The Tyneside Book Club reconnected with nature in February by reading The Outrun, Amy Liptrot's award-winning account of her return to Orkney.

This was a book that combined the personal memoir of a recovering alcoholic with a delve into the natural and temporal history of the islands that make up the Orkney archipelago.

That combination produced a mixed reaction among members. Some preferred the sections that focused on Orkney, while others were more compelled by the personal battle Amy Liptrot had with addiction.

There was appreciation for some fine writing, and some members did find the descriptions of Orkney intriguing enough to consider a visit. Most agreed it summed up both the charm and oddness of the islands.

Members though did find the book a little uneven and choppy, and even repetitive at times. There was a lack of narrative flow for some, and it perhaps betrayed its origin as a series of separate articles.

For some it did provide a valuable insight into the mechanics of alcoholism and Amy's battle with her personal demons. For others, the account, though honest and heartfelt, didn't add much to the well-worn narrative of recovery from addiction.

Some thought there was a lot left unsaid about the author's complicated relationship with her parents, but assumed this was a case of sparing the feelings of a mother and father who are still alive. Some were left wondering how she maintained her life on Orkney.

There was much to enjoy about a book that had pace and atmosphere, and for the most part members thought the combination of memoir and nature-writing worked well, though some editing and refining of the text might have made it a more satisfying read.

The Tyneside Book Club started the year immersed in 1970s Northern Ireland as members tackled Louise Kennedy's prizewinning debut novel Trespasses.

It was a packed meeting held jointly with its sister club, leading to a strong attendance and plenty of opinions.

Members of both groups had a largely positive reaction to a book that the majority found readable, and engaging. Most agreed this was an impressive first novel that built well.

Members acknowledged the premise was not that original as other authors had explored The Troubles and relationships across the religious divide before. Most though thought Louise Kennedy approached the subject with subtlety and skill, and created a character in Cushla that you cared about, and who felt real.

Members felt she conjured up her characters with skill and an economy of writing that lifted them off the page. Cushla's mother Gina was in particular rendered in three dimensions,.

Some had more sympathy with love interest Michael than others. Quite a few members did not warm to him and felt he was clearly using Cushla. Others felt his emotions might have been genuine, even if he was a deeply flawed man. Some enjoyed the ambiguity of his character. Some members felt the presence of Cushla's friend Gerry was important in offering her support, and some light in the darkness.

The time period was rendered well, and those with some experience of Northern Ireland felt the account of the 1970s there rang true. Members appreciated the insight into a society where the stakes were high, and where your neighbours could become a threat to your life. As well as the religious divides, Trespasses also found time to explored class distinctions.

For some, the book took a little while to find its stride, but having struggled to engage with it initially, they found it developed well and won them over, avoiding some traps of predictability and melodrama.

The book was conventionally told, with no stylistic experimentation, but members felt that largely served the story well, and that the quality of the narrative sustained the approach. 

For quite a few members, this was a book they loved, for others, although it did not pack the same punch, it still proved readable and rewarding.

November saw the Tyneside Book Group delve into the very American phenomenon of spelling contests via Myla Goldberg's novel Bee Season. 

Overall members found much to like and admire in this story of a family falling apart. There was though a feeling that parts of the book worked better than others, and it was perhaps trying to do too much.

Some members found the insight into the world of spelling bees, and the narrative around the contests more compelling than perhaps the insights into the family. For others though it was the characters that hooked them in.

There was some discussion about whether this was a couple that should ever have had children, and some members found the tension that generated effective if stressful to read.

For some though characters felt underdeveloped and came closer to tropes than three-dimensional, believable people. That made them struggle to care enough about their fates. Some found the revelations about mother Miriam stretched credulity. There was enjoyment though of the insight Bee Season gave into a Jewish family and religious mysticism. There was clearly a desire to explore faith and belief.

Members largely thought the ending of the novel worked well, and hinted that there was hope that daughter Eliza was taking control of her life.

Some members had watched the film adaptation and felt though largely faithful to the book, it added little, and suffered from some odd casting.

September saw the Tyneside Book Club tackle one of the toughest reads members have encountered.

And Fernanda Melchor's Hurricane Season certainly left an impression on everyone who read it. For some this was an elemental, and propulsive read, but for others its tough subject matter and tricky style made it harder to love, even if they could admire the quality of the writing.

There was some discussion about Melchor's prose style. Very long sentences and limited paragraph breaks certainly made the book appear dense and impenetrable on the page. But most members found that once they had immersed themselves in the style, it became compelling and helped keep the narrative pace up.

Members admired Melchor's ability to move between the consciousness of the different characters, sometimes within sentences. The different voices and perspectives were well-captured, even if it was hard to sympathise at times with some of the cast.

There was a strong sense of the community Melchor was describing, and despite the horrific events and behaviour of many of the characters, she made even those who committed horrific acts appear as at least in part victims of the poverty and desperation of this part of modern Mexico. Women were written as three-dimensional characters and not merely as victims.

