Tag: E

The 19th Wife by David Ebersoff

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About the book

Jordan returns from California to Utah to visit his mother in jail. As a teenager he was expelled from his family and religious community, a secretive Mormon offshoot sect. Now his father has been found shot dead in front of his computer, and one of his many wives – Jordan’s mother – is accused of the crime.
Over a century earlier, Ann Eliza Young, the nineteenth wife of Brigham Young, Prophet and Leader of the Mormon Church, tells the sensational story of how her own parents were drawn into plural marriage, and how she herself battled for her freedom and escaped her powerful husband, to lead a crusade to end polygamy in the United States.
Bold, shocking and gripping, The 19th Wife expertly weaves together these two narratives: a pageturning literary mystery and an enthralling epic of love and faith.

 

Reviewed by Denmead Reading Circle

Much enjoyed by almost everyone. Very humorous, sharp wit, not too American

 

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I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron

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About the book

Nora Ephron returns with her first book since the astounding success of I Feel Bad About My Neck, taking a cold, hard, hilarious look at the past, the present, and the future, bemoaning the vicissitudes of modern life, and recalling with her signature clarity and wisdom everything she hasn’t (yet) forgotten.

Even as she’s listing ‘What I Won’t Miss’ and ‘What I Will Miss’ – making the final tally – Ephron reaches back to recount falling hard for a way of life (‘Journalism: A Love Story’ ) and breaking up even harder with the men in her life (‘The D Word’ ), a long- anticipated inheritance with entirely unanticipated results (‘My Life as an Heiress’ ), and the evolution, a decade after she wrote and directed You’ve Got Mail, of her relationship with her in-box (‘The Six Stages of E- mail’ ). All the while, she gives candid, charming voice to everything women who have reached a certain age have been thinking . . . but have rarely acknowledged.

Filled with insights and observations that instantly ring true – and could have come only from Nora Ephron – I Remember Nothing is a pure delight.

Reviewed by Denmead Reading Circle

Much enjoyed by almost everyone. Very humorous, sharp wit, not too American

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Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins by Rupert Everett

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About the book

An element of drama has always attended Rupert Everett, even before he swept to fame with his outstanding performance in ‘Another Country’. He has spent his life surrounded by extraordinary people, and witnessed extraordinary events. He was in Moscow during the fall of communism; in Berlin the night the wall came down; and in downtown Manhattan on September 11th. By the age of 17 he was friends with Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger, and since then he has been up close and personal with some of the most famous women in the world: Julia Roberts, Madonna, Sharon Stone and Donatella Versace. Whether sweeping the floor for the Royal Shakespeare Company or co-starring with Faye Dunaway and an orang-utan in ‘Dunstan Checks In’ (they both took ages to get ready), Rupert Everett always brings as much energy and talent to his life as he does to his career. A superb raconteur and a keen observer of human folly (especially his own), Rupert Everett turns his life into a captivating story of love, fame, glamour, gossip and drama.

Reviewed by Itchen

“This autobiography had a mixed reception. Most felt that it was an ego trip by an actor who needed the support and approval of others but, at the same time, risked disapproval as a result of his lifestyle. His career, although successful, was fuelled by drink, drugs and promiscuity. There was, however considerable sympathy for him, largely because he had been sent away to boarding school at an early age without any preparation, and where he felt himself to be an outsider. An interesting point made by one member was that over the last two decades society has come a long way in accepting gay people. This book brought out much discussion in our group of mainly retired older people. ”

star rating ***

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The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright

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About the book

In Terenure, a pleasant suburb of Dublin, in the winter of 2009, it has snowed. A woman recalls the trail of lust and happenstance that brought her to fall for “the love of her life.” As the city outside comes to a halt, she remembers the days of their affair in one hotel room or another: long afternoons made blank by bliss and denial. Now, as the silent streets and the stillness and vertigo of the falling snow make the day luminous and full of possibility, she awaits the arrival on her doorstep of his fragile, twelve-year-old daughter, Evie

Reviewed by Ringwood Readers

“Mundane and monotonous like a dripping tap. An instantly forgettable waste of trees. The whole group was united in disliking this book

star rating – nil

 

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The Garden of Evening Mists by Twan Eng Tan

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About the book

In the highlands of Malaya, a woman sets out to build a memorial to her sister, killed at the hands of the Japanese during the brutal Occupation of their country. Yun Ling’s quest leads her to The Garden of Evening Mists, and to Aritomo, a man of extraordinary skill and reputation, once the gardener of the Emperor of Japan. When she accepts his offer to become his apprentice, she begins a journey into her past, inextricably linked with the secrets of her troubled country’s history.

