Post on 21-May-2020
transcript
Christmas Reads
Enjoy some good books while the snow is
falling, the frost is biting, and the fire is warm
in the hearth!
Susan Hill’s A Kind Man is good for the soul.
Tommy Carr meets Eve Gooch when he helps
her to retrieve a parcel which has fallen into
the canal. When Eve brings him home, her
mother responds: ‘Only the one thing I’d ask...
which you maybe haven’t thought of or can even
answer and you should…Is he a kind man?’
Tommy is indeed a kind man; his selflessness
and the delicately explored moral nuances
surrounding it create a story
that is gentle but striking.
Tommy and Eve are a
working class couple living
in the industrial north in the
1930s. When they move to a cottage in the countryside and have their first
child, their ‘cup overfloweth’, but then tragedy strikes. In her simple, staccato
prose, Susan Hill creates a stunning parable of loss and bereavement, magic
and transformation.
And if you’re in the mood for something a little creepy, our
Croydon High Community Book Club recommends John
Fowles’ The Collector, A deeply disturbing psychological
thriller. Frederick, lonely and socially inept, collects
butterflies and takes photographs. He
stalks, captures and collects Miranda, a
beautiful well-educated art student –
everything he is not. He imprisons her in
his cellar, hoping that she will fall in love
with him. Fowles tells the story from two
different perspectives – Miranda’s, and
Frederick’s (her ‘Caliban’); a
claustrophobic interplay of two minds.
E V E RY G I R L - E V E RY DAY
Our 6th Form Books & Breakfast Club enjoyed Erin Kelly’s He Said/She Said.
Laura and her boyfriend Kit travel to Cornwall to witness a total eclipse; after
the event Laura witnesses a brutal attack which she reports to the police. Their
lives, including that of the victim’s, change forever. A gripping psychological
thriller which keeps you guessing until the end!
In Jennifer Donnelly’s These Shallow Graves, Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich.
She resists her parents’ plans to ‘marry well’; she aspires to be a writer. Tragedy
strikes when her father is found dead and she discovers uncomfortable secrets and
lies. Sienna (Year 8) gives the book a 10 out o f 10. She writes that ‘it’s
simultaneously a coming of age story as well as a book about society’s hold over
you…it is a really powerful read’. A worthwhile Young Adult novel (for mature
Year 8s and up)
Tara (Year 7) recommends Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel, featuring a bat, the
runt of his colony, who is desperate to prove his worth during the winter
migration to Hibernaculum, many miles away in the south. He will face
difficult terrain and weather as well as dangerous enemies. Tara writes that ‘
I was gripped. I have learned that every book has a hidden secret that is
waiting to be discovered’. A thrilling adventure (the first of a trilogy) for
age 10 and up.
14 December 2018