The Girl on the Train had mixed reviews. Some enjoyed it, though several of us didn't really like the main character and found the things she did rather odd and disturbing. We identified with watching people from the train though, and I think we all enjoy looking at people's houses and gardens as we go past. One person felt the story was too pedestrian, similar to many other books around at the moment and rather boring.
The Captain's Daughter had also been read by several people. Although the book is fiction, it gave us an insight into the aftermath of the Titanic disaster and how the survivors and families were affected in the immediate aftermath and longer term. It was interesting to see how society was changing around that time. We felt that the book was well written and the story flowed well.
We enjoyed Still Alice. Mostly we found this book to be written well although it was also said that the timeline was strange and the story progressed oddly. We found the story was moving.
We chatted generally about books we've been reading or would like to read and ones that were particularly mentioned were A Man called Ove by Fredrik Bachman, The Heroes' Welcome by Louisa Young, which is the sequel to a book we read previously called My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You and Life, Death and Vanilla Slices by Jenny Eclair. Also The Humans by Matt Haig and When We Were Friends by Tina Heskis.
Sandra's copy of The Runaway Goat by Lucy Mather is still doing the rounds, you may remember that I have mentioned it on the blog before. It is written by a woman who set up a charity with the aim of eliminating cataracts in one part of India. The charity has no overheads at all, everyone works for free and a £20 donation pays for one cataract operation. We've been passing the book around between us. Some of us have donated and also Margaret was talking to someone at Winchester Lions Club about another subject, mentioned the charity and they have now made a donation of £1000. If you'd like to read the book, please see Sandra. You can read more about the work of the charity at www.secondsight.org
Sandra's copy of The Runaway Goat by Lucy Mather is still doing the rounds, you may remember that I have mentioned it on the blog before. It is written by a woman who set up a charity with the aim of eliminating cataracts in one part of India. The charity has no overheads at all, everyone works for free and a £20 donation pays for one cataract operation. We've been passing the book around between us. Some of us have donated and also Margaret was talking to someone at Winchester Lions Club about another subject, mentioned the charity and they have now made a donation of £1000. If you'd like to read the book, please see Sandra. You can read more about the work of the charity at www.secondsight.org
We decided to take a different approach this time and read just two books - a modern one and an older one.
We will be reading The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop and then also one of the following books by J D Salinger (your choice):
Catcher in the Rye
Frankie and Zooey
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenter
Our next meeting will be on the 19th August.
Happy Reading!
