Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe, 29th October

There were quite strong opinions about The 100 Year Old Man.... possibly an equal balance of lovers and haters! Think it depended whether you enjoyed the knowing tone and leftfield telling of 20th century history or thought it was all a bit Forrest Gump and didn't really work.

Book for next time is:

Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe

It was close with excellent pitches for:

To rise again at a decent hour by Joshua Ferris
The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell
A Grain Of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Light Between Oceans by ML Steadman

The Craft Beer Co is not a great winter pub as not much space inside if it's raining. But The King's Head is open again so let's go there. (confusingly now called King and Co but is definitely open http://thekingandco.uk/) 100 Clapham Park Road, SW4 7BZ. On Wednesday 29th October.

And for next time, we agreed to pitch books that engage with the Gothic with a view to going to this exhibition at the British Library
http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/gothic/index.html
Most suitable as it'll be nearly Hallowe'en...

Also, there was some Facebook discussion about moving the start time back to 7.30. Have gone for leaving it as 7pm but we won't start talking about the book till at least 7.45pm

Next meeting: The Hundred-Year-Old Man...(9th October)

Sorry for the hiatus in postings to the blog. At some point, can attempt to do some backfill if anyone's interested in what has been read in the intervening months!

Anyway, next meeting we will be talking about The Hundred-Year-Old Man who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. On a Thursday...sorry, Wednesday fans - we will return to normal next time.
 
From 7 pm; 9th October, at Craft Beer Co, 128 Clapham Manor Street SW4 6ED

We had a tie for the next book for first time in ages with The Hundred...pipping The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky to the post in a second round of voting. As exciting as the Scottish referendum..

Other books suggested were:
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
Hullabalo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai

Last meeting we talked about The Bunker Diary. Not sure we agreed on questions including whether it's too bleak for a YA book, if there's hope in it (as the author claims), how much it's about religion...but maybe that's the point of discussing something!

Christmas party time!

Yes it's that time of year again - time for our Christmas Do! Sadly Rebartos in Vauxhall where we have made merry in recent years has closed down (she wipes a tear from her eye) so this year we are heading to deepest, darkest Camberwell Green to scoff yummy cheap Italian food and drink at Caravaggio's, Camberwell Church Rd https://plus.google.com/117032867874479038038/about?gl=uk&hl=en

If you would like to come (everyone welcome) please join the event asap and I'll book us a table.  Date is Monday 9th December, 7.30pm.

Please don't forget to bring a book for our secret book santa! Can be anything, pre-loved and new either is fine, just wrap it up to prolong the suspense!

Watch out!

Totally divided opinion on Women in White! Those who finished it absolutely loved it but others found it a bit of a struggle (for various reasons). If you know you like Victorian melodrama I'd say go for it! Second round voting this week and the next read is 'Watching the English' by Kate Fox. Other suggestions were: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Canada by Richard Ford The Turn of the Screw by Henry James Next meeting is 4th December, at The King's Head, 100 Clapham Park Rd as usual.  Look out for the Christmas meal post, two meetings so close to each other - lucky us. Ha ha, sorry about the photo but I couldn't resist this image that came with the search for English people! Apparently it's the preparations for the New Year's Day Swim 2013 - go lads!

The Rehearsal

Lots of mixed opinion about Elmore Leonard and his crime writing, some liked some didn't. All were agreed though that Owen Wilson would make the worst Jack Ryan ever.

Next book is The Rehersal by Eleanor Catton. Good timing as her second novel is shortlisted for the Booker. Other suggestions were:

The Spy who came in from the cold by John Le Carre
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

We are back at the Kings Head, 100 Clapham Park Rd for our next meeting on 2 October - far better for winter evenings and impassioned discussions! Hope you see you there....

Bouncing all the way to Clapham....

Finally managed to sit outside at the Stonhouse this week, even a little drizzle and a damp bench didn't put us off. Very animated conversations going on about the Princess Bride, enjoyed by everyone (how could you not?). If you haven't watched the film yet it will certainly cheer you on this rainy bank holiday weekend!

Next book is The Big Bounce by Elmore Leonard, RIP as of Tuesday last week. 

A short but excellent list otherwise:
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Wise Children by Angela Carter

Back to a Wednesday for next meeting on the 11th September and we're holding out for an Indian summer so will still be at the Stonhouse, outside again hopefully, from 7.30pm.  

The Princess Bride!

A rather short meeting this week - we started early and finished very early, sorry to all those who were up for a bit more! Good discussion about Arthur Ashe, mixed reviews in terms of the writing style but those that reached the end (not the majority) agreed that he had some very interesting things to say. 

Our next read is The Princess Bride (finally!) by William Goldman NOT William Golding as I managed to type last post! A good light-hearted summer read I think!

Other suggestions were:
Don't tell mum I work on the rigs, she thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse by Paul Carter
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

We will continue to meet at the Stonhouse and keep fingers crossed for an Indian summer. Please note that our next meeting is on THURSDAY 22nd August, from 7.30pm as usual. See you all soon.