Book of the Month - January 2012 - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Book

This is a true story of HeLa.

Henrietta Lacks was a poor tobacco famer from Southern Virginia in the United States who fell ill with cervical cancer aged 30. On her death, she was buried in an unmarked grave. 

But, as this book explores, Henrietta lives on thanks to her cells which are still alive today!

While she (and her family who couldn't even afford health insurance) remained unknown, Henrietta's cells - taken without her knowledge - became important tools in medical research. Henrietta's cells have been bought and sold by the billions and have been vital in developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilisation.

This book is a debut novel and when first published in November 2010 was awarded the Wellcome Trust Book Prize for an outstanding work of fiction or non-fiction on the theme of health and medicine. It was also awarded a Salon Book Award and selected as one of the The New York Times Notable Books of the Year.
It is a story that raises questions about ethics, race, medicine and scientific discovery.

The Author

Rebecca Skloot is a journalist and science writer. She is a contributing editor of Popular Science and her work has also been published in the The New York Times and O: The Oprah Magazine. Skloot is a graduate in Biological Sciences and a masters in creative nonfiction.

More Information

For more details about both the book and author, see http://rebeccaskloot.com/the-immortal-life/

Book of the Month - December 2011 - Timbuktu

The Book

Timbuktu is a short novel about the life of a scruffy mutt (dog), Mr Bones and his dying master, a vagabond called Willy G. Christmas. The story begins with the last journey of Willy and Mr Bones to Baltimore, as Willy searches for his mentor, Bea Swanson, who he was last in touch with over 20 years before.
After Willy's death, Mr Bones must fend for himself and his life changes irrevocably. After the deep bond he has shared with Willy, Mr Bones' comes into contact with a young Chinese boy, Henry (although Willy advises him to steer clear of Chinese restaurants and children!) and then a family (Polly, Dick, Alice and Tiger) where Mr Bones suffers the ignominy of the chop and becomes a 'dandified' dog.

The title refers to the concept of the afterlife, as proposed by Christmas, who is a self-styled poet, who believes that it is a beautiful place called 'Timbuktu'. The question is will both Willy and Mr Bones be reunited in this heavenly place?

This is a book that examines finding one's purpose in life and has been described as being a meditation on late 20th century America. It is a highly inventive, creative book where we see the world from the perspective of a dog. It raises many questions such as whether animals have souls and the nature of love in society.

The Author
Like his character, Willy G. Christmas, Auster himself is an American of Jewish, Polish decent. Born in 1947, Auster written a number of novels including The New York Trilogy (1987), Moon Palace (1989), The Book of Illusions (2002) and the The Brooklyn Follies (2005). His works are a mix of absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and searches for identity and personal meaning.

More Information

View Paul Auster's website at http://www.paulauster.co.uk

Book of the Month - November 2011 - We need to talk about Kevin

The Book

This a highly topical, dark, psychological novel published originally in 2003 which was recently turned into an acclaimed film directed by Lynne Ramsey in 2011.

The story is told exclusively from the viewpoint of a mother, Eva Khatchadorian, entirely via a series of letters. It explores the fractious relationship between a mother and her son, as she attempts to come to terms with her son's murderous actions in committing a school shooting.

Shriver consummately explores the intricacies of marital and parental relationships and also whether an individual's character is determined by nature or nurture.

This is a controversial book, which poses many questions about ourselves as people and as a society.

The Author

Lionel Shriver is an American author and journalist, who was originally born Margaret Ann Shriver in 1957 in North Carolina. She now lives in London and is married to a jazz drummer, Jeff Williams.

Shriver was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005 for "We need to talk about Kevin" which she considered her 'make or break' novel.

Shriver's other novels include "Double Fault", which charts the relationship breakdown of two low level professional tennis players and "The Post Birthday World" which takes a 'Sliding Doors' type approach to imaging the life of one woman living two possible lives in parallel imagined stories.

More Information

Shriver's publishers are Harper Collins - http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/About.aspx?authorid=27687

A trailer of the film version is available at - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLRgAe2jLaw

Book of the Month - October 2011 - 61 Hours

The Book

61 Hours is the 14th thriller written by Lee Child. Each of his books features his main character, Jack Reacher, an American ex-Military Policeman seeking redemption while travelling without baggage around the States.

61 Hours takes place in South Dakota. As the book starts, a lawyer is conducting some shady business at the local prison and then while distracted on returning home, skids on the frozen highway, causing a bus carrying 20 elderly tourists (and Jack Reacher) to land in a ditch, stranded outside the small town of Bolton.

Reacher soon realises all is not as it seems as he gets involved with a police department under pressure, a mystery concerning all old military installation, protecting a witness to a drugs transaction and a killer on the loose, potential police corruption and a criminal mastermind pulling strings from Mexico. All the while, this thriller is set against the backdrop of severe snowstorms that make travelling difficult and dangerous and the clock is counting down to a date with destiny.

In 2011, Child won the Novel of the Year Award for 61 Hours at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. What then will be the attitude of the Ponders End Book Club to Lee Child's book? Will they agree with the judgement of the award givers at the Harrogate festival or will they instead favour the opinions of a Booker Prize judge who has said that "hell would freeze over before a popular crime writer wins the Booker Prize"? I wonder which view will prevail......

The Author

Lee Child is a prolific and popular thriller writer with his books selling over 50 million copies worldwide (apparently one per second). Child might seem the quintessential American thriller writer but he is actually British born and bred. Child was born Jim Grant in 1954 in Coventry, England. Before becoming an author, Child studied at law school in Sheffield and then joined Granada Television where he worked as a presentation director. While working for Granada, hew was involved in producing a number of high profile and popular TV series including 'Brideshead Revisted', 'The Jewel in the Crown', 'Prime Suspect' and 'Cracker'.

