December meeting and book review "The Confession" by Jessie Burton

Five members met at Peyote Restaurant for our annual Christmas Book Swap meeting. It was an extremely cold and windy winter night with several members unable to make it due to flu, in the case of Sue and Joan, Jeanette having other issues to attend to and Emma having decamped to Edinburgh. The assembled members ( Joanne,Linda,Pauline , Debb and yours truly had all read and enjoyed THE CONFESSIION BY JESSIE BURTON. 

In fact, most regular members had actually finished this one, the assembled group receiving an additional award of one of Miss Crilly says you are a star sticker, which were proudly worn during our meal.

Although unable to attend Sue and Jeanette sent some feedback on the book, in the case of Jeanette this was a three page review which gave the book a 4 out of 5 rating (Jeanette you may wish to post your review directly for others to digest).  Most agreed with Sue that they had enjoyed the book and said the plot was gripping and with beautiful prose.  Sue added that she loved the way Jessie Burton explores the intricacies of various lives especially Elise,Rose and Connie. Remarking that like most people they are hugely complex, real yet flawed and totally believable.

All of us agreed that the split into different eras worked well and captured the times brilliantly.  Jeanette also remarked on the realism by remarking that “ the character of the actress Barbara was so well drawn that I was going to google her to see what she looked like…”

I enjoyed the way the book focusses on the intimacy of peoples lives women in particular, and agree with Sue that the secondary characters of Joe and his family who were not always positive influences for Rose but contrasted with Rose’s friend Kelly who offered good support to her.

I have picked out a few of Jeannette’s interesting comments as Joanne did ask if she had included one of her most hated lines in her lengthy review. Not this time but here are a couple of typical comments.

“ I found Rose an engaging character until she did the bizarre pretending to be Laura and then fell out with her a bit “

 I agree I found all that pretending to be someone else a bit silly and not believable.

“ I liked the themes of change and decision making and finding yourself. We can soon drop anchor in life, and I felt a message of the book was make your own mind up about doing this “

The book is an intelligent, tangled mystery involving three generations of women.

We scored the book 4.5.

Joanne has kindly chosen Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell to read in January and to discuss at February’s meeting.

Those attending the meeting also agreed to miss the January meeting as we would be meeting very close to  New Year Day and three of the group would also still be on holiday.

So, our next meeting will be THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6^th at 6.30. I will try to book The Coach House as usual.

New members are always welcome too. If you enjoy reading and like a nice relaxing chat with good company why not come along, we don’t bite.