Horbury WI Bookworms
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About us
Horbury WI bookworms is a reading group with a passion for all books and poetry. The group is separate to our normal WI monthly meetings and is held around every two months. The group is held at members homes or online via zoom if more appropriate. The book of any genre is chosen by the host encouraging us all to read books that we might not readily choose. The book is then read by the group at their own pace and we have a friendly catch up to express our opinion and discuss likes and dislikes.
Current Read
I Capture the Castle
Dodie Smith
Meeting Friday 8th March 2024 at 7.30pm
Previous Read
The blue
Nancy Bilyeau
We found this a heavy going book and difficult to get started. Once passed the first few chapters it became much easier and more interesting.
We did find the historical content very readable and informative. It is 18th century London and the battle to find the perfect blue colour for the pottery industry is fierce. The main character Genevieve Planche is a feisty character and at times it is difficult to remember that this is set in the 1700's.
Previous Read
A Terrible Kindness
Jo Browning Wroe
Our readers found this an emotional, gripping story. The back drop is the tragedy at Aberfan school, where a coal slag heap collapsed killing over a 100 people. The story took our readers on an emotional roller coaster as the main character, William, struggles with the difficult job of embalming the children and the threat to his own happiness with his love, Gloria. William faces demons from his past following the loss of his father at a young age and the separation from his mother as he decides to join the family funeral business instead of pursuing the music career as his mother wished. The story is well written with interesting characters and we gave this book 8 worms
Previous Read
Black Out
Erin Flanaghan
Friday 2nd June 2023 7pm
Seven months of not drinking, sociology professor Maris Heilman has her first blackout. She thinks it is down to exhaustion, though she fears that her husband and daughter will suspect she's drinking again. The blackouts become more frequent and Maris ends up in hospital only to find out the a number of other women are suffering the same blackouts. She starts to question if it a just a coincidence or something more sinister? She starts to search for answers. Some of our readers found the story a little bit far fetched, whilst others enjoyed the intrigue. It also has a lot of American terminology making it reading difficult at times.
We gave this book 6 worms
Previous
Read
Where the Crawdads sing
Delia Owens
Where the Crawdad's sings is set in the Marshlands of North Carolina and portrays the story of a young girl living and surviving alone against all odds. Overall our readers enjoyed the interesting nature sections and the twist in the story. No spoiler alerts here!
We gave this book 7 worms
Previous
Read
How to Kill your family
Bella Mackie
Friday 28th April 2023 7pm
Grace Bernard is very unhappy that her absentee father has rejected her mother's plea for help and decides to bump off members of his family in revenge. We found the story to be entertaining and well written with hints of humour. We gave this 7 worms.
Previous Read
The Last Piece
Imogen Clark
This book was intriguing from the beginning, wanting to know what Cecily was up to.
The intrigue kept readers captivated, a bit like following a bread crumb trail.
The book is really well written and the flicking between the two countries, almost a tale of two halves.
There was realistic and relatable dialog and relationship between the three sisters, Felicity, Julia and Lily. The way that their characters and family life was described was very realistic too. Almost making the reader feel that they knew them.
The estranged daughter was not very likeable bringing some darkness to an otherwise fairly light hearted story.
The twist in the love story between Cecily and Norman was touching. It must have been very difficult for him but he was so supportive.
The author dealt with the issue of abandonment and the difficulties that women faced in the 1960’s very well and the sections containing the home for young girls was heart wrenching.
Overall, our readers enjoyed the story but felt that the end was a bit abrupt.
Previous Read
Drift, Stumble, Fall
M Jonathan Lee
Drift, Stumble, Fall is a book written by local Barnsley lad, M Jonathan Lee.
Richard the main character feels trapped in his hectic life of commitment and responsibility. Richard’s existence fills him with panic and resentment. The only place he can escape the dark cloud descending upon him is the bathroom, where he hides for hours on end, door locked, wondering how on earth he can escape.
All of our readers enjoyed the book finding the insight into mental health written by a male author a very different perspective to anything they had read before. The story has good pace with lots of light and dark elements topped off with relatable humour.
We gave the book 8 worms.
Previous read
A Murder of Crows
Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
A Murder of Crows by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
Our first book review was a great success and lots of fun. Here's a brief summary of our review
The review was very mixed from our readers. Some found it gripping with likeable characters and plot. Most found the beginning very slow but that the pace increased and the story line became more interesting. There were nods to the Batman running through the book. Such as the main character Dr Nell Ward being an Ecologist and later revealed as Lady Eleanor Ward-Beaumont, heir to a vast estate. There were lots of detailed descriptions relating to bats and wildlife conservation, which readers found interesting. Were the leathers, fast cars and motorbikes a nod too far?
We gave this book 5.5 worms
