Category: St Helen’s Book Club

September Book of the Month Selected

Last night we held another book club evening where we discussed August’s book, the Alchemist, and selected our 4th Book of the month. For the month of September we will be reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Here is some information regarding the book:

The beloved, life-affirming international bestseller which has sold over 5 million copies worldwide – now a major film starring Lily James, Matthew Goode, Jessica Brown Findlay, Tom Courtenay and Penelope Wilton To give them hope she must tell their story It’s 1946.

The war is over, and Juliet Ashton has writer’s block. But when she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey – a total stranger living halfway across the Channel, who has come across her name written in a second hand book – she enters into a correspondence with him, and in time with all the members of the extraordinary Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Through their letters, the society tell Juliet about life on the island, their love of books – and the long shadow cast by their time living under German occupation. Drawn into their irresistible world, Juliet sets sail for the island, changing her life forever. 

We will be reviewing this book at our next Book Club on October 6th. Everyone is welcome to join the book club. All you need do is head over to our Facebook Events page and click the Zoom link. Once one Zoom you are invited to register [once] and the follow instructions to add the dates to your calendar. If you have any problems, please get in touch on caerphilly@rcadc.org.

Buying options

  • You can buy this book from Waterstones, WHSmith or other bookshops in Cardiff
  • It can be purchased quite cheaply on Kindle (around 99p I believe)
  • You may be able to order it from the library
  • If you type the title in to Google and click the Shopping tab, you can find quite a few sellers (New and used)
  • If you wish to buy the book through Amazon, please click on this link: https://amzn.to/2YXvb4yhttps://amzn.to/2YXvb4y. The church receives a small commission of each sale.

Happy reading!

Book of the Month – The Alchemist

On Tuesday we had our third book club meeting and chose yet another book for the month ahead. This month we will be reading Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. It’s a bit shorter than previous selections but is a still a big hitter in terms of book sales.

A global phenomenon, The Alchemist has been read and loved by over 62 million readers, topping bestseller lists in 74 countries worldwide.

“Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. This is such a book – a beautiful parable about learning to listen to your heart, read the omens strewn along life’s path and, above all, follow your dreams.

Santiago, a young shepherd living in the hills of Andalucia, feels that there is more to life than his humble home and his flock. One day he finds the courage to follow his dreams into distant lands, each step galvanised by the knowledge that he is following the right path: his own. The people he meets along the way, the things he sees and the wisdom he learns are life-changing.

With Paulo Coelho’s visionary blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore, The Alchemist is a story with the power to inspire nations and change people’s lives.”

If you plan to buy this book on Amazon, please click this link: https://amzn.to/3i5ySMk and the parish will earn a small commission.

Shadow of the Wind – Book of the Month

The book that we have chosen for July is Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s Shadow of the Wind. We will be discussing it at our next book club meetup on August 4th.

To Join the Book Club you must register ONCE and then you can access every meeting. Please click the link below to register:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpf-2rqD0tH9TiA31H5uINBmnF-TdQtFhF

Here’s the blurb:

The Shadow of the Wind is a stunning literary thriller in which the discovery of a forgotten book leads to a hunt for an elusive author who may or may not still be alive…

Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the ‘Cemetery of Lost Books’, a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Julian Carax.

But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in his find. Then, one night, as he is wandering the old streets once more, Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a character from the book, a character who turns out to be the devil. This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax’s work in order to burn them. What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julian Carax and to save those he left behind…

Buying the book – if you wish to buy this book on Amazon, the parish will receive a small commission.