Alan Sillitoe -Saturday NIght and Sunday Morning

 A resounding success. Full of energy , a likeable rogue. Is he angry or content or making the best of it?

Paolo Maurensig -Game of the Gods

Quite interesting if not always convincing  . Chess and its Indian form and a journey fomr nothing to fame to nothing.

The Painted Drum -Louise Erdrich

 We thought the Painted Drum was good overall , and very good in parts . but the middle more “magical “section challenged us. Perhaps the Native American way of seeing the world  in contrast to our European ,Enlightenment way.??!!

Laurie Lee As I walked out one Midsummer Morning

 Many of us had read this in our youth so it was good to find it has worn well. Beautiful writing .Spain of the 1930s a wild , poor  country.

W G Sebald The Emigrants

 This went down well.  Fiction can reveal truths. Not about Emigration but about a German grappling with the effects of the War and the lost world before it.

Edgar Mittelholzer A Morning at the Office

A pleasure to read .Interesting setting from an early Caribbean writer 

Marilynne Robinson --Gilead

 An unusual ,and for some  ,  riveting  read .  Not to all our taste  but worth a go 

Herman Hesse Steppenwolf

Two stout defenders were not  enough to convince the rest of the reasons this book is so well known.Interesting ideas  , or unreadable strange and very put-downable.?

John LeCarre -Agent Running in the Field

"Marmite" was the only thing we agreed . Half rating it highly , half not enjoying it ...Still an early literary response to Brexit and Trump.

Anna Burns Milkman

A  clear majority verdict in favour  . Rather wordy and  a bit of editing would have helped the doubters appreciate the humour and language