Out of the hat - 2

 

  Whether you are a regular member of our Book Group, you just join in on an occasional basis, or you think you might like to start reading along with us over the autumn and winter, you are very welcome. A look at the marvellous comments on our latest book shows what a perceptive, thoughtful and articulate bunch we have contributing to the discussion - and for all your comments, many thanks - but whether you are setting down your thoughts on a book here or keeping them quietly to yourself, I hope you're finding some good reads through the monthly Book Group posts. 

     Our next book, as trailed some time ago, is the Kipling Selected Stories (or whichever edition you can get hold of) but I'd like to postpone that to a week after the previously advertised date, so we'll now cover it on Saturday 11th. October, instead of the 4th. I hope that doesn't inconvenience anyone.

     Mindful of the need for balance and variety in our reading, the book after Kipling is by a contemporary, female writer, but is set in the past. Sue Gee's novel The Mysteries of Glass has garnered great praise: "exquisitely written", "...rippling, sinuous prose, alive with the cadences of the natural world", "The reader is held from start to finish by the mood....[it] casts its own spell, which is the essential requirement of a novel", "...evocative, atmospheric..a joy to read". Set in Hereford in 1860 it tells the story of Richard Allen who "takes up his first position as curate in a remote country parish. Vulnerable and lonely, he has ideals of serving his priest and his parishioners, but there are those who do not welcome the newcomer, or his views. Then he falls hopelessly in love, and ignites a scandal that will rock a quiet Victorian community to its foundations".
    I read Sue Gee's excellent Reading in Bed last year and can recommend it so I am looking forward to this book very much. We shall aim to discuss it on Saturday, 8th. November, and that ought to give everyone time to get a copy (libraries have it, Amazon US stock it through third party sellers and The Book Depository offer it with free worldwide delivery). I hope this will appeal to lots of us - are you tempted?