Basingstoke - Old Basing
Book Club
We are very social and chatty groups who enjoy discussing books over tea, coffee and a biscuit.
The Book club looks at contemporary fiction of all genres. Members join either of 2 groups and both read the same book. We meet once a month and discuss the book in small groups for about 45 minutes, followed by a whole group discussion. We will also rate each book 1 – 10.
Feedback on the books so far has been good and a real positive is that it often makes people read outside their normal reading genre’s. Our members are seeing this as a real benefit and is changing their reading habits.
There is also a book swap opportunity, so if you have books you have already read, you can bring them along and select any others you are interested in.
Books scheduled to be read by the book club:
2024
May 20/28 ( Monday group moved forward a week due to bank holiday)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
June 24/25 The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly
July 22/23 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
August 19/20
September 23/24
October 28/29
November 25/26
Previously read books a from our two groups.
The Monday Club's favourite book is Lessons in Chemistry followed by The Island. The Island is our top scorer for Tuesday's group followed by Lessons in Chemistry.
A list of books we have read so far to give you the range we are reading:
The Bees - Laline Paul
The Island - Victoria Hislop (in top two books to date)
Iron House -John Hart
The Great Alone - Kristen Hannah
The Salt Path - Raynor Winn
American Dirt - Jeannie Cummins
Sister - Rosamund Lupton
The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz
Tick Tock - Simon May
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Olive, Mabel and Me - Andrew Cotter
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus (in top two books to date)
Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Fatherland - Robert Harris
Murder on the Farm - Kate Wells (owest score to date)
Group 1 Venue: Kempshott Village Hall, Stratton Park, Pack Lane, Basingstoke, RG22 5HN
Date: 4th Week Monday 14.00 - 16.00
Group 2 Venue: Brookvale Village Hall, Lower Brook St, Basingstoke, RG21 7RP
Date: Tuesday, the day after Group 1, 10.00 - 12.00
Book Club members only notes - Kate Wells - Murder on the Farm (A cosy Murder)
The book scored 6.1 at the Monday book club and 5.1 on Tuesday. The majority of people felt it was an easy read, but something you might read on the beach or the plane not a typical book club book as it was not thought provoking. Perhaps the complete title, Murder on the Farm, a cosy Murder, might have given us clues and demonstrates how a well-crafted summary and review can lead impact our votes. Many felt it to be the work of an author that had not grown into their craft from writing children’s books as it was built around a template. A very unrealistic template!
The book is about a group of friends and the impact of a death, caused by love, crime and deception. Set on a farm it felt like a less complicated Miss Marple, but it generally flowed well but the length of time and then the number of murders didn’t impress many. The group welcomed the question about the challenges of a single person continuing the role of owning and working on a farm and there was much discussion about the challenges but also the need for the help of family and friends to succeed. The descriptions of the life of the farm, particularly the lambing was enjoyed by most.
This did lead to making the relationship with the main characters sister difficult to believe especially as they only met for 2 weeks a year during childhood. Many felt this would make it much harder for them to bond for life as the books narrative suggested.
The actions of DS Binnie and the police in the whole was completely unbelievable, nor did we believe the reason for one of the main characters, Ben, marrying. The actions of both led to good discussion about the consequences of not following the correct procedures and also the question about well-educated people getting into so much debt and then the actions taken to get out of it.
The groups had mixed views on the puzzle clues in the word game, some thought it helped the plot along in an unusual way, the other liked it, but questioned why the murder victim concentrated on putting clues in a puzzle rather than just calling the police. A relative of the victim, Granny Margot and her memory also helped the plot move along. The one thing that united the groups was that they would have gone to the police rather than head off to find a friend in the circumstances and this part of the book was a step too far and reinforced the thoughts about the template build to it.
An interesting question to answer was the one about friendship and the corruption of money. The Monday group felt it showed that you don’t know everything about your friends and what is going on in their lives and also that the ebb and flow of life has a great impact on your friendships.
Some members are already reading the author’s next book but the majority said they would not read anything else by her.
Cosy and completely implausible with the strings of the book tied up in a neat bow at the end.