With a multitude of great reads to choose from (especially with the Christmas rush upon us) the Browsers Book Club managed to narrow down to two their choices of the best reads for this month.
**Title: Room
Author: Emma Donoghue
Publisher: Picador
Brief outline of the plot: Jack is a 5 year old boy who lives in Room, a shed with a locked door and a skylight, measuring 11 feet by 11 feet. Told in Jack’s voice, Room is the story of a mother and son who are held hostage and whose love lets them survive the impossible. Unsentimental and sometimes funny, devastating yet uplifting, Room is a novel like no other.
Why the book appealed: Judi Stead of Browsers commented: “I think this is quite an unusual book, sad but uplifting at the same time.”
Star Rating **** (4)
**Title: Mornings in Jenin
Author: Susan Abulhawa
Publisher: Pelican
Brief outline of the plot: Mornings in Jenin is an intriguing and passionate insight into what many Palestinians have had to endure since the state of Israel was created. The author guides us through traumatic events with anger and great tenderness. In 1948, the Abulheja family is forcibly removed from their ancestral home in Ein Hod and sent to live in a refugee camp in Jenin.
Why the book appealed: Written in beautiful prose, it is a powerful and heartbreaking narrative. The book is fiction, but based on fact, which was very enlightening. A perfect choice for book clubs.
Star rating ***** (5)
– Courtesy Judi Stead