remember Me by Lesley Pearse

A triumphant tale of one woman’s struggle over adversity. In 1786 a fisherman’s daughter from Cornwall is sentenced to be hung for theft. But her sentence is commuted and she is transported to Australia, one of the first convicts to arrive there.

The Shoemakers Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Fate separates two young lovers Ciro and Enza. They have to leave their homes in the Italian Alps at the turn of the century, to start new lives apart in America. Fate intervenes and reunites them, but is it too late? Ciro is off to war in Europe, Enza is about to forge an impressive career as a seamstress in the Metropolitan Opera. Their lives are very different.