Articles - Miscellaneous

"Best of….."

In 2001 a few of the worshipping community at St Edmunds - and their friends - started to meet monthly to share thoughts about a book we had all read in the preceding month. Around 16 people have been part of the group over the last 4 years. North and South by Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell read in February 2005 was the 40th book which we had read and shared. In true "Best of …" tradition I took a straw poll of everyone's top 5 at the March meeting and have combined the votes to produce a top three which are, in reverse order, of course:

In joint second place
BRICK LANE by Monica Ali
THE QUIET AMERICAN by Graham Greene

But the clear winner was
THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver

So if you don't fancy the libretto from Jerry Springer The Opera as your next read how about one or all of these great books - outlines below courtesy of Google!!.

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it - from garden seeds to Scripture - is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

Brick Lane tells the story of an 18 year old woman who came to East London from Bangladesh for an arranged marriage. When she arrives, she can speak only two words of English, but falls into the role of dutiful wife and mother. Not only is she always an outsider, an immigrant to a foreign land, but her Bangladeshi roots keep her in a subservient role in her marriage and family. Monica Ali's debut novel delves into the landscape of love, family, and the yearning for a sense of belonging. Brick Lane was short-listed for the 2003 Booker Prize.

Graham Greene's The Quiet American, the most famous Western work of fiction about Vietnam, was originally published in 1955 during the last days of French rule. It tells the story of a developing friendship between Fowler, a middle-aged British journalist working in Saigon, and Pyle, a young "quiet American" who has come to Vietnam full of idealism. The book delicately balances issues of personal responsibility and the global consequences of our choices.

David Everett

PS Almost none of the group had read all 40 books and most found it almost impossible to select just 5 from the ones they had read. With apologies to those book group members who were not at the March meeting whose views were not included.

26 March, 2005