This year we have read:

 

BUDDHA DA by ANNA DONOVAN

A thought provoking story, written in the Glasgow dialect, about a family in which the father becomes an obsessive Buddhist and the consequences of this on the whole family.

 

THE BLIND ASSASSIN by MARGARET ATTWOOD

A very elderly lady looks back on her life and that of her sister, thought to be an iconic writer, who committed suicide.

 

THE COLOUR by ROSE TREMAIN

An interesting story about a gold prospector and his much stronger-

willed wife during the Australian gold rush.

 

THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER by EUDORA WELTY

The 'optimist' dies early in the story having made a second marriage totally at odds with his middle-class social standing.  His daughter has to

cope with both the death of her father, of whom she was very fond, and the peculiarities of her step mother and her family.

 

OF MICE AND MEN by JOHN STEINBECK

A short moral story of the care and love shown by a sharp-witted farmhand towards his mentally retarded friend.

 

WHITE MASSAI by CORINNE HOFMANN

The true and irritating story of a Swiss woman who became besotted with- and later married - a Massai warrior, to the detriment of her health and well-being.

 

A PROFOUND SECRET by JOSCELINE DIMBLEBY

May Gaskell became, though only on paper, the lover of Edward Burne Jones.  Josceline is descended from the Gaskells and pursues the relationship and the family history.

 

 

 

ON BEAUTY by ZADIE SMITH

The fairly inconsequential story of an academic's mixed-race marriage in America and the effect on the children of the marriage.

 

NORTH AND SOUTH by ELIZABETH GASKELL

The Mills and Boon of the 19th Century.  A very readable story of family life and love set mainly in a northern industrial town.