Brighton Rock -- Graham Greene

Yes a second book in a calender month  - just to keep our pace up.
overwhelming positive view of this thriller with a moral theme. A greek tragedy of Pinkie having to fulfill his destiny and doom.

The Inheritors -- William Golding

The author portrays a changing world from the point of view of Neanderthals . Their limitations limited the book for some but others thought is a real achievement,

Two new members and so we are nine.

Travels with Herodotus -- Ryszard Kapuscinski

Perhaps too much Herodotus and not enough Kapuscinski  but still a good and interesting read,
What is HIstory ? How do we know?  Why we go to war.

Martin Amis -- The Pregnant Widow

We managed to find a few - but not many redeeming sentences  in what was one of the least enjoyed books for a long time.
Why write it  , ?   why bother reading it?

Anna of the Five Towns -- Arnold Bennett

A relief after the last book to have a proper story. More than that we ( almost unanimous) liked this a great deal. Some wonderful turns of phrase, characters and story. Very fresh and mdern for s book written over a hundred years ago

Valis -- Philip K Dick

The worst book we have done ,only one of us finished it - and then only because he had suggested it.

Rambling , sixties hippie pseudo-philosophical gibberish . Apparently the others in the trilogy are OK

Tom Sawyer -- Mark Twain

A classic story of childhood which we all liked . Interesting accounts of the superstitions of the 1800s.

Still fresh and enjoyable.

Kokoro -- Natsume Soseki

A major Japanese writer - whom none of us had read before .

A good read- Japan starting to modernise , traditional honour , shame . All paced calmly and steadily but moves along all the same.

An unusual structure to the story adds interest .

We liked it

Hans Keilson -- Comedy in a Minor Key

Nice and short.Just the slice of the action the participants know not the wider story annoyed some who wanted more but agreed that is the point of it.

Just a sense that people did suffer natural unremarkable deaths unheroically and unfairly, often alone and helpless, while monstrous events occurred around them. But I also got a horrifying sense of how lives could change so utterly and completely after a stupid oversight and how easy it was for me to imagine how the couple felt – numb, terrified hysterical, finished all at the same time.

Readable and unusual

Hare with Amber Eyes -- Edmund de Waal

A non-fiction work tracing a family's fortunes and losses in Europe . The story of a collection of Netsuke is used to tell the story.

Several members did not get past the first section - but the rest felt it repaid doing so.

What did the author want to write- an aesthetic meditation, a family story or a history of anti-Semitism ?

Some great parts but a Curate's egg ( written by a Parson's son!!)