On 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.
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.
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
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).