Silas Marner, George Eliot

I thoroughly enjoyed Silas Marner, it is a little old fashioned and twee in places, but it is a great story.

The novel follows Silas Marner, for around 50 years. He is the victim of an injustice in his early life and again later on. We see how these events affect Silas, and ultimately how he finds contentment. 

Silas is completely susceptible to the events around him, he isn't at all resilient, and the novel is one in which, for the most part, everyone gets what they deserve. It portrays village life in the 19th Century, with all it's characters and superstitions. It's a satisfying, easy read.

Going Solo, Roald Dahl

Going Solo is a memoir and picks up from where 'Boy' left off. It follows Dahl's time in Africa as an employee of Shell and then, when WWII broke out, as a fighter pilot.

The book is full of Dahl's hallmarks, the stories are all true, but still strange, absurd and dark. He writes with absolute clarity, wry humour and adds occasional reflective interludes. He paints a very bright and fascinating image of an improbable early adulthood. 

The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club sits somewhere between a series of short stories and a novel. The book explores the lives of four Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters. Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the women and is a more-or-less self contained narrative.

The stories are powerful; each one showing flip sides and reasons for behaviours that we can never see in real life. They are complicated, difficult and painful love stories between each of the women and their daughters. Tan manages to create beautiful narratives which are poignant and moving without being overly sentimental or nostalgic. Whilst not culturally relatable for me; the love, frustrations and anxieties are universal. The book is a cry for us all to be better, more understanding daughters and maybe less fearful mothers.