Review of The 39 Steps by Joy Cassidy. 05/02/2013


This month we read John Buchan's The Thirty Nine Steps, a spy-thriller that has been
the basis of many, varying adaptations most famously Hitchcock’s 1935 film version
of the same name.

Although we enjoyed reading this short novel, there were many flaws in Buchan’s
plot; unexplained characters, convenient oversights and implausible anecdotes which
made us feel we were almost reading the unedited version of this classic text. At the
same time, Buchan’s personal writing style draws the reader in, forcing the pages to
turn in quick succession.

The fact that this spy thriller written in 1915, has had so many varying adaptations,
from comedy drama to tense film thrillers, is testament to the fact that Buchan’s novel
is the forerunner of the spy thriller genre. We were even able to draw comparisons
with the like of Bourne and Bond, bringing this one-time current affairs novel,
relevant in the 21st Century.

Upcoming books:
February: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Sallinger.
March: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

We meet on the first Sunday of the month 8pm at The Black Lion, Nantwich.

New members are always welcome. Follow us on Twitter @booknantwich
or email nantwichbookworms@gmail.com. Or visit our blog
nantwichbookworms@blogspot.co.uk

February 2013

Hello Bookworms,

Well, what a fantastic bookclub meeting we had on Sunday - lots of new members (welcome again to you all!) and a great discussion about John Buchan's 'The 39 Steps' which left us all suspending belief and secretly wishing we could be as lucky as Richard Hannay for a day!
Watch out for Joy's review of the book - it will be published here soon as well as online on the Nantwich News pages.

This month's read takes us all back to our childhoods as we'll be enjoying J.D. Salinger's classic 'A Catcher in the Rye'. As February is a short month we though a fairly straight forward classic would be ideal - feel free to come along and discuss it with us when we meet again on Sunday March 3rd at 8pm in the Black Lion Pub, Nantwich.
We've also been really organised (for once!) and have decided to tackle 'Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell for our March read. We'll be discussing that one at our meeting in early April if so you can't join us sooner maybe plan on coming along then.

As always, feel free to email us with any questions or suggested reads at nantwichbookworms@gmail.com and don't forget to follow Nantwich Bookworms on Twitter @booknantwich where we'll keep you updated with our latest news.

See you all soon and happy reading!

Kate