May 2012 - The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht

Hope you've been enjoying the fine weather! Personally I hate the sunshine as it means I have to close all the curtains so I can still see my computer screen.

Last month's reading group meeting saw us snubbing the sun in favour of the back room in Edin's where we discussed The Tiger's Wife.  I think generally we were in agreement that although many bits of it were wonderful, overall it seemed needlessly confusing and hard going. Personally I hated that the author was a year younger than me. (Boo, down with successful people younger than me. Boo!) I notice this year's Orange Prize winner (and, I guess, final one as Orange are dropping their sponsorship) was announced yesterday, Madeline Miller with her debut novel The Song of Achilles.  There's one for us to potentially do once the paperback comes out.

In June we're denying the summer months even more by doing Snowdrops by Andrew Miller.  See you there!

April - Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical by Robert Shearman

So it has a long, unwieldy name which - upon hearing it - some people decided sounded pretentious, and others found it hard to track down a copy of the book because it wasn't released by a mainstream publisher, but...BUT...eventually we got to the point where people read Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical and realised it's a truly wonderful, funny, lovely collection of strange, dark and very witty stories.  And everybody seemed to love it.  I'm thrilled.

Next month we return to what I still cruelly refer to as a "3 for 2" novel with The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht.  It won the Orange Prize last year so must surely be worth a skim.  Surely?!

Tuesday May 22nd - The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht. Back room of Edin's Bistro, 7pm.