Cramlington Book Club

The Martian by Andy Weir I had never heard of this one before and was a little dubious as the group had never reviewed a 'science fiction' book before. The premise was a guy gets stranded on Mars and is probably about to die. How on earth (sorry) do you fill 350 pages with just that? My immediate impression was it was going to be another 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy which really didn't go down well with the group (go see the review I did for it). Still Ridley Scott has decided to make a film out of it and Matt Damon has decided to star in it so there had to be something worth reading in those pages right? Indeed there was. The Road was the most depressing book I have ever read, The Martian, although it had the potential to be, quite simply wasn't. This was down to Weirs brilliant lead character Mark Watney who just point blank refused to give up and die. Terrible things kept happening, he was isolated and he had to live off frozen potatoes for weeks on end,...

A different one this month in that I didn’t like the book whereas most of the other members of the Group did. I wasn’t totally on my own there were another one or two who had issues, mainly with the fact that we didn’t like any of the characters. One of us went so far as to even not liking the baby! One member commented she was sick of female authors writing about weak female characters. It was certainly an on trend book with comparisons being made to Gone Girl and The Silent Wife both of which had characters in we just didn’t care about. Carrying on with the weak women theme we also picked up on the fact that Rachels flat mate seemed to have quite a controlling boyfriend as well – she was upset at one point as he was off visiting family and wouldn’t take her with him or introduce her to them. All the males in the book could therefore be viewed as having slightly dubious characters even the therapist who crossed the line with Megan. We all seemed to struggle slightly with the boo...

I loved this book from really early on. In fact I haven’t spoken to anyone who hasn’t loved it and all the reviews on social media seem to be positive. Why? It was fast paced, dotting all over the world yet it remained human (the 9/11 wheelchair story, the little boy on his bike racing to see if it was his father being executed). I found it believable and well thought out with every little thing linking in, even when at first you thought it was just a random memory designed to illustrate one point it often illustrated two or three further down the line. No story was superfluous which is important in a book with a large number of pages. It has strong likeable characters. I particularly liked Battleboi and loved the idea of him setting a place at his table every year. Pilgrims relationship with his stepfather left you wishing he could have just had the chance to say ‘thank you, I love you’ all amidst the gun battles, torture and hatred that the book had plenty of. I liked the fact ...

Another year has gone racing past which for the book club means 13 more books have been read and reviewed (No we don’t exist in some different calendar world, we did a double bill in January). In a nutshell these are the ones we read starting with January 2014. The Silent Wife by ASA Harrison. Score 5.5. This had the widest split of scores (10 to a 4) but in general we hated the lead character which effected our overall enjoyment. Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James. Score 7.5. Very English, didn’t stray too far from the original which we liked but not a brilliant crime novel when you think who the author was. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. Score 7.3 liked by all, funny but with interesting points to discuss. The Cuckoos Calling by Robert Galbraith. Score 7.5. We said it would make a good TV show and low and behold its going to be one! A successful second venture into the non-wizarding world. Looking forward to reading Silkworm The Hidden Child by Camilla Lackberg. Sc...

I didn't actually read this book, it was read to me! Mine never arrived from Amazon (unusual) but luckily I went on the Polar Express train ride the Monday before where the hot chocolate serving chefs were kind enough to read to the whole carridge the book. It's a very short book with one member reading it on the way to work the same day of the meeting (she gets the bus I hasten to add). We decided this worked in its favour as who has time over Chrismtas to read a door stop and who wants to read about Santa and his Elves in January? The book came in two sizes a cute little pocket sized version and a large (perfect to read to children) version. The pictures were gorgeous and we all commented it would make a perfect Christmas present and could easily become a family favourite to return to time and time again at Christmas. I love the film, it's a big Christmas tradition for my family but that didn't stop me from liking the book although there were some differences. We ...

Ok so it’s national short story week and to celebrate it I have combined the one rule of book club (to read a Christmas book in December) with one of the groups suggestion that we write our own short story and come up with my own Christmas short story. Ok so it’s not very Christmassy and it’s not really a short story, more like a first Chapter/Introduction but it’s better than nothing and it is called Advent. So if you’re sick of reading me banging on about how rubbish a book is then let’s turn the tables. Read it then critique away! Eek! PS don’t forget to let me know your #MarksOutOfTen or #ReviewInANutshell on twitter @crambookclub Advent Christmas is coming! It’s at last the first day of December, the first day of advent. While most people are waking up to chocolate shaped santas behind little foil doors Grace wakes up to a knife being held to her throat by a man she doesn’t know. She is bound, cold and doesn’t remember how she arrived at the dark room with the damp cement floo...

It took me a long time to brave this book as I loved The Time Travellers Wife and thought that nothing could compare so why bother? Nevertheless it found its way under my bed and then into my next to read and low and behold before I knew what I was doing I had suggested it as Novembers book. The book got off to a good start. I loved Martins storey witnessing him and his wifes struggle with his OCD (could have read a whole storey about this alone) and even Elspeth as a ghost didn’t put me off (The Time Travellers Wife had a husband who travelled randomly through time and that had me in tears so a little ghost wasn’t going to put me off) There were also some really good moments - Elspeth going to hide/sulk in the drawer and then seeking warmth from the TV – traditionally seen as being so cold and causing lack of communication I also loved reading about the cemetery and now want to go! Unfortunately that’s where the plus points ended and not just for me but for all of the group. ...