AB Reading group - August Book of the Month suggestions please

[sunny-dave]

The genre for this month is "20th Century Classics" - interpret this as loosely as you wish :+)

Please add your suggestions for specific books to this thread - give a bit of detail about each book (or a link to a synopsis on eg Amazon).

Feel free to endorse other people's ideas - I'll pick a few books for a selection poll in a week or so ...

dave xx

[carolegif]

Any Graham Greene or Evelyn Waugh! The late Maeve Binchy or Catherine Cookson.

[quizbag]

The Far Pavilions by M M Kaye. The best historical/romance/adventure book ever.

[rockyracoon]

A Room With A View - E M Forster


Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[Canary42]

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Amazon review :-
Since its publication in 1946, George Orwell's fable of a workers' revolution gone wrong has been recognized as a classic of modern political satire. Fuelled by Orwell's intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing--both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal. Everyone willingly works overtime, productivity soars and for one brief, glorious season, every belly is full. The animals' Seven Commandment credo is painted in big white letters on the barn. All animals are equal. No animal shall drink alcohol, wear clothes, sleep in a bed or kill a fellow four-footed creature. Those that go upon four legs or wings are friends and the two-legged are, by definition, the enemy. Too soon, however, the pigs, who have styled themselves leaders by virtue of their intelligence, succumb to the temptations of privilege and power. "We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of the farm depend on us. Day and night, we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples." While this swinish brotherhood sells out the revolution, cynically editing the Seven Commandments to excuse their violence and greed, the common animals are once again left hungry and exhausted, no better off than in the days when humans ran the farm. Satire Animal Farm may be, but it's a stony reader who remains unmoved when the stalwart workhorse, Boxer, having given his all to his comrades, is sold to the glue factory to buy booze for the pigs. Orwell's view of Communism is bleak indeed, but given the history of the Russian people since 1917, his pessimism has an air of prophecy.

[Maydup]

I've read one of two of the suggestions posted so far and in keeping with previous months, I'd like to try something new to me.

How about we try - Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse?


Here's a review
It needs your time. Give it an hour with no interruptions. Get a bag of pistachios and read. Unplug the phone, turn off the TV. Read and don't stop. Then you'll discover the joy of Virginia Woolf -- for while her prose is tough, it is haunting, beautiful, and real.

Once you've settled into it, you'll discover a wonderful book, a tale of everyday life lived. Both intensely personal and incredibly universal, this book is life itself.

So, you want the real review. Alright, it's the story of a beach house, where reside the Ramseys and their various friends. Mrs. Ramsey is a goddess and nearly everyone worships her. This is more fun to read than it sounds. Lily Briscoe is a painter trying to figure out what she sees and what she loves.

There is a brutal twist in the middle, and the rest of the book is coping with that. No, I won't tell you what it is. Go read the book. It's great.

It's about beauty, about the incredible tragedy of time passing, about art and the world, about love and marriage, about people. It's not only a book about life, it is a book of life itself.

[Bromsgrove]

For a light read, with humour and the ability to make everyday situations have their role, why not try one of Barbara Pym's books

[spotit3]

What about Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. Amazing how our parents generation managed with just tap water, that's if they were even lucky enough to have running water in the house.

[spotit3]

Correction re my last, not sure how that sentence appeared. What I wanted to say about it was This novel contains one of my favourite lines; "it is high time that Miss Jessie lay off her dimples". This is a classic book that focuses on domesticity in the 18th century. It highlights the basically mundane life that faced women (particularly spinsters) of this era. If you want exitement and adventure this is not the book for you. If, however you are interested in the history of domesticity and how small things meant so much, then this book is delightful. I love it, and will reread it many more times.

[bednobs]

His dark materials, Phillip Pullman