Cramlington Book Club

In all the years of book club I can't remember us ever having reviewed a book only out in hardback. It was recommended to me by a fellow train commuter who knew I love reading and whose wife had read it and loved it. So it was me who suggested it to the group without realising it hadn’t made its way to paperback yet. Oops! The local library had a waiting list 9 people long, Amazon wasn’t coming up trumps and none of my Facebook friends had a copy so I resorted to borrowing a copy from my Auntie but had to wait for my mum (also a member of the book club) to read it first before I could indulge. Lucky for me it was easy to read and so the fact that I hadn’t even set eyes on the book two weeks before the meeting wasn't a problem. Although I got in to the book really easily it instantly reminded me of The Rosie Project , (an excellent book) and so I found myself a little disappointed that I had read the concept previously.  A few of the other members of the group commented o...

This book, written by Lagercrantz, is the fourth in the Millennium Series originally written by Stieg Larsson who died suddenly in 2004 before any of his novels reached international fame. The Series first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Dragon) was the first book to be reviewed by Cramlington Book Club and so holds fond memories for me. I have since then read the other books in the series ( The Girl who played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) and was looking forward to catching up with Salandar and Blomkvist. It had been some time since I read them and so a direct comparison with Larsson was going to be difficult but maybe that was a good thing. Initially ' Spider ' seemed to step in where 'Hornet' left off. There were the same internal/financial struggles with Millennium, Blomkvist was down and out as he was in Dragon and old faces popped up left right and centre.   Here memory comes in to play and whilst there was a useful  ca...

This month's book was one set locally. Whitley Bay to be precise complete with a front cover featuring a cafe I recognised (which quite excited me weirdly). When I say local I mean very local, almost a tick box exercise of every pub, tourist spot and police station in the area. I quite liked it, name checking places I had been to, however some found it off putting 'we get you know the area, don't keep trying to prove it to us' If I describe the book to you, you will probably appreciate the group's biggest criticism: 'Down and out cop, whose marriage has fallen apart, drinks too much, is hated by his superiors and still festers over his last case that went badly wrong has to restle with his demons to crack a brutal murder.' Pretty cliche ridden, huh? It was such a shame as we all found the book very readable. The actual detective story was interesting, the killer wasn't identified until very nearly the end and we all finished the book which ...

This has been sat on my bookshelf for aaaaages without me really wanting to read it. I can't remember how exactly it ended up on my shelf, perhaps a random book present from hubby (he's produced some good ones – The Testament Gideon Mack , The Giles Wareing Haters Club ) but I know I wouldn’t have picked it up and bought it if I happened to notice it in a bookshop, for no particular reason other than the blurb just didn’t hold my attention. The book was originally published in 2005 and I remember there being a lot of fuss around this book and White Teeth , also by Smith around that time.   Nevertheless they both passed me by and On Beauty in 2017 was to be my first experience of Smith. It was good to read a book about a family where the children were not too young to be proper characters and the adults not too old. So many times books set around families only focus on one generation, or differing generations but by skipping back in time. This was not the case here ...

I have watched this film every Christmas, in fact I think we actually have the DVD somewhere but I have never read the book. It was a Christmas present from my in laws which I was surprised and delighted to receive as it had never occurred to me that there was a Mary Poppins book yet now I had it to read! Not being aware of the book I researched (googled) Travers and discovered what an interesting life she has led. Books have been written about her (well at Least one – Mary Poppins She Wrote ) which I would read if it happened to pass my lap. Anyway the actual book – a pink candy striped hardback was slim with decent sized text so only took a couple of days train trips to work and back read. Included were the iconic parts of the film such as 'Tuppence A Bag' and Bert with his drawings that come to life but other parts were missed out, notably a spoonful of sugar and I missed the singing and dancing. Granted you can't really make a musical into a book but the spir...

I suggested this book to the group. I read it in a day or so whilst on holiday in Scotland (did I mention I have been to Scotland recently?) after which my hubby picked up the book and read it himself. This is a rare thing indeed. Not only did he read IT ALL he ENJOYED it. Well, if it's good enough for hubby its good enough for the group so suggest it I did! I think the general requirement for this book is to just go with it, don't question too thoroughly the premise for Hannay to go running off round the countryside, don't try to work out exactly how many miles he was supposed to have covered in a day or the convenience of him bumping in to an acquaintance in the middle of nowhere. If you do you are only going to be disappointed. I love this style of book - pre-war (first) full of gentlemen retreating to smoking rooms, having supper in 'the Club' and referring to everyone as 'old chap'. Each chapter almost read like a short story with its own set of ch...

I like post apocalypse books and I'm a runner. Not a quick proper in your face runner but an average 4 miler twice a week kind of gal. So this book was right up my street. Walker was brief about the circumstances around the world coming to an end which I think worked, lets face it the end of the world has never come about so providing detailed science isn't needed when the book in question is about a running club after the end of the world has occurred. I had two major criticisms of this book the first (and it's a common theme at present) was that the main character was simply not likeable. There is argument that Walker deliberately made him unlikable. Lets face it, allowing your lead character to admit to not liking his children very much is an instant turn off, but I didn't understand Walker's decision because you then simply weren't rooting for him to reach Cornwall. Edgar's character didn't evolve enough for me to change my initial impression and...