Here's what some of our local reading groups thought of selected titles from the collection. Perhaps you or your reading group would like to try them and see if you think any differently.
If you are part of a local group who borrows our collection, or if you are a reader who has read any of the titles below, please feel free to email us at library.enquiries@northlincs.gov.uk with your comments or reviews. We can then add your comments to the discussion below.
The moon and sixpence - W Somerset Maugham
We all enjoyed this book ‘of its time’. What a way with words; so descriptive of people and places.
A truly wonderful writer. Some of us thought this would be rather highbrow, but, on the contrary, we all thoroughly appreciated the prose, and found the characters well described, if at times not liked very much. The writer is a true storyteller, leaving us wanting more.
Where angels fear to tread - EM Forster
This read didn’t go down too well with the members of the group. All were rather disappointed both with content and storyline. Where we did all agree was with the descriptions of Italy; beautifully set out, but other than that a big disappointment. We were all expecting a classic read, but felt cheated, especially after ‘Room with a view,’ which was great.
The girls - Lori Lansens
What a wonderful book. Most of us felt cheated that this is in fact a novel and not a true story. Wonderfully written and it felt like a biography. All of the characters held one’s imagination, and it was felt by all of us that this was a book never to be forgotten.
Silence of the grave - Arnaldur Indridason
This book gained mixed reactions from our members, and on the whole was enjoyed, even if the plot was questionable at times. I liked the idea of a few storylines threading through, which for me gave great interest and was a real page turner.
It was on the whole a miserable read, with no heroes, and full of dysfunctional people. However, it did give us an interesting evening of discussion, which we are now used to in our lovely group. Long may it continue.
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
This read went down very well and a good meeting was held with much discussion of the points raised. The questions raised about cell issues in particular and in general gave way to quite heated arguments, and I felt we gave this book a thoroughly good ‘going over’.
We all thought it could have been written in a much shorter form, with information on the collection of input coming over as rather boring.
The people on Privilege Hill - Jane Gardam
What a read this was. Despite the fact we only had five members present due to holidays (we did get ‘write-ups’ from the other members), the meeting went on for three hours, making us late for supper!
We thoroughly enjoyed the array of differing stories. Some made us laugh out loud and others were quite sad, but the overall response was that we enjoyed every one and appreciated the change of genre from our usual reads. We took it upon ourselves to review a couple of stories each but we all had our views on every story, hence the longer meeting.
We certainly enjoyed ourselves, but then that is nothing new with Worlaby Readers.
Natural flights of the human mind - Clare Morrall
This book was generally received with good reports. Only one of our members thought it very much a female book (one of our gentleman readers) and had too many wrong 'facts' to mention. It was based on a poor story and took one's belief to breaking point.
All that said, we ladies in the group thoroughly enjoyed the read, wondering what we would do under similar circumstances. Although it seemed 'far fetched' (Harry turning up at the very end!) this didn't distract from our enjoyment of the story and its inhabitants. A jolly good book and one we were glad to have taken the trouble to read.
On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
I thought, on seeing the size of 'On Chesil Beach,' we would have difficulty in filling half an hour of discussion, let alone a couple of hours, but how wrong can one be.
The book went down a treat, enjoyed by all members to varying degrees but there was certainly much to discuss. We thought it was a novel 'of a certain time,' in other words before the pill and before anything and everything is discussed on the television and books. We did think with a little more effort on everyone's part the situation could have been much better but then a novel would not have ensued. The lack of communication, a dysfunctional home life, the clash of cultures all led to a super read and a very good meeting.
Verdict - a jolly good 'little book' and one well worth reading by a much-loved author. I would like to quote from one of our readers: 'A very perceptive book, well-written and sensitively handled. Enjoyed it even more the second time around but I think that anyone born in the late 60s and beyond will think it is hilarious. That two educated intelligent people could be so ill informed and so poor at communication, so ignorant of their partners. Both were equally unable to express feelings and show emotion.'