Virginia Ironside’s No! I Don’t Want to Join a Bookclub is a paperback that I picked up from a local charity shop whilst I was off work ill. It looked quite light and jolly and so I though that it would be ideal light reading.
The book is written as the diary of Marie Sharp, starting a few months before her sixtieth birthday. Marie is a woman who is (slightly unusually) looking forward to turning sixty. She’s due to become a grandmother for the first time and is thrilled at being able to embrace the time spent with grandson Gene. The book follows her life, along with those of her close friends and young French lodger, and in particular her attitude to the men in her life as she gets older.
I found the book quite a strange one to read. There were a few things in there that when you read them just didn’t seem to hang right. They seemed either out of character or in a couple of cases didn’t at all fit in with things that had been said previously. There were some laugh out load moments, and a couple of tears, and I would say that it was an easy enjoyable read. I think I’ll be taking it back to the charity shop though rather than pass it on to others…
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