BOOK GROUP 4

Co-ordinator: Pat Davidson

Meetings: monthly - 2nd Friday - 2pm - at a member's house (rotating)

book4@newmillsu3a.org.uk

Book Group 4

We make use of loans from Derbyshire Libraries which has a very extensive list of sets of books (fiction and non-fiction) for reading groups. Each member of the group selects 2 titles, but what we actually get depends on which titles are available month by month.

Our meetings rotate amongst members homes.

"For all the Tea in China" by Sarah Rose.

Our group had mixed feelings on "For all the Tea in China" by Sarah Rose. Some thought it extremely tedious and did not make it to the end whilst others enjoyed the history of our national drink.  Sarah Rose is an American and in the US the subtitle of the book is "How England stole the world's favorite drink and changed history"

The story is hung on a skeleton of facts about how tea was stolen from China by Robert Fortune during the early part of the 19th century working on behalf of the `Honourable Company'. It is about the trials and tribulations experienced by him and others in their efforts to send and keep alive; samples, cuttings and seeds of quality tea shrubs and send them to India; it's about how Victorian ingenuity circumnavigated the many challenges that beset this task and how Fortune discovered how the Chinese grew, processed and made tea (black and green teas are a result of the processing, not from different plants). How the story of tea resulted in a major contribution to the growth and development of the British Empire and how its work force was slowly but surely weaned off other more popular drinks often based on alcohol.

It places the story within the wider context of world trade and economic thuggery played by Britain. There are uncomfortable moments when one realises that the skills and attributes that led to those outstanding achievements, which contributed towards the `sun never setting on the British Empire' were also the same attributes that were involved in cultural abuse, economic exploitation and the Honourable Companies trade monopoly.

There are other more academic studies of the history of tea and some critics were rather hard on the accuracy of the book, but overall the group thought it was an enjoyable read.

"Chocolate Wars" by Deborah Cadbury

We all enjoyed "Chocolate Wars" by Deborah Cadbury.  She gave a fascinating insight into the cocoa trade, the role of Quakers in business and the demise of Cadbury as a British manufacturer.  The history of chocolate making in America, Switzerland, France and Britain was covered. Attempts to take over British firms by the Swiss and Americans was an ongoing theme for a number of years.

The production of a palatable chocolate bar was very difficult and Frys were the first company to create one in Frys Chocolate Cream, which most of us could remember.  Frys were the largest chocolate factory in the world at one point.

In the 19th century 4,000 Quakers ran British companies. They were forbidden by their beliefs to enter parliament, the armed forces and the professions ie the law.  This made trade the only choice Wedgewood, Clarks shoes, Rowntrees, Terrys of York and Frys were all Quakers.  Quakers believed wealth should fund social projects and the development of Bournville was so engrossing.  The workers were provided with cottages with very large gardens to enable them to grow their own food, clubs, swimming pools and many other benefits. All the group were drawn into the story and cared that Cadbury was taken over by a hostile bid from Nestle.

A thoroughly enjoyable read.

"Dona Nicanora's Hat Shop " by Kirstan Hawkins

Set in a small, out of the way, village called Villa de la Virgen within the swamps of South America, this story of Dona Niconora and her fellow villagers engages the reader from the very first page. Dona Niconora has many unfulfilled dreams in life. Her life has been full of mistakes and regrets and she now lives a dreary and uneventful life with her children and no husband. Niconor's greatest wish is to own a hat-shop, full of beautiful feathered, beaded and sequinned hats, the likes of which are never seen in the village.

Every character is described beautifully and the reader feels as though they too have lived in the village amongst the people for years and years. When not one, but two new faces come to live in the village, so starts a stream of events that change life in the village for ever.  

Kirsten Hawkins  is an anthropologist who has worked in South America so were the characters "types" she had studied?  An enjoyable read.

