Nov – 2020 – Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
Pachinko review – Book Group 1 Pachinko is a story of four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family’s fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan, exiled from a home they never knew. Profoundly moving and gracefully told, Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the […]
Oct – 2020 – We, The Survivors – Tash Awe
We, the Survivors by Tash Aw Book Group 1 – October 2020 In his latest novel, We, the Survivors, Tash Aw brings his readers full circle, back to Malaysia, which was the setting for his first novel, The Harmony Silk Factory. Lee Hock Lye, the central character, has committed a murder, which we learn on […]
Sept – 2020 – Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie
Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie Book Group 2 – September, 2020 Home Fire, written by Kamila Shamsie, is a book that reflects entirely on what is currently happening in the world. A story about Islamophobia and terrorism, it touches many people because it is relatable and brutally true. This book gives readers an exclusive perspective […]
Sept – 2020 – Celestial Bodies – Jokha Alharthi
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi Book group 1 – Sept, 2020 Celestial Bodies, by the Omani author Jokha Alharthi, traces the lives of three sisters and three generations of their wealthy Omani family. It is about love and marriage,family relationships, and relationships between owners and slaves and how this is reflected in Omani Society as […]
August – 2020 – Memory Police – Yoko Ogawa
Review of Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa Book Group 1 – August 2020-10-03 Memory Police’s story begins on an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, roses – until things become much more serious. Most of the Island’s inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with […]
July – 2020 – The Night Tiger – Choo Yangsze
The Night Tiger by Choo Yangsze Book Group 1 – July 2020 Choo’s second novel is set in the Kinta Valley in1930s Malaysia during the British Colonial period. Variously described as a murder mystery, an historical fiction novel, a coming of age novel and a ghost story; it combines elements of all four. As the […]
June – 2020 – Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng Book Group 1 – June 2020 Set in idyllic planned community, Shaker Heights, Ohio, USA Little Fires Everywhere tells the story of Elena Richardson, a woman who thrives on structure and rules, and her family. When Mia Warren, an artist who has been living a nomadic lifestyle as a […]
May – 2020 – The Court Dancer – Kyung-Sook Shin
The Court Dancer by Kyung-Sook Shin Book Group 1 – May 2020 The Court Dancer (translated by Anton Hur, published by Pegasus Books) is the story of Yi Jin, an orphaned young girl taken in by a kindly neighbor, who became the most accomplished performer in all the Joseon Dynasty royal court. She is favored […]
April – 2020 – Sold – Patricia McCormick
Sold – Patricia McCormick Book Group 2 – April 2020 The heart-wrenching story of Lakshmi, from Nepal, who is sold into prostitution at the age of 13, and kept captive in Happiness House – where she not only survives against all odds, but triumphs. Lakshmi’s family is desperately poor, but village life in the mountains […]
March – 2020 – The Sealwoman’s Gift – Sally Magnusson
The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson Book Group 1 – March 2020 In 1627 Barbary Pirates raided the coast of Iceland and abducted some 400 of its people, including 250 from a tiny island off the mainland. Among the captives sold into slavery in Algiers were the island pastor, his pregnant wife and their three […]