Withiel Book Circle

Lyric-poetry-Walker-Highsmith smallOn this page you will find our Reading List. Click on any title in green to read our review previously published in the Withiel News & Views.

The Wadebridge Bookshop

Friendly atmosphere — books About Cornwall — bestsellers — classics — fiction — non-fiction — audio books — large children’s section.


Thank you Bodmin Library for your Book Group service.

Explore Your Library here.

Both Withiel Book Circle and Second Circle are very grateful to Bodmin Library for the help given over the years. In most cases the books we read are supplied in quantity on our request by the library through their Book Group service. Special thanks should go to Jesse Foot who during his time as manager did his best to ensure that the books we required were made available. There were times when difficulties arose or a congestion in the supply occurred but he was pleased to say that he never failed us and that is quite an achievement for demanding readers. Moreover despite hiccups in the system, our dealings with him were always cordial and conducted in a good-humoured spirit. The current library staff continue this excellent service. It goes without saying that Cornwall Libraries are a real treasure.


READING LIST


2017

My Family and other Animals   by Gerald Durrell – May
The Clock Winder   by Anne Tyler – April
Reading Lolita in Teheran   by Azar Nafisi – 000
Howard’s End is on the Landing   by Susan Hill – February

2016

Such A Long Journey   by Rohinton Mistry – December
A Casual Vacancy   by JK Rowling – September
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont   by Elizabeth Taylor – June?
The Constant Gardener   by John le Carré – April
Jane and Prudence   by Barbara Pym – February
Poetry Sampler – January

2015

Winter in Madrid   by C. J. Sansom – December
A Partisan’s Daughter   by Louis de Bernières – November
The Way We Live Now   by Anthony Trollope – August
Samuel Pepys:  The Unequalled Self   by Claire Tomalin – June
The Seagull   by Anton Chekhov – April
The Round House   by Louise Erdrich – March
Arthur & George   by Julian Barnes – February
Poetry Sampler – January

2014

Telling Tales    by Alan Bennett – December
The Bell Jar    by Sylvia Plath – November
Purple Hibiscus    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – October
The Road Home   by Rose Tremain – September
The Good Earth   by Pearl S. Buck – June
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks   by Rebecca Skloot – May
Restoration   by Rose Tremain – March
The Gate of Angels   by Penelope Fitzgerald – February
The Secret River   by Kate Grenville – January

2013

Family Circles   by Alan Ackbourn – December
Troubles   by J. G. Farrell – November
Too Much Happiness   short stories by Alice Munro – October
A Book for All and None   by Clare Morgan – September
***September 2013 was Withiel Book Circle’s 20th Anniversary***
The Salt Road   by Jane Johnson – June
Any Human Heart   by William Boyd – May
My Sister’s Keeper   by Jodi Picoult – April
The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress   by Beryl Bainbridge – March
Orlando   by Virginia Woolf – February
Table Manners from The Norman Conquests, a trilogy   by Alan Ayckbourn – January

2012

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society   by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows – December
Tulip Fever   by Deborah Moggach – November
The Portrait of a Lady   by Henry James – October
Mr Golightly’s Holiday   by Salley Vickers – September
The Camel Bookmobile   by Masha Hamilton – June
Good Behaviour   by Molly Keane – May
The Siege of Krishnapur   by J. G. Farrell – April
The Winter Ghosts   by Kate Mosse – March
The Eyre Affair   by Jasper Fforde – February
A Doll’s House   by Henrik Ibsen – January

2011

Never Let Me Go   by Kazuo Ishiguro – December
Family Album   by Penelope Lively – November
The Little Stranger   by Sarah Waters – October
The Blind Assassin   by Margaret Atwood – September
Ladder of Years   by Anne Tyler – June
Year of Wonders   by Geraldine Brooks – May
The Help   by Kathryn Stockett – April
Land of Marvels   by Barry Unsworth – March
A Week in December   by Sebastian Faulks – February
Dancing at Lughnasa   by Brian Friel – January

2010

The Raft   by Arabella Edge – December
The Handmaid’s Tale   by Margaret Atwood – November
The Lacuna   by Barbara Kingsolver – October
A Sweet Obscurity   by Patrick Gale – September
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo   by Stieg Larsson – June
Unless   by Carol Shields  – May
When Will There Be Good News?   by Kate Atkinson – April
The Age of Innocence   by Edith Wharton – March
The Woods   by Harlan Coben – February
Noises Off   by Michael Frayn – January

2009

Sacred Hearts   by Sarah Dunant – December
Rabbit, Run   by John Updike – November
The Believers   by Zoë Heller – October
Empress Orchid   by Anchee Min – September
The Alchemist’s Daughter   by Katharine McMahon – June
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher   by Kate Summerscale – May
The Inheritance of Loss   by Kiran Desai – April
East of the Sun   by Julia Gregson – March
Cloud Atlas   by David Mitchell – February
Blithe Spirit   by Noël Coward – January

