Christmas Meeting

The library has a lovely tree on display at the airport this year for The Save The Children Festival of Trees. It was created by our talented Library Assistant and Illustrator Quinn Shipton and incorporates leaves with favourite books chosen by our library readers. 

We decided to read some of the chosen titles for our Christmas meeting, and here's a few of our picks.... 

You can pick up a leaflet with all the favourite books from the library if you're looking for some good ideas for Christmas Reading. Why not call down to the airport and see our tree over the holidays? 

November Reads

We couldn't decide between these two fantastic books, so will be discussing them both tonight!

'A Light Between the Oceans' by M L Steadman

A boat washes up on the shore of a remote lighthouse keeper's island. It holds a dead man - and a crying baby. 

The only two islanders, Tom and his wife Izzy, make a devastating decision to break the rules and follow their hearts...

 ‘A LIGHT BETWEEN THE OCEANS’ is currently being made into a film, due for release in 2016, so wonderful to read the book first.

You can read more about 'A Light Between The Oceans on an earlier post when the book was first released:  Onchan Book Group







'A Man Called Ove' by Fredrik Backman

Ove is possibly the grumpiest man in Sweden. He drives a Saab - has no time for Volvo drivers, or people who can’t reverse trailers, and especially the neighbours who ousted him from being Chairman of The Resident’s Association. 

But Ove does have a heart beneath that crusty exterior, and his poignant and moving story is told with flashes of dark humour.

So many positive comments from people borrowing and reading this book from the library, so looking forward to hearing what the group thinks tonight!

Meet Jetmalew and Friends!

We're all looking forward to meeting Jetmalew and friends with local author and illustrator Vicki Orwin at The Harvey Briggs Onchan Library on Saturday 10th Oct from 10.30 - 12.30. Vicki will be reading from her new book, signing copies, and there will be Jetmalew themed activities to make and do. There's also a hunt around the library with a signed copy of Jetmalew's Island Adventures as a prize! 

Manx Litfest 2015 is nearly here!

 Island book lovers look forward to this event each year, which will run from 22nd - 27th September. 

As usual, you will be spoiled for choice - take a look at their full programme on manxlitfest.com and keep up with the latest news on their facebook page.

A highlight of special interest for book groups is Andy Miller - READ Y’SELF FITTER, which aims to cure you of your bad reading habits and asks the audience to think about whether it's better to spend time at the gym or the library? And is Moby-Dick really a better book than The Da Vinci Code? Andy Miller is the author of 'The Year of Reading Dangerously'. Places are limited to 30 for this event at The Bath and Bottle on Sat 26th Sept at 1.30 p.m. and tickets can be booked from The Villa &Gaiety Box Office.

Book Fanatics Quiz Night

The Book Fanatics Quiz Night will be on Thurs 24th September at The Noa Bakehouse at 8 p.m. We're looking to put together an Onchan Bookgroup or library team, so please contact us if you're interested. It's a fun evening and all welcome! Once again, tickets can be booked at The Villa & Gaiety Box Office.

Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes

Penguin Books

Louisa Clark is wandering aimlessly in and out of the job centre when she's offered a six-month contract as a companion to quadriplegic Will Traynor, a former adrenaline junkie and City worker whose life has been intractably changed by a run-in with a motorcycle. They make an unusual pair, throwing each other completely off-balance.

Although it may seem as if this novel will be a straightforward love story, it is anything but, facing head on the difficult subjects of living with disability and voluntary euthanasia with poignancy, sensitivity and a good deal of humour.

A sequel, ‘After You’ is due to be published later this month, and a film of the book will be released in 2016. 

Cath

The Sudden Departure of the Frasers by Louise Candlish

Penguin

This one really divided the group, with readers either loving or hating it! 

Here's what Elizabeth thought:

I liked this book from the very first line:

My name is Amber Fraser. I've just moved in at Number 40, Lime Park Road. You'll come to think of me as a loving wife, a thoughtful neighbour and a trusted friend.

This is a lie.

