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The Beatles Story November 3rd 2025

Bring a Book February 3rd 2025

On February 3rd we invited all our members to bring a book to our Monday Moring Meeting, and an impressive 36 people did so. Here are the books that were chosen, with a short description of each one.

1. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. Nothing like the film, a book about female independence, the story of an "escort" or posh prostitute, set in 1940's New York.
2. The Bullet that Missed By Richard Osman. An easy read, but Richard Osman could be seen as a marmite writer, you either love him or hate him. Latest in a series of murder mysteries set in a retirement home, where Elizabeth, a retired spy, sets up the Thursday Murder Club. "Achingly British".
3. The Haunting by Alan Titchmarsh. A story of love, betrayal and intrigue, split between 1816 and 2010. The 1816 story is about the mysterious disappearance of Anne Flint and the drowning of a young girl. In 2010, a descendant, Harry Flint buys her house which is haunted.
4. The Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley. A series of 7 books, each about a different sister, all have happy endings. The seven sisters, all adopted, one of them missing, live on Lake Geneva. They don't know the man who has adopted them, an elusive billionaire known as Pa Salt.
5. Taking The lead (A Dog at no 10) by John Grace. Written by a Guardian columnist, a left leaning piece of political satire, very funny, about a talking dog, who works at 10 Downing street and befriends Larry the cat.
6. Fireside Gothic by Andrew Taylor. Three ghost stories set in England from 1910 onwards. Very dark, could be enjoyed by a blazing fire on a cold winter's evening.
7. The last Bookshop in Prague by Helen Parusel. Set in occupied Prague during the Second World War, a story about a young girl and those around her in a bookshop. A Resistance story.
8. Elodies Library of Second Chances by Rebecca Raisin. An uplifting and easy read. A feel good, laugh out loud Summer Romance.
9. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. A four book set, historical novels, set initially in the 9th and 10th centuries, about the building of a cathedral and the people involved.
10. The Lost Continent and Neither Here nor There by Bill Bryson. Two Bill Bryson Travelogues in a single volume, one set in America and the other in Europe. Bryson is a very funny writer, easy to read.
11. Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer. A series of seven books published over many years. A family chronicle of two families, the Cliftons and the Barringtons, set in England and America over 70 years. Typical of Archers writing, page turners.
12. The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monserrat. A World War II story of sea battles and the sailors involved. Was made into a successful film.
13. The Resistance Girl by Mandy Robotham. Despite the loss of her fiance, a Norwegian girl puts her life on the line to fight the Nazis, who have occupied her country in World War II. The Nazis believed the Norwegians were an Aryan race.
14. Virgin Earth by Philippa Gregory. Charles I's gardener, John Tradescant, flees theEnglish Civil War, to grow plants in Virginia USA. An excellent historical novel.
15. Holy Island by L J Ross. This is a DC I Ryan mystery, one of 20 books which are best read in chronological order.. Ryan is seeking peace on Holy Island but finds himself involved in a murder case. Fast paced and enthralling.
16. Deadly Lies by Chris Collett. The first of the DI Tom Mariner series, a gripping detective mystery set in Birmingham. Interesting for local readers to identify the locations used.
17. An Eye for an Eye by Jeffery Archer. A 2024 bestseller. A typical Jeffrey Archer page turner.
18. Concrete and Culture by Adrian Forty. This book, written by an architect, takes the reader across Europe, North America and the Far East, explaining the effects of concrete structures. Lots of maps and interesting facts.
19. A 1950's childhood by Paul Feeney. From tin baths to bread and dripping, a childhood familiar to many members of the u3a.
20. Haynes Manual for Pensioners. Actually published by Haynes, who do real car manuals, sending themselves up a bit with this comic volume. Advantages of being a being the first among a group of hostages and living without sex but, not ones glasses
21. Huffy Puffy the Little Red Engine by Lavinia Derwent. Vintage children's book from the 1950s, like Thomas the Tank Engine. Some charecters would not be acceptable today, e.g. Little Black Sambo.
22. Shakespeare, The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench. Judi Dench on every Shakespeare role she has played. Very amusing, delightful and informative on behind the scenes secrets, triumphs, disasters and backstage shenanigans.
23. The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas. The story of two sisters, a murder mystery with a twist at the end. Intriguing, the writing flows well.
24. The Three widows by ?. The story of three women, all widows, who are grandmother, mother and daughter. They all reveal secrets to do with their dead husbands.
25. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. Pauline's "comfort book". She read it for GCE and reads it again every couple of years. She has an 1874 copy.
26. Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell. A fictionalised account of the life of Emily Bronte on the Yorkshire moors. Her brother Bramwell features heavily.
27. We solve Murders by Richard Osman. Another murder mystery by Richard Osman, this one not set in the retirement home. A woman and her father-in-law join forces to solve a murder. Characters well drawn, but possibly too many of them.
28. The Lake House by Kate Morton. A mystery set in Cornwall, concerning a missing child, moving between 1933 and 2003.
29. The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid. Combines a modern thriller with historical mystery involving Fletcher Christian, the Bounty mutineer, and the poet William Wordsworth.
30. When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman. The story of Ella and her brother Joe from childhood to adulthood, covering 4 decades in Cornwall, Essex and New York.
31. Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute. Shute's last novel, originally published in 1960 now reissued. An adventure story set in the South Pacific, with a happy ending, perhaps a bit too pat.
32. The Anxious Generation by Jonathon Haidt. A disturbing book by an American psychologist, which explores the digital storm behind the current youth mental health crisis.
33. Butler to the World by Oliver Bullough. How Britain became the servant of tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals, covering money laundering and other financial crimes.
34. Precipice by Robert Harris. A novel concerning the real life affair between 60 year old Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and a socialite woman in her twenties, just before World War I.
35. Sweet Remnants of Summer by Alexander McCall Smith. The latest in the series of Isabel Dalhousie novels set in Edinburgh.
36. The keeper of Stories by Sally Page. Janice, a cleaner, collects stories from her clients when she cleans for them. But her new employer, a 90 year old former spy wats to hear Janice's own story, which she is reluctant to share.