Some though did question the unrelenting bleakness of what Melchor described, and felt there was a danger of revelling a little in the poverty and degradation, rather than depicting a fuller, more rounded picture of life there. Some wondered whether a non-fiction account of this society might have worked better, but accepted that the author felt it was too dangerous to deal in anything other than a fictionalisation of events.

For some members this was not a book they could really say they enjoyed because of the tough subject matter, but they appreciated the craft of the author and the weight of the issues it was tackling.

September's discussion focused on The Coward, a debut novel by Jarred McGinnis. It was a novel loosely based on his own experience of becoming disabled after a car crash.

Members praised the quality of McGinnis' writing and the insights he provided in to the way disabled people are treated, and what it must be like to navigate your way through life as a new paraplegic.

McGinnis' choice to make the central character, who shares his name, such a difficult one to like provoked some discussion. For some, this was a brave and honest option, and avoided the cliched idea that becoming disabled would entirely transform someone's inherent personality. For some, though it did make it harder to engage or fully empathise with him and his story.

Some wondered whether memoir would have been a better option rather than fiction, and it remained unclear how much of the novel was really based on personal experience, and how much was invented.

There were members who felt McGinnis' romantic interest, Sarah, was a little thinly-drawn and idealised, and seemed there mainly to serve the main character's interests. Members agreed the relationship between McGinnis and his father was a more convincing one, and actually provided the heart and focus of the book. There were questions though about why such a rift had developed between Jarred and a father, when he seemed so sympathetic. The key though seemed to be the alcoholism that affected both Jarred's parents and influenced his childhood.

Most members felt that the book did though fall short of all it could have been. The decision to move back and forth between the present and the events leading to Jarred's accident did develop some tension, but became drawn out. Some members felt the book erred on the conventional side, when something a little more structurally daring might have delivered more. Some had hoped for more insight into the way disabled people are treated. They felt McGinnis might have been persuaded to be more conservative to target sales, when actually he might be capable of writing something more original.

What did emerge though was a pacey read, with enough in it to suggest that this is an author with a talent that could develop further. Some did wonder though if he could deliver a book which was not so based on personal experience.

A couple of big fish were on the menu for the Tyneside Book Club in August as members took on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. The discussion took place as the club met for a Greek meal to mark its anniversary. 

Although nobody ordered swordfish, a metaphorical Marlin was certainly on the as members lived every moment of old fisherman Santiago's struggle to haul in his biggest catch.

There was a lot of love from some members for this fishy fight. Supporters of the book admired how much Hemingway packed in to what is no more than a novella. Many liked his muscular, pared-down, economic style, and felt he created tension and atmosphere by putting the reader at the heart of the struggle.

There were clearly deeper themes being explored, from our relationship with nature, to ageing and mortality. Most members did find themselves with some empathy towards Santiago, but also understood that he had developed a relationship with the marlin too.

Some members though were not reeled in, finding Hemingway's metaphors too obvious and laboured. They found little depth in the struggle and little to admire in the style or language. For some it was just about the battle to catch a fish, without really much to explore beyond that.

There was much discussion about the role of the boy in the story, and his connection with the Old Man. Some felt there was a familial link, others that he represented the younger Santiago, or symbolised the passing of the baton to another generation, as Santiago's time and strength had faded. Many members liked the relationship between the two.

While some felt for Santiago's plight as his giant fish was gradually consumed by sharks, for others this was an apt end to a book about the human condition.

July's club read was a classic of children's literature. But although some members had read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as children, for most this was their first encounter with the book.

For all though there was a degree of familiarity with some of Alice's adventures as they have become such a part of our culture. Man were curious though about whether it could deliver for an adult reader.

There proved to be some division about whether this was a book that offered much to anyone other than a child. For its supporters, there were discernible depths that made it work at different levels. There were mathematical concepts, and elements of philosophy that were perhaps hard to fully understand, but certainly went beyond mere adventure. 

Those that enjoyed the book appreciated it as an act of vivid imagination. For its fans, there was genius at work in the inventiveness of the adventures and the use of language. Much seemed like a fever dream, and it was clearly groundbreaking at publication, and still felt fresh more than a century on. It felt refreshingly subversive and challenging and clearly different to anything that had been written before. It had clearly had a profound influence on many aspects of our culture, and supporters also found the book funny and witty

For some though, Alice was more of a bad trip than a psychedelic high. Detractors felt it had little to offer the more mature reader, and struggled to see it as much more than a stream of nonsense aimed at younger minds. The adventures felt episodic and largely inconsequential despite the imaginative nature of the book. Some did bring a degree of prejudice, but felt the book failed to change their views. There was a lack of jeopardy from the randomness of events, and they also failed to find it made them laugh.

The cast of characters also led to much discussion. Although some came from compelling ideas - the disappearing Cheshire Cat and his grin for example - some members found they were at best unsympathetic, and at worst unbearable. Alice herself came across as a brat, and was hard to root for. For that reason, some felt the book lacked heart, making it hard to care about anything that was happening.