After being made redundant from his job at Granada TV, Child decided to embark on a writing career and described writing as 'the purest form of entertainment'. His first novel, "Killing Floor" was published in 1997 and he moved to the United States in 1998 with his American wife, Jane. Since this date, Child has continued to publish a book a year. always featuring his main character, 'Jack Reacher'.

More information

You can find out more about Lee Child and his latest novels at http://www.leechild.com

Special Book Club Author Event - 22 September 2011 - Mr Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt

Special Book Club Event

On Thursday 22nd September, the Ponders End Book Club are delighted to be hearing author, Rebecca Hunt speak, read from and discuss her novel "Mr Chartwell". This event will be held at Enfield Town Library at 7pm. (Booking essential).

The event is being held in conjunction with Enfield Libraries and as part of the East London Literature Festival.

Details are published in the local press in Enfield, including in the 'Our Enfield' newsletter. To book to attend please contact Enfield Town Library on 020 8379 8341.

The Book

'Mr Chartwell' has been described as an extraordinary first novel. It is a story set over five days in the summer of 1964. It features two main characters - the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who is on the verge of retirement and a young House of Commons library clerk, Esther Hammerhans, who is seeking a new lodger. These two characters are connected by the dark, charismatic charms of 'Mr Chartwell', who represents the 'black dog depression'.

The Author

Rebecca Hunt is a first time London-based author. A graduate of Central Saint Martins College with a degree in fine art, Rebecca is now a full time author. She was also identified as a promising new novelist by a panel of judges in the BBC 2 The Culture Show special - New Novelists: 12 of the Best on 5 March 2011.

More Information

For more information see: http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780141049878,00.html

Book of the Month - September 2011 - The Secret History

The Book

This is a many layered story which at its heart is a murder mystery/thriller set in a small, exclusive New England college, told from the perspective of the narrator, Richard Papen, an outsider from California. Papen is quickly seduced by an elite group of five Greek scholars and their charismatic tutor, Julian Morrow. He is drawn into their circle and learns their terrifying secret.

 

The novel begins with a prologue from which we are drawn immediately and compelling into the story that Papen unfolds.

 

It is a heady mix of mystery, Gothic romance, tragedy, psychology which brings to mind Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rope', Brideshead Revisited, The Blair Witch Project and Greek tragedies.

 

To many it is seen as a modern classic but what will readers in Ponders End make of it?

The Author

Donna Tartt is an American author who was born and raised in Mississippi. She was the daughter of a local politician. Born in 1963, she was only 28 when 'The Secret History' was first published while Tartt was still a student at a liberal US art college - Bennington College, which is in Vermont. Her second novel, 'A Little Friend' was published almost 10 years later in 2010.

More Information

For more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Tartt and http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/oct/19/fiction.features

Book of the Month - July 2011 - The Dark Room

The Book

This debut novel, nominated for the Booker Prize in 2001 and winner of a Betty Trask Award, explores the legacy of Nazi guilt and the modern German psyche. It is told from the perspective of three ordinary Germans between the 1920s and 1990s.

The stories comprise those of Helmut - a young photographer in Berlin in the 1930s; Lore - a 12-year old girl guiding her family across Germany after her Nazi parents are seized by the Allies; and Micha - a young teacher obsessed by her grandfathers role in the war and struggling with the past.

Reviewers have praised it as a novel that provokes discussion about how we ourselves would respond to atrocious events and their legacy. It has been judged as exploring emotional and psychological issues with rare insight and humanity.

The Author

Rachel Seiffert was born in 1971 to a German mother and Australian father and grew up mostly in Glasgow and Oxford. She has lived in Berlin. She has also worked in film and community education and currently writes full-time for a living. In 2003, Seiffert was named by Granta magazine as one of 'Best of British Young Novelists'. Since publishing the book, Seiffert has gone on to publish a book of short stories, 'Field Studies' (2004) and 'Afterwards' (2007).

More Information

For more information see:

http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth03A30L020012634903

Book of the Month - June 2011 - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Book

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is set in the years after World War Two. It is the story of an English author, Juliet Ashton, who embarks on a new writing project and in the process begins a correspondence with a native of Guernsey, Dawsey Adams. Soon, Juliet is drawn into the lives of Dawsey and his friends who form the society. Juliet is welcomed into the community and through her eyes and writing we learn about the experiences of the islanders during the War.

This novel is billed as a celebration of literature, love and the human spirit.

The Author

Mary Ann Shaffer was from West Virginia, United States. She worked in bookshops and was also an editor and librarian. Her lifelong dream was to write and publish her own novel, which came true with the publication of this particular book, which is her first and only novel. Sadly, Shaffer died in 2008 of cancer shortly before the book was actually published and her niece Annie Barrows helped her finish the book.

More Information

For more information about the book see: http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/guernsey/

Happiness is....

This is so true.........or even better...is reading a good book and having a great big cup of tea!

The Start....

The Ponders End Book Club is a reality. The group has been meeting since January 2011, once a month to discuss a range of novels and new members are always welcome.

So far we've discussed books about ghosts, love and friendship spanning over 20 years, the fallout from an Australian barbeque, a thriller set in Bible belt America and a book inspired by the Josef Fritzl case - quite a range, as you can tell....

The books are "Her Fearful Symmetry", "One Day", "The Slap", "The Killing Place" and "Room".

Some we've loved, others we've found disappointing - all have provoked intelligent discussion and fresh perspectives.

If you've not read these books already, you might want to see the page in this blog which lists the average rating we've given for each book along with a very short analysis.

You can also find out more about who we are, when and where we meet in London and details of of the books we are due to read over the coming months.

Happy reading!