Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham

A last minute change of venue saw us (Jen, Susie, Lucy and I) at Jen's house where she treated us to yummy meringue things.  With copious amounts of tea, we settled down to discuss this month's book.

A short, easy to read book which posed interesting ethical dilemmas was the general consensus.  Jen was disappointed as she had read other novels by the same author and enjoyed them more.  We thought this was more like a concept book, a long short story rather than a full-blown novel.  We liked the different theories on what would happen if we could all live for 200 years and also how practical it would be with work and house prices etc.  We felt that the story could have been expanded and made into a normal sized novel as many aspects were introduced and then not mentioned again.  All in all, a very good read.

Concept: 9/10
Plot: 5.5/10
Ending: 5/10
Cover: n/a
Page Turner: 8/10
Who to Slap: The daughter in law
Where's the cheese: The nursery at the end
Would we recommend this: 4/4

Overall: 7/10

We chose the next book by putting our names into a 'hat' and then the person drawn could then choose a book.

Lucy chose 'Heft' by Liz Moore which we will be reading for the October meeting.

Our next meeting will be at 8pm on Wednesday 11th September, I did volunteer to host this at my new house, but I'm on a training course in the Midlands that week, so won't be able to make it.  Lucy said she would like to host, so I'll double check with her and will send an email out to confirm.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Sorry for the delay in getting this review up, life has gotten very busy at the moment :-)

We liked this book, the twists and turns kept us interested but there were flaws, big flaws.  The first half of the book was rather boring, until the first twist, we thought Amy was dull but then we were supposed to think that so maybe it's not a flaw?  The characters were unbelievable, they all seemed an extreme version of themselves, but then we weren't supposed to like them, so again, maybe not a flaw?  We found it hard to read a book where there was no hero, no likeable character, but then that was what was challenging about this book.  As you can tell, I'm torn between thinking this book was half-hearted or maybe it was written like that and it's supposed to make us think.  Why do we have to like the characters, do we have to agree with the ending for it to be satisfactory?  Difficult ...

Concept: 9/10
Plot: 7.5/10
Ending: 4/10
Cover: 5/10
Page Turner: 8/10
Who to slap?  All of them!
Where's the cheese?  The treasure hunt

And our new category.... Would we recommend this? 8/10

Overall: 7/10

We chose our next book from the following:

• Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham
• The Falcons of Fire and Ice by Karen Maitland
• The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
• The Hive by Gill Hornby
• Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O'Porter

We chose 'Trouble with Lichen' by John Wyndham.

Our next meeting will be at Susie's house on Wed 10th July, 8pm.