March 2012 - "The Reaper " by Steven Dunne

We had our discussion this month about "The Reaper" by Steven Dunne. The group members who attended all enjoyed the novel.  We thought it would make a good television drama.  

Detective Inspector Damen Brook has moved to Derby from London away from his obsession with a serial killer which has driven him, we are led to believe, to the edge of madness.  However the killer appears to have followed him north as the similar killings begin again in Derby.

The author published the book himself and it does not appear to have been reviewed in the national press however the novel was equally as good as many mainstream thrillers in the top sellers in our opinion. It is difficult to come up with a completely new idea in such an overcrowded market but the book was engaging although some thought it was too complicated with the retrospective sections written in italics.  

"The Reaper" is part of a trilogy and we want to find out what happens next, the sign of a good plot!

The main characters are Anna Aemalin, a successful illustrator of children's books, and Katri, whose only love and ambition is for the younger brother left in her care, Mats, a shy, slow, gentle boy.

Katri stages a break in to Anna's house after which she persuades her that she should not live alone.  Katri moves into the large house with her brother she then gradually takes over Anna's business interests persuading her that she is being tricked by everyone she deals with.  Katri is wizz with figures and decides that as she is helping Anna to acquire more money she could keep half for herself and Mat.  Mat has created plans for a boat and Katri wants to fund the building of it.  

However as the winter goes on it becomes clear that Anna is not the innocent we at first imagine and we are left with the question who is the True Deceiver.

Most of the group enjoyed the novel, the island completely snowbound, the small village and the claustrophobia were all so well portrayed, as were the characters.  

Tove Jansson was the author of children's books "The Moomins" a Swedish speaking Finn she lived on an island and had artists for parents a lot of similarities to Anna.

January 2012      "Restless" by William Boyd

The group all enjoyed "Restless " by William Boyd. The book related the story of Sally Fairchild through her daughter Ruth.  The mother hands Ruth a file which records the past life of Eva Delectorskyaya aka Sally Fairchild.  Ruth a who lives a fairly dull life as an English teacher to foreign students in Oxford discovers her mother is Russian and was recruited in 1939 to become a spy for Britain. The device of going from the 1970's back to wartime Britain, Europe and America works very well.

The misinformation Eva works on during WW2 did actually occur and Boyd works it all in well. Eva is betrayed and works very hard to escape from her persecutors and spends the rest of her life from WW2 to 1970's looking over her shoulder.

A fascinating read and enjoyed by all members of the group a first for our new group!

December 2011

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

Book group 4 discussed "The Road" with mixed reviews. Most of the group did enjoy it. It was a challenging read.

November 2011

Our second book is "The Museum of Innocence" by Orhan Pamuk.

Not being satisfied with a Booker prize winner, we moved up a gear to a Nobel Prize winner with Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence.

We found more to engage with in this novel set in 1970s Turkey. This was my choice so I felt a little anxious about its reception given that it is a demanding read due to its length at well over 500 pages. We agreed that there was an excessive amount of detail. One chapter is devoted to cigarette smoking, which is followed by a four page chapter where every sentence begins “Sometimes”, as in “Sometimes we watched a cockroach walk across the floor”.  However, if you’re interested in love, obsession, collecting things, Istanbul, and Turkish society this could be the book for you. A finely written book which might have been better for being shorter.

Next up is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road – should make for a cheery Xmas!

David Jones

October 2011

We had our first meeting to discuss "The Finkler Question" written by Howard Jacobson.

Generally people found it difficult to empathise with the central character or indeed any of the characters

Hope we like the next one.

Pat

We got off to a slow start with Jacobson’s The Finkler Question.

Despite the glowing testimonials that accompanied my paperback copy of this Booker prize winner, we all found it lacking in interest. The main character, a gentile aspiring to be a Jew, is difficult to take seriously, though in fairness the book does deal with some important issues facing British Jewry such as attitudes to Israel. Inevitably, the book also devotes some time to that minor operation that is required of male Jews early on in their life.

David