Touching Base with Young @ Heart Book Club

Some book clubs get everyone reading the same book, and then discussing it. But Young @ Heart is different. Members of this friendly group read whatever they feel like and then share their opinions – good or bad! This often leads to some interesting discussions, as our backgrounds and taste are very different.

This month some of the books that members enjoyed most were based on true events:

Letters from Berlin by Kerstin Lieff and Margarete Dos
This is World War II seen through the eyes of Leiff’s mother growing up as a German girl. As the Russians move in and the Reich appears doomed, the family’s circumstances become more desperate, and they set out to escape the fall of Berlin. When Leiff was looking through her mother’s effects, she discovered unsent love letters addressed to a young soldier, which show us the heart of this young woman and give a fresh perspective on wartime.

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
In December 1900, a relief crew arrived at Eilean Mor lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides. But the men who were due to return to their families did not greet them. The lantern was not lit.  Beds were unmade. The clocks had stopped, and gates and doors were locked. Stonex takes this unsolved, locked-room disappearance, and transfers it to 1970s Cornwall, exploring the psychology of the kind of people who chose the lighthouse-keeping way of life, and reimagining what might have happened when three of them were isolated together in a remote location.

Horse by Geraldine Brooks
A story about race, even more than about race horses. The novel is set in two time periods. In 1850, the thoroughbred horse Lexington is born on a Kentucky farm. Raised by black grooms, jockeys and trainers, he becomes renowned throughout America. In 2019, an art historian meets the museum worker restoring Lexington’s skeleton for display – less of a meet cute than a very awkward encounter. There is debate over ‘cultural appropriation’ when white authors write from the perspective of people of colour, and  Brooks is open that she sought input to maintain authenticity as she explored the ideas of interracial relationships, slavery, and structural racism in the deep South. 

Young @ Heart Book Club meets on the first Thursday of the month at 10:30 at Havelock North Library. New members are always welcome.

Posted by Elizabeth

22 September 2023

Back to Blog Archive