Flipping through 2023

What I can say about 2023 was that I failed miserably at keeping up with this blog! So here is the list for 2023 and I will endeavour to do better in 2024. 

January (Sue) 

Cleaner's Boy by Patric Tariq Mellet
Dreamland by nicholas Sparks 
Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner
Not to Mention by Vivian de Klerk
Future Tense by Tony Leon 

February (Veronica) 

All the Broken Places by John Boyne 
Whatever Next by Anne Glenconner
Children of Sugarcane by Joanne Joseph 
Undoctored by Adam Kay

March (Caroline) 

Exiles by Jane Harper
Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsely
This is your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan
Wilding by Isabella Tree
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 

April (Terry) 

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
I Will Find You by Harlan Coben
The Girl from Simon's Bay by Barbara Mutch
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton 

May (Joan)

Those who are Loved by Victoria Hislop
Mad Bad Love by Sarah-Jayne Makwala King
Finding Me by Viola Davis 
The Private Patient by DP James
The Golden Couple by G Hendricks and S Pekkanen

June (Heather) 

The Muse by Jessie Burton
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
Foreign Native by R W Johnson
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker
Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood
The House of Doors by Tan Twang Eng
Hang the Moon by Jeanette Walls 

July (Bev)

Girl A by Abigail Dean
Homecoming by Kate Morton
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Africa is not a Country by Dipo Faloyin
10 Minutes in 60 Seconds by Elif Shafak

August (Suzanne)

Reggie and Me by James Hendry
East West Street by Philippe Sands
Common Ground by Naomi Ishiguno
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

September (Sue W)

Rewilding the World by Caroline Fraser
Standing up for Science by Karim Salim Abdool
Step by Step by Simon Reeve
Truth to Power by Andre de Ruyter
The Interpreter by Brooke Robinson
Bloody Sunday by Mignonne Breier
A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Roe
The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams   

October (Viv) 

The Overstory by Richard Powers
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
The First Ladies by Marie Benedict
The Prophet and the Idiot by Jonas Jonasson
The Girls in the Eagle's Talons by Karin Smirnoff
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
My Cederberg Story by Olive Nieuwoudt

November (Alison)

Tom Jones, the autobiography
The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Beamer
Caster Semenya, the autobiography
Finding Endurance by Darrell Bristow-Bovey 
The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulkes

December (Sue K)

Winnie and Nelson by Johnny Steinberg
Songbirds by Christy Lefteri 
Neglected by Cathy Glass
Force of Nature by Jane Harper
Robert Sobukwe by Benjamin Pogrund

New Year books

Thanks Sue K and Veronica for the first two bookclub meetings of 2023. As always, splendid company, great books and wonderful eats! It was lovely to see your new home Veronica.

3132 Cleaner’s Boy by Patric Tariq Mellet (Sue, Jan 2023)
3133 Dreamland by Nicholas Sparks (Sue, Jan 2023)
3134 Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner (Sue, Jan 2023)
3135 Not to Mention by Vivian de Klerk (Sue, Jan 2023)
3136 Future Tense by Tony Leon (Sue, Jan 2023)
3137 All the Broken Places by John Boyne (Veronica, Feb 2023)
3138 Whatever Next? by Anne Glenconner (Veronica, Feb 2023)
3139 Children of Sugarcane by Joanne Joseph (Veronica, Feb 2023)
3140 Undoctored by Adam Kay (Veronica, Feb 2023)

Wrapping up 2022

And just like that 2022 is over.
Thanks to Sue, Marilyn and Alison for hosting the September, October and December bookclub meetings. A virtual treasure trove of books to dip into as the year draws to a close.
We said a sad farewell to Marilyn who is off to a new exciting phase of her life in Australia. We look forward to hearing all about it in 2023.

