The Borrowed Book Club

Put simply, The Story of Beautiful Girl  is absolutely beautiful. Inspired by the true story of 'John Doe no. 42', an intelligent deaf man who was institutionalised simply because he could not communicate,  The Story of Beautiful Girl , tells the story of Homan (John Doe no. 42) and Lynnie,  the eponymous Beautiful Girl who has severe developmental delays . The pair, who are very much in love, run away from the cruel and disgusting institution where they and their disabilities are hidden from public view. However, they are not just running away to escape from the horrors of the 'school' - Lynnie is heavily pregnant, but not with Homan's child, and cannot bear the thought of giving birth to her child in such a place. Fortunately, they find Martha, a retired and widowed schoolteacher who provides them with shelter and food. But their bliss does not last as officials catch up with them and Lynnie is taken back to the school, leaving Homan on the run and Martha a...

The term 'financial thriller' is more likely to cause bewilderment than excitement, but for Robert Harris' The Fear Index , this unlikely combination serves to create a suspense-filled novel that more than lives up to both the title and Harris' reputation. The novel is based on 6th May 2010, which is significant as the day of both the British General Election and America's Flash Crash, in which the stock market experienced the biggest crash in its history. The uncertainty and instability brought about by these two events is central to the plot, as Dr Alex Hoffman, CERN physicist turned hedge fund manager and billionaire, increasingly feels like he is losing his mind. Before the novel commences, Hoffman has developed a learning algorithm called VIXAL-4 that predicts the stock market using not only past data, but also data about how people react when they experience fear, making it the most advanced algorithm in the industry .  May 6th also marks the launch date of...

The Heart of Darkness is widely considered to be  Joseph Conrad's  most influential work, as he uses his own experiences in Congo to reflect on colonialism. The novel begins on the Thames, as a group of people wait for the tide to turn so that they can return to London. Whilst they wait, Marlow tells his companions about his experiences in a trading company in Congo, showing the frustration caused by a lack of resources and unfamiliar terrain as well as the complete disregard that the workers have for the native people. Amongst the disruption and disorder, the legendary figure of Mr Kurtz is frequently discussed as the man who collects more ivory than all of the other agents put together, somehow inspiring respect from the natives whilst his colleagues become increasingly jealous of his status. This enigmatic figure only appears in the final part of the novel, and then, many of the men are disillusioned by him due to his ill health, which ultimately results in his death....

Muriel Spark's most successful novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie , recounts the school days of the six girls that made up 'The Brodie Set', Miss Brodie's favourite group of pupils, with whom she shared her stories of travel, religion, love, and anything else that she felt would be 'educational' for the girls. Set in a traditional girls' school in 1930s' Edinburgh, Miss Brodie's teaching methods are frequently questioned, as teaching the girls about her admiration of fascism or the importance of love during lesson time means that her girls often lag behind the others of the school. Despite this, Miss Brodie ensures that she maintains the girls' favour, even after their deliberate separation in the secondary school, through several trips to theatres and galleries, along with weekly tea at her house. However, readers find out early on in the novel that Miss Brodie is betrayed to the headmistress by one of her own, revealing that the seeming un...

Lisa Genova's Still Alice tells the story of Harvard psychology professor, Alice Howland's, mental deterioration over a two year period as she struggles with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Whilst Alice's first symptoms involve forgetting words or recipes, as her condition worsens, she often becomes repetitive, forgetful and disorientated, once forgetting the location of the bathroom in her own house. By the end of the novel, she thinks of two of her children as 'the actress' and 'the mother', struggling to recognise them on occasions. Genova skilfully uses Alice's viewpoint through a third person narrative to illustrate the detachment that she feels from society as she gradually loses herself, as well as allowing the reader to fully appreciate her decline - the reader can only see things from Alice's perspective, meaning that fragments of the story are missed out and then brought up later on, allowing the reader to empathise with Alice's...