Yesterday we had a good ol' chinwag about one of the few books written
by Hilary Mantel which hasn't won the Booker prize: 'Beyond Black'. In
one of those rare occasions where we all generally agreed, we found the
idea of the book interesting and the character of Alison the medium
original, but felt it went on far too long, repeating itself instead of
developing. A shame, really. My biggest bugbear was when she
referenced the characters driving to Beeston and talks about the M1 and
A52 joining at Junction 23 when surely she meant Junction 25. That's
presumably the sole reason it didn't end up on the Booker longlist.
Next
month we'll be meeting to talk about 'The Conductor' by Sarah Quigley,
set during the Siege of Leningrad and about a conductor's attempts to
record the premiere of a Shostakovich symphony to be used to raise
morals during the Nazi invasion. I'm quite excited about it! Fingers
crossed it delivers.
Also, for December's meeting, we've decided
to embrace the season and do 'A Christmas Carol'. At least it's short.
(And you could get away with just watching the Muppet's version if need
be.)
We'll be in Edin's as usual at 7pm!
November 20th - The Conductor by Sarah Quigley
December 18th - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
June 2012 - Snowdrops by AD Miller
Why, hallo there!
Big thanks to those who ignored last Tuesday's football and came to talk about dirty goings-on in Moscow. Despite some confusion over Snowdrops turning out not to be written by everyone's favourite English novelist Andrew Miller but instead some other bloke with a suspiciously similar name, we still enjoyed the level of detail and description the imposter was able to instill about Moscow into his debut novel, even if overall the story wasn't quite as exciting or in-depth as we would have liked.
Coming up next month we have another thriller which is more firmly placed in the crime genre: The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø, and a favourite of various members of the group.
We're also coming up to the end of our selections, so if you have any ideas for titles we could do in the later half of the year, please get in touch! This is a great opportunity for anyone who's not been enamoured with our choices in recent months to get a chance to steer the ship. Perhaps there's a book you've always wanted to read but need the impetus to do so, or dare to suggest an old favourite you think others might like? Either let me know, or suggest it yourself at the next meeting!
See you then.
Big thanks to those who ignored last Tuesday's football and came to talk about dirty goings-on in Moscow. Despite some confusion over Snowdrops turning out not to be written by everyone's favourite English novelist Andrew Miller but instead some other bloke with a suspiciously similar name, we still enjoyed the level of detail and description the imposter was able to instill about Moscow into his debut novel, even if overall the story wasn't quite as exciting or in-depth as we would have liked.
Coming up next month we have another thriller which is more firmly placed in the crime genre: The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø, and a favourite of various members of the group.
We're also coming up to the end of our selections, so if you have any ideas for titles we could do in the later half of the year, please get in touch! This is a great opportunity for anyone who's not been enamoured with our choices in recent months to get a chance to steer the ship. Perhaps there's a book you've always wanted to read but need the impetus to do so, or dare to suggest an old favourite you think others might like? Either let me know, or suggest it yourself at the next meeting!
See you then.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
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!
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!
Thursday, May 3, 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
March - The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt
I'm trying to figure out a way to link the recent sunny weather we've been having to the title of The Summer Without Men, but I'm not having much luck. But it has been very nice weather, hasn't it? Oh, yes, lovely. It's almost like summer, you might say, perhaps a summer without... No, that's not going to work.
Anyway, we met to discuss the Siri Hustvedt novel, and I think generally we were all very positive about it. I have to admit I had my qualms before I began reading it; I thought from the title and its rather flowery cover that it was going to be a drab piece of chick lit. Meaning I wasn't really prepared for its arty, considered prose, its well drawn characters, and its occasional ramblings into obscure literary referencing. (Whether that last point was part of the character, or a superfluous attempt to show-off by the author caused us much discussion; personally it was only the meta-reference to her husband Paul Auster which made me yell, "OH FOR CHRIST'S SAKE" out loudly in the staff room.)
But overall we enjoyed it, and possibly even thought it should have been longer and have given all its characters and disparate storylines a bit more meat. Sue recommended another book by Hustvedt called What I Loved which I'll check out at some point. Oh, and big thanks to Bev for suggesting we do the book in the first place; good pick.
Speaking of picks, we made an effort to arrange dates and some titles for future groups. Here's what we decided on for the next few months:
May 22nd - The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (winner of the Orange Prize last year)
June 19th - Snowdrops by Andrew Miller (nominated for the Booker Prize last year)
July 24th - The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø (first [ish] in the popular crime series)
August 28th - Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell (I have no interesting facts about this one, sorry)
But before all that we'll be meeting on the 17th of April to talk about Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical by Robert Shearman. A couple of people have already said they've really enjoyed reading this one, so I'm breathing a bit easier about it now I know it won't be a re-enactment of the time I got everyone to read The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro. I still have nightmares about the sea of silent, resentful faces. Brrr.
See you in April!
