Oxford Reading Group - A book group who meet montly in Oxfordshire


	The Crow Road Iain Banks Suggested By: Kerry


	American Wife Curtis Sittenfeld Suggested By: Fiona

	The Children's Book AS Byatt Suggested By: Tim

	The Bloody Chamber Angela Carter Suggested By: Pip

	Notes From an Exhibition Patrick Gale Suggested By: Kate

	The Other Side of the Bridge Mary Lawson Suggested By: Becca

	The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid Suggested By: Annalise

	The House with the Green Shutters George Douglas Brown Considered a foreign language book by all but Fiona, this grim look at life in 19th century rural Scotland was not met with approval by many in the group. Suggested By: Fiona

	An Equal Music Vikram Seth Suggested By: Pip

	Rebecca Daphne du Maurier Suggested By: Mary

	Deaf Sentence David Lodge Suggested By: Tim

	The Power and the Glory Graham Greene Suggested By: Fiona

	Devil May Care Sebastian Faulks Faulks take up the challenge of a James Bond novel. Suggested By: Suzy

	After Dark Harumi Murakami Latest offering from the surreal pen of Murakami. Suggested By: Mary

	Daughters of the House Michele Roberts Suggested By: Pip

	Naive Super Erlend Loe Suggested By: Fiona

	The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy Perhaps the start of term feeling was the cause of our torpor. Pip put on a lovely vegetarian spread, despite the lack of pickled gherkins. The liveliest discussion arose from the book\'s language and there was some talk of metaphor. For such a dense book it was strange that we had so little so say. It was lovely to welcome Suzy to the group, and we hope she hasn\'t been put off by the lack of book discussion. Bruce is a very handsome dog. Suggested By: Tim

	On Chesil Beach Ian McKewan Suggested By: Kate

	The Well of Lost Plots James Bradley Suggested By: Phil

	An Ice-cream War William Boyd Suggested By: Louisa

	The First Man Albert Camus Suggested By: Fiona

	What I Loved Siri Hustvedt Suggested By: Louisa

	Engleby Sebastian Faulks Suggested By: Mary

	Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Paul Torday Suggested By: Becca

	Suite Francaise Irene Némirovsky Suggested By: Tim

	Helpless Barbara Goudy Suggested By: Kate

	A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess Suggested By: Phil

	My Once Upon a Time Diran Adebayo Suggested By: Fiona

	If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things Jon McGregor Debut novel remembering abnormal events on an otherwise ordinary street. Suggested By: Louisa

	Accordion Crimes Annie Proulx A story of shifting identities in a modern mongrel society. Whilst the first story proved to be a hit with some, by the end we had lost the will to live. We felt that we could talk about the accordion but that we didn\'t know the accordion. Suggested By: Mary

	The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde The nineteenth century classic tale of aestheticism, hedonism and hiding your sins in the attic. For many of us this was a reread and most wished that they hadn't bothered. Perhaps it appeals more to the arty teenager than the sophisticated grown-up. Suggested By: Phil

	Carter Beats the Devil Glen David Gold A fictionalised biography of real life magician Charles Carter and his role in the death of President Harding. For some reason expectations were low so we were surprised to discover that this book was magic Suggested By: Kate

	The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini The story of a twelve year old Afghani boy and his attempts to atone for his past sins. People seemed to enjoy this, but had very little to say about it. Maybe books discussed straight after Christmas always suffer from this. Suggested By: Becca

	Arthur and George Julian Barnes Fictionalised account of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's quest to prove the innocence of unjustly accused George. We loved this book. Suggested By: Tim

	The Accidental Ali Smith Cuckoo in the nest story exposing the cracks beneath a typical middle class family veneer. We mostly enjoyed this book, finding it thought-provoking and evocative. Suggested By: Paul

	Eleven Minutes Paulo Coelho Sexual self-help book by the best-selling author of The Alchemist. Brazilian woman goes to Switzerland to find herself and ends up finding a pimp and her G-spot. The most universally panned book since Miss Garnet's Angel and Girl on a Swing. Someone gave it a zero. Suggested By: Mary

