Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
January 24th 2017 A book read over the Christmas holiday
Lin Anderson None but the dead Antony Beevor The Spanish Civil War Bill Bryson At Home Ruth Dudley Edwards Matricide at St. Marthas Esther Freud Mr Mac and me Ysenda Maxtone Graham Terms & Conditions in Girls’ Boarding Schools 1939 -1979 Victoria Hislop Cartes Postales Mary Lawson The other side of the bridge Harper Lee To set a watch Kate Moss The winter ghosts Marianne North at Kew Gardens J.Picoult Small great things Natasha Pulley The watchmaker of Filigree Street Tracy Rees Amy Snow C.J. Sansom Lamentation R.L. Stevenson Kidnapped Karen Swan Christmas under the stars L.C. Taylor Herring seller’s apprentice
February 28th 2017 Australia
Murray Bail Eucalyptus Louis de Bernieres Blue dog Bill Bryson Down Under Peter Casey The true history of the Kelly gang Nancy Cato The heart of the continent Robyn Davidson Tracks Alan Garner A strand loper Kate Grenville The secret river E.Haran Under a flaming sky Jane Harper The dry Joan Lindsay Picnic at Hanging Rock Alex Miller Cold creek Leon Moriarty The last anniversary Jo Jo Moyes Silver bay Banjo Patterson Poems Lesley Pearse Trust me Neville Shute A town like Alice “ “ The far country M.L. Steadman The line between oceans Arthur Upfield The bone is pointed
March 28th 2017
1 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
‘Writing about the 1960s’
C.N. Adichie Half of a yellow sun Margery Allingham The mind readers Stan Barstow Raging calm Melvyn Bragg Remember me Michael Dobbs One minute to midnight Margaret Drabble The millstone Paul Feeney A 1960s childhood: from Thunderbirds to Beatlemania Julian Fellowes Past imperfect Christopher Fowler Paperboy Brigid Keenan Full marks for trying: an unlikely journey from the Raj to the rag trade Ken Kesey One flew over the cuckoo’s nest Lynn Knight The button box Mary Quant Autobiography Sally Worboyes Valentine moon Michael Wright Zambia, I changed my mind Richard Yates Revolutionary Road
April 18th 2017 About food
Elizabeth Bard Lunch in Paris Mrs Beaton All about cooking Mary Berry Autobiography: a recipe for life Roald Dahl Charlie and the chocolate factory Elizabeth David Is there a nutmeg in the house? Philippa Gregory Bread and chocolate Joanne Harris Jigs and Reels Adam Henson Like farmer, like son Susan Hill Through the kitchen window Richard Morais The one hundred foot journey Nigel Slater Toast Ben-Erik Van Wyk Food plants of the world Sarah Vaughan The art of baking blind
May 23rd 2017 The Sea
The coast of Amalfi Joseph Conrad The mirror of the sea Sean Conway Hell and high water Guy Grieve Sea Legs Ernest Hemingway The old man and the sea Alistair MacLean HMS Ulysses Alison Moore Death and the seaside The most amazing places on England’s coast (Reader’s Digest)
2 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
Bruce Parker The power of the sea Yrsa Sigurdardottir The silence of the sea Jean Sprakland Strands: a year of discoveries on the beach Robert L. Stevenson Treasure Island Sam Weinberg A fish caught in time
June 27th 2017 A 1930s Writer
Lois Austen-Leigh The incredible crime E.M. Delafield The diary of a provincial lady T.S.Eliot Old Possums book of practical cats* Lady Fortescue Perfume from Provence* Stella Gibbons Cold comfort farm Ernest Hemingway The snows of Kilimanjaro Margaret Mitchell Gone with the wind Hilda Newman Diamonds at dinner George Orwell Down & out in Paris and London “ The road to Wigan Pier Dorothy L.Sayers Strong poison Dodie Smith I capture the castle John Steinbeck The red pony Angela Thirkell Summer Half Vita Sackville West The Edwardians
July 25th 2017 Pets
Battersea Dogs Home Lost and found Hazel Carter A dog in a million Deborah Devonshire Counting my chickens Monty Don Nigel: my family and other dogs Gerald Duurrell My family and other animals Martin Gurdon Travels with my chicken Takashi Haraide The Guest Cat Vaseem Khan The perplexing theft of the jewel in the crown Amanda Leask Miracle Michael Morpurgo Running wild Spencer Quinn Dog on it Megan Rix The puppy who came for Christmas Martin Windrow The owl Gretchen Woelfle Katje the windmill cat
3 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
August 22nd 2017 An author beginning with the letter ‘A’