Anyway, we met to discuss the Siri Hustvedt novel, and I think generally we were all very positive about it. I have to admit I had my qualms before I began reading it; I thought from the title and its rather flowery cover that it was going to be a drab piece of chick lit. Meaning I wasn't really prepared for its arty, considered prose, its well drawn characters, and its occasional ramblings into obscure literary referencing. (Whether that last point was part of the character, or a superfluous attempt to show-off by the author caused us much discussion; personally it was only the meta-reference to her husband Paul Auster which made me yell, "OH FOR CHRIST'S SAKE" out loudly in the staff room.)
But overall we enjoyed it, and possibly even thought it should have been longer and have given all its characters and disparate storylines a bit more meat. Sue recommended another book by Hustvedt called What I Loved which I'll check out at some point. Oh, and big thanks to Bev for suggesting we do the book in the first place; good pick.
Speaking of picks, we made an effort to arrange dates and some titles for future groups. Here's what we decided on for the next few months:
May 22nd - The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (winner of the Orange Prize last year)
June 19th - Snowdrops by Andrew Miller (nominated for the Booker Prize last year)
July 24th - The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø (first [ish] in the popular crime series)
August 28th - Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell (I have no interesting facts about this one, sorry)
But before all that we'll be meeting on the 17th of April to talk about Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical by Robert Shearman. A couple of people have already said they've really enjoyed reading this one, so I'm breathing a bit easier about it now I know it won't be a re-enactment of the time I got everyone to read The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro. I still have nightmares about the sea of silent, resentful faces. Brrr.
See you in April!
Friday, March 2, 2012
February - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Phew - time for an update to the blog, methinks. Quick, before all those Internet users out there believe we haven't been diligently meeting up every month and putting the world to rights by squabbling over books! I mean, by our considered and intelligent literary discussions. Oh yes.
February's meeting saw us discussing John le Carre's famous spy thriller, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which got the thumbs up from everyone apart from me because I was too stupid to understand what was going on in it. Even though I'd already seen the film. (To be fair, I didn't understand what was going on in that, either.) The rest of the time was spent glaring at a rival book group also camped out in the back room of Edin's and made up of far younger and more attractive members than us. No jumping ship, anyone! They were doing the Julian Barnes this time, so we're one month ahead of them at least. They all seemed very serious; we have a lot more fun at our meetings. Honest.
Next month on the 20th March we're doing The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt. Men will be present. But it's not summer yet, so that's presumably allowed.
17th April we're doing - DEFINITELY DOING THIS TIME, DAMMIT - independently published short story collection Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical by Robert Shearman. They're witty, silly and strange little stories about failing relationships, and one of the most beautiful books I've read in recent years. Well worth getting hold of this unique collection, even if you don't manage to get to the group. (There's various copies going fairly cheaply new and second hand on Amazon right here. Go on, live a little.)
Please post comments and suggestions for further books below. Post! Post until your fingers bleed!
February's meeting saw us discussing John le Carre's famous spy thriller, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which got the thumbs up from everyone apart from me because I was too stupid to understand what was going on in it. Even though I'd already seen the film. (To be fair, I didn't understand what was going on in that, either.) The rest of the time was spent glaring at a rival book group also camped out in the back room of Edin's and made up of far younger and more attractive members than us. No jumping ship, anyone! They were doing the Julian Barnes this time, so we're one month ahead of them at least. They all seemed very serious; we have a lot more fun at our meetings. Honest.
Next month on the 20th March we're doing The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt. Men will be present. But it's not summer yet, so that's presumably allowed.
17th April we're doing - DEFINITELY DOING THIS TIME, DAMMIT - independently published short story collection Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical by Robert Shearman. They're witty, silly and strange little stories about failing relationships, and one of the most beautiful books I've read in recent years. Well worth getting hold of this unique collection, even if you don't manage to get to the group. (There's various copies going fairly cheaply new and second hand on Amazon right here. Go on, live a little.)
Please post comments and suggestions for further books below. Post! Post until your fingers bleed!
Monday, March 28, 2011
March meeting
Ah, the joys of a plan coming together. I did indeed feel like Hannibal when we all ended up at Edin's on the same night.
We argued about Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese. A book with a phenomenal amount of medical detail; all scrupulously accurate, according to our many experts. It had us rushing to the interweb to become instant experts on Italio-Abyssinian relations. Go on, ask us anything.
In other news, we lined up a whole raft of books and dates for the future. It was a remarkable case of planning, the like of which will never be seen again. Until the autumn, anyway.
And from next month, we will be meeting in Edin's - but downstairs. Yes, they have a comfy lower floor, without the noise of other less literate geniuses than ourselves. We'll be in our own little secret lair, awaiting the Bat-signal flying over Market Square. At which point we'll either turn into avenging angels, or just order some more wine.
We argued about Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese. A book with a phenomenal amount of medical detail; all scrupulously accurate, according to our many experts. It had us rushing to the interweb to become instant experts on Italio-Abyssinian relations. Go on, ask us anything.
In other news, we lined up a whole raft of books and dates for the future. It was a remarkable case of planning, the like of which will never be seen again. Until the autumn, anyway.
And from next month, we will be meeting in Edin's - but downstairs. Yes, they have a comfy lower floor, without the noise of other less literate geniuses than ourselves. We'll be in our own little secret lair, awaiting the Bat-signal flying over Market Square. At which point we'll either turn into avenging angels, or just order some more wine.
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