3116 The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves (Sue W, Oct 2022)
3117 Imtiaz Sooliman and The Gift of the Givers by Shafiq Morton (Sue W, Oct 2022)
3118 The Prince of the Skies by Antonio Iturbe (Sue W, Oct 2022)
3119 Barbarossa by Jonathan Dimbleby (Sue W, Oct 2022)
3120 Violeta by Isobel Allende (Sue W, Oct 2022
3121 Killer in the Kremlin by John Sweeney (Sue W, Oct 2022
3122 Lessons by Ian McEwan (Sue W, Oct 2022)
3123 Bamboozled by Melinda Ferguson (Marilyn, Nov 2022)
3124 Shrine of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson (Marilyn, Nov 2022)
3125 The Marriage Portrait by Maggie o’ Farrell (Marilyn, Nov 2022)
3126 The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton (Marilyn, Nov 2022)
3127 Letters to my Mother by Kumi Naidoo (Alison, Dec 2022)
3128 Love after Love by Ingrid Persand (Alison, Dec 2022)
3129 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Alison, Dec 2022)
3130 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (Alison, Dec 2022)
3131 Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart (Alison, Dec 2022)

September books

 

Thanks to Bev for hosting the September bookclub and for a great selection of books.

The Fishy Smiths by Mike Bruton is a biography of the world-renowned ichthyologists, JLB Smith and Margaret Smith who are right up there in the South African hall of academic fame. The author is a well known scientist himself and he has produced a remarkable and very readable biography of the life and work of the Smiths – although I do wonder that they might have thought of a better title.

Another academic work follows with The Fall of the University of Cape Town: Africa’s Leading University in Decline by David Benatar, Professor of Philosophy and recent Head of the Department of Philosophy at UCT. This tome is an exhaustive analysis of the student protests that ripped through UCT (spreading to other campuses) in 2015, and the account closes in 2020. And a chillingly pessimistic account it is.

Staying in the academic world, The Butchering Art is the story of Joseph Lister, the pioneer of antiseptics that revolutionized surgery in the late 1880s. The discovery of bacteria by Pasteur led to Lister’s understanding of why so many patients died of infection, and he set about minimizing the impact of these "germs". What is surprising was the belligerent resistance with which his advice on how to control infection was met by the surgeons. Somehow Lister kept his cool, and eventually sanity was restored. A fascinating, if rather gory read. 

On a lighter note is The Last Wild Horses, a Norwegian novel about the enigmatic Przewalski’s wild horses of Europe. Three separate stories set in the past, the present and the future centre on the horses, and portray humankind’s powerful connection to these animals.

Lastly there are two thrillers – one a heist involving the stealing of Chinese art plundered by the West for “repatriation” to China by five young friends with interesting relationships and motives (Portrait of a Thief), and one an unputdownable murder mystery, It ends at Midnight.

3010 The Fall of UCT by David Benatar
3111 It ends at Midnight by Harriet Tyce
3112 The Last Wild Horses by Maja Lunde
3113 Portrait of a Thief by Grace D Li
3114 The Fishy Smiths by Mike Bruton
3115 The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris

August books

 

Two travel books with a nature theme: an imaginative tale of a boy who works for a Victorian animal dealer and menagerie owner (the eponymous Jamrach’s Menagerie which really did exist in those far off days) and who goes to sea in search of exotic wild animals to bring back to Europe, and a modern day twitcher who sets out in search of exotic birds to tick off on his list in Birding without Borders. Two eras, two obsessions with animals! 

On Canaan’s Side spans the life of an 89-year old Irish born American woman and is described as “epic and intimate” – and no doubt, harrowing. A romance, It Ends with Us, which is extremely popular on #bookTok*, is lovingly drawn from the lives of the author’s parents. 

And lastly, Freezing Order is a thrilling political tale of Vladimir Putin’s nefarious and criminal dealings uncovered by the author as he fights to avenge political murders and save reputations.

Thanks to Heather for hosting August! 

3104 Shape by Jordan Ellenberg
3105 It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
3106 On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry
3107 Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch
3108 Freezing Order by Bill Browder
3109 Birding without Borders by Noah Stryker

*Ok - according to Wikipedia, BookTok is a subcommunity on the app TikTok, focused on books and literature. Creators make videos reviewing, discussing, and joking about the books they read. These books range in genre, but many creators tend to focus on young adult fiction, young adult fantasy, and romance. The community is cited with impacting the publishing industry and book sales.

