Book Club 1
We meet in Battle on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 2 pm. Parking is available.
Choosing from classic, fiction and non-fiction works, we all read a book each month and discuss it at the following meeting. The choice of books is made by the group and books are provided by the local library, so there is no cost to members.
Notes from the Book Group:
What an interesting year we have had in the Book Group with many a heated debate and lively discussion!
We are lucky to have a wonderful resource in the East Sussex Library service, they have an extensive range of literature available to book groups. Some few months back we indicated to them some authors we would like to read including re-visiting some of the classics. We don't know what we are going to get from our selection each month and sometimes we wonder who in our group chose that month's book!
Classics like "A Tale of Two Cities" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" we found heavy going. We decided that they were wonderful serialisations for the pre-television age, but took us modern day readers back to homework days. However, we did enjoy "Tess of the D'Ubervilles" especially as this was an introduction to his work for some of us. Another classic we enjoyed and which was unfamiliar was "Lady Audley's Secret" by Mary Elizabeth Braddon - a gothic novel but ahead of its time as a detective story.
And now for our more modern selections. Although fans of Bill Bryson's work "Mother Tongue" was not what was expected. This is a scholarly (but not always accurate) history of the illogical English language both written and spoken. This was our only non-fiction selection - it produced a real marmite response (love it or hate it!) If you enjoy the subject matter then it is a book to buy and refer to again and again.
Another "marmite" book was "Mrs Bridge" by Evan S Connell, a tragi-comic parody of upper middle class life in the States back in the 50's. Poor Mrs Bridge, a suburban housewife- the unexamined life, a stultifying existence pre-women's lib. Hugely recommended by some of us!!
We have read two completely different books by Kate Atkinson. "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" has been an international best seller and was Kate Atkinson's first novel. The other was "Life after Life". We agreed that, with both these novels it is best to "go with the flow" to read them with enjoyment as she takes the reader through many twists and turns through time and location.
Come on..own up..who selected "P.S I love You" by Cecelia Ahern (airport purchase - chick lit) and "Melisande! What are Dreams?" by Hillel Halkin. (what a load of pretentious nonsense we all agreed but running it down did give us an hilarious afternoon and has continued to do so) Finally, Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks an harrowing but exceptional novel about the First World War. Faulks research was incredible, it is hard to believe that he was not in the trenches himself. If you have not read it then please do so, it is one fo the greatest novels of the 20th century.
If you love reading I would urge you to join a book group. Besides our monthly selections, love them of hate them, it is a joy to share with others books and authors we have enjoyed.