READING 3
We meet on the third Friday of the month at 10.30 at Pam’s house. This group is thriving. We now have 9 members and we all seem to gel very well. We always discuss the month’s book. The extent of the discussion depends entirely on the nature of the book and how much (or little) our views were similar.
Unfortunately, we cannot manage more than 10 members as we meet in Pam’s house. Equally if the group were any bigger we would not have enough time to hear each other’s opinions.
Besides discussing the book - including, at times, explaining why we we could’t get on with it - we have a lot of fun hearing what each of us has to say - and we do digress. We enjoy hearing one another’s views and the challenge, of course, is reading a book which one might not have chosen.
We also talk about other books we have read since meeting and sometimes swap copies. The hour-plus passes very quickly with lots of laughter. Tea and coffee are provided.
Each month the library sends us a set of books- one for each member and that is our “surprise”. Once a year we have the opportunity of telling the library which books would not suit us, but apart from that we are fairly open to their suggestions. It is possible to receive the book in e-form or audio, though at present none of our group do. The library system costs £40 per annum, which we share between us.
Murder by the Book. Is our latest: a selection of murder/detective short stories written from 1930s onwards. A most interesting read and because of the beautiful use of words it certainly increased my vocabulary. I didn’t previously know that veridical meant formal…. well the u3a is supposed to be good for the brain!
Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan was enjoyed but we have read more gripping novels of this genre.
A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe promoted a great deal of discussion as it centred on the impact of the Aberfan Disaster. Parts were quite harrowing. We liked “Lessons in Chemistry” and were all old enough to remember how women were overlooked in the job market if a man was also interviewed ( no matter how inexperienced he might be). Some good anecdotes were retold.