July @ Joan's

Thanks Joan and Nancy for a lovely warm and cosy winter bookclub - with your usual offering of wonderfully thought-provoking, unusual and interesting books.

Know my Name: A Memoir by Chanel Miller is about how the author coped with rape and the aftermath of the trial and her demeaning journey through the USA courts. The Price of Mercy, also non-fiction, is about Sean Davidson and the euthanasia question. 

The Bitter Olive is the extraordinary story of Ronald Samuels who had the harrowing experience of being adopted, then re-adopted by another family because the colour of his skin didn't conform to the legal requirements during the last gasps of apartheid South Africa. Also a rather harrowing tale is Three Sisters by Heather Morris (of The Tattooist of Auschwitz fame) that weaves the true story of three Slovak sisters bound by a promise to their father to stick together no matter what. Together they survive German occupation, Auschwitz, escape and a return to a hostile Slovakia. 

Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel is a novel by Ruth Hogan who "has a reputation for eccentric characters, hints of the supernatural and the power of unexpected friendships. Here, she combines all these with a moving exploration of the complex relationship between mothers and daughters." (The Guardian). Phew!

On a lighter note, Sue Townsend - of The Diary of Adrian Mole fame - writes an amusing political satire about the Queen of England and her family being sent to live in a council housing estate in The Queen and I. 

3098 Know my Name: A Memoir by Chanel Miller
3099 The Price of Mercy by Sean Davidson
3100 The Bitter Olive by Ronald Samuels
3101 Three Sisters by Heather Morris
3102 Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan
3103 The Queen and I by Sue Townsend

A late Update - May and June 2022

Two bookclubs have rushed by and apologies for the late update.

In May Veronica hosted a lovely afternoon tea, with lots of interesting discussion, and a pile of wonderful new books. Defending Britta Stein by Ronald H. Balson is a courtroom drama novel about an elderly Danish lady who is arrested for defaming an upright citizen of Chicago. The book parallels the present trial with what took place in wartime Denmark during the Second World War. The novel The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers by local author Finuala Dowling is based on an old family tale interspersed with the author’s musings on creative writing. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus introduces Elizabeth Zott, a clever woman in the male-dominated world of the sixties who surprises the establishment in this wonderfully witty, readable debut novel. Then, The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen is a novel about another highly intelligent woman whose life intersects with that of a young Burundian boy.

In June, Terry hosted the Booclub – with another sumptuous late afternoon tea spread, lots of catch-up chat – both social and bookish – and another great selection of books. The Black Dress by Deborah Moggach, author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is the quirky story of a woman who literally crashes funerals – lots of promise there. Fox Halt Farm, a sweeping love story set in Dartmoor, sounds perfect for a wintry holiday read, and Mensches in the Trenches by Jonathan Ancer will bring you back to earth with this scholarly but very readable study of the Jewish contribution to the Apartheid struggle in South Africa.

3090 Defending Britta Stein by Ronald H. Balson
3091 The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers by Finuala Dowling
3092 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
3093 The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen
3094 The Black Dress by Deborah Moggach
3095 Fox Halt Farm by Cela Moore
3096 Mensches in the Trenches by Jonathan Ancer