Peter Ackroyd Newton (Brief Lives) C.N.Adichie Half of a yellow sun Kate Adie Fighting on the home front John Agard My name is book Isabel Allende Daughter of fortune Margery Allingham Coroner’s Pidgin “ “ More work for the undertaker Maya Angelou Gather together in my name “ “ I know why the caged bird sings Anne Applebaum Iron curtain: the crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 Simon Armitage Walking home Lindsay Ashford Death studies Diana Athill Stet Kate Atkinson A God in ruins “ “ Case histories Jane Austen Northanger Abbey
September 26th 2017 Title Attraction
Christine Adams Mrs Savidge moves her house James Anderson The affair of the blood stained egg cosy J.L. Carr How the Steeple Sinderby Wanderers won the FA cup Jeffrey Deaver The burial hour Jason Elliot Mirrors of the unseen: journeys in Iran Frank Gardner Far Horizons Sally Glaister The museum of things left behind Nick Hornby How to be good Roseanna Ley Last dance in Havana S. Martin & F. Spalding John Minton: dance till the stars come down Carol Matthews The cake shop in the garden Miles Morland The man who broke out of the bank... Timeri Muraui The Taliban cricket club Lesley Pearce Dead to me M.A. Shaffer The Guernsey literary & potato peel pie Alexander McCall Smith In the company of cheerful ladies Mark Sullivan Beneath a scarlet sky Mark Wallington Pennine walkies
4 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
October 24th 2017 Something set in Oxford
Naomi Alderman The lessons M.C. Beaton Agatha Raisin & the quiche of death John Betjeman Best of...ed Guest John Carey The unexpected professor Colin Dexter The silent world of Nicholas Quinn Elizabeth Goudge Towers in the mist Philip Larkin Jill Penelope Lively The house in Norham Gardens Val McDermid Trick of the dark S.J. Parris Heresy Philip Pullman Lyra’s Oxford The Radcliffe legacy and other stories Dorothy Sayers Gawdy nights Veronica Stallwood Oxford double Joanna Trollope The men and the girls Jill Paton Walsh The late scholar
November 28th 2017 The Restoration & the 1660
Peter Ackroyd The civil war Aphra Behn Orinoco: the history of the royal slave Geraldine Brooks Year of wonders Winston Churchill History of the English speaking people Daphne du Maurier Frenchman’s creek Susanna Gregory Executioner of St Pauls “ The butcher of Smithfield Tim Harris Restoration: Charles II & his kingdoms W.R.Owens ed. Shakespeare, Aphra Behn & the Canon Liza Picard Restoration London John Stubbs Reprobates Andrew Swanston The kings return Andrew Taylor The ashes of London Rose Tremain Restoration Margaret Willes Curious world of Samuel Pepys
January 23 2018 My Christmas read
Colin Burgess Behind Palace doors( my years with the Queen Mother) Jessie Burton The miniaturist Joanna Cannon The trouble with goats and sheep Rory Clements Corpus Thomas Dilworth David Jones (biography)
5 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
Penelope Fitzgerald Human voices Margaret Forster Over Kate Furnival The betrayal Philippa Gregory The last Tudor Susan Hill Jacob’s room is full of books: a year in reading Maureen Lee Liverpool Annie Val McDermid Splinter the silence Simon Montefiore Sashenka Natasha Pulley The Bedlam stacks “ The watchmaker of Filigree Street C.J. Sansom Winter in Madrid Andrew Taylor The anatomy of ghosts Joanna Trollope City of friends Anne Zouroudi The gifts of Poseidon
February 27th 2018 South American Writing
Isabel Allende In the midst of winter “ Eva Luna “ City of the beasts “ House of the spirits Peter Allison How to walk a puma Bruce Chatwin In Patagonia Paulo Coelho Aleph David Grann The lost city of Z Mario Vargos Losa Conversation in the cathedral Matthew Lyons Impossible journeys George Mahood Travels with Rachel Gabriel Garcia Marquez In evil hour “ Chronicle of a death foretold “ Love in the time of cholera Tom Michel The penguin lesson
March 28th 2018 An author beginning with B
Pat Barker Another world Julian Barnes Levels of life Betty Barton The girl now leaving Sybille Bedford A visit to Don Otavio Alan Bennett The lady in the van Arnold Bennett Buried alive K. Birblasingh To Miss with love J. Blume In the unlikely event Alain de Botton The art of travel Melvyn Bragg Grace & Mary
6 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
Simon Brett Murder in the museum Frances Brody Death at the sea side “ Murder in the afternoon Alison Bruce The silence Bill Bryson The road to Little Dribbling “ One summer, America 1927 S. Butland Lost for words Shaun Bythell Diary of a bookseller
April 24th 2018 A book I would choose to take to a desert island
