Cornflower Book Group

   

Floreant Centaureae

     The Cornflower Book Group welcomes anyone who wishes to read along with us, on a regular or occasional basis.

For Frequently Asked Questions about the Group, please click here.

    Our first title was Vita Sackville-West's 1931 novel All Passion Spent (Virago Modern Classics) You can read more about it here, and see the full discussion here.

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     Our second book is Margaret Atwood's fictional version of a true story: Alias Grace is set in 1840s Canada (for more on it look here), and for the Cornflower Critics' views click here.

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    A writer new to many of us, William Maxwell's They Came Like Swallows has won him many fans in the group. You can see the introductory post here, and read our comments here. 

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    Another American book, Edith Wharton's classic The House of Mirth, is our fourth book and our discussion can be read here.

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    Next comes a contemporary novel, Angela Young's Speaking of Love. For our impressions and opinions, have a look here. 

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    A small band of us crossed Australia with our next book, Patrick White's epic novel  Voss. Read about how we found the journey on this post

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     We went to Nazi Germany for our seventh book, Markus Zusak's bestelling The Book Thief. The introductory post is here, and our quite divided opinions here.

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     In July we discussed  Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie -  read our thoughts on the book on this post

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      Tobias Wolff's Old School impressed us; see our September post on it here.

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      In October we talked about Rudyard Kipling's short stories (Selected Stories (Penguin Modern Classics), our mixed views can be read here.

   Sue Gee's novel set in Victorian Hereford, The Mysteries of Glass, was our November book. Again, views were mixed and you can see what we thought in this post.

 Rounding out our first year was Margery Allingham's The Tiger in the Smoke. This highly atmospheric novel went down very well indeed. Read our comments here.

To begin our second year we shall have Anne Tyler's Breathing Lessons which we'll be discussing on 17th. January 2009.