	This Human Season Louise Dean A powerful, blackly funny examination of the lives of ordinary people in late 1970s Northern Ireland, during the dirty protests in the Maze Prison. By and large people enjoyed this book although some found it a little too close to home. Suggested By: Rebecca

	Daniel Isn't Talking Marti Leimbach Partly fictionalised account of a mother's experiences with her autistic child. The author joined us for an interesting discussion ranging beyond the novel to the wider issues it tackles. Suggested By: Fiona

	Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson This debut novel from Marilynne Robinson is an acclaimed coming of age story set in Idaho mountain lake country. General consensus: too waffly and boring. And wet. Suggested By: Kate

	Pobby and Dingan Ben Rice Two invisible creatures, created by one magically imaginative or emotionally troubled young girl, stir up trouble in a small Australian Outback home. Mercifully short after a few epics, we were charmed by this surreal child-like tale. Suggested By: Louisa

	Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides A saga of brotherly and sisterly love, crocuses and Obscure Objects, this book really captured the group's imagination. Although it attained the most universal praise since The Poisonwood Bible, there was still enough difference of opinion to provide an interesting and, at times, heated discussion. Suggested By: Fiona

	The Historian Anna Kostova A historian-turned-diplomat tells his daughter the creepy story of his obsession with finding Vlad the Impaler's tomb. Kostova starts promisingly, but by page 100 of the 642 pages, has descended into Da Vinci Code territory. This might have been bearable had it not been for the continental drift like pace of the storytelling. Suggested By: Phil

	The Spell Alan Hollinghurst A middle-aged civil servant's life is transformed when his new, young lover introduces him to London's gay scene. Hollinghurst tries to explore love, lust and loss amongst middle class Englishmen, but ends up with a clunky gay Mills & Boon. Sadly not on a par with his 2004 Booker winner. Suggested By: Tim

	Everything is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer An American Jew arrives in the Ukraine to track down the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Safran Foer twists language and narrative and ends up with a kind of cross between The Curious Incident and The Reader. Genuinely clever or a dog's breakfast? There were strong arguments on both sides. Suggested By: Dawn

	Elizabeth Costello J.M. Coetzee Book based around eight lectures delivered by an aging, fictional Australian novelist. After making her life's work the study of other people, Costello now becomes an object of scrutiny. The consensus was that it was more enjoyable to discuss than to read (especially as we discussed it whilst locked inside Blackwell's after dark). Suggested By: Mary

	Incendiary Chris Cleve A grieving East End woman writes to Osama Bin Laden after losing her family in a terrorist attack on a football stadium. Presciently released on 7th July 2005, this was an intelligent and powerful book that encapsulated its time. Light relief provided by a dog swiping some sausages during our discussion. Suggested By: Paul

	Great Apes Will Self When artist Simon Dykes wakes after a late night of routine debauchery, he discovers that his girlfriend has turned into a chimpanzee along with the rest of humanity. Perhaps we've been there too, because we all found Self's Swift-esque satire funny and clever. 'Euch Euch'. Suggested By: Rebecca

	Geek Love Katherine Dunn Perhaps we're a little sick and twisted, but we lapped up Dunn's cult tale of a family of freak-show exhibits. A bald, albino dwarf narrates events that follow her mother's drug, pesticide and radioactive-isotope gobbling during pregnancy to keep carnival turnstiles clicking. Suggested By: Fiona

	253 Geoff Ryman This book -- which originally gained fame as a website -- devotes a page to each of the 253 people travelling on a doomed tube train travelling from Embankment to the Elephant and Castle. Ryman describes each passenger's history, appearance and thoughts in exactly 253 words. Suggested By: Kate

	The Girl In A Swing Richard Adams An English porcelain dealer finds what appears to be a perfect wife on a trip to Copenhagen but is unaware of her dark past. The Watership Down author moves from animal tales to supernatural thrillers, and fails spectacularly -- thanks to pretentiousness, bad sex scenes and Scottish accents even Mel Gibson would blanch at. Suggested By: Paul