Frank Barrett Treasured Island: a book lover’s tour of Britain M. Bostridge Florence Nightingale Madelaine Bunting The Plot Charles Dickens Our mutual friend Monty Don Ivington diaries Arthur Conan Doyle The complete short stories Kenneth Grahame The wind in the willows Helen Hanff Five celebrated books Tom Hodgkinson Brave old world: a month by month guide to husbandry Roy Mears Outdoor survival handbook Hilda Prescott Man on the donkey Lucinda Riley Hothouse flower Vikram Seth The suitable boy W.B. Yeats Poems
May 22nd 2018 A book adapted for television
Margaret Atwood The handmaid’s tale Simon Brett After Henry Jessie Burton The Miniaturist Andrea Camilliere Montalbano’s first case Agatha Christie Ordeal by innocence Kenneth Clark Civilizations Wilkie Collins Woman in white R.F.Delderfield A horseman riding by Diana Gabaldon Outlander Elizabeth George Payment in blood Phillipa Gregory White princess James Herriot All creatures great and small Reginald Hill A killing kindness Elizabeth Von Armin Enchanted April
7 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
June 26th 2018 Humour
Pam Ayres You made me late again E.F. Benson Miss Mapp Jeremy Clarke Low Life: one middle aged man in search of the point Gerald Durrell The picnic and suchlike pandemonium ii My family and other animals Jane Gardam Faith Fox Tony Hawkes Round Ireland with a fridge David Jason Only fools and stories K.J.Jerome Three men in a boat David Lodge Therapy Bob McCabe The biography of Ronnie Barker Jill Mansell Staying at Daisy’s Gervais Phinn The other side of the dale ii A Wayne in the manger iii Little treasures Sue Townsend Queen Camilla
July 24th 2018 A book for summer
Patrick Barkham The Butterfly Isles H.E.Bates Darling buds of May Fern Britton A good catch Rory Clements Nucleus Victoria Hislop The return Gail Honeyman Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine Fay Keenon Second chance tea room Jim Kelly Skelton man Rosanna Ley Her mother’s secret Richard Mabey Someday I’ll find you Santa Montefiore Songs of love and war (part 1 of a trilogy) Graham Nash Wild tales: a rock and roll life Marcel Pagnol My father’s glory Angela Thirkell August Folly Rebecca Tope Cotswold case book
August 28th 2018 Gardens John Berendt Midnight in the garden of good and evil Frances Hodgson Burnett The secret garden Liz Cowley Outside in my dressing gown and other poems Monty & Sarah Don The jewel garden Margery Fish A flower for every day Laurence Fleming The English garden A guide and history of Beth Chatto’s garden
8 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
Penelope Lively Life in the garden Mark Mills The savage garden Anna Pavord The curious gardener Philippa Pearce Tom’s midnight garden Lucinda Riley Hothouse flower Tom Smit Eden Rupert Smith A year at Kew Elizabeth von Armin Elizabeth & her German garden Antony Woodward A garden in the clouds
October 23rd 2018 East Anglian writing
John T. Appleby Suffolk Summer Adrian Bell Corduroy Ronald Blythe Akenfield: the famous portrait of an English village Joy Ellis Captive on the Fens Nicci French Blue Monday Annie Gray The greedy queen Jim Kelly The great darkness Sybil Marshall Fenland Chronicle Rose Melikan The Blackstone Key Madeleine Reiss Someone to watch over me Godfrey Sayers Once upon a time Tessa West The reed flute Anne Zouroudi The gifts of Poseidon
November 27th 2018 Author beginning with ‘C’
J.L. Carr A day in summer John Le Carre Little drummer girl Linda Castillo Gone missing Willa Cather O Pioneers Tracy Chevalier Falling Angels “ Virgin Blue Agatha Christie The ABC murders Ann Cleeves Wildfire Amanda Coe Everything you do is wrong Michael Connelly Two kinds of truth Joseph Conrad Heart of darkness Bernard Cornwell Sharpes tiger Dilly Court Mermaid singing Josephine Cox Songbird Amanda Craig The lie of the land David Crane Empire of the dead A.J. Cronin The citadel
9 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
January 22nd 2019 A Christmas Read
Dan Brown Origins Bart Van Es Cut out girl C.S. Forester Payment deferred Margaret Forster Diary of an ordinary woman Robert Galbraith Cuckoos calling “ “ Lethal white Elly Griffiths Crossing places “ “ Ghost fields Carmel Harrington Cold feet: the lost years Adam Kay This is going to hurt Liane Moriarty Truly, madly, guilty Michelle Obama Becoming Lesley Pearce Till we meet again C.J. Sansom Tombland (the Shardlake series) Claire Tomalin A Life of my own Theodor Von Tanne Untangled past Sally Vickers The librarian
