Books we have read

Aug 11, 2006

The Accidental - Ali Smith

September 2006 Suggested By: Paul Summary: Cuckoo in the nest story exposing the cracks beneath a typical middle class family veneer. We...

Jul 14, 2006

Eleven Minutes - Paulo Coelho

August 2006 Suggested By: Mary Summary: Sexual self-help book by the best-selling author of The Alchemist. Brazilian woman goes to...

Jun 9, 2006

This Human Season - Louise Dean

July 2006 Suggested By: Rebecca Summary: A powerful, blackly funny examination of the lives of ordinary people in late 1970s Northern...

May 12, 2006

Daniel Isn’t Talking - Martin Leimbach

June 2006 Suggested By: Fiona Summary: Partly fictionalised account of a mother's experiences with her autistic child. The author joined...

Apr 14, 2006

Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson

May 2006 Suggested By: Kate Summary: This debut novel from Marilynne Robinson is an acclaimed coming of age story set in Idaho mountain...

Mar 10, 2006

Pobby and Dingan - Ben Rice

April 2006 Suggested By: Louisa Summary: Two invisible creatures, created by one magically imaginative or emotionally troubled young...

Feb 10, 2006

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

March 2006 Suggested By: Phil Rating: 9.0 out of 10 Summary: A saga of brotherly and sisterly love, crocuses and Obscure Objects, this...

Nov 11, 2005

The Historian - Anna Kostova

January 2006 Suggested By: Phil Summary: A historian-turned-diplomat tells his daughter the creepy story of his obsession with finding...

Oct 14, 2005

The Spell - Alan Hollinghurst

November 2005 Suggested By: Tim Summary: A middle-aged civil servant's life is transformed when his new, young lover introduces him to...

Sep 9, 2005

Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer

October 2005 Suggested By: Dawn Summary: An American Jew arrives in the Ukraine to track down the woman who saved his grandfather from...

Aug 12, 2005

Elizabeth Costello - JM Coetzee

September 2005 Suggested By: Mary Summary: Book based around eight lectures delivered by an aging, fictional Australian novelist. After...

Jul 8, 2005

Incendiary - Chris Cleve

August 2005 Suggested By: Paul Summary: A grieving East End woman writes to Osama Bin Laden after losing her family in a terrorist attack...

Jun 10, 2005

Great Apes - Will Self

July 2005 Suggested By: Rebecca Summary: When artist Simon Dykes wakes after a late night of routine debauchery, he discovers that his...

May 13, 2005

Geek Love - Katherine Dunn

June 2005 Suggested By: Fiona Summary: Perhaps we're a little sick and twisted, but we lapped up Dunn's cult tale of a family of...

Apr 8, 2005

253 - Geoff Ryman

May 2005 Suggested By: Kate Summary: This book -- which originally gained fame as a website -- devotes a page to each of the 253 people...

Mar 11, 2005

The Girl In a Swing - Richard Adams

April 2005 Suggested By: Mary Summary: An English porcelain dealer finds what appears to be a perfect wife on a trip to Copenhagen but is...

Feb 11, 2005

Small Island - Andrea Levy

March 2005 Suggested By: Rebecca Rating: 6.0 out of 10 Summary: Gilbert Joseph is one of several thousand Jamaican RAF pilots who fought...

Jan 14, 2005

The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

February 2005 Suggested By: Dawn Summary: A nameless woman is driven mad by enforced confinement after the birth of her child. Written in...

Nov 12, 2004

Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood

January 2005 Suggested By: Tim Summary: How will humanity adapt to a warming planet, powerful multinationals, society schisms and science...

Oct 8, 2004

The Knowledge of Angels - Jill Paton Walsh

November 2004 Suggested By: Louisa Summary: A philosophical novel that traces the effects of two outsiders -- one a castaway and atheist,...

Sep 10, 2004

Finding Myself - Toby Litt

October 2004 Suggested By: Antony Rating: 2.0 out of 10 Summary: Chick-lit novelist gathers material for her new novel by her inviting...

Aug 13, 2004

Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin

September 2004 Suggested By: Mary Rating: 5.0 out of 10 Summary: Originally a newspaper column, this San Franciso-based set of short...

Jul 9, 2004

The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts - Louis de Bernieres

August 2004 Suggested By: Rebecca Summary: If donkeys giving birth to kittens and graphic torture are your thing then you might...

Jun 11, 2004

Starter for Ten - David Nicholls

July 2004 Suggested By: Rebecca Summary: Does nostalgia make a great book? Magdalen College provided an apt backdrop to discuss David...