Here at Oakham Nub News, we are working closely with Laura Ray from Rutland Book Club to bring you monthly instalments of our book club feature.

Laura has been running Rutland Book Club since the pandemic, and arranges monthly meet ups for other keen readers to discuss their chosen book of the month - and you are invited to join!

The book club title for this month is The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan.

About the book:

Frida Liu had fed and changed her toddler Harriet. She had a work deadline - an article to finish, a job hanging by a thread, a file she'd left in the office. She would go get it. Harriet would be fine. But then the neighbours heard her crying.

Soon, the state will decide that Frida is not fit to care for her daughter. That she must be re-trained. That bad mothers everywhere will be re-educated. Will their mistakes cost them everything? 

The School for Good Mothers is an explosive and thrilling novel about love, perfectionism and parenthood.

Laura's Review:

Welcome to dystopian new world which turned into worst nightmares of mothers where their children are taken to the reform schools as their motherhood skills are scrutinized by being put under microscope of government. Any wrongdoings, misbehaves, faults are punished by not being able to see your child for a long time! 

The story is centred on Frida, whose worst day results with her child’s taken by reform school. She’s cheated by her husband and replaced by younger and more attractive version of herself. Being a single mother and handling everything on your own are already stressful enough to handle while she’s taking care of her daughter. She’s suffering from sleep deprivation, working too much, exhausted, impatient, lost, sad, depressed. 

At her worst day, she makes a big mistake by leaving her toddler all alone for two hours which is reported by her neighbours to the authorities and the very same day she loses her child. 

We learn more about Frida: Her lack of self-esteem, her way of dealing with her family and Chinese inheritance, her desires, her postponed dreams, her confusion. But she still loves and cares her daughter so much, doing everything in her power to be good parent for her.

We witness the harsh, strict rules of the reform school: counselling sessions, talking circles, parenting classes. And if she doesn’t get good scores, she never gets a chance to talk to her daughter. She already struggles from limited rights and supervised visitations, but the school system is so compelling to create flawless, perfect mothers which is impossible and unrealistic task because humans have tendencies to make mistakes and learn from them. So it seems like a no-win situation.

Overall: this is thought provoking, intense and impressively disturbing reading! Frida’s character and struggles to become a better mother are so easy to empathize.

How to join the book club:

Rutland book Club be discussing this book on Wednesday 29 March 2023 at 7.30pm. This month they will be meeting at The Angler in Oakham.

Anyone is welcome to join the meetings, as well as the Rutland Book Club Facebook Group, where readers who cannot attend the meeting are still welcome to discuss each monthly title.

The book can be bought online or locally from Walkers Book Shop which is on the High Street in Oakham.

The monthly book will be shared here each month.

In the meantime, see you at The Angler on 29 March 2023.