April books

Quite a pile of books, starting with a charming novel about the publication of James Joyce’s controversial novel Ulysses in 1919 and an English language bookshop in Paris run by Sylvia Beach. Then moving on to an interesting ‘popular science’ book about why and how we feel pain: The Painful Truth by Monty Lyman. Ann Cleves introduces her newest detective Matthew Venn (the book is already been made into a tv series) in The Long Call. The series is set in Devon. A slightly older book, In Shackleton’s Footsteps is a readable account of an expedition undertaken by author Henry Worsley in 2009 tracing the exact journey taken by Shackleton a hundred years earlier, in his second Antarctic adventure on the Nimrod in which he almost made it to the South Pole two years before Amundsen. The author parallels the two journeys in a fascinating account of hardship and leadership – which is poignant in that Worsley died a few years after this in a solo attempt to walk across Antarctica. Another journey – this one across Africa in an old Toyota Conquest – is brought entertainingly to life in My African Conquest by the ebullient 80-year old Julia Albu, also sadly deceased since completing her road trip. Lastly, Andrew Smith from UCT has written First People: The lost history of the Khoisan in which he sets out the latest research on the origins of the Bushman and Khoekhoen people of southern Africa. It’s a fascinating and readable account, but does rather suppose the reader knows a thing or two about the subject. Although the book does not delve into the political, it is quite apt at the moment as the decidedly political Goringhaicona Khoi Khoi Indigenous Traditional Council has played a big part in opposing the River Club development astride the Liesbeeck River in which Amazon’s African headquarters will reside on the grounds that the Khoisan people were not consulted.


3084 The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher

3085 The Painful Truth by Monty Lyman

3086 The Long Call by Ann Cleeves

3087 In Shackleton’s Footsteps by Henry Worsley

3088 My African Conquest by Julia Albu

3089 First People by Andrew Smith

Image by Samuel Daniell, British artist on an expedition to South Africa, 1799-1802.

Autumn reading

Thank you Sue for a lovely, relaxed, book club - even though we were only at half strength (6 out of 12). And what a great selection of books: Jodi Picault's latest pandemic novel Wish you were here , Fred Khumalo's humorous 'coming of age' novel Two Tons 'o Fun  in which he writes about a young woman growing up in Johannesburg, David Attenborough's book of the Netflix series A Life on our Planet and Confessions of a Stratcom Hitman by the recently deceased lowlife Paul Erasmus. The long-awaited second inquest into the harrowing death in detention of Neil Aggett forty years ago took place last year, and the verdict accusing the Security Branch police of his murder (see DM article) has just been handed down. This book must have been prompted by these events as Erasmus was an apartheid Security Branch policeman at the time who spilt the beans (see DM article) on his colleagues in the dirty tricks department (what he calls Stratcom - Strategic Communications). Bev recently put the book Death of an Idealist: Remembering Neil Aggett by Bev Naidoo into the bookclub. 

3080 Confessions of a Stratcom Hitman by Paul Erasmus
3081 Wish you were here by Jodi Picault
3082 Two Tons 'o Fun by Fred Khumalo
3083 A Life on our Planet by David Attenborough

February's bag of books

From capers in the Transkei of yesteryear to corruption in the ranks of the SAPS, and a story of how a young American woman survived being a maid to become a published author in between, February's books look most promising. The celebrated Holocaust survivor and insightful psychologist, Dr Edith Eger, completes the bag with an Oprah stamp-of-approval book entitled The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save your Life. 
Thanks Alison for a great tea and book discussion in your lovely new home.

Maid by Stephanie Lang
The Gift by Edith Eger
A Nun and the Pig by Treive Nicholas (Read or listen to John Maytham's review of this book here). 
The Dark Flood by Deon Meyer

Christmas in the garden, in January

 

A combination of the weather, Covid, and Caroline, meant that the Christmas party in Arderne Gardens was deferred until January. Thank you Marilyn for organising a spectacular picnic in a beautiful, secluded, shady setting. It was a real tour de force. What could be more enjoyable than tea in a lovely garden, with good friends, talking about books? 

Scatterling of Africa by Johnny Clegg
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles 
The Duchess by Wendy Holden
The Promise by Damon Galgut
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

November books

Two local authors take us on an adventurous medical life journey and a pilgrimage to India - no doubt the latter full of John Scott's wicked humour; Irish author Colm Toibin writes eloquently about his experiences in Barcelona; we have a book of pithy funny quotes from deceased food writer AA Gill; and a Nesbo thriller that make up the package of November books from Bev. We all appreciated being in Bev’s lovely garden in person and not through the computer screen. Thanks for hosting us Bev.

A Pilgrim in India by John Scott

A Wilder Life by Joan Louwrens

Homage to Barcelona by Colm Toibin

The Jealous Man by Jo Nesbo

The Best of A A Gill