A Capital choice!

As predicted, a fairly heated discussion about The Slap. What can we say? Certainly NOT 'one of the truly great novels of the millennium'!! 
Another interesting list, the next read is Capital by John Lanchester and his short and digestible book about the financial crash, Whoops! why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay, as a 'bonus' extra!

Others on the list were:
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Born Wierd by Andrew Kaufman
Kraken by China Mieville

Meeting on 3rd April from 7.30pm at the Old Kings Head as usual- a bit warmer this week and hopefully the sun will be out by then anyway!

What a bunch of Slappers!

Great meeting and chat about Tales of the City, not much controversy as everyone enjoyed it! Great to have some more new members arrive - welcome! Next read is The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas and you better get reading as it's 482 pages with pretty small print!

Other suggestions were:
The Prison Angel by Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Barchester Tower by Anthony Trollope
Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver

A great selection all round!
 
We meet next on 13th March, usual time of 7.20pm for 8pm and still at the Kings Head but make sure you bring some extra layers if the cold weather is still with us!!

A blast from the past!

Despite the positivity of several members 'The Night Circus' did not
fare well in our discussion. In fact that's a complete understatement -
we totally slated it! Nice idea but terrible execution was the general consensus!

Following a close vote the next book chosen is a blast from the past for many: 'Tales of the City' by Armistead Maupin.  Meeting date is Wednesday 20th February.

Other great suggestions were:
The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides
Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James
Persuasion by Jane Austen
There but for the by Ali Smith
 
Hope to see you at the Kings Head, 100 Clapham Park Rd, 7.30/8.00pm.
 

Don't forget the Dickens date on Sunday 17th Feb - plan still to be formulated but the date is set!

The circus at night

Sorry for this very delayed post - sincere apologies! Great first meeting of the New Year - back to the King's Head which was fun as usual and a great discussion about Ivan Denisovich. Decided that we really had nothing to complain about!
Next book choice is 'The Night Circus' by Erin Morgenstern.

Other suggestions were:
'Station X' by Michael T Smith
'Lucky Jim' by Kingsley Amis
'Thursbitch' by Alan Ggrner
'The Crossing' by Cormac McCarthy
'The Hundred Year Old Man who climbed out of the window' and disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Meeting at the King's Head and back to a Wednesday after all those Tuesday meetings so hope you can make it -enjoy January until then!

A meeting of the Pickwickians

We've finally set a date for our Dickens themed meeting to re-live the Pickwick Papers so get reading! Planning an afternoon walk/pub affair with a possible Dickensian tour. Sat/Sun date to be confirmed but it will be the weekend  12/13th January so put it in the diary.



Hi all!  Sorry not to let you know before but we actually postponed the Dickens date to allow others to make it/finish it!  We are now meeting on Sunday 17th Feb - venue to be confirmed but will likely be somewhere in Southwark.  All research re Dickens type tours are welcome! 

Starting the year on a positive note...

Excellent meeting this week - lovely to see some of those that we hadn't seen for a while! Unfortunately poor Henrietta got the brunt of our criticism and an overall thumbs down from all members of the group (science parts good, family parts not so good was general consensus). However I'm sure she'll live to see another day (or rather her cells will). First read of the year is 'One day in the life of Ivan Denisivich' by Alexander Solzhenitszn. Other suggestions were: A proper education for girls by El aine di Rollo The cellist of Sarajero by Steven Galloway What we talk about when we talk about love by Raymond Caver Shadow Dancer by Angela Carter Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino Memoir of the Sunday brunch by Julia Pandl Return to a Wednesday so we are back to the King's Head on the 9th January at 7.30pm. Have a great Christmas all!

She lives forever!

Firstly, total apologies for not updating the blog in time for the last meeting - I was under the impression that I had but obviously not!  We were reading 'The Good Solider' by Ford Maddox Ford which resulted in an excellent discussion and would be highly recommended by most, I personally would love to read more of him. 
The other suggestions were:



Five awesome proposals for next meeting. The winner was 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' by Rebecca Skloot but only after three rounds of votes!

There but for the by Ali Smith
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Next group is in 4 weeks time on 4th December and again on a Tuesday - sorry for those who can't make that day of the week - we will move back to a Wednesday next meeting! Quiz night at The King's Head means that we'll meet at the Grand Union on Acre Lane (it's the Brixton one).