Muthamma Prasad feat. Bryan Powis

21 September 2007
Muthamma Prasad

Competition question: What was Sting in the news for a couple of weeks ago?
Correct Answer: Pictured outside a brothel in Germany
Winner: Zoe Ashdown
Prize: 2 tickets for Sting for Nolte at Theatre 503, Battersea.

Books

Girl with a Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier

Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of Griet, a 16-year-old Dutch girl who becomes a maid in the house of the painter Johannes Vermeer.Her calm and perceptive manner not only helps her in her household duties,but also attracts the painter's attention. Though different in upbringing, education and social standing, they have a similar way of looking at things. Vermeer slowly draws her into the world of his paintings - the still, luminous images of solitary women in domestic settings.

In contrast to her work in her master's studio, Griet must carve a place for herself in a chaotic Catholic household run by Vermeer's volatile wife Catharina, his shrewd mother-in-law Maria Thins,and their fiercely loyal maid Tanneke. Six children (and counting) fill out the household, dominated by six-year-old Cornelia, a mischievous girl who sees more than she should.

On the verge of womanhood,Griet also contends with the growing attentions both from a local butcher and from Vermeer's patron, the wealthy van Ruijven. And she has to find her way through this new and strange life outside the loving Protestant family she grew up in, now fragmented by accident and death.

As Griet becomes part of her master's work, their growing intimacy spreads disruption and jealousy within the ordered household and even - as the scandal seeps out - ripples in the world beyond.

Sleep with Me – Joanna Briscoe

Caught up in a moment of laughing, urgent desire Richard and Lelia conceive their first child just before leaving for a friend’s Christmas party. Delighted with each other they barely notice the nondescript woman on the fringes of the party. But soon she has insinuated herself into their lives until Richard finds himself in the grips of an all-consuming erotic obsession, and Lelia is haunted by glimpses of a long buried past. Richard’s ambivalence about the birth of their child and Lelia’s loneliness at his emotional desertion only serves to drive a further wedge between them, and as Sylvie’s influence pervades their lives, their relationship is strained to breaking point.
Sleep With Me is a story of betrayal and desire with the taut pace of a
thriller which builds to a shocking denouement as the extent of Sylvie’s manipulation is revealed

 Virgin Blue- Tracy Chevalier

When American Ella Turner moves with her husband to Lisle-sur-Tarn, a small town in south-western France, she hopes to qualify to practice as a midwife as well as to start a family of her own. Instead she is disrupted by less-than-idyllic village life and strange dreams of the colour blue. Haunted by sleepless nights, bewildered by her unwelcoming neighbours, Ella tries to forge a bond with her new home by investigating her French ancestors, with the help of seductive librarian Jean-Paul. Ella’s research takes her to the Cévennes, isolated mountains in the south and the birthplace of the Tournier/Turner family.

16th-century peasant Isabelle du Moulin,known as La Rousse for her red hair,is suspected of witchcraft and tormented for her association with the Virgin Mary even after she and the rest of the village have converted to the “Truth” –the new Protestantism as preached by Calvin’s ministers. When she becomes pregnant, she has no choice but to marry into the powerful Tournier family. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew in Paris sends waves of persecution throughout France, and the Tourniers are forced to flee their home near Le Pont de Montvert for a new life in the Swiss town of Moutier. Old ways follow them there, however, and Isabelle's final shocking fate lies undiscovered — until Ella Turner's arrival four centuries later…

60-Second Pitch

For more one day- Mitch Albom

Charley Benetto’s life begins to unravel following the death of his mother. He sinks into depression, becoming an alcoholic. He loses his job. His family leave him. He finally hits rock bottom after discovering he isn’t welcome at his only daughter’s wedding. Wracked with regret and loneliness, he believes there is no one left to miss him when he is gone. And he decides to take his own life.

Charley makes a midnight journey to the town where he grew up: to end his life where it began. But as he staggers into his old house, he makes an astonishing discovery. His mother – who died eight years earlier – is there, and welcomes Charley home as if nothing had ever happened.

What follows is the one seemingly ordinary day so many of us yearn for: a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the family secrets and seek forgiveness. Somewhere between this life and the next, Charley learns the astonishing things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. And he tries, with her tender guidance, to put the broken pieces of his life back together.

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A brief chat with fellow Phoenix FM presenter, Bryan Powis - who made me a perfect cup of tea, about his utter disdain for books. The last books that Bryan read were the 'Peter and Jane' books--

In 1964 Ladybird launched their world renowned Key Words Reading Scheme series.

Commonly known as the Peter and Jane books, this series was to be used by parents and schools throughout the UK.Over 100 million copies have been sold round the world. 

Next Friday I have with me Dorothy Koomson- author of Marshmallows for Breakfast, My Best-Friend’s Girl,Cupid Effect and Chocolate Run.2 lucky winners will have a chance to win a copy of each of these books.Tune in from 7-8pm this friday to find out how.

Article by Muthamma Prasad, 24 Sep 2007
Posted in Book Club

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