Thanks to everyone who came to the Bookclub meeting in June, especially our new members – you are very welcome.

We had lively discussions on a wide range of novels including contemporary and historic fiction (Caledonian Road by O’Hagan and McLean’s Bookseller of Inverness), the classic Great Gatsby and the true story of Maurice and Marilyn (a couple who sold their house to sail the world only to become stranded at sea in a rubber dingy for months)

The Bookclub is a friendly, informal community that welcomes anyone who enjoys an insightful discussion on books, a chat, a laugh and a drink or two.

If you would like to join just read one of the titles below (or more than one if you have time) and come along to tell us what you think.

A warm welcome and lively discussion awaits.

Next meeting …

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 16 July 6-8pm. This month’s selections are:

This month’s selections …

Down Cemetery Road – Mick Herron (312 Pages) Welcome to your next fiction – V McDermid

The Oxford-based private investigator Zoë Boehm series is about to be adapted by Apple TV (starring Emma Thompson). This novel is about her partner, Joe, who is called on to investigate when a house on her street explodes, killing two adults. No-one seems interested in what has happened to her missing young daughter and so Sarah asks Joe to help. They discover all sorts of nefarious government goings-on and we see a side of Sarah she’d previously kept hidden.

Non Fiction – My Battle of Hastings – Xiaolo Guo (180 pages) Magnificent, brutal and poetic – Ian Sinclair

In the depths of winter, Xiaolu Guo moves into a tiny dilapidated flat on the Hastings seafront – a room of her own where she can spend time writing, liberated from her domestic responsibilities in London. She immerses herself in the English landscape and its past and becomes preoccupied by the violence between Normans and Saxons. Filled with profound, beautiful and wry reflections on war, history, migration and belonging My Battle of Hastings is a chronicle of Xiaolo’s life in Hastings and a portrait of a dislocated artist seeking to connect with her local environment in the hope of finding a deeper connection to her adoptive nation.

Maybe the Moon – Armistead Maupin (322 pages) Rich Moving, sexy and funny – D Telegraph

The audaciously original chronicle of Cadence Roth — Hollywood actress, singer, iconoclast and former Guinness Book of Records holder as the world’s shortest woman. All of 31 inches tall, Cady is a true survivor in a town where — as she says — ‘you can die of encouragement’. Her early starring role as a lovable elf in an immensely popular American film proved a major disappointment, since moviegoers never saw the face behind the stifling rubber suit she was required to wear. Now, after a decade of hollow promises from the Industry, she is reduced to performing at birthday parties and Bar Mitzvahs as she waits for the miracle that will finally make her a star.

Pop 1280 – Jim Thompson (187 pages) ‘Jim Thompson holds a special place in my heart‘ Bruce Springsteen

Nick Corey likes being the high sheriff of Potts County. But Nick has a few problems that he needs to deal with: like his loveless marriage, the pimps who torment him, the honest man who is running against him in the upcoming elections and the women who adore him. And it turns out that Nick isn’t anything like as amiable, easy-going or as slow as he seems. He’s as sly, brutal and corrupt as they come.

Classic: Silas Marner George Elliot (223 pages) ‘Proof that a life going badly wrong can be put triumphantly right’ – Ind   

George Eliot’s 1861 classic. Silas Marner is a weaver who lives in a small English village. After being betrayed by a close friend, Silas moves to the village of Raveloe and becomes a recluse. He spends his days weaving and working to save money, until he finds a little girl in his house one night. As he comes to love her as his own daughter, he discovers the joys of family and friendship, despite the trials and tribulations that ensue.