Book of the Month - The Ocean at the End of the Lane - January 2014

The Book 

This is the story of an unnamed man who returns to his hometown for a funeral and gets caught up in events that started forty years earlier. The book concerns themes about the search for self-identity and the "disconnect between childhood and adulthood".

It was voted Book of the Year 2013 at the British National Book Awards by a 'significant margin' - an award that is voted for directly by the public.

The Author

Neil Gaiman as a versatile individual known for being both an author and an actor. Born in Portchester, Hampshire in 1960, he now lives in the United States. As an actor he has starred in Coraline and Beowulf. His writing includes comic books, graphic novels, children's books, short fiction and film scripts.

More Information

Find out all you need to know about Neil Gaiman on his website at: - http://www.neilgaiman.com/. If you use Twitter you can follow him at: https://twitter.com/neilhimself

Book of the Month - The Lighthouse - December 2013

The Book

This is the story of Futh, a middle aged man who has recently divorced his wife. The story is set over his weeks walking holiday in Germany. Gradually through flashbacks we learn more about Futh's troubled past and the significance of the lighthouse which draws him into a bond with a bored guest house owner's wife.

The book was nominated for the Man Booker Prize in 2012 (whose eventual winner was. Hilary Mantel). This is no mean feat considering this is a debut novel published by a small independent publishing firm, called Salt.

Sir Peter Stothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement and chair of judges for the 2012 Booker Prize, said: "The judges admired The Lighthouse's bleak inner landscape, a temperature control set low and an impressively assured control." What will the book club members in Ponders End think? 

The Author

Alison Moore is a 40-something mother of one who lives in Leicestershire. She has previously written short stories.

More Information

Read more about the author at http://www.alison-moore.com/books/the-lighthouse/

Book of the Month - Tangled Lives - November 2013

The Book

This is another second novel (we seem to read a lot of these!) following the success of "Thursdays in the Park". Her first novel was dubbed as 'gran-lit' and described in headlines as a 'Steamy Fifty Shades of Grey style novel for the over 60s' (Daily Mail article, 11 November 2012).

Tangled Lives is set in the same social world of wealthy, north London (Hampstead, Highgate, Crouch End way) and features a successful middle-aged mother of three (now grown-up) children and business lady - Annie Delancey.

It sounds an intriguing story about mothering and about secrets when Annie's family is suddenly confronted by a man who turns up as her long-lost son who she gave up for adoption in the 1960s. The problem is that Annie never told her family about their half-brother and has kept the secret for over 30 years. How will the family react and how will Annie contain her feelings for her son?

The Author

As a former children's nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital, a marriage guidance counsellor and health journalist, Hilary Boyd has a wealth of life experience to bring to her writing. She was educated at Roedean, the girl's private school and then studied English Literature at London University. Hilary is married to the film producer, William Boyd and (like her character, Annie) has three children.

She started writing fiction in her forties and was continually rejected until a small independent publishers issued 'Thursdays in the Park' which initially only sold about a thousand copies. This book was then issued online by Quercus and has sold staggeringly over 500,000 copies. C'est la vie!

More Information

Find out more about Hilary on her publisher's website: http://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/blog/tag/hilary-boyd/. This page includes links to short interviews and the opportunity to win signed copies of her latest book.

Book of the Month - The Chequer Board - October 2013

The Book

Published in 1947, this is the story of a dying man looks up three wartime comrades. It concerns common themes often covered in Shute's novels such as the issue of racism.

I wonder how the group will judge the novel with 21st century eyes. Will we judge it in the same way as the Houston Post who described it as "in the gripping, breathless tradition of a master craftsman" or the Daily Express who thought that "A happy knack endows this story with a character who is slightly greater than life-size. It proves once again how the ordinary, the average, the season-ticket holder sitting next to you, can still, in the hands of an expert, furnish the very stuff of literature"


The Author

Nevil Shute was the pen name for an aeronautical engineer and author christened Nevil Shute Norway. Shute was born on 17 January 1899 in Ealing. He was educated at Shrewsbury followed by Oxford University. He worked at Vickers, the aircraft company in the 1920s. He subsequently emigrated in Australia and died there on 12 January 1960.

