Shhhh...it's a secret

All round thumbs up for 'If on a Winter's night...' although everyone did get a little confused with the real and the fake! Good discussion and lots of interesting points.

Lovely to have some new members along, what a big group we were this week! We just managed to squeeze around the table!

Our next meeting is on the 23rd Feb, four weeks rather than three just to keep everyone on their toes. We are reading The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry, several positive comments from those who have already read it so looking forward to that.

It was a close call between a couple of others actually, the runners up were;

Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
Selected Tales by Edgar Allen Poe
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
I'll Go To Bed At Noon by Gerard Woodward

Hope to see everyone on the 23rd!

Not travelling too far on a winter's night...

A great start to the new year! Thumbs up for the new venue and nice to have a new face. Mixed views on Engleby, about 50/50 like to dislike, good discussion though.
Another fantastic selection of pitches for the next meeting, the undoubted winner (not unfortunately!) being:

If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino

The runners up were:

The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
I'll Go To Bed At Noon by Gerard Woodward
The God of Small Things by Arundnati Roy
Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace
Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
Generation A by Douglas Copland

Phew!

We're meeting again on the 26th and sticking with the Royal Oak so hope to see you there!

New Year New Start

UPDATED INFO NOW INCLUDING THE ACTUAL BOOK CHOICE!!:

A very enjoyable Christmas meal, delicious tapas at Rebatos and quite a bargain too!

Very good choices of secret santa books, almost too hard to choose from but the vote was for:

Engleby by Sebastian Faulks

Apparently one of his good ones (as opposed to another recently read at Brixton which wasn't so good).

First book group of the new year on Jan 5th! New venue to start the New Year, as much as we love the Bread and Roses we're sometimes getting a little squeezed what with the quiz AND the football. Going to try out the Royal Oak which is just opposite Clapham North Tube (check the name of the pub before you go in, there are three in that area!!) hopefully still fairly convenient for everyone .

Happy New Year!

Christmas meal update

Update on the Christmas meal..... we're meeting in the Canton Arms at the usual 7.30ish. It's a short walk from Stockwell tube, slightly longer from Vauxhall or is on the 88 or 2 bus routes.http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/14/1420/Canton_Arms/South_Lambeth

From there we'll head 1 minute down the road to Rebatos Resturant about 8.30ish for some yummy tapas.http://www.rebatos.com/I'll try to reserve a table in the tapas bit which is nice an cozy.

So far there's about 7 or 8 of us but if you'd like to come please let me know asap (comment on here, or you can confirm attendance on the Facebook Event)

Book secret santa is a definite - wrap up a book you love (second hand or off your shelf is fine!) and bring it along to swap! We'll be choosing the first read of 2011 from the secret santa selection, so choose wisely!

Looking forward to it!

New year, New Start

A Short Walk was a damn fine read and enjoyed by all, if we do say so ourselves! Sorry, getting carried away with the imperialism but thumbs up from everyone. It made some of us want to get up off our rather cold backsides and do something fantastic and extremely challenging, makes the walk to work in the snow seem rather tame!!

Plans for the Christmas meal finalised so check the separate post for that.

First book group of the new year on the 5th! New venue to start the New Year, as much as we love the Bread and Roses we're sometimes getting a little squeezed what with the quiz AND the football. Going to try out the Royal Oak which is just opposite Clapham North Tube (check the name of the pub before you go in, there are three in that area!!) hopefully still fairly convenient for everyone .

We'll choose our book from one of the Secret Santa presents at the meal so will update the blog once we know what it is (ie after the 15th).

Happy Christmas!

Christmas Fun

The winter has snuck up on us and as people keep reminding me Christmas is not far off so we thought that we should probably put a date in for a Christmas meal before people get too booked up.

Wednesday 15th December is the date set, venue to be decided at the next meeting so if you have a suggestion then come along or put a message up.

If you can confirm your attendance below, or come to the next meeting, then we can get an idea of numbers to book somewhere.

We'll do a secret santa book swap too. Wrap up a book of your choice and bring it along to put in the sack!

I'm not even going to think of saying Christmas greetings yet!

Fancy a Short Walk?

Thanks to Eleanor for taking notes:

Rather a lot of disruption at the last meeting, those pesky students! There was a party of sorts going on in the pub, pretty noisy even in the back room, and THEN they put the football on full blast so we were forced to retreat and wander around Clapham trying to find another pub to accommodate us. The Belle Vue at Clapham South satisfied our needs in the end and once we'd intimidated people enough to get them to leave we even ...managed to get a whole table!Exciting stuff but I'm very very sorry to anyone who came a bit late and found us gone, apologies, we did wait til about twenty past eight but couldn't hold our fort any longer!

ANYWAY, thumbs up for Iris Murdoch, everyone enjoyed it's farcical humour and ridiculous partner swapping. Definitely a recommended read and it's made us all want to read some more of hers so any good suggestions are welcome.

The next group is on the 1st December and we're reading'A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush' by Eric Newby. I'm sure some good travel writing won't go amiss to get us through the distinctly wintry weather!

A real mix of other suggestions including:
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee
The Siege by Helen Dunmore
The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemmingway
Kalooki Nights by Howard Jackson
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

We will still meet in the Bread and Roses on Clapham Manor Road. I'm guessing the quiz will be on again so we'll sit in the back room and hope that they don't put the football on. IF there is football on we will wait until 8.15/8.20pm and then leave a message at the bar as to where we've gone so hopefully others can catch us up.

We also had a brief chat about having a Christmas meal and all thumbs up so there's a provisional date of the 15th December. I'll make an event and if people could indicate if they are keen to come, we can arrange the venue at the next meeting so have a think about any suggestions.That's all folks!