Hamm Court Book Club – Page 15 – For the enjoyment of friends, books and wine …

Educated by Tara Westover

Tara Westover and her family grew up preparing for the End of Days but, according to the government, she didn’t exist. She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in hospitals.

As she grew older, her father became more radical and her brother more violent. At sixteen, Tara knew she had to leave home. In doing so she discovered both the transformative power of education, and the price she had to pay for it.

Elaine 9, Sally 8, Jane 8, Janet 7, Pauline 9, June 8, Cai 9, Trude 8, Christine 8, Rebecca 9

Snap by Belinda Bauer

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018. SNAP DECISIONS CAN BE DANGEROUS . . . On a stifling summer’s day, eleven-year-old Jack and his two sisters sit in their broken-down car, waiting for their mother to come back and rescue them. Jack’s in charge, she’d said. I won’t be long. But she doesn’t come back. She never comes back. And life as the children know it is changed for ever. Three years later, Jack is still in charge – of his sisters, of supporting them all, of making sure nobody knows they’re alone in the house, and – quite suddenly – of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother.

Cai 8, Sally 8, Pauline 8, Jane 8, Janet 8, rebecca 8, June 8, Trude 7, Christine 7, Elaine 7

The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

I tattooed a number on her arm. She tattooed her name on my heart.

In 1942, Lale Sokolov arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival – scratching numbers into his fellow victims’ arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust.

Waiting in line to be tattooed, terrified and shaking, was a young girl. For Lale – a dandy, a jack-the-lad, a bit of a chancer – it was love at first sight. And he was determined not only to survive himself, but to ensure this woman, Gita, did, too.

So begins one of the most life-affirming, courageous, unforgettable and human stories of the Holocaust: the love story of the tattooist of Auschwitz.

Elaine 6 Christine 8 pauline 8 Cai 6 Rebecca 6 Trude 6 Sally 7 June 6 Janet 6 Jane 6

Need to Know by Karen Cleveland

Married for ten years. Four children. She thought she knew her husband better than anyone. She was wrong. ‘Heart-poundingly suspenseful and heart-wrenchingly insightful’ J.P.Delaney, author of The Girl Before ‘This compulsive, clever thriller will have you reading long into the night’ Red **** You get to work. Make a coffee. Turn on your computer. Your task- break into a Russian criminal’s laptop and find proof that he’s concealing five deep-cover agents – seemingly normal people living in plain sight. You’re in. Five faces stare back at you. One of them is your husband. **** ‘An immensely satisfying story with serpentine twists and turns’ Daily Mail

Elaine 6, Pauline 7, Cai 6, June 6, Sally 7, Rebecca 8, Christine 6, Trude 5, Jane 8, Janet 7

The Cactus by Sarah Haywood

It’s never too late to bloom … People aren’t sure what to make of Susan Green. Family and colleagues find her prickly and hard to understand – but Susan makes perfect sense to herself.

Age 45, she thinks her life is perfect, as long as she avoids her feckless brother, Edward – a safe distance away in Birmingham. She has a London flat which is ideal for one; a job that suits her passion for logic; and a personal arrangement providing cultural and other, more intimate, benefits.

Yet suddenly faced with the loss of her mother and, implausibly, with the possibility of becoming a mother herself, Susan’s greatest fear is being realised: she is losing control. And things can only get worse … at least in Susan’s eyes.

Janet 6, Pauline 7, June 8, Jane 5, Rebecca 5, Sally 6, Trude 6, Christine 6, Elaine 6