	Small Island Andrea Levy Gilbert Joseph is one of several thousand Jamaican RAF pilots who fought for the mother country during WW2. Upon returning to civilian life in England finds himself treated very differently. This book may have won the Orange and Whitbread prizes and countless press plaudits, but it drew a very mixed response from us. Suggested By: Rebecca

	The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman A nameless woman is driven mad by enforced confinement after the birth of her child. Written in 1892, and at just 28 pages, this was the oldest and shortest book we'd tackled as a group. Whilst not univerally adored, it proved great to discuss - for example, how much were judgements clouded by knowing that it was based on the author's own experience? Suggested By: Dawn

	Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood How will humanity adapt to a warming planet, powerful multinationals, society schisms and science staying one small leap ahead of morality? Atwood's a little pessimistic in this thought provoking but enjoyable book about unchecked progress. Suggested By: Tim

	The Knowledge of Angels Jill Paton Walsh A philosophical novel that traces the effects of two outsiders -- one a castaway and atheist, the other a child suckled by wolves -- on a Mediterranean island community ruled by the church. Interesting, but unlike the servant girl in this tale, it didn't make us mew like gulls. Suggested By: Louisa

	Finding Myself Toby Litt Chick-lit novelist gathers material for her new novel by her inviting friends to a secretly wired-up house by the sea for a month. Non-characters, irritiating narrator and lack of plot meant that a great Virginia-Woolf-meets-Big-Brother concept was wasted -- and that the Author's surname risks becoming reading group rhyming slang. Suggested By: Antony

	Tales of The City Armistead Maupin Originally a newspaper column, this San Franciso-based set of short stories spawned five sequels, a TV mini series and a huge cult following. Despite a 'bah humbug' or two, we mostly enjoyed Maupin's book in the same way that we would enjoy a daft American soap opera. We also found that 30 years on, the book still retains shock value -- especially in a post-AIDS world. Suggested By: Mary

	The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts Louis De Bernieres If donkeys giving birth to kittens and graphic torture are your thing then you might appreciate this more than we did. The author of Captain Corelli mixes tragedy, satire, farce and fantasy together in his panoramic tale of an escalating conflict between a corrupt Latin American government and a band of guerillas. Suggested By: Clare

	Starter For Ten David Nicholls Does nostalgia make a great book? Magdalen College provided an apt backdrop to discuss David Nichols' campus-set romcom. Ideal beach fodder, the book was enthused by those of the group who were transported back to their university days and less so by those who weren't. Suggested By: Rebecca

	Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson A slightly muted thumbs up was awarded to Kate Atkinson’s debut novel, chosen to redress the fact that only a third of the authors on our reading list have been female. The chirpy and omnipresent Ruby Lennox narrates her own story and weaves in sepia-tinged accounts of women in her family over the generations. Worrying trend of picking books that feature animal deaths continued by its pet shop fire set piece. Suggested By: Kate

	Timoleon Vieta Come Home Dan Rhodes Call us a sentimental old reading group, but we liked Dan Rhodes Littlest Hobo-esque novel with a punch-to-the-gut-ending. It tells of a faded composer and socialite who lives in self-imposed exile in the Italian countryside with his ever-loyal mongrel. One or two of us queried the author's opinion of his audience though. Suggested By: Fiona

	The Treatment Mo Hayder Airport fiction or best-of-genre? Dark, psychological thriller set in South London concerning a couple left chained to radiators to die of thirst and starvation, whilst their young son is taken off to an even worse fate. The verdict? Reasonably spooky page turner without any further pretentions - itching to be made into a two-hour ITV screenplay! Suggested By: Kuldeep

	Alma Cogan Gordon Burn Alma Cogan was Britain's biggest-selling vocalist of the 1950s. Burns' novel blends fact and fiction as he explores the relationship between public and private life. Our meeting at Trinity College seemed to reach agreement that this was a complex, mysterious and fascinating book. That said, it still left several of us a little bit cold (Gordon and Tom excepted), and wondering whether a re-read was required. Suggested By: Tom

	The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night Time Mark Haddon Our unwritten 'no hardbacks' Reading Group rule was broken with this sleeper hit by local author Mark Haddon. Narrated by an autistic child who discovers his neighbour's dog dead, the book concerns his quest to find out whodunnit which leads him to the heart of a startling lie within his own family. The book was generally loved in varying quantities of affection by the group - though none of us could live with the narrator. Suggested By: Paul

	The Accidental Tourist Anne Tyler This tale of an anally-retentive travel writer turned out to be a surprising hit. Extra points went to Gordon and Fiona who did their homework by managing to track down the mid 80s romantic comedy based on the book. Suggested By: Phil

	Running Wild J.G. Ballard Ballard's middle-class baiting reaction to the Hungerford Massacre. Like Motherless Brooklyn, this novella was another one of those books we hoped would be much better - especially as it was set just down the road from us! Suggested By: Gordon

	The Corrections Jonathan Franzen Franzen's story of a mother's determination to get her splintered family together for one last Christmas was simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking. Another one for our top ten. Suggested By: Kate

	The Reader Bernard Schlinck Oprah Book Club favourite addressing German war guilt. The morality maze that surrounds this issue made this not an easy book to read or discuss. Respected rather than enjoyed. Suggested By: Michael

	Mr. Alfred MA George Friel After a series of American novels, Friel's gritty short story came as a refreshing change. It follows a Glasgow teacher's descent into a breakdown after he gets rather too close to one of his pupils. Suggested By: Fiona

	A Scanner Darkly Philip K. Dick Despite apprehension about from some members regarding science fiction, the response to this schizophrenic drug novel was fairly good. The debate was further memorable for the bonkers spaniel owned by Fiona's housemate. Suggested By: Gordon

	Time Will Darken It William Maxwell Set in the American Midwest at the turn of the century, this book begins with what seems like a favourite Reading Group theme - the family get together (see also All Families Are Psychotic and The Corrections). The debate over this melancholy novel centred on who we sympathised with most - Austin or Martha. Suggested By: Kate

	The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver A reading group favourite. Kingsolver’s atmospheric tale of a preacher’s family on a mission in the Belgian Congo seemed to grip everybody, though questions were raised (over top-notch guacamole) about her rewriting of history. Suggested By: Kate

	Motherless Brooklyn Jonathan Lethem Darn. Lethem’s detective novel seen through the eyes of a sufferer of Tourette’s Syndrome sounded so much better on paper. Still, Michael and Kuldeep did an honourable job of sticking up for it. Suggested By: Kate

	All Families Are Psychotic Douglas Coupland In a cosy corner of the Trout Inn, we concluded that Coupland's post-millennial, dysfunctional family caper was enjoyable but hardly earth shattering. Debate over the merits of ‘zeitgeisty’ fiction dominated this book. Suggested By: Paul

	Miss Garnett’s Angel Salley Vickers A boisterous book group saw Salley Vicker’s novel left with multiple stab wounds. Sadly, this old-spinster-finds-happiness-in-Venice package was almost unanimously unloved. Suggested By: Camilla

	A Prayer For Owen Meany John Irving John Irving’s rambling but enjoyable novel about a boy who discovers the date of his death was discussed over mulled wine in a vegan café. Suggested By: Kuldeep

	Ghostwritten David Mitchell David Mitchell’s debut novel weaved together a number of tales that included Japanese warlords, art theft in St. Petersberg and ghosts in a Nick Hornby-esque London. We all seemed to agree it was a great book; what we couldn't agree on was which section was our favourite! Suggested By: Dawn

	The Secret History Donna Tarrt Donna Tartt’s cult novel featuring a murderous group of Ancient Greek students seemed to divide the group down the middle. We either loved it to bits or couldn’t quite see what distinguished it from a standard thriller. Suggested By: Phil

	Atonement Ian McKewan McKewan’s tale of a child's lie that leads to disasterous repurcussions at the time of the Second World War was an ideal start to our Reading Group. Suggested By: Michael

The Crow Road

Iain Banks