“The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy (India) Review For those who were reading this book for the first time, they said it took them a while to get into the story as they found the timeline unnecessarily confusing at the beginning. Readers, for whom it was the second or third read, said they enjoyed it more each time describing it as an amazingly … Continue reading The God of Small Things
“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan) Review For most of the group, it was their second time reading this book and all except one reader really enjoyed it. They were captured by the story of the two boys, Amir and Hassan, and loved the passages that develop the relationship between them. They found that the descriptions brought the scenes to life and they were … Continue reading The Kite Runner
“Sightseeing” by Rattawut Lapcharoensap (Thailand) Book Club Favourite of Season 11 Review Readers really liked this collection of short stories from a very young and promising author. They found his style of writing excellent and they felt he managed to give clear and distinct voices to a wide range of characters from different strata of society while at the same time evoking well a sense … Continue reading Sightseeing
“The Vagrants” by Yiyun Li (China) Review Readers really enjoyed this book finding it very well written and revealing of an exceptional maturity of style. They were moved by the story, describing it as touching, distressing, sad and intense. They liked the setting, both time and place, and could strongly feel the political aspects pervading the everyday lives of the people. They found the different … Continue reading The Vagrants
“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga (India) Book Club Favourite of Season 10 Review From the opening pages of the book, readers were drawn into the tale Balram is telling to the Chinese Premier by the humour and irony he uses. It had them laughing from the start. Although not all the readers warmed to Balram, most found him a compelling character. They felt the … Continue reading The White Tiger
“A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers” by Xiaolu Guo (China) Review Readers enjoyed the book, with some preferring the first half to the second. They liked the humour and the clever use of language as it evolves from poor to better English during the course of the story. They found the point of view from a Chinese perspective of English and Western society interesting. They … Continue reading A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
“Clear Light of Day” by Anita Desai (India) Review Interestingly, there was a clear divide between readers whose first language is English and those for whom it is a foreign language. The native English speakers loved the book, whereas the non-native speakers did not enjoy it overall. This was largely due to the style of writing, choice of words and sentence structure (long complex sentences). … Continue reading Clear Light of Day
“The Woman in the Dunes” by Kobo Abe (Japan) Review The first impressions of members of the Book Club were very mixed: some liked the book, whereas some did not like it all! They found the situation the protagonist finds himself in very depressing. The repetitive shovelling of sand daily made them think about the absurdity and seeming futility of life. His acceptance of the … Continue reading The Woman in the Dunes
Nicola's Book Club 