Books, Burds and Booze

The next meeting will be at Susan McEwan's house on Friday 13th January, 2017.

The book choice is The Valley of the Unknowing by Philip Sington.

Buy the Book from Amazon by clicking here

Alternatively, you can buy it from Waterstones by clicking here

Goodreads reviews are available on this book and you can access the link here

Genre - Literary Thriller

Author - Philip Sington studied at Trinity College Cambridge. Together with mystery writer Gary Humphreys,  he co-authored six thrillers under the joint pseudonym of Patrick Lynch.  "The Valley of Unknowing' will be his third solo novel and was published in 2012.

Rating - After the next Bookclub meeting, there will be a short section added on the reaction of the members to the reading of the novel.

Books, Burds and Booze

The next meeting will be held at Rennie's  house on 11th November 2016

The chosen book is The Silent Wife by A S A Harrison

Buy the book from Amazon by clicking here.

Alternatively you can buy it from Waterstones by clicking here.

Genre  Crime, thrillers, Mystery

Rating of this book will be on a score out of ten.  This will be made up of points 1-3 for the plot, 1-3 for the characterisation and 1- 4 for the readability factor.   The consensus reached by the Books, Burds and Booze book group will be published after the meeting to discuss it.

Reason for choosing this book - Liz chose it and as it is a bestseller, expect a good read!

Author 

A.S.A. Harrison is the author of four nonfiction books. The Silent Wife is her debut novel, and she was at work on a new psychological thriller when she died in 2013. Harrison was married to the visual artist John Massey and lived in Toronto.

During the meeting forms will be handed out to score the book on the criteria noted above.

Consensus seems to be that it was a good read but not a feel good novel.  The characters were not particularly likeable but it was worth reading to the end to find out if they got what they deserved.

Books, Burds and Booze

The next meeting will be held at Rennie's house on 11th November 2016

The chosen book is The Silent Wife by A S A Harrison

Buy the book from Amazon by clicking here.

Alternatively you can buy it from Waterstones by clicking here.

Genre  Crime, thrillers, Mystery

Rating of this book will be on a score out of ten.  This will be made up of points 1-3 for the plot, 1-3 for the characterisation and 1- 4 for the readability factor.   The consensus reached by the Books, Burds and Booze book group will be published after the meeting to discuss it.

Reason for choosing this book - Liz chose it and as it is a bestseller, expect a good read!

Author 

A.S.A. Harrison is the author of four nonfiction books. The Silent Wife is her debut novel, and she was at work on a new psychological thriller when she died in 2013. Harrison was married to the visual artist John Massey and lived in Toronto.

During the meeting forms will be handed out to score the book on the criteria noted above.

Consensus seems to be that it was a good read but not a feel good novel.  The characters were not particularly likeable but it was worth reading to the end to find out if they got what they deserved.

Books, Burds and Booze

The next meeting will be held at Christine Scott's house on 30th September 2016.

The chosen book is House of Secrets by Barbara Wilson.

Buy the book from Amazon by clicking here.

Genre

Crime, thrillers

Rating of this book will be on a score out of ten.  This will be made up of points 1-3 for the plot, 1-3 for the characterisation and 1- 4 for the readability factor.   The consensus reached by the Books, Burds and Booze book group will be published after the meeting to discuss it.

Reason for choosing this book - Christine knows the person who wrote it and would like the group to read and discuss it.

Author 

When Barbara Wilson graduated from Edinburgh University in 1988, she decided she was going to explore the world. She began  teaching English in the south of Italy and fell quickly under its spell as well as falling in love with the handsome Italian man she eventually married. She lives in the heel of Italy to this day.

During the meeting forms will be handed out to score the book on the criteria noted above. 


September 30th meeting - Review of Book 

Unfortunately House of Secrets wasn't as well received as some of the other books that we have read.  The consensus seemed to be that it wasn't a terribly good novel.  Comments seemed to focus on the range of characters being unlikeable, to the story not holding together well.  

