The Association of Foreign Spouses by Marilyn Heward Mills

The Association of Foreign Spouses is set in Ghana around the 1980s. It is the story of an English woman who met a Ghanian man in London, married him and moved to Ghana. Along with three other women (from England, Germany and Russia) she struggles to adapt to the culture, what is expected of her and the difficult political landscape.
I have a friend from Ghana so was very keen to read a book aet in that country, being more familiar with novels such as Half of a Yellow Sun, set in Nigeria. In the end, the setting is what kept me going through this novel. I found the characters less than appealing at times and found the situations a little melodramatic. I did get a  feel for the oppressive heat, beauty and contradictions of Ghana, but Ghana itself was a minor character as the women's relationships dominated.
The Association of Foreign Spouses is available from the adult fiction area of Wagga Wagga City Library.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro wrote The Remains of the Day, you know, that movie with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson? So, I was expecting an old country house in England and got something quite different. Never Let Me Go is set in England in the 1990s but you soon come to realise that it isn't quite life as we know it. If you like a technical label, Never Let Me Go is dystopian science fiction but there aren't any robots and it isn't your typical science fiction at all.
This is one of the RRL Book Club books and my club had mixed reactions to it. Mind you, my club has had mixed reactions to every book we have done, that's one of the many joys of a book club! I really enjoyed Never Let Me Go and have gone on to read When We Were Orphans and The Remains of the Day, both available at the library.