Christmas party booked!

I've booked a table at Aroma for Thursday, 15th December at 8pm for 8 people. It will be a Christmas menu and it sounds like there is something for everyone. I'll pick up a menu and post it on the blog as soon as I can.

The Small Hand, Time of Gifts and a slap!

We opened the meeting with a discussion of the BBC4 series of Slap (our August read) which began on Thursday. It is in weekly editions - 8 parts - one for each chapter. I'm not sure Chris will be delivering a final verdict at the end but I certainly aim to!

It was two months since we'd last met so we had two books to cover - A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor and The Small Hand by Susan Hill.

The unanimous verdict concerning A Time of Gifts was that, although it was essentially a travel book, it seemed in dire need of more storytelling and character building with the author drifting from place to place without any real sense of occasion. We felt that this could have been in no small part due to the the fact that the author didn't write the book until much later in life. The descriptions were at times engaging, as were the author's demonstration of his knowledge of history and the arts throughout the book. For example, at one point he depicts his backdrop to famous artists and their paintings and another time sees him embracing the charm of a wise old sage, with him musing how this experience provided more education in minutes than in years of history lessons.

We concluded that we wouldn't be seeking out Fermor's subsequent travelogues - life's too short!

Everyone greatly enjoyed The Small Hand, especially its short length - Mary even managed to finish it in one sitting on the train to London. The book felt a lot older than it was and apart from a couple of seasoned chiller readers in the group, most were mainly relieved it wasn't too scary. Our collective review of this book was short and to the point - just like the story - with the conclusion of a 'very satisfactory read.'

A lively debate ensued about future reads and we settled on Human Stain by Phillip Roth for December and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby in January. I think there was then general acquiescence towards Chris's suggestion of Hunger by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun - and after reading a few reviews on Amazon I can't wait - so we can make that our February read.

Thanks for all of your valuable input! I think that's all for now - see you next week x

book suggestions?

I've just reserved copies of our next read Three Men in a Boat and thinking ahead to future books...perhaps it would be helpful if we could all bring along a couple of suggestions to our next meeting. Any suggestions for themes?

(I've just finished The Small Hand already - a refreshingly quick and easy read after wading endlessly through our last book!) See you soon x

Sunday's meeting has been cancelled

As most of us are unlikely to make Sunday's meeting I thought it best to postpone it - or perhaps we'll move straight onto October's meeting and discuss both books then? From the feedback I've received most of the group are struggling with our current read so that will probably work out better anyway. Can't wait to move onto our next read. Jo - I'll drop your book off over the next couple of days.

I've had a message from Emily to say she's hoping to read our next book and looking forward to meeting us at our October meeting so we may have a new member next time we get together.

See you in October - perhaps on 20th for our Another Year screening!

The Small Hand copies are here

All six copies of The Small Hand are already in my possession so if you would like an early copy please let me know and I'll drop you a copy over. Otherwise, I'll just bring them along to our next meeting on 25th. To whet your appetite I've just found this great Guardian review here. Just noticed it's a really short month for our read - hope my copy comes in soon :S See you all at The Big Cheese Film launch on Thursday!

Book lovers group at Nantwich Library

I thought I'd let you know that Nantwich Library will be launching a book lovers group on Friday 16th September. The aim of the group is to meet up every third Friday of the month to discuss books they have enjoyed. The topic for the first meeting, which begins at 2pm, will be holiday reads. If you go along don't forget to mention our book club.

I've ordered copies of The Small Hand at £1 a go

On my quest to make it cheaper for us all to partake in Bookworm activities, I'm experimenting with the library to find a way that works for us. I have just managed to bulk reserve six copies of our next read,The Small Hand by Susan Hill. It costs £1 for each reservation so perhaps we can start having a little collection on our book meets to cover this cost? No doubt the books will begin arriving earlier than our next get together so I will keep you posted as they arrive and if you would like an earlier copy let me know. If it works, £1 a book is far cheaper than any book we can buy and of course we are sustaining a crucial public service at the same time. If you think it's a bad idea let me know and I can cancel.

In the meantime, enjoy A Time of Gifts - I won't get my copy until 8th at least :( Glad it's a slim read.

A lively get-together ensued

It was a lively gathering for the Nantwich Bookworms at The Black Lion last night, not least because it was the night of the pub quiz! We all agreed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (GWDT) lived up to its hype - a cracking story, with great characters and the setting was faultless for a murder mystery.

The two unlikely heros encouraged much discussion, with Chris musing why Micheal Blokvist is such a popular guy. He revealed that Micheal's life follows the author's quite closely - Steig Larsson was a well known journalist and editor on a magazine much like Millennium, Micheal's publication in the story. Larsson spent much of his life researching Natzism and it was clear how much such research spawned the plot for GWDT with its racism and mysogeny. Sarah pointed out that the blurb about the author's death was left mysterious, seemingly to drive profits and Chris added that Larsson, a heavy drinker and smoker, actually died of a heart attack.

