West with the night

I was forced to stage a Happiness Coup in my bookclub. The sad facts follow. It started out innocently with Rohinton Mistry's A fine balance, which broke our hearts. On it's heels came Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, Karen Connelly's The lizard cage and The Maytrees by Annie Dillard. When a selection was unavailable, and Dave Egger's The What is the what looked like the replacement, I snapped. I couldn't bear any more unhappy characters running around in my head. That's when I staged the Happiness Coup.

It sounds easier than it was. The rub was actually finding some happy alternatives. Unable to find anything on the net, I turned to some collections librarians in our moment of need. And thus this story has a happy ending.

In this blog, I will post titles that my book club has enjoyed. (Except when there hasn't been enough plot, and the resident Plot Queen of the club starts grumbling. But that's another blog!)

Favourite 1: West with the night by Beryl Markham

This autobiography of an African childhood was universally liked (and we usually only agree on the food) Beryl Markham, who knew Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton in what is now Kenya, writes about her life as a child in Africa and how she learned to fly. There are memorable stories of pet lions stalking her, and horses that she trained. The amount of freedom she had as a child is astounding compared to the playdates and chaperoned trips to buy candy common today. Some members were so intrigued by Beryl they read one of the more complete biographies written about her. Not "happy" in the happy ending kind of way, but happy in the excite the imagination, want to travel to Africa and lead an adventurous life kind of way.