While we recognise that it wasn't a very popular read, it is important to remember that this is the author's first novel.  Writing a novel of any description is fraught with difficulty and it is an achievement in itself to have managed to complete one.  

Books, Burds and Booze

The next meeting will be held at Christine Scott's house on 30th September 2016.

The chosen book is House of Secrets by Barbara Wilson.

Buy the book from Amazon by clicking here.

Genre

Crime, thrillers

Rating of this book will be on a score out of ten.  This will be made up of points 1-3 for the plot, 1-3 for the characterisation and 1- 4 for the readability factor.   The consensus reached by the Books, Burds and Booze book group will be published after the meeting to discuss it.

Reason for choosing this book - Christine knows the person who wrote it and would like the group to read and discuss it.

Author 

When Barbara Wilson graduated from Edinburgh University in 1988, she decided she was going to explore the world. She began  teaching English in the south of Italy and fell quickly under its spell as well as falling in love with the handsome Italian man she eventually married. She lives in the heel of Italy to this day.

During the meeting forms will be handed out to score the book on the criteria noted above. 


September 30th meeting - Review of Book 

Unfortunately House of Secrets wasn't as well received as some of the other books that we have read.  The consensus seemed to be that it wasn't a terribly good novel.  Comments seemed to focus on the range of characters being unlikeable, to the story not holding together well.  

While we recognise that it wasn't a very popular read, it is important to remember that this is the author's first novel.  Writing a novel of any description is fraught with difficulty and it is an achievement in itself to have managed to complete one.  

Books, Burds & Booze

The next meeting will be held at Phyl Wright's house on 19th August 2016.

The chosen book is A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson. 

Buy the book from Amazon by clicking here.

It can also be found in Waterstones by clicking here.

Genre

Crime, thrillers

Rating of this book will be on a score out of ten.  This will be made up of points 1-3 for the plot, 1-3 for the characterisation and 1-4 for the readability factor.   The consensus reached by the Books, Burds and Booze book group will be published after the meeting to discuss it.

Reason for choosing this book - Ever since I read Behind The Scenes at the Museum by her in 1995, I have been a fan of Kate Atkinson's work.  I have enjoyed all of her novels to a greater of lesser degree,  especially her Jackson Brodie ones and Life after Life. I am interested to see what I and others in the Bookclub make of her latest offering. (P. Wright)

If anyone is interested in Kate Atkinson's life or details of her published novels, the Wikipedia information can be viewed by clicking here.



August 29th meeting - Review of Book

The meeting on the 19th August was well attended and a lively discussion (fuelled by fizz, wine, and some truly delicious cosmopolitans courtesy of Jax), took place on the merits or otherwise of the book.

The plot scored on average 2 out of 3 which, for a character based book, was surprising.

Characterisation scored 3 on average out of 3.

Readability came in at 3 out of 4 with most people agreeing that it was quite a difficult book to get into and most felt that it would have been easy to give up on it, until about a third of the way through when the book seemed to come alive for us. One person hadn't read the book, another hadn't finished it and admitted they might not and a third did not like anything about it. The others however who had read it, were in agreement that it was very cleverly conceived and executed.

Comments included :

"Took a while to get into it, but loved the reveal of each character and the way each scene was drafted so visually."

"Enjoying changes of time line and seeing story from different characters. "

"Reading the book...still! Enjoying the characters and stories - looking forward to surprise ending."

"Makes me want to read Ursula's story, 'Life after Life.' Viola seemed vile, but in the end seemed quite frantic and just unable to cope. Was surprised by ending."

"Found it boring. Didn't like the characters, found it wandered off needlessly with quotes which had no meaning. Felt the ending was as clever as a school kids' 'and then I woke up...' Characters stereotypical and flat - didn't feel I could identify with any of them. Over elaborate vocabulary."

"Fell in love with this book, about a third of the way through and was awe struck by the way the author played about in a very unique way with the timeline. Didn't just relate to, but felt the characters' emotions. Loved it and it made me want to write like this."

Anyone from the club who has now finished the book and wants to write a short review can do so by using the comments section at the bottom of this page.