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