The Davenports, Joe and Christy, couldn't believe their luck on being able to purchase number 40 Lime Park Road, despite having to borrow, struggle and deny themselves things they thought would fall into place as a matter of course. It was a huge house made for a family that they couldn't afford - which mattered a lot to Christy. Joe was made a partner in his company without being aware of the repercussions. 

As the story progresses, and all the troubles emerge, the picture of today's way of living becomes apparent. Whispers about WHAT, the need to be on top, where the children went to school. They tried to make friends with neighbours, and couldn't understand why it didn't happen. 

The man in the top floor flat adjoining number 40 was part of this mystery - who was he, and what did he do? The tragedy of the unfolding of Amber's previous life opens our eyes to her deep seated insecurities and how by devious means she kept her husband and a child that wasn't his..

It was sad, moving and also loving the ending I found entirely right.

Elizabeth

Retirement Blues Goodbye!

Retirement Blues Goodbye! Along Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Path

Richard Cowley

You can download this book for free from Amazon for one day only on 29th June!

After a career which took him worldwide, Richard Cowley was looking forward to settling into retirement and having time to paint and pursue his many interests. Instead, he found himself in the doldrums - until he hatched a plan with an Aussie friend to walk Wainwright’s coast to coast footpath from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay.

‘Could two neo-pensioners survive the trail and arrive at the other end with heart valves intact? he ponders? 

I particularly enjoyed his descriptions of some of the more eccentric characters they met along the trail, especially the ‘Mad Hatter’ owner of the B&B at Danby Wiske. The paying guests’ shower was out of order so the author was using the landlord’s ensuite. He was greeted in the morning by a dismayed landlord  - ‘you’re not having another shower are you? ‘There was no such thing as a full English Breakfast – guests had to choose elements of it – and tea was dispensed in trickles as if it was ‘the elixir of life.’

Each chapter was a complete section of the walk, with some entertaining nuggets about the place, and thoughts and musings along the way. The freedom of letting go of possessions and dull routines really kickstarted some big changes ‘from now on I’d engage with the mainstream of life, not merely as a pensioned off bystander...’

An enjoyable, amusing and inspiring read. 

Pam

More Book Group Reads..

Texas life journey read by Pauline ..

And adventure in the Congo read by Edith ...

The Thing About Prague

Rachel Weiss

The Thing About Prague

Prague is one of Anna’s favourite cities, so she gave this one a try. The author gave up her life in Sydney to move to Prague, where she lived for 3 years.  Although this was the place where her family had originated from, she didn’t feel she fitted in there, and found the language really difficult. The book was partly travelogue and partly memoir, and Anna found the writing informal and almost like reading a blog. 

Classic Travel Reads

Some of the books selected by our book group members are enduring classics...

A Short Walk in The Hindu Kush
Eric Newby

When explorer and adventurer Eric Newby finally realised that Haute Couture was not the career for him, he sent a cable to his friend Hugh Carless, saying ‘Can you travel Nuristan June?’ 

So began a classic journey from Mayfair to the wild mountains of the Hindu-Kush in Afghanistan. Written with great humour and self-deprecation, Newby describes their adventures through this stunningly beautiful, but inhospitable and dangerous country. This book was first published in 1958.

Cath



Sailing Alone Around the World
Joshua Slocum

Colvyn gave this one a 3 .5 - 4 star rating. He particularly enjoyed the understated writing, and the Shackleton style approach to adventure. Joshua Slocum was in his 50s when he set  out in 1895 to sail around the World alone. 

He spent 3 years at sea circling the Earth in 'Spray' his 36ft sailing boat. He was undaunted by storm and Pirate attacks, and met many famous, and infamous, people along the way. This book has never been out of print since 1900. 


Seven Years In Tibet
Heinrich Harrer

Pam was recommended this one, and gave it a 3 star rating. It was originally published in 1953, and has become an adventure classic about  Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer's 1943 escape from a British internment camp in India. He trekked across the Himalayas into the remote region of Tibet, where foreign visitors were rare. Even so, he became tutor to the Dalai Lama, which gave him a rare glimpse of Tibetan rites, culture and tradition. The Chinese invasion in 1950 prompted Harrer's departure. Pam enjoyed the insight into Tibetan life, but didn't find the description of the treks through the mountains especially gripping. 

