Book Club posts are for paid subscribers. Receipt from the Bookshop - my free post - is on holiday this week, but I’ll be back in the bookshop a week on Friday.
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Hi friends, I have to apologise for last month’s selection - as much as my local book club members enjoyed it, I left some of you here high and dry with a recommendation for a book that none of you could get your hands on yet! We had early copies at the bookshop for the author event and I didn’t realise the US publication was much later than the UKs. I’m hopeful that as this month’s selection is now in paperback, it’s available in some, or all formats, quite widely.
Claire Kilroy’s Soldier Sailor is longlisted for the Women’s Prize here in the UK and the reviews are incredible, but I’ve heard different things from people who have already read this one. I suspect that ‘enjoy’ might not be the right word to use in relation to this reading experience. I haven’t started it yet and it looks a fairly short read, but if something is uncomfortable it can be hard to power through. Despite being the one who selected this book, I feel a sense of trepidation going in, though no one has warned me off it as such. Motherhood is a tricky topic; for all readers, and I can see why some people might not want to approach a book that provokes such a personal response.
I’m going to wait until I’m back from my holiday to start reading (so, just next week instead of this week) but the comments are open from today, so feel free to jump in if this is a book you’ve read or are reading, and I’ll share my thoughts towards the end of the month.
If you haven’t yet got a copy of Solider, Sailor and would like to buy one from me, you’ll need this link.