In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of the world's best selling novelists, made famous by novels such as "A Town Like Alice" and "The Far Country". He published a total of 23 novels which were all reprinted by Vintage in 2009. His writing continues to have many fans including the comedian Jenny Colgan who sums him up as "Ooh, I think he’s wonderful....Proper handcrafted storytelling – you don’t get that any more"

More Information

The Nevil Shute Norway Foundation website - http://www.nevilshute.org/ - is a website dedicated to fans of Shute's work. Read a profile of Shute written by the novelist Philip Hensher and published in The Daily Telegraph at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/6718768/Nevil-Shute-profile.html

Book of the Month - The Yellow Birds - September 2013

The Book

A harrowing, powerful fictional story of a young man's experiences fighting in Iraq and his subsequent return home, burdened with guilt and weighed down by the long shadow of war on civvy street.

The book rightly comes lauded with plaudits and has one several awards including the Guardian First Book Award 2012 and the PEN/Hemmingway Award for First Fiction 2013.

The Author

Kevin Powers is a first time American author who himself served in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. He studied English at Virginia Commonwealth University after his honorable discharge and received an M.F.A. in Poetry from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin in 2012.

More Information

Read more at http://www.kevincpowers.com and a Guardian article about the novel at http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/23/kevin-powers-interview-yellow-birds

Book of the Month - The Hare with the Amber Eyes - August 2013

The Book
The Hare with the Amber Eyes is part memoir, part social history, part travelogue which weaves the story of De Waal's relatives, the Ephrussi's who were once an extremely wealthy banking and business family living in Paris and Vienna. The story is built around De Waal's search for the history of 264 netsuke, tiny wood and ivory carved Japanese carvings which are all that remain of his family's once tremendous wealth.

De Waal is a very present and involved narrator and takes us on a very personal journey of discovery. in the process he crafts a beautiful, absorbing microcosm of recent history covering the death of Empire, the rise of anti-semitism, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi's as well as exploring memory, identity and belonging.

The Author
Edmund De Waal is a renowed ceramicist. He is a professor at the University of Westminster. His works are exhibited in museum's around the world.

More Information
Read more at www.edmunddewaal.com

Book of the month - The Hundred-year-old-man who climbed out of the window and disappeared - July 2013

The Book 

Be prepared to suspend disbelief and enter the world of Allan Karlsson, who crawls out of his window at an old people's home to avoid his hundredth birthday celebrations and begins a journey of adventure and friendship. Parallel to this modern day story we are also gradually told about Allan's amazing life story - which is both fable and farce rolled into one. 

The Author 
 Jonas Jonasson is from Vaxjo in Sweden. He was originally a journalist before setting up a successful media company, OTW, which employed 100 people. However after developing severe back pains and stress, he sold his business in 2005. His first novel about the hundred-year-old-man was published in 2009 and has since proved to be a publishing phenonenon worldwide. 


More Information 

Find out more about the author at http://www.jonasjonasson.com

Book of the month - May We Be Forgiven - June 2013

The Book 

"May We Be Forgiven" recently won A M Homes the Women's Prize for Fiction awarded in June 2013. On receiving the award she said "it's my nature to think about big ideas and my gender shouldn't prevent me from doing that". The story is set in modern America and explores the life of Harold Silver during a turbulent as he struggles with bringing up his brother's children after the murder of their mother.

The Author 

A. M. Holmes is an American writer and journalist who lives in New York City. She teaches creative writing at Princeton University. Her own writing style is often seen as controversial and unusual.


More Information

You can find out more on the author's official website http://www.amhomesbooks.com

Book of the Month - The girl you left behind - May 2013

The Book
This will be the second JoJo Moyes book that the group has selected to read. We previously read "Me Before You" in March 2012 - which proved highly readable and was universally liked by the whole group.

This new book certainly promises from the cover blurb to take us on a totally different journey in an intricately plotted story spanning two different eras - both the modern day and the First World War.

