Cramlington Book Club

Well we didn't like this one did we? "The President is Missing. The world is in shock. But the reason he’s missing is much worse than anyone can imagine. With details only a President could know, and the kind of suspense only James Patterson can deliver." Not many of us had read a James Patterson book before and I can see why. As a group we are clearly not fans of the American thriller genre. A few of us gave up along the way, one wished she had and no one really seemed taken by the dream team that was ex President Clinton and numero uno crime thriller writer Patterson. I'm not a fan of this style of book in any event but I find what makes them work is the pace - there needs to be a deadline fast approaching. A good bad guy and a loveable rogue hero. Whilst there was a pretty big deadline, in the form of the Dark Ages, we kept taking time out to be force fed minute detail about the inner workings of the White House and the President's close knit team. Th...

“Lorena Hickok meets Eleanor Roosevelt in 1932 while reporting on Franklin Roosevelt’s first presidential campaign. Having grown up worse than poor in South Dakota and reinvented herself as the most prominent woman reporter in America, “Hick,” as she’s known to her friends and admirers, is not quite instantly charmed by the idealistic, patrician Eleanor. But then, as her connection with the future first lady deepens into intimacy, what begins as a powerful passion matures into a lasting love, and a life that Hick never expected to have. She moves into the White House, where her status as “first friend” is an open secret, as are FDR’s own lovers. After she takes a job in the Roosevelt administration, promoting and protecting both Roosevelts, she comes to know Franklin not only as a great president but as a complicated rival and an irresistible friend, capable of changing lives even after his death. Through it all, even as Hick’s bond with Eleanor is tested by forces both extraordinar...

Our Book of the Month for July was A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles about Count Alexander Rostov’s house arrest in the arresting(!) Metropol Hotel, Moscow. A Gentleman In Moscow – The Blurb “On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov – recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt – is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval. Can a life without luxury be the richest of all?” We talked about how it was different from other Russian books that we had read from this period. Yes there were horrors, but the Metropol Hotel offered an Oasis allowing the beauty of Russia to shine through.  I got a bit geeky and talked about the struct...

“ Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough; Mark a handsome investment banker with a bright future. They seem to have it all, until Mark loses his job and cracks start to appear in their perfect life. But they’re determined to make it work. They book their dream honeymoon and trust that things will work out – after all, they have each other. On the tropical island of Bora Bora Mark takes Erin scuba diving. Mark is with her – she knows he’ll keep her safe. Everything will be fine. Until they find something in the water. Erin and Mark decide to keep their discovery a secret — after all, if no one else knows, who would be hurt? Their decision will trigger a devastating chain of events… which will endanger everything they hold dear. ” We had all read the book, which is a good start, and were captured by the start - Erin digging a grave.  Given that the book was called Something In The Water, and the blurb references a big find in ...

After The Party was May's book of the month. “Had it not been for my weakness, someone who is now dead could still be alive. That is what I believed and consequently lived with every day in prison.’ It is the summer of 1938 and Phyllis Forrester has returned to England after years abroad. Moving into her sister’s grand country house, she soon finds herself entangled in a new world of idealistic beliefs and seemingly innocent friendships. Fevered talk of another war infiltrates their small, privileged circle, giving way to a thrilling solution: a great and charismatic leader, who will restore England to its former glory. At a party hosted by her new friends, Phyllis lets down her guard for a single moment, with devastating consequences. Years later, Phyllis, alone and embittered, recounts the dramatic events which led to her imprisonment and changed the course of her life forever.” We were very confused initially as to which party the book was referring to. We all thought it...

“Age 45, she thinks her life is perfect, as long as she avoids her feckless brother, Edward – a safe distance away in Birmingham. She has a London flat which is ideal for one; a job that suits her passion for logic; and a personal arrangement providing cultural and other, more intimate, benefits. Yet suddenly faced with the loss of her mother and, implausibly, with the possibility of becoming a mother herself, Susan’s greatest fear is being realised: she is losing control. And things can only get worse … at least in Susan’s eyes” Just over a year ago the group made  Eleanor Oliphant ‘ their book of the year. So there was always going to be comparisons reading about a single lady living slightly outside of society norms.  Would it be as good? The book didn't get off to a good start with the group not taking to the very obvious metaphor - the Cactus = Susan. One of the group thought the book was the product of a creative writing course as it seemed to tick many boxes (t...

"Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History. The walled city by the sea, where father and daughter take refuge when the Nazis invade Paris. And a future which draws her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility and brings him to the notice of the Hitler Youth." Despite its length, over 500 pages, the group had all finished it by the time of our meeting, or very nearly had which is unusual for us.  To start off with the book is a little slow, flitting around from character to character, and between time-frames. Yet it sucked us in and didn't put anyone off.  We loved the two unlikely protago...