We convened at Margaret's for our July meeting in the middle of a heatwave. Thankfully Margaret had a fan switched on and we managed to complete our meeting without melting.
Several of us had read the Flavours of Love. Overall, we found it repetitive and with too much suspense, also the plot seemed to be going in too many different directions at once. Liz recommended her earlier books as being better, in particular Marshmallows for Breakfast or Goodnight Beautiful.
We mostly felt that Life After Life was cleverly done, and in fact quite believable despite the 'repeating life' aspect. One person felt that the part where the main character shoots Hitler was a step too far, and made it silly. One member recommended the book Replay by Ken Grimwood, which has a similar subject matter.
The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden was found to be believable, funny, bizarre and surprisingly different to the author's previous book. One person recommended the Unexpected Vacation of George Thring by Alastair Puddick.
There were mixed reviews from the two people who had read Silvertown. One person thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the historical parts, while the other thought those were a bit incongruous, and also that it was strange how the author went into great detail about some thing and barely skimmed over others.
Other books that were mentioned or swapped during the evening were The Last Foundling by Tom MacKenzie, Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey and The Last Dance by Victoria Hislop.
The new books we have chosen are as follows: (links go to Amazon)
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot This was our main choice. If you're only going to read one of the books, please try to make it this one
Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James
La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall-Smith
It was suggested that we read more classics. Please think about this for the next meeting and come armed with suggestions as usual, classic or otherwise!
We will be meeting again on Wednesday 27th August at Sue's house. Email to follow with more details nearer the time.
Happy reading!
