Le Grand Meaulnes -- Alain-Fournier

A french Classic  written in 1912  .
A flawed but haunting tale.The middle is not as good as the end and the first half is the best

Not sure why it is  has lasted so long in the French cannon

Canterbury Tales -- Geoffrey Chaucer

Verily an booke whych   withstandeth  reading.
But do it in a translation  Middle English is not easy . People and their funny ways are the same now as seven hundred years ago and Chaucer captures that well.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry -- Rachel Joyce

This book had many good reviews  so we thought we would try it. An easy read , a parable  , a few touching moments  BUT  it  seems very deliberately written  , over - thought out , and the author could already see the TV adaptation.  One of us hated it   Good but not great

A Single Man -- Christopher Isherwood

A little gem . We all rated this highly . A short book that has so much in it . Wonderful bits on every page
  A top ten I think

Mansfield Park -- Jane Austen

For a Classic novel ( not perhaps her best) this divided the group. Some struggled - and failed to get through it ; others gave their approbation to the  prose
Not great narrative  - it is about the characters.

The Sisters Brothers -- Patrick deWitt

Billed as "Western"  but perhaps more a fable of redemption  this was well-recieved by the group. A slow-burn with some memorable characters and incidents  - and easy to read

Kreutzer Sonata -- Leo Tolstoy

A polemic driven by Tolstoy inability to cope with women and his own sexual feelings . Nonetheless a few good lines in what Bloke J described a short book that was too long