April Meetup

Another great turnout for our March meetup saw plenty of interesting discussion on two books that provided some quite different perspectives – which is perfect! Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper by Fuchsia Dunlop scored 61 while I Who Have Never Known Men scored a round 50.

For April we are heading to very different points of the compass; first East to a Fife seaside council estate for a coming of age novel set in the 1990s and then West to 1980’s New England for another coming of age book set in an elite liberal arts college in Vermont.

Please note, with thanks, we appreciate attendees making a contribution of £1.50 at the meeting to help cover meetup charges.

Happy Reading.

Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands (nominated by Alan)

Fife, in the blazing hot summer of 1994. Cora Mowat's mates don't understand her, but then Cora Mowat doesn't understand herself.

She's stuck on a seaside council estate full of dafties, old folk and seagulls, with a thousand dreams and a restless brain that won't behave. She's dying to escape but unsure of what the future holds - if it holds anything at all for a girl like her.

When her Mam's new boyfriend moves in, tensions rise in their tiny house. Gunner means well, but he's dodgy - a shaven-headed shoplifter with more than a few secrets stashed under the bed.

As their attempts to forge a makeshift family unravel, Cora rails against her small-town existence in search of love, acceptance and a path to something good. But sometimes you can't move forward until you find your way back . . .

The Secret History by Donna Tartt (nominated by Jo)

Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries.

But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.

Other books nominated were:

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
The Lonely Skier by Hammond Innes
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth
The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel