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Ashendon Book Group

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Ashendon Book Group -

Ashendon Book Group

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

About 13 year old Isobel’s determination to free herself and her sister (Ruth) from slavery in New York at the same time as all of America was fighting for independence.

This book is a good, easy read with vivid imagery throughout. It tells a very hard story that, whilst fictional, reflects the reality for many slave children of the time.

Circumstances lead Isobel into a very dangerous existence that, when caught by her owner, receives an inevitably cruel reaction by her owner (Mrs Lockton). This doesn’t stop Isobel whose loyalty to her (only) friend, Curzon, leads her down a track that eventually enables her to take the brave step.
The group loved Isobel for her gutsiness and optimism – she never gave up on her belief that she could be free, despite the cruel control of her owner and the laws that held her bound. Mr Lockton seemingly turned a blind eye, to the inhumane acts of his wife, though he had his mind on British interests in America at the time and was possibly too busy to worry about domestic affairs. His aunt, Mrs Seymour, did take an interest and did what she could to help the girls – a kind but, sadly, too old lady.

A central theme in the book is another book – Common Sense by Thomas Paine – Sue Roberts took the time to find a copy of this book (which was in the Aylesbury library vaults) and shared her findings with the book group. Thomas Paine was one of the 12 American founding fathers and influential in the subsequent French Revolution (for which he was arrested, imprisoned and only just avoided the guillotine). Fascinating stuff.

We certainly recommend this book as an interesting, historically informative and thought provoking read.
The Boy in the Bush by DH Lawrence (and M.L. (Mollie) Skinner)

The book generated much discussion and debate. Some loved it, others struggled with it – though no-one absolutely hated it.

The expectation of some of our group was that DH Lawrence would be heavy going – some were pleasantly surprised, others found it heavy going! The punctuation was unusual and dialect can be difficult to read. It was in the typical ‘flowery’ style of Lawrence. If you don’t like it you can skip it was one suggestion but this wasn’t a great solution for everyone.

One member of our group put the reading challenge into perspective:
“It was one of those books where you would read a lot of pages, then think am I enjoying this? Answer: No – then something punches you in the face and you are off again reading with enthusiasm.”

Jack the main character was liked by most of the group – though became less liked as the tale unfolded and by the end he had a lost a lot of the sympathy extended to him due to his circumstance:
- Brought up by aunts who bordered on cruel to him
- Sent to Australia as a young man by his family
- Virtually disowned by his father

The story is a fascinating social history. It is rich in ‘stuff’ to learn and try to understand.

The original manuscript by Mollie Skinner may not be as ‘well’ written but clearly provided a solid, historical, foundation for Lawrence to build on.

Would we recommend it? Not sure.
The Bolter by Frances Osbourn

We all loved the book, though it was an incredibly sad story and we felt very sorry for Idina. It was a tragic though clearly rich life. Failed marriages, untimely deaths and personal ill health haunted Idina.
However Idina still managed to enjoy life and fitted a vast amount in: setting up 3 farms on previously untended land in Kenya is pretty impressive in itself - she was certainly highly regarded by the Kenyans. Then there is the massive house in Scotland that she project managed at a very young age. Also her trips to Paris in wartime and a drive to Kenya are incredible. She did all this and remained so glamorous - what a gal - hat’s off to Idina.

We found the permissive Edwardian society absolutely astounding – affairs among the gentry were rife! In fact they seem to have been almost the norm and the general behaviour was shocking even to us broad minded modern women!. Idina certainly wasn’t the worst.

At the beginning of the book it is easy to be judgemental about Idina, and the decisions she made, but as the story unfolds it is clear just how unselfish she was. We loved that Frances Osbourn made no judgement – she simply tells the story as it was and wasn’t tempted to sensationalise. The afterword is an independent verification of all that Frances tells.

We found the footnotes through the book of no help at all but the family tree at the front of the book was frequently flicked back to by most of us.
Crossed Wired by Rosy Thornton

Our discussion concluded that this was a pleasant and light summer read with no plot and weak characterisation.

Nice cross class idea – with just one little brave ‘out of the norm’ action that changed the plodding lives of two people. BUT nothing went anywhere – the story lines stopped. It was shallow beyond belief. Nothing happened. Not even any sex!!

The group reckoned anyone of us could have written this book but that none of us would have dared go to the publisher with it. If the author was a sad old housewife with nothing better to do we would have forgiven her this BUT she is a Cambridge professor – for goodness sake!

We could have gone on and on about the deficiencies of this book but decided to leave it at “it is an undemanding beach read”.
A Beginners Guide to Acting English by Shappi Khorsandi

Here’s how our book group discussion began:
“This is absolutely the reason why I joined a book group – this is a book I would never have picked up to read and it was fantastic. It gave a great insight into another culture, recent history and a fabulous angle on how others see the English!”

Lots of nods and agreement to that – except for ONE:

“I disagree – how could a 3 year old recall so much detail? It was all to unreal that I couldn’t get into it at all.”

Lots of justification – of course a 3 year old won’t remember all that, but this is a book of family stories, things she was told and possibly real memories embedded to hard drive by traumatic events at a young age (I still remember my first day at school, vividly, though only just 4 years old).

This book created debate.

This is a book with so much to experience and enjoy. It’s not a great piece of literature but it is an easy read.
March 2009 Review - 'Remembering Babylon' by David Malouf
The group reaction to this book was mixed - some (a few) loved it, others really didn't and a few are undecided.

Comments included: " it was a beautiful piece of literature"; "if I hadn't known I would have thought I was reading DH Lawrence"; "the one good thing about it was that it was short!" and "worse than homework".

Undoubtedly this book is extremely well written but it doesn't flow easily and sections often need re-reading in order to grasp their sense.

Angst reigns throughout this tale of a community that is frightened of outsiders and a troubled man who has grown from an equally troubled child. (Here lies the similarity to DH Lawrence - it was a book with a troubled mind).

Unusually for our group we didn't take time out to discuss the characters in detail. For such a short book there were many different characters, so perhaps it is for the best that we didn't venture into such discussion.

Descriptive bits of note were the Scots accents that read as they would be spoken; the bees swarming young Janet and the smells that evoked memories (horse pooh and wood smoke).

We did agree that Gemmy had little chance of ever having a happy and balanced life - an orphan who worked on board ships from the age of 5, virtually a slave who was cruelly treated by his 'owner' and eventually thrown overboard, rescued and raised by an aboriginal tribe. His attempt to find a (rightful) place with the early white settlers in East Coast Australia literally took away what little spirit he had left and eventually he returned to the aboriginal tribe to be what he had become - a native black man in a white skin. Gemmy couldn't cope with himself so how could he cope with anyone else? And how could anyone else cope with him? Gemmy's nativeness contrasts with (and exposes) the settlers as a closed community that spurned (and feared) outsiders and that had an obsession with owning and naming things (perhaps to feel they then owned them). They were clinging to the remnants of a Western culture that didn't sit comfortably in the new land. Malouf hints why this is by reflecting on how these people had 'no ghosts' in this new world, they only have the other world to relate to. However as time moved on to 50 years later ghosts do exist, and lessons could have been learned, yet little has changed and history does start to repeat itself.

Suffice it to say this story could be analysed endlessly - the literature is superb. Would we recommend it? Mixed!

A Fine Balance - by Rohinton Mistry

This book invoked truly mixed feelings amongst our reading group. Everyone agreed that it was a most beautifully written book though some chose not to continue reading it.

To quote Helen (Gypsy Bottom) “If it hadn’t been written with such gorgeous imagery you wouldn’t have put yourself through such a harrowing experience!”

Almost from the very first page the reader is captivated and the 614 pages are, in terms of flow and language, easy to read. The book is NOT an easy read however. It tells the grim truth of India mainly in the 1970’s and through one of the most controversial periods in India’s history.

In 1975 the 1971 election of the Congress party (with Prime Minister Indira Ghandi) was declared to have been fraudulent. The Sikhs opposed the ‘facist’ tendency of the government and there was great unrest. Ghandi called a state of emergency.

During this time many things were brought to bear on the Indian community including:
Detention of innocent people by police with no charge
Abuse and torture of detainees and political prisoners
Use of public and private institutions e.g. television network for propaganda
Forced vasectomy of thousands of men (Indira’s son is now directly blamed for this)
Arbitrary destruction of slums and low income housing where many poor people lived

A Fine Balance tells the story of the lives of ordinary Indian citizens caught up in these times and their how they dealt with the situation.
'Notes from an Exhibition' by Patrick Gale We enjoyed this book. It was an easy read though not necessarily a page turner. There were some intriguing twists and plenty of tension throughout.
The story of a talented artist Rachel Kelly with her strong yet disturbed character is told through an almost visual description of her own and the lives of those she influenced and is well illustrated by the ‘notes’. The other central character Anthony clearly loved Rachel and held their family together. Though Rachel was a Mum she was not really very good at it and certainly was not a good role model. Anthony, on the other hand, was a great Dad and an excellent role model for their children. Garfield makes this very clear at the end of the book when he perhaps could have chosen to view Anthony quite differently.
The ‘twists’ in the tale are superbly constructed and entwine through the book – for example:
- Petroc – we knew it had happened/was going to happen and felt Patrick Gale handled this sensitive part of the book beautifully.
- Rachel’s sister too was a striking twist in the tale

'The Mill on the Floss' by George Eliot We all agreed that this was a difficult book to get into to – the language was unfamiliar, the typeface small and the narrative verged on too much detail. There were “so many pages with so little happening” and in fact for such a long book “very little did happen” (as Vanessa eloquently pointed out!).'
Paradoxically, those of us who persevered really loved this book and were glad it was a book group choice because otherwise we could have given up.
This book was written to be read in detail, even to be read out loud, by circles of Victorian women who could perhaps dream of a different life, while sipping their afternoon tea and attending to their needlework. If you read it when wide awake you can hear it and see it too.
The story, centred around the Tulliver family, is hilarious, light-hearted yet haunting and tragic. Maggie Tulliver, the central character was not he archetypal Victorian girl and woman. Her relationship with her father (who understood and loved her) and with her brother (who didn’t) created the focus of the story. Apparently Maggie is much like George (herself).
Would we recommend this book? YES without doubt.

Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones Sue Roberts gave us a brief overview of Bougainville, the island where the story of Mr Watts, Matilda and their Great Expectations experience took place.

Bougainville is a real place – it is a small island located between Papua New Guinea and The Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands were German territory, handed to Australia who handed them to Papua New Guinea. Then copper was discovered and Australian mining companies moved in causing awful pollution. The islanders wanted their island and civil war ensued. Papua New Guinea was told to deal with it, by the Australians, and so blockaded Bougainville. The islanders who had enjoyed modern lifestyles and comforts were, in their isolation, sunk further and further into self-sufficiency and basic living standards. At the hands of the ‘Redskin’ Papua New Guinea forces they also suffered unspeakable and inhumane acts of cruelty and violence.

Some of us wished we had known that before we read the book.

The book had mixed feedback from the group. No one really raved about it but some felt it was a ‘reading experience’ and an amazing idea. One thing we all agreed is that the book only really gets going in the last 40 pages and what happens was totally unexpected.

Like ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ we felt the author dealt with the subject matter in a very matter of fact style – much of what occurred was simply stated and had no need for more description.

Much of our conversation, surrounding the book, dug deep into the psyche of Mr Watts (Pop Eye) and his motivations.

We loved Matilda, particularly her character, her morals and her loyalties. We felt her Mum was well meaning, though narrow in her views. Her strength of faith and ‘preaching’ becomes credible as the book moves on, as does her efforts to protect her daughter.

Would we recommend it? Mainly no, though some of us definitely will recommend this book to carefully selected others.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillippa Gregory This is a beautifully descriptive book written extremely well in the 1st person. At times it almost felt that Mary Boleyn (the other Boleyn girl – sister to Anne Boleyn) was actually in the room telling her story. And what a story – Mary was married off by her family at 12 years old to William Carey (a favoured member of King Henry VIII’s court). For her power seeking family this was not enough and Mary was presented to the King and became his lover. As she succumbed to the demands of her family and the King she suffered the quiet indignation of her beloved Queen (Catherine of Aragon); had 2 children with Henry (Catherine and Henry). She eventually fell from favour as her sister Anne became the next Boleyn offering. Neither girl had a choice – they were but pawns – carefully manoeuvred by the men of the family (including their hapless brother George). We agreed in our discussion that this book presented history in such an inspiring manner that if we had read it at school we may all have become historians!

Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald This book follows the lives of a group of people living on house boats (redundant Dutch Barges) on the Thames at Battersea Reach. There is no real plot – it is more of a snapshot of a point in time of the characters’ lives (“Chekovian” says Sue Roberts). Penelope Fitzgerald uses her words VERY carefully and with great economy and with great success. This is a book to read a second time in order to appreciate the subtlety and depth within it. The more we discussed the book the more we found to talk about and just couldn’t stop ourselves digging out quotes and lines. Somehow in such a short book there is so much detail – though no colour. The book is a testament to the 1960’s – women who can’t fold maps, order a drink in a pub, draw corks, fold the times, hammer nails in or strike matches toward themselves. And single parent families are not the norm – they are socially shocking. Would we recommend it? It’s not a happy book, it’s quite depressing, it’s grey, the humour is deepest dark, it’s left to you to decide about the people; it’s interesting, it’s crammed full of great reading. YES almost without exception we agreed that of course we would recommend it.

The Island by Victoria Hislop The Island is a light and easy read, perfect for a lazy summer. So the group enjoyed the read but had reservations on the quality of research and writing.
The story is set in Crete and on Spinalonga, an island just off the South East coast of Crete. Spinalonga is a leper colony and Victoria Hislop describes the pain and emotions of a generation of 4 women and loved ones whose lives are torn apart by the terrible disease. Spinalonga was indeed an island where lepers were kept in isolation, very nearly forgotten by the authorities and finally closed in 1953.
The subject of leprosy is in fact quite unusual and original and it is all to Victoria Hislop’s credit to embrace the subject and make her readers aware of the terrible hardship that followed such a devastating disease.
There are a few well described events – such as when the mother/school teacher leaves the village and when her daughter first arrives at her home on the island. However the fact that these are so outstandingly different simply highlights the less well written bulk of the book.

The Edible Woman by Margaret Attwood This book had a mixed response from members. There were those who enjoyed it as a novel of its era, a social history snapshot of Canada in 1965, but others who found its one dimensional characters and lack of real purpose rather boring. Attwood paints a satirical view of life in marketing and customer surveys, and of the landlady, which add small elements of comedy, but otherwise everyday activities seem tedious. However she is bold in introducing a single mother character – totally taboo at the time - but in the end even she (Ainsley) conforms by deciding the baby needs a father.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger This book explores a completely new dimension in relation to time and the effects of this dimension on a love story. Most of the book group members felt it was a love story, well told, despite the time travel, with believable characters all with their own particular angst. There is a build up of tension and hints along the way indicating a sad end which were extremely well done.

The End of The Affair by Graham Greene For many of us our first Graham Greene which was chosen primarily because then we can watch the film too (which has Ralph Feinnes in it). Many found the plot a bit thin and felt the material covered could have been condensed into a book half of the size. However some felt that the book was well written and it was felt that the intensity of the feelings were all consuming “something that is not felt very often”, which was just as well as the depth of emotion led to the destruction of the characters involved. On reflection the GG fans in the group did say this wasn’t his best so we shouldn’t give up on him as an author just yet. Bring on the film!!

The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley This wasn't a speedy read - more a rich experience to be savoured, not rushed. Not everyone finished the book but what was read was loved. The young Elspeth seemed to balance well the challenges of childhood loneliness with the benefits of freedom. Her love of animals helped her cope with her solitary childhood. She seemed to be mature beyond her years - and this raised discussion of what was in the book for 'literary' purposes versus what aspects of the story were made up or adapted, based on truth rather than actual fact. Whatever, this is a ‘must read’ for anyone who wants to learn more of other cultures and other times.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte We chose this book as we all wanted to read another classic after the success of Anna Karenina and felt after the failings of Michele Roberts’ book named after Jane Eyre we should try it. It is another that got the better of some of the group so our meeting to discuss it was small and a sub-meeting will happen some time. Those who have finished it loved it. We all feel Charlotte was way beyond her time, a fantastic writer whose use of adjectives is perfection itself.

Reader I Married Him by Michele Roberts Not a book that went down well with the group. We felt it was written very badly, had irrelevant use of bad language, lacked direction and was totally unworthy of the positive write ups in the press.

Close Range by Annie Proulx We all fancied reading some short stories and as this book includes the story of BrokeBack Mountain we saw an opportunity to enjoy the film together as well. The book got mixed reactions from our group though it was largely enjoyed. Some of the stories had to read twice to understand them and some members needed encouragement to keep going.

Diary of an Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster Wow – Millicent was, in our view, no ordinary woman! This novel was a graphic tale of life during the blitz – tragic, funny, challenging and altogether inspiring. How amazed we were to find the truth at the end which received an extremely mixed emotional reaction from our group.

Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris - The place is St Oswald’s, an old and long-established boys’ grammar school in the north of England. A new year has just begun, and for the staff and boys of the School, a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork and Information Technology rule the world; and Roy Straitley, Latin master, eccentric, and veteran of St Oswald’s, is finally – reluctantly - contemplating retirement. But beneath the little rivalries, petty disputes and everyday crises of the School, a darker undercurrent stirs. And a bitter grudge, hidden and carefully nurtured for fifteen years, is about to erupt.

Small Island by Andrea Levy - We all agreed that this was a beautiful book, cleverly written by someone who clearly has experience of how life was for post war Jamaicans in Britain. The story was poignant, funny, sad, shocking and surprising. About half the group found it difficult to ‘get into’ the book at first but were very pleased they persevered.

Toast by Nigel Slater – Again, we loved this memoir of young Nigel’s life and the memories evoked by 1970’s food. As well as taking the opportunity to reminisce over Nigel’s food memories we also enjoyed sharing our own and discussed such culinary delights as Fray Bentos pies, Maria Brand long spaghetti, Potato Volcanoes, Angel Delight and buying our own school lunches to budget.

Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka – An excellent find by Vicky Blue that turned out to be far more entertaining than the title implies. We all enjoyed this is an hilarious story, with underlying sadness, about family dynamics and the past challenges faced by family members.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – Sue Roberts and Felicity Smettem asked for a ‘classic’ read, so we all rose to the challenge and chose this beautiful book. It took many of us longer to read than anticipated and we dedicated two group meetings to the review of this lovely book – one to discuss the themes involved and another to discuss the story and how it ended.