 

Reviewed by Enjoying Books

This book leads you slowly into the life of the central character. A fascinating history of wartime Malaysia and the consequences. Sometimes difficult but not harrowing and beautifully written”

star rating *** ½

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Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

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About the book

Chip told us not to go out. Said, don’t you boys tempt the devil. But it been one brawl of a night, I tell you.

The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymous Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, was arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. And he was black.

Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero’s bandmate and the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin. Persuaded by his old friend Chip, Sid discovers there’s more to the journey than he thought when Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero’s fate was settled.

 

Reviewed by Waterlooville Library

Mixed reviews ranging from great enthusiasm to finding it boring and impossible to read”

star rating ***

 

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River of destiny by Barbara Erskine

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About the book

An Anglo Saxon burial ground that must not be disturbed. A Victorian tragedy of forbidden love. And an ancient curse whose power grows ever stronger. On the banks of the River Deben lies a set of barns dating back to the Anglo Saxons, and within their walls secrets have lain buried for centuries.

Reviewed by Milford-on-Sea Library Group

This book aroused much discussion with regards to the intermingling of four different eras and the subsequent effect on their descentants. The characters were reasonably well drawn. The author had obviously done much research.

Star rating: ***

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The Divide by Nicholas Davies

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Set in a time when the War on Terror has spread to the very heartland of America, ‘The Divide’ is the story of a family devastated by the activities of a much loved daughter who is wanted by the FBI for murder and acts of terrorism.

Reviewed by Bookends Reading Group

Unanimous positive reception for a page turning book. Excellent writing all round; unpredictable plot, superb characterisation and perfect landscape description.

Star rating: *****

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Mr Toppit by Charles Elton

Karin, Hampshire Libraries1 Comment
book cover

About the book

When the author of The Hayseed Chronicles, Arthur Hayman, is mown down by a concrete truck in Soho, his legacy passes to his widow, Martha, and her children – the fragile Rachel, and Luke, reluctantly immortalised as Luke Hayseed, the central character of his father’s books. But others want their share, particularly Laurie, who has a mysterious agenda of her own that changes all their lives. For buried deep in the books lie secrets which threaten to be revealed as the family begins to crumble under the heavy burden of their inheritance. Spanning several decades, from the heyday of the British film industry after the war to the cut-throat world of show business in Los Angeles, Mr Toppit is a riveting tale of the unexpected effects of sudden fame and fortune. Not since Jonathan Coe’s What a Carve Up! has a novel managed to capture a family and a society to such wonderfully funny and painful effect.

Reviewed by Better Book Club Reading Group:

This is a book about fame and its unwanted effect on the family who are its subject. Our group was disappointed with it and found it slow and disjointed and we had no interest in the characters. We did not find it engaging or witty.

Star rating: *

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The First Casualty by Ben Elton

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About the book

Flanders, June 1917: a British officer and celebrated poet, is shot dead, killed not by German fire, but while recuperating from shell shock well behind the lines. A young English soldier is arrested and, although he protests his innocence, charged with his murder. Douglas Kingsley is a conscientious objector, previously a detective with the London police, now imprisoned for his beliefs. He is released and sent to France in order to secure a conviction. Forced to conduct his investigations amidst the hell of The Third Battle of Ypres, Kingsley soon discovers that both the evidence and the witnesses he needs are quite literally disappearing into the mud that surrounds him. Ben Elton’s tenth novel is a gut-wrenching historical drama which explores some fundamental questions. What is murder? What is justice in the face of unimaginable daily slaughter? And where is the honour in saving a man from the gallows if he is only to be returned to die in a suicidal battle? As the gap between legally-sanctioned and illegal murder becomes evermore blurred, Kingsley quickly learns that the first casualty when war comes is truth.

Reviewed by ABC Reading Group:

A very good bookclub book, well crafted, good characterisation. The book explores the ethics of warfare, and gives a lot of ‘historical’ background without being heavy handed.

Star rating: ****

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