MANNER culture BOOK CLUB

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Gail Honeyman

Winner of the 2017 Costa Book Awards

Hi, I’m Hannah and I’m a biblioholic. My love of reading, and creative writing, is the result of three years spent at Oxford Brookes University where I studied for a degree in publishing. I love a good murder mystery book, but I also regularly read travel, health, action & adventure and science fiction titles.

***** MAGPIE MURDERS

Anthony Horowitz

For those who like nothing better than to curl up with a good old murder mystery, look no further than the latest offering from Anthony Horowitz, author of Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders. The story starts when an editor receives the latest piece from her bestselling author, Alan Conway, who writes crime novels featuring Atticus Pünd, a detective who solves mystery and murder cases in quaint English villages. However, as she reads the text she is convinced there is another, hidden, story within the familiar manuscript, one which could betray real-life issues of jealously, greed and even murder.

***** ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE

Elizabeth Strout

Following on from 'My Name is Lucy Barton', we get a brilliant collection of nine connected stories featuring people from the fictional rural Illinois town of Amgash. Almost Steinbeck-esque, there is quite a lot of sadness and pain in these stories, but the characters and their situations were so well written it is hard not to empathize with their stories. Lucy Barton, now a successful writer, makes another appearance since leaving the abject poverty of her hometown upbringing, meeting up some years later with old friends and neighbours, introducing readers to their fears, hopes and ambitions.

First Novel Award, Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive - but not how to live. Leading a simple life by wearing the same clothes every day, eating the same meal deal for lunch every day and buying the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend, the walls built up around her start to crumble thanks to a simple act of kindness. Honeyman’s warm, brave and at times unexpectedly humorous narrative, is a moving reminder to the reader that life can be changed by small acts of kindness.

***** RESERVOIR 13

Jon McGregor

From the award-winning author of 'If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things' and 'Even the Dogs', Reservoir 13’s narrative spans over thirteen years with the aftershocks of a teenage girl’s death refusing to subside amongst traumatised village residents in the heart of Yorkshire. McGregor’s beautiful, yet haunting tale, investigates the sense of loss in a rural community that leaves a lasting impact on its audience. A slow-paced page-turner that isn’t for the fainthearted or impulsive reader.

PICASSO 1932 - LOVE, FAME, TRAGEDY

1932 was an intensely creative period in the life of the 20th century’s most influential artist. This is the first ever solo Pablo Picasso exhibition at Tate Modern, bringing you face-to-face with more than 100 paintings, sculptures and drawings, mixed with family photographs and rare glimpses into his personal life.

Three of his extraordinary paintings featuring his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter are shown together for the first time since they were created over a period of just five days in March 1932. The myths around Picasso will be stripped away to reveal the man and the artist in his full complexity and richness. 

The exhibition runs September 9th at Tate Modern