It was interesting to hear that the Swiss title of the book was Men who hate Women and the group wondered why the title had been changed so thoroughly for the English translation. Although we agreed we would be less likely to want to read a book with such a title! Jo said the translation was a little 'clunky' and certain phrases jarred somewhat. And Mary said she enjoyed reading the book in large chunks but wondered if it would maintain her attention if she'd consumed it in smaller readings.

We agreed it wasn't a brilliantly written book, lead mainly by narrative, but the plot and attention to detail was excellent. A great holiday read which drives its readers to seek out the next two parts of its trilogy (Chris mentioned that part 2 (The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) covers Salander's life in it's gruesome detail and part 3 (The Girl who Played with Fire) brings it all to a fitting conclusion. If anyone wants the subsequent books I can probably get hold of a copy of each from Dee - let me know.

And so onto our travel fix which will comprise Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople - From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube. To whet your whistles, here's a review from Amazon:

"This book is an extreme rarity. It is one that I cannot imagine ANYONE NOT enjoying. Strapping young precocious Fermor, bounced out of school and knocking about London with some chums awaiting, in Fermor's case, with many misgivings, the military rigours of Sandyhurst, decides to chuck it all and go gadding about Europe during the interwar years toward Constantinople at the age of eighteen (He turns nineteen about halfway through.). The result, culled from memories and diaries that survived, and penned decades later, is a bouncing picaresque jaunt through the heartland of Europe, all seen (save for the occasional aside) through the coruscating eyes of youth, is one I simply can't imagine anyone wanting to miss, especially given that this is a world now lost to us almost completely. Interlarded herein are disquisitions on literature, architecture, and history, history, history (a witches' brew of real and apocryphal). Add to this delightfully unguided rather than misguided quest a cast of characters ranging from the homeless seeking shelter to the aristocrat in his schloss whom the author chances upon the way and you have a simply irresistible and sui-generis narrative. You have this book which, regardless of how many grey hairs age has snowed upon your head, will make you feel young and in love with the world again.----5 lofty, swirling stars."


Our next meeting is Sunday 25th September but I hope to see you all on the 15th for the launch of Nantwich Big Cheese Film Club at the Crown Hotel (7.30pm) See you there!

http://nantwichfilmclub.wordpress.com

Review of Slap - follow-ups welcome

As I've been dragging my heels on a review of Slap, Chris has kindly supplied us with his thoughts and Jackie's. (Perhaps we can follow up with our views via comments - I know there are a couple of different ones out there??)

As for the book, The Slap, well neither of us thought much of it - I don't know how it came to be considered for the Booker. Jackie didn't like any of the characters and i don't believe the incident would have instigated the level of subsequent events. If the characters portrayed are a good representation of modern 30/40 something Australians, then it doesn't say much for them. I think the best I would say about the book was that it maintained a consistent level/standard of writing throughout but most of the characters were boring.

Re-scheduled date for next meeting

As it seems many are away for our next meeting we've re-scheduled it to the following evening - Bank Holiday Monday. The Black Lion may be a little busier than usual and I don't think I'll be able to reserve our room with it being Bank Holiday but we should manage ok. Have a great Bank Holiday and I'll see you then!

Looking forward to our get together on Sunday!

It seems like ages since we last got together. I've even finished Slap well before time (for a change) and am reading A Prayer for Owen Meany because I happened to walk past a copy in the library and couldn't resist picking it up after our last Irving read - and it is brilliant - I think I am a confirmed Irving fan...However I can't wait to start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo after our meeting on Sunday. I'm going to attempt to juggle two books for once - not sure how I'll cope!

I've had a bit of interest from a few people in our book club and we may well have a new face or two along on Sunday. Always nice to get a new opinion on our reads.

I can't wait to hear what everyone thought of Slap. See you on Sunday!

Sarah xx

Garp lacked plot but was (generally) a Bookworm hit

We enjoyed a lively debate about The World According to Garp on Sunday. The beginning of the story involving 'feminist' Jenny Fields was hailed with enthusiasm but there was unanimous agreement that it petered out a little towards the middle. Mary struggled to wade through the trivialities and domesticity that was so prevalent on the characters' return from Vienna which Sarah supported, saying she experienced difficulty in picking the book up during this section but added that you were rewarded if you persevered through the minutiae to the accident, where the story gathered pace and ricocheted right through to the end. We loved the characters, the locations, the books within the book - Chris wondered if John Irving had perhaps used a couple of stories that were unfinished and wrapped the novel around those.