Travel

It's the time of year when we're all thinking about holidays, so it seemed like a good idea to dip our toes in some travel. It's not a genre we've explored much before, and we all selected a book of our own choice Here's the first one - more books being added soon! 

The Perfect Storm
Sebastian Junger

Barnes & Noble

Elizabeth gave this our top rating of 5 stars. It's about the loss of the fishing vessel Andrea Gail as her crew fought to survive 60ft waves in the North Atlantic Ocean's worst storm. Junger writes of the desperate reasons behind the risks, and the family and friends left behind. It's tells the story of the crew's last days and hours, the communications with other fishing vessels, and the failed but heroic rescue attempts. 

If you enjoyed this one, try 'The Hungry Ocean' by Linda Greenlaw. She was the female Skipper of the Andrea Gail's sister ship who survived the storm. This book is more to do with her everyday life as a courageous and talented woman who loves being at sea, and fishing. 

Reading 'The Perfect Storm' inspired Elizabeth to write this:-

The perfect storm, is there such a thing?

Descriptions of it's ferocity

as though the wind and water have wings,

forty five foot waves from the depths they reach

building up their power

smashing all in it's path to pieces,

Sailors struggling against it

Boats being tossed about like toys

Will they see shore again?

Wives, children Girls and Boys,

People on the shore WATCHING

the waves as they roar,

Suddenly! houses ripped out to sea

People and buildings bought to their knees,

Rescuers out in this savagery

all at risk to saves others from the deadly seas,

When calm descends, all counting the cost

Fathers, Sons, Husbands LOST

claimed by the sea,

lives destroyed and lost

Elizabeth Adams

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

Penguin Books

Our book of the month is a first novel, 2014 Costa Prize winner, and shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. 

Maud, the narrator-heroine is determined to discover why her friend Elizabeth has gone missing. It’s an unsolved mystery, but Maud’s investigation is compromised by confusion and memory loss as a result of dementia. 

H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald

Image from The London Review Bookshop

Our Book of the Month for March is 'H is for Hawk' by Helen MacDonald, which won The Costa Book of the Year and The Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 

Helen MacDonald is a poet, historian, naturalist and illustrator. When she was only 8 years old, she came across 'The Goshawk' by T. H. White. The book tells of his struggle to train the goshawk, and escape his own personal demons. 

Following the death of her father, Mabel the goshawk enters her life and takes her on a journey through the grief she experienced.

A Song For Issy Bradley by Carys Bray

Carys Bray

This was a debut novel shortlisted for The 2014 Costa Book Awards, and selected as a Book at Bedtime for Radio 4. The story is told by each member of a Mormon family at a time of great sadness. Ian and Claire are both mourning their daughter, with Ian clinging to his faith to endure the loss and Claire longing for a sign to prevent her from spiraling into the depths of despair.

 Two brothers have also lost their sister, with Jacob looking for ways to fix his family together again and Zippy coping with guilt and first love. 

The book is set in the North West of England, which is where Carys Bradley lives. She was also brought up in a devout Mormon family herself. Not everyone in the group has read 'A Song for Issy Bradley', but those who have gave it our top rating of 5 stars.

Here's a few words from Elizabeth Adams about it:

What a beautiful story, faith and families

Daunting time ahead for them

the emotive situation of Issy

challenges Ian's beliefs

His daughter is dead!! WHY

he tells himself and his family

God wanted her for the eternal kingdom

The searching looks, the silences,

It shouldn't be like this,

no time for tears!!

A family divided by there faith

the bible that they live by

should be a guide

not a millstone to drag you down

but God does work mysteriously

to bring people back together again

with solace and peace to bind them

Books With a Heart

Our next meeting will be a week later than usual on Thursday 12th February at 6 p.m.
As it's close to Valentine's Day, we're reading a book of your own choice with 'heart' in the title. You can choose a book from any genre, and it doesn't necessarily have to be romantic ...