The story is billed as being 'hauntingly romantic' and an 'utterly irrestible...weepy'. Will it live it up to its billing and be an equally beguiling and popular read?

The Author
JoJo Moyes is both a successful author and journalist. Born in 1969 she grew up in London and gradauted with a degree from Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, London University. She worked at The Independent for over ten years including as Assistant News Editor and the Arts and Media Correspondent. In 2002, she became a full time novelist. She has written 9 novels and her first book was called 'Sheltering Rain'.

More Information

Access JoJo Moyes' website at http://www.jojomoyes.com.

Book of the Month - Casino Royale - April 2013

The Book

This is where it all began with the first story featuring James Bond who has gone on to become an icon of British cinema. Casino Royale was first published by Ian Fleming himself in 1952 and went on to spawn 11 books and a highly successful film franchise.

The question is how does this book translate to the screen? Is this a book of its time only or does it speak to the modern world?

The Author

Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was born into a wealthy family connected to banking and politics. He was educated at Eton, Sandhurst and then at universities in Munich
and Geneva. During World War Two, Fleming worked in the British intelligence services, the experience of which subsequently formed the basis for his James Bond novels and the successful James Bond film franchise. Fleming was also the author of the children's story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He lived at Goldeneye, his house in the Carribbean and was married to Ann Charteris.  In 2008, "The Times" newspaper Fleming fourteenth on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

More Information

Find out more about Ian Fleming on his offical website - http://www.ianfleming.com

Book or the Month - The Shack - March 2013

The Book

Isn't it strange how some things develop?

The Shack was originally only ever intended to be a story written for Young's six children about perspectives on God. However, Young's friends encouraged him to have the book formerly published. The book remained largely unnoticed until it became popular in the US and was listed as number 1 on the New York Times paperback fiction bestseller list in 2008.

The novel is defined as a "Christian" book but should appeal to anyone who asks the questions "What if?" about the world and God. It promises to fit into the literary tradition of authors like C.S. Lewis, who is one of Young's inspirations.

The Author

William Paul Young is from Canada but now lives in Oregan in the US. He was the son of missionary parents and spent most of his formative years in Netherlands New Guinea amongst the Dani people. He has six children and three grandchildren and is the author of two books.

More Information

Visit the official website of William Paul Young

Book of the Month - The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals - February 2013

The Book

www.lovereading.co.uk lists Wendy Jones' debut novel as one of its "Great Reads You May Have Missed in 2012". It promises to be a quirky, charming story featuring an unlikely literary everyman hero, an undertaker called Wilfred Price who faces some big choices in his life.

The Author

Wendy Jones was the first person to do an MA in Life Writing at UEA and is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, where she teaches. She wrote Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl, a biography of Grayson Perry (Chatto & Windus) and hosts Interesting Conversations, a literary programme on Resonancefm. She lives in London.

More Information

Watch a You Tube interview with Wendy Jones.

Book of the Month - Misery - January 2013

The Book

What happens when a famous author meets his number one fan? 'Misery' is a tense psychological thriller about the obsessive Annie Wilkes who 'rescues' author Paul Sheldon from a car crash.

From the very beginning, when Paul wakes up, disoriented and in excrutiating pain with broken legs in Annie's secluded house, the story spirals into an intensely plotted examination of a captivity Sherarazade scenario.

The Author

Stephen King is a prolific American author of horror, thrillers, suspense and fantasy novels. He has written more than 50 novels, selling more than 350 million copies making King one of the world's most successful authors.

Many of his books have been adapted into films, including "Carrie", "The Shawshank Redemption", "The Green Mile", "The Shining" (which will be followed by a new sequel, "Doctor Sleep", to be published in 2013). "Misery" itself was made into a successful film starring Kathy Bates and James Caan in 1990.

Bio.com describes King as "a quiet man with a grotesque imagination, considered the most talented master of the macabre since Edgar Allan Poe."

More Information

Stephen King's official website is: http://www.stephenking.com/index.html