Generally, a hit - perhaps we could start rating our books out of 10 at each meeting?

Members came up with some fantastic suggestions for future reads: Mary suggested Three Men in a Boat or Three Men on a Bummel by Jerome K Jerome. Jo suggested The Small Hand (a thriller) by Susan Hill, Jackie suggested A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor and Chris suggested Mirror to Damascus by Colin Thubron, both travel books. With these great suggestions, we have decided to create the NBU book list as follows:

Next read (July) Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
August - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
September - A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor (our travel book)
October - The Small Hand by Susan Hill (a chiller)
November - Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome (to relieve those fast approaching winter nights)

And so to our next read:

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009, The Slap is an international bestseller. At a suburban barbecue one afternoon, a man slaps an unruly 3-year-old boy. The boy is not his son. It is a single act of violence, but this one slap reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen. In his controversial, award-winning novel, Christos Tsiolkas presents an apparently harmless domestic incident as seen from eight very different perspectives. The result is an unflinching interrogation of our lives today; of the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century, a deeply thought-provoking novel about boundaries and their limits...

Enjoy - see you all again on 31st July!

See you later!

Just a quickie to say our meeting postponed from last week will be tonight in the Black Lion from 8pm. I have a feeling our latest read will give us lots to talk about! See you there!

And delving into the World According to Garp...

Enjoyed a lively discussion about A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry on Sunday. What a book! We concluded that, although the bleakest and most depressing book we have read so far, it is one of those books everybody should read, highlighting the lottery of life and a reminder to count our blessings we were born into such affluence when so many aren't. I forgot to say that I have been supporting an Indian girl through Plan for a while now - it's a charity that supports and improves lives through sustainable community projects and India is one of the countries involved. If anyone would like details, drop me a line (it's £12 per month to sponsor an individual and you can write to them and will receive letters back)

After Garp, we will be reading The Slap (July) and then The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo (August) - see right - if you click on the cover images they will take you direct to the relevant Amazon page.

And we also decided we would turn up at our next meeting (26th June) with two suggestions for future reads - one a travel book - to give ourselves plenty of choice. I think this is an effective way to proceed in the future to build up a bit of a reading list to pick from.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday to us! It's been two years since our book group launched and we celebrated this grand occasion with a meal at the Lord Combermere in Audlem. The food was fabulous, the wine flowed, as did the great debate about Room, by Emma Donoghue, last month's book. We mostly enjoyed the book, although Chris felt it appealed more to women, and in particular mums. The consensus agreed with Jackie's point that this was a book of two parts, the second being weaker than the first and seeming to peter out somewhat towards the end, having no real direction. However Sarah said she felt it was a brilliant read from beginning to end and was gripped throughout. All in all, a moving and extremely enjoyable read which presented a unique and difficult story with insight and imagination.

With it being a Bank Holiday weekend (yet again) for our usual get together at the end of the month, we decided to make it the following Sunday (5th June) when we will discuss our current book A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. The suggestions fro future reads are now coming in thick and furious so we have already decided on our next three books - June will be The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. July will be a John Irving novel (The World according to Garp or A prayer for Owen Moody) and I need reminding of our August read...over to Chris...:)

We're back!

I'm afraid for some reason our blog has mysteriously disappeared! We've searched for a reason for this and have found out that many people have suffered the blog black hole too. I have no idea where it's gone or whether it will return...so I have had to begin our blog all over again. At some point I will post a list of all the books we have covered so far so we don't lose this vital info but I don't think we're going to miss the other stuff too much - it was mainly just a series of my ramblings about various books from what I can remember...

Anyway, I do hope everyone is enjoying Room as much as I have. I first thought it was going to be far too uncomfortable for me to read but thankfully there is some light relief towards the middle. There was only Katharine and myself who turned up to our last meeting and Katharine has suggested A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry which looks a gripping read - take a look at this review on Amazon: 

"This is a truly great book. It chronicles the story of 4 individuals from very different sectors of the Indian Caste system.  Not only does it accurately portray the political and social situation in India in the 1970s,it reflects the predudices within the upper castes and the fatalistic attitude of the lower castes, formed from their religious beliefs that suffering is their destiny and the reward will be in the afterlife. This story is overwhelmingly sad and also shocking as the reader can identify the ethical question of human suffering for a possibly laudable goal (in this case it is population control). However, the novel is also uplifting in a peculiar way; that individuals who struggle so hard to exist in appalling conditions can find joy in their lives is humbling. It also allows the reader to identify with the predudices and to see a situation from another side. Maybe at the end of the book, the reader feels that they have grown a little in spirit and have the capacity to be a 'better' person as a result. For me, the mark of a great book is one that remains with you long after the back page is read. This is such a book." 

Enjoy!