Cramlington Book Club

When in the Outer Hebrides what can you do but read a book set in the Outer Hebrides? This one is and I purchased it from a fabulous independent book shop in Ullapool called Ceilidh Place . Such a remote town yet it has two independent bookshops and two nearby (particularly good is Hillbillies in Gairloch where the linked Mountain Coffee Shop sells the most amazing mountain scones). I digress. Anyway we had just arrived fresh off the boat from Harris and Lewis and I was eager to read how such remote places could carry a murder hunt. The book started off really well, I liked the main character of Neal Maclean and thought the amnesia aspect was really interesting. I really enjoyed reading how he observed himself in the mirror for the first time, how he questioned whether he was quick tempered, clever, selfish and how he remembered somethings such as his dogs name but yet not others. This was different to other books I had read involving people suffering from amnesia following trau...

Another book with a gender ambiguous author name (S. J Watson Before I Go To Sleep immediately springs to mind). Jay is in fact a male not a female. Yes I get that Jay can be a boys name but it can also be female and the presumption when reading a book set around a teenage girl is that the latter would be the case. I was reading an article the other day and apparently this is a trend right now with male authors in this genre being encouraged to create vagueness around their gender as to boldly state they were John, Dave or Rodger sells fewer books. Would you ever put a book down because it was written by a male (or female) author? Enough of us apparently would. This wasn’t the only name changing going on here, the main character in the book Hannah was originally supposed to be called Anna with Mr Asher wanting the book to be called Bakers Dozen (Thirteen reasons, bakers, get it?) which I think I actually preferred.    Be the lead called Anna or Hannah I didn’t like her....

So possibly the longest title ever for a book (and lets face it the title wasn't the only thing that was long about the book being quite a doorstop). I had deliberately waited to read this book until Game of Thrones resumed on tv. Yes I know I'm not up to date but I do find it easier to read alongside watching at least some of the characters who are still alive and in return I get more out of the tv series as I am reading what happened to a particular character three books ago and so straight away remember who Dondarrion is and where he fits into the story. This is the book that contains the red wedding (not to give too much away) which was an epic episode on tv and whilst the book didn't make me gasp out loud (as I knew what was going to happen) I did get really tense and went into my fast reading mode which I do when I really want to know what happens (so much that I often have to reread as I've read it too fast and missed stuff). It was interesting reading the d...