Book clubs in Berkshire

I have read many books written by Ken Follet, but this was my first and I think it will also remain my favourite. I read Lie Down With Lions during a car journey and it was definitely an 'I can't put it down' experience. The tension in the final chapters as the Russian Army track the Afghanistan people across the mountains had me pushing on to find out how it ends. Also, the book was very informative with regard to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, something that certainly resonates today.

’This is a female text borne of guilt and desire, stitched to a soundtrack of cartoon nursery rhymes.’ ‘This is a female text and it is a tiny miracle that it even exists, as it does in this moment, lifted to another consciousness by the ordinary wonder of type. Ordinary, too, the ricochet of thought that swoops, now, from my body to yours.’ ‘This is a female text, written in the twenty-first century. How late it is. How much has changed. How little.’ ‘This is a female text, which is also a caoineadh: a dirge and a drudge-song, an anthem of praise, a chant and a keen, a lament and an echo, a chorus and a hymn. Join in.’ This is a strange and beautiful book about women telling stories of birth and death across centuries in Ireland. It's about motherhood and grief and longing and language. It is part memoir and part translation of an old Irish story from 1773. When I finished it I felt lucky to have found something so beautiful, and I also felt completely haunted by it.

Great collection of ten minute read mystery stories each with a twist. You are challenged to work out the twist as you read them. Great fun.

A collection of 15 great ten-minute-read short mystery stories, each one has a twist at the end and I like the tag line "get the twist before the twist gets you".

A beautiful story of friendship and adventure through the American Midwest, blurring magical realism with stories like Catcher In The Rye, Of Mice and Men and more.