2008

Bleeding Kansas   by Sara Paretsky – December
The Rose of Sebastopol   by Katharine McMahon – November
A Thousand Splendid Suns   by Khaled Hosseini – October
Anna Karenina   by Leo Tolstoy – September
Life Class   by Pat Barker – June
Notes from an Exhibition   by Patrick Gale – May
Katey: The Life and Loves of Dickens’s Artist Daughter   by Lucinda Hawksley – April
The Jane Austen Book Club   by Karen Joy Fowler – March
The Kite Runner   by Khaled Hosseini – February
Mister Pip   by Lloyd Jones – January

2007

Bedroom Farce   by Alan Ayckbourn – December
Bel Canto   by Ann Patchett – November
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian   by Marina Lewycka – October
The Butterfly House   by Marcia Preston – September
My Name is Red   by Orhan Pamuk – June
Suite Française   by Irène Némirovsky – May
Carry On, Jeeves and Heavy Weather   by P.G. Wodehouse – April
Beyond Black   by Hilary Mantel – March
Small Island   by Andrea Levy – February
Lysistrata   by Aristophanes – January

2006

Holes   by Louis Sachar – December
The House of the Spirits   by Isabel Allende – November
The Bell   by Iris Murdoch – October
The God of Small Things   by Arundhati Roy – September
The poems of John Betjeman (various books) – June
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer   by Patrick Süskind – May
Another Life   by Sara MacDonald – April
Weaving Shadows   by Margaret Murphy – March
The Shadow of the Wind   by Carlos Ruiz Zafón – February
Ring Around the Moon   by Jean Anouilh – January

2005

Life of Pi   by Yann Martel – December
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency   by Alexander McCall Smith – November
The Lady and the Unicorn   by Tracy Chevalier – October
The Time Traveler’s Wife   by Audrey Niffenegger  – September
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys AND Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – June
The Sewing Circles of Herat   by Christina Lamb – May
The Bookseller of Kabul   by Asne Seiestad – April
The Go-Between   by L P Hartley – March
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time   by Mark Haddon – February
The Lovely Bones   by Alice Sebold – January

2004

W B Yeats’ poetry – December
A Country Wife   by Lucy Pinney – November
Brick Lane   by Monica Ali – October
The Red Tent   by Anita Diamant – September
The Road to Nab End   by William Woodruff – June
All He Ever Wanted   by Anita Shreve – May
When We Were Orphans   by Kazuo Ishiguru – April
The Kindness of Strangers   by Kate Adie – March
Fingersmith   by Sarah Waters – February
Girl with a Pearl Earring   by Tracy Chevalier – January

2003

The Cherry Orchard   by Anton Chekhov – December
A Thousand Acres   by Jane Smiley – November
Falling   by Elizabeth Jane Howard – October
Telling Only Lies   by Jessica Mann (10th Anniversary with guest, Jessica Mann) – September
An Equal Music   by Vikram Seth – June
Notes from a Small Island   by Bill Bryson – May
Knots and Crosses   by Ian Rankin – April
Year of Wonders   by Geraldine Brooks – March
The Stone Diaries   by Carole Shields – February
Atonement   by Ian McEwan – January

2002

The Razor’s Edge   by Somerset Maugham– December
The Last Time They Met   by Anita Shreve – November
Silas Marner   by George Eliot– October
Marie Antoinette   by Antonia Fraser – September
O Pioneers!   by Willa Cather – May
The Map of Love   by Ahdaf Soueif – April
The Idea of Perfection   by Kate Grenville – March
The Reader   by Berhard Schlink – February
Bad Blood   by Lorna Sage – January

2001

The Africa House   by Cristina Lamb – December

PREVIOUS:

The Great Gatsby   by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Weight of Water   by Anita Shreve
A Walk in the Woods   by Bill Bryson
Keepers of the House   by Lisa St. Aubin De Teran
Rough Music   by Patrick Gale
The English Patient   by Michael Ondaatje
Hotel Du Lac   by Anita Brookner
The Poisonwood Bible   by Barbara Kingsolver
The Leopard   by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
Lark Rise   by Flora Thompson
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings   by Maya Angelou
A Pair of Blue Eyes   by Thomas Hardy – September 1993


OTHER WEBSITES WITH BOOK REVIEWS


The Telegraph book reviews

The Guardian book reviews

Melissa (a blog by a small-town country girl, Canadian, teacher and artist.)

Danny Yee (an eclectic combination of fiction, non-fiction by a young Eurasian Australian.)

The Intrepid-Optimist (another eclectic mix by an ex-pat Brit and contributors)

The New York Times book reviews (and their archive)

BookGroup.info (website for book groups in the UK)

Slightly Foxed (links to many other book sites).