There was some discernible satire, and Carroll had undeniably created compelling images such as the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and the croquet game that etched themselves into the imagination. Some thought there may be contemporary resonances that might be lost on the modern reader, although the depiction of the despotic Queen of Hearts was one that certainly still felt relevant.

There was some comment about the book's ending which had Alice awaking from adventures that proved to be just a dream. Although members accepted that device might have been less hackneyed on Alice's original publication, it certainly felt like a cop-out now. 

There was though universal praise for the book's original illustrations which helped bring it vividly alive. And despite the division, members agreed the book had produced a lively if polarising discussion.

The Tyneside Book Club regressed to childhood in it's June meeting, though it was Laurie Lee's they were immersed in rather than their own. 

Cider with Rosie, Lee's memoir of growing up in the Cotswolds in the early 20th Century, got a mixed reaction from readers.

There was some appreciation for his lyrical writing and descriptive powers. Members felt he vividly conjured up the time and community, and there was a poetic power to his prose. Some though felt he was a little too flowery, and that a more pared-back style might have kept their attention from wandering.

There was a sense of creative licence at play as not everybody was convinced he could remember so many details of life as a young boy. But there was a feeling that precise details mattered less than a general sense of truth. There was certainly a value to chronicling a community and way of life that has been lost. 

Many members though were taken aback about the darkness of some of the detail. There was some sense of nostalgia, but overall this was not a romanticised view of rural life. Instead, as well as community, there was incest and murder. There was a sense though that this was a true portrait of all facets of life in a village.

There was much discussion of one episode in particular in which Lee and friends plot to rape a local girl. Although the attack is abandoned, members found it a disturbing episode which tainted their view of the author and changed their perspective on the book. Some felt they would be reluctant to read further volumes because of its inclusion.

Some felt the episodic nature of the memoir also failed to compel them, even if Lee did draw some compelling images of characters and incidents in his early life. There was a sense of melancholy and of an era coming to an end, although some members felt this was a theme that might have been developed further.

Tyneside Book Club tackled an American classic in April as Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn came under the scrutiny of members.

The book has caused controversy from its first publication, and it still remains contentious now - although for different reasons.

It also caused divisions in the group as while some still saw it as a flawed classic that could be celebrated, others felt it was now too problematic.

Some members did enjoy the plotting and characterisation and appreciated the atmospheric depiction of the American South in the mid-19th Century. They did think Twain was largely on the right side of the race debate, and was trying to expose the hypocritical and toxic nature of white repression. The friendship between Huck and Jim seemed genuine and was at the heart of the novel.

There was appreciation for Twain's depiction of poverty and deprivation and for highlighting the impact of that on Huck in particular.

Twain had not tried to sugar-coat attitudes to race even in the language and attitudes of his central character, Huck Finn. There was though discussion about whether Jim was given enough agency, with some saying they would have loved to have read an alternative account from his perspective. Twain would occasionally hint that Jim was a more complex character.

​Several members did find the final section of the book particularly frustrating. The reintroduction of Tom Sawyer led to some farcical elements that detracted from the earlier tone of the novel, and also seemed to fatally rob Jim of agency and intelligence. Members did not appreciate Tom's contribution, and felt Twain had put him in as a sop to readers of his earlier work.

For some the whole book was a turn-off though with the attitude to race completely unacceptable both now, and at the time of publication. There were also members who found little to like in the book, and were unengaged by characters or plot.

There was agreement though that this was largely not a children's book, even if there were elements that would appeal to the younger reader. This was clearly an attempt to depict a racist society and its attitudes, with a strong tang of satire. For some that was successful, while for others Twain missed the mark. 

Members agreed that it was not a book that should be banned - as has been suggested by some - but that it needed to be read in the context of other accounts of the history of the time and of black experience. The use of racist language is clearly unacceptable now, though members accepted it was a realistic depiction of how it would have been used at the time of publication.

Susanna Clarke's award-winning Piranesi was the subject of March's meeting of Tyneside Book Club.

This mind-bending meditation had a lot of admirers, but left a few members cold. While some felt it was among the best of contemporary literature, others found its fantastical premise unengaging, and decided to bail from the book early.

The fans of the book were just about in the majority, finding a lot of depth in what was a comparatively short novel. Multiple themes were explored from our connections to our more primitive selves, to care for the environment around us. 

Those who liked the book found the character of Piranesi appealing, and loved the world created by the author. They found pleasure in the writing and philosophy of the novel, but also appreciated its page-turning qualities as it reached its conclusion.

Some wondered whether it was a manifestation of a form of mental breakdown, but others bought the unusual scenario set out by the author. For fans, the conclusion felt satisfying and nuanced. There were clearly influences on show from Borges to Ursula Le Guin, but this was still a very distinctive work of fiction.

Those who struggled more with the book found the fantasy setting unengaging, and were rather lost and confused in the strange world Clarke created. They found the characters unengaging and did not feel invested in the outcome.

There were some though who struggled at first, but became more engaged as Piranesi reached its conclusion and its mysteries began to be revealed.

All agreed this was a good choice, with much for members to discuss and reflect on.