Jump to top of pageThe Reading Group was formed in early 2003 by a group of people who were interested in discussing with others the books they had been reading and extending the range of authors and genres they were familiar with. The group now has in excess of one dozen members and a large back catalogue of modern fiction, classic novels, science-fiction, biography and travel books that have been shared. Monthly meetings are held on a Friday evening in various members' houses where they discuss the last month's book and choose new titles over a drink or two and nibbles. The format of the meeting is very informal with everyone free to speak as little or as much as they wish and of course it is always more lively when opinion is divided on the merits of the book under discussion. The books are either bought individually or they may be borrowed from the local library. The reading group does hold a library card which entitles them to borrow books for an extended period. There are no fees but every member takes a turn in hosting one of the monthly meetings and with the present membership this would then occur roughly once each year. New members are always welcome, and for more details contact Jeanette:01359 259186
| Date | Author | Title | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday, October 12th | Andy Waldman | The Submission | A jury gathers in Manhattan to select a memorial for the victims of a devastating terrorist attack. Their fraught deliberations complete, the jurors open the envelope containing the anonymous winner's name and discover he is an American Muslim. Instantly they are cast into roiling debate, about the claims of grief, the ambiguities of art, and the meaning of Islam. | The memorial's designer is Mohammad Khan, an enigmatic, ambitious architect. His fiercist defender on the jury, is its sole widow the mediagenic Claire Burwell. But when the news of his selection leaks to the press, Claire finds herself under pressure from outraged family members, and in collision with hungry journalists, wary activists, opportunistic politicians, fellow jurors, and Khan himself. All will bring the emotional weight of their own histories to bear on the urgent question of how to remember, and understand, a national tragedy. |
| Friday, November 9th | J.D. Salinger | The Catcher in the Rye | The Catcher in the Rye is the ultimate novel for disaffected youth, but it's relevant to all ages. The story is told by Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Throughout, Holden dissects the 'phony' aspects of society, and the 'phonies' themselves, the headmaster whose affability depends on the wealth of the parents, his roommate who scores with girls, using sickly-sweet affection. | Lazy in style, using slang and swear words, it's a novel whose interest and appeal comes from it's observations rather than it's plot intriques(in conventional terms there is hