Go set a watchman (by Harper Lee)

(Amazon UK link)

I read Harper Lee’s classic novel ‘To kill a mockingbird’ when I was in my teens at school. I don’t know that I really understood it, and was not inspired to read it again. Not until last month, that is, when I read it with an open mind, and very much enjoyed it. The reason was that the author’s other novel ‘Go set a watchman’ was chosen as this month’s local reading group book.

I did understand that it’s not - and was never intended as - a sequel to the first book. It was written first, and the publishers asked Harper Lee to write about earlier events. She did so, and the subsequent book became highly popular and is now considered a classic. ‘Go set a watchman’ was thought to be lost until it was discovered and then published about a year before the author died. 

I read it over the past few days. It features many of the same characters as ‘To kill a mockingbird’, and almost functions like a sequel although there are a lot of flashbacks. The girl formerly known as Scout is now twenty-six and goes by her full name of Jean Louise. She’s been working in New York, but is travelling back to her home town of Maycomb for her annual vacation.

Strangers in company (by Jane Aiken Hodge)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve been reading some of my books by Jane Aiken Hodge over the past few months. She wrote some historical novels, which were very well researched (if a tad too political for my tastes, at times). She also wrote some contemporary fiction, mostly light thrillers. One of this latter category is ‘Strangers in company’ which I last read in 2008. Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t remember anything about it. 

Marian Frenche is the main character in this book. It was published in the mid-1970s, so that’s the era in which it’s set. Marian, who is in her late thirties, has taken on an unusual job: she’s going to be chaperoning a young woman called Stella on a Greek coach tour. She’s paid very well for this, and she needs the money: her eighteen-year-old twins have left home, travelling to live with their father in the United States. And his financial support has stopped. 

I’m not quite sure why so much is made of the twins and the fact that their father is quite famous: other than missing them desperately at times, they don’t have much relevance to the plot, and we never meet them. But their absence sets the scene for an intelligent motherly woman who needs a job and is willing to try almost anything. Stella is known to be moody, and Marian is told not to let her get too close to any other members of their tour party.

Naked spirituality (by Brian McLaren)

(Amazon UK link)

I have appreciated the thoughtful - if sometimes blunt - writing by Brian McLaren for  nearly fifteen years now. He’s an American Christian leader - formerly a pastor - who thinks outside the box. He expresses things in unusual ways, sometimes, and is eager that believers learn to know and trust God fully, rather than just following rituals or perceived rules.

In this book, ‘Naked spirituality’, which I last read in 2014, McLaren proposes twelve ‘words’ which, he claims, can help us move closer to God. The title refers to stripping away the practises of organised religion - not necessarily to opt out altogether, but to see beyond or inside symbols, concentrating instead on our soul and its communion with God in solitude.

As an introvert myself, I could resonate with quite a bit of the content of this book. Probably everyone could benefit from some of it, but I think it might be more difficult for extraverts who draw their energy from people around them. Still, we all need private space as well as time with people, and prayer often begins when we (metaphorically, if not literally) close our doors and pray silently, as Jesus instructed us. 

The Chalet School reunion (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

(Amazon UK link)

In my gradual, one-per-month reread of Elinor M Brent-Dyer’s lengthy Chalet School series, I reached the one noted as 50th in the original series. I last read ‘The Chalet School reunion’ about nine years ago, although before that I hadn’t read it for at least a couple of decades. 

Indeed, it’s not a book I really recall at all; possibly because it’s one of the non-school ‘holiday’ books which I appreciate all the more as I get older. This one is mainly about Grizel Cochrane, one of the original members of the school who returned, for a while, as a music teacher. She’s spent the last few years in New Zealand working with a friend, but is about to return to Europe after the business folded. 

Before going to the UK to wind up some business affairs, Grizel plans to visit Joey Maynard at her home in Switzerland - which appears to expand any time guests are expected. Grizel and Joey were the two founding members of the school, so Joey decides to host a mini reunion with other ‘girls’ who were around at the start - not that all of them are available.

The book club (by Mary Alice Monroe)

(Amazon UK link)

I hadn’t heard of Mary Alice Monroe when I saw her novel ‘The book club’ on a church bookstall nearly two years ago. But the cover looked appealing, I liked the sound of the title, and the blurb on the back sounded exactly like my kind of book. I finally picked it up to read a few days ago.

It should have been very appealing: all the ingredients are there. There’s a brief prologue that hints at the rest of the story. Then quite a dramatic first chapter, where it’s obvious what’s going to transpire, but the tension is nicely done. We meet Eve in that first chapter, a reasonably happy and comfortably off housewife with two teenage children. She’s feeling as if something isn’t quite right in her marriage, but her husband Tom is about to go on a business trip. So she hopes to sort everything out when he returns. 

It’s no spoiler to say that Tom doesn’t return: this is what we know, from the start, is going to happen. And much of the novel is about Eve, how she grieves, what regrets she has, and how she eventually starts to find new meaning in her life.