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January 2006
   
Felidae
SFBC Rating: 6½/10
by Akif Pirinçci translated by Ralph Noble

In common with most amateur sleuths, Francis has a keen sense of justice, an inquisitive mind, and is in the right place at the right time. But there Felidae's similarities with the classic detective story end. For Francis has four-and-a-half times the lives Sherlock Holmes had, and twice the curiosity of Miss Marple. And you know what they say about curiosity...

Discussed at Rock House on 19 January 2006
 
 
February 2006    
The Bell Jar
  by Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly- written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity.

To be discussed at Aileen's house on 16 February 2006
 
 
 March 2006    
The Queen and I
  by Sue Townsend

A seminal comic masterpiece of our time, now published for the first time in Penguin. The Monarchy has been dismantled; When a Republican party wins the General Election, their first act in power is to strip the royal family of their assets and titles and send them to live on a housing estate in the Midlands. Exchanging Buckingham Palace for a two-bedroomed semi in Hell Close (as the locals dub it), caviar for boiled eggs, servants for a social worker named Trish, the Queen and her family learn what it means to be poor among the great unwashed. But is their breeding sufficient to allow them to rise above their changed circumstance or deep down are they really just like everyone else?

 Discussion at Ivy Tower Farm on 18 August at 3pm
 
 
April 2006    
The Round Heeled Woman 
  by Jane Juska

Small ad in the New York Review of Books:

'Before I turn 67 - next March - I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.'

It's high time someone revealed the fact that older single people are as eager for sex and intimacy as their younger counterparts. Jane Juska's brave, honest memoir will probably raise eyebrows and blood pressure, but it will undoubtedly appeal to the very large audience of grown-up readers who will be fascinated and inspired by her daring adventure.

Discussion at 1 Parsons Green on 15 Septembet at 3pm