Hua Hsu - Stay True

 A divided jury- Two liked it  - one a lot , the rest  were indifferent to the narrator. Some interesting points about history and memory and about his relation with father . From page 174 I liked it  but it is only 192 pages long!

Jo Browning Wroe - A Terrible Kindness

 A remarkable, moving and memorable opening ....then a rather predictable cliche of a tale of growing up.

As though she had two ideas at writing class and stitched the together.

The Cellist , Jennifer Atkins

 One of us liked it  , most did not. Interesting attempt to portray two people whose art gets in the say of love  (or can they not love so sublimate it to Art) . A conversational style as though ghe character is talking to us

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

 It started well and then petered  . We felt the characters could have been more developed. But overall worth reading.

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

 Perhaps rather of its time, generally liked even the chapter written as Power Point.DId we care about the characters???

Poems of WB Yeats

 Poetry for a change, old before his time . Well worth looking at

Chaim Potok The Chosen

 A success, Interesting setting, engrossing and warm. What an interesting author IRL he must have been

A Question of Power - Bessie Head

 Only half of us finished this short book. The experience of the main character ( and author's) psychosis is hard to read, The psychiatrists amongst us thought it should be read by all in mental health  professions.

Her other books are easier to read and worth reading.

Alan Bennet The Clothes They Stood Up in

 A short story . Rather cardboard characters and  a clunky plot device  but a pleasant ,amusing, interesting read for all that.

James Salter The Hunters

 After a snow-cancelled end to 2022 we started 2023 with this. Set in Korean War but not a shoot em up.

Character and setting and plot led to good read,

September October Pushkin Captains Daughter

Our 200th  meeting anniversary was too sociable to discuss the book . But when we did meeet to discuss Pushkin we agreed we liked it...