Author: 730bookclub

Forster, Margaret (2013) The Unknown Bridesmaid. Chatto & Windus. When Julia was eight she was a bridesmaid for her cousin Iris.  Julia was delighted but after this things started to go wrong.  A lifetime later Julia is a child psychologist dealing with troubled girls where she is constantly confronted by her own past.  Margaret Forster… Continue reading Jan’s Holiday Reads – January 2014 →

Hobb, Robin (2013) The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince.  Subterranean Press.  Felicity is the low-born companion of Princess Caution at Buckkeep.  Caution is the headstrong Queen-in-Waiting but when she gives birth to a bastard son who shares the piebald markings of his father’s horse, Felicity is the one who raises him.  As the prince… Continue reading December Picks →

Gilbert, Elizabeth (2013) The signature of all things. Bloomsbury. Alma Whittaker, the daughter of a very rich and bold botanical explorer, is a girl with a thirst for knowledge. Her botanical research and painstaking study of moss draws her into the mysteries of evolution, whilst at the same time she is challenged by the mystical,… Continue reading November PIcks →

Shannon, Samantha (2103) The Bone Season.  Bloomsbury.   In the first volume of a projected seven-book series we are introduced to 19 year old Paige Mahoney. Paige is a dream walker and one of the Seven Seals, the stars of a criminal syndicate fighting the Scion regime, in the forbidden realm of psychic powers. When her luck runs… Continue reading October Picks →

Koppel, Lily (2013) The Astronaut Wives Club.  Headline.  In April 1959 NASA's first spacemen, the Mercury Seven astronauts were announced; followed by the Nine, and the Fourteen from the Gemini and Apollo programmes.  Koppel offers a revealing glimpse into the lives the women behind the astronauts, with a personal portrait of each woman on how… Continue reading September Picks →

Disclafani, Anton (2013) The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. Riverhead Books. In the midst of the Great Depression, Thea Atwell, age fifteen, is exiled to a boarding school, high in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is far removed from her free and easy childhood, and as she comes to grips… Continue reading August Picks →

Knox, Elizabeth (2013)  Mortal Fire.  Gecko Press.   Canny Mochrie is 16 years old, and a little different.  She has a strong mathematical mind, and has always been able to see something Extra. She begrudgingly joins her stepbrother on a mine disaster research trip, and wanders into an enchanted valley, full of children and magic.… Continue reading July Picks →

Moggach, Deborah (2013) Heartbreak Hotel.  Chatto & Windus. Reminiscent of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Deborah Moggach again takes on the challenge of running a dilapidated hotel, this time in rural Wales.  Irrepressible retired actor  Russell 'Buffy' Buffery, ups sticks to take-on a decrepit B&B that needs a boost in patronage.  Under his tutelage his… Continue reading May/June Picks →

De Courcy, Anne (2012) The Fishing Fleet: husband-hunting in the Raj. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. From the late nineteenth century when the Raj was at its height, many young women suffering from the lack of eligible young men back home, followed in the wake of Britain's 'best' to India.  These young women were known as the… Continue reading April Picks →

  Jonasson, Jonas (2012) The 100 year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared.  Hesperus. Allan escapes via the bedroom window of his rest home because he can't face the planned 100th birthday. Adventures begin with murders, stolen cash, unlikely companions acquired along the way (including an elephant!) plus revelations about Allan's life… Continue reading March Picks →