February 26th 2019 A book published since 2016
Tim Bentinck Being David Archer Alison Bruce I did it for us Jessie Burton The muse Alys Clare The angel in the glass Cressida Connelly After the party Hunter Davis A life in the day Ken Follett Column of fire Kate Furnival The survivors Elly Griffiths The stranger diaries “ The dark angel Jim Kelly The great darkness Rose Macaulay The world my wilderness Katherine McNam The hour of separation William Miller Gloucester Crescent – me, my dad and other grown ups C.J. Sansom Tombland Joanna Trollope An unsuitable match
March 26th 2019 A connection to music
Max Arthur When this bloody war is over Andrew Cartmel The vinyl detective: Written in dead wax
10 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
Ray Celestin The axman’s jazz Horatio Clare Something of his art – walking to Lubeck with J.S. Bach Stephen Fry’s incomplete and utter history of classical music Ishiguru Nocturns John Lennon In his own right Donna Leon Falling in love Humphrey Lyttleton Autobiography Alice McVeigh Whilst the music lasts Vikram Seth An equal music Suggs That close Joanna Trollope The choir Wherever you are: the military wives
April 23rd 2019 What our parents were reading , or may have been reading
Rosa Carey Our Bessie A.J.Cronin almost anything. The Green years. The Citadel Richmal Crompton any Just William book Lloyd C Douglas The big fisherman Goodge Green Dolphin Country John Habberton Helen’s babies Caroline Howlett Mrs Bird’s neighbours Longfellow Poetry Margaret Mitchell Gone with the wind N. Monsarrat The cruel sea Neville Shute Pied Piper Dodie Smith I capture the castle John Steinbeck Grapes of wrath Wilemina Stitch The fragrant minute Thackery Vanity Fair Edgar Wallace any
June 25th 2019 Writing about the 1950s
Vera Brittain Testament of experience Hunter Davies The Coops got bananas Sebastian Faulks A fool’s alphabet Margaret Forster Diary of an ordinary schoolgirl Elly Griffiths The blood card John Grindrod Concreteopia Rosalie Ham The dressmaker David Kynston Family Britain Fiona McCarthy The last curtsey Shena Mackay The orchard on fire Hilary Mantel Fludd
11 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
Barbara Pym Jane and Prudence Vikram Seth A suitable boy Ellee Seymour Shop girls Jack Sheffield Starting over Alan Sillitoe Loneliness of the long-distance runner Nicholas Sparks A walk to remember Jennifer Worth Call the midwife
July 23rd A Summer read
Ann Cleeves A bird in the hand Victoria Hislop Those who are loved Dinah Jefferies The missing sister Cathy Kelly The year that changed everything Santa Montefiore Summer house Michael Morpurgo Alone on a wide wide sea Charity Norman After the fall Maggie O’Farrell Instructions for a heatwave Francoise Sagan Bonjour Tristesse (Hello sadness) Andrew Taylor The silent boy Kirsty Wark The year that changed everything
August 27th 2019 Author beginning with D
Danziger and Gillingham The year of the Magna Carta Janet Davey First Aid Lionel Davidson The rose of Tibet Jill Dawson Tell tale heart Len Deighton Blitzkreig; from the rise of Hitler to the fall of Dunkirk Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe Anita Desai In Custody Detection Club The sinking admiral Margaret Dickinson Fairfield Hall Waris Dirie Desert flower Michael Dobbs House of cards A.C. Doyle A study in scarlet Miranda Doyle A book of untruths Carola Dunn Colourful death Helen Dunmore The greatcoat Gerald Durrell Two in the Bush “ Menagerie Manor
12 03/02/20 Ely & District U3A Book Lovers Group
Books Discussed at Meetings in 2017-19
October 22nd 2019 A Favourite Author
Penelope Fitzgerald The Gate of Angels Anthony Trollope An Eye for an Eye Barchester Towers Ian Rankin In a House of Lies Victoria Hislop Those Who Are Loved Ruth Rendell Some Lie and Some Die Elizabeth Buchan The New Mrs Clifton Charles Dickens Great Expectations Andrea Camilleri Death at Sea Raynor Winn The Salt Path Robert Galbraith Lethal White
November 26th 2019 A Cheerful Read
Raymond Bridges Father Christmas Gervase Phinn Yorkshire Liitle Village School Series Winifred Foley A Child in the Forest Bob McCabe The Authorised Biography of Ronnie Barker Milly Johnson Afternoon Tea at the Sunflower Café Pam Ayres You Made Me Late Again Miranda Hart Peggy and Me A J Pearce Dear Mrs Bird Compton Mackenzie Whisky Galore Bill Bryson A Walk in the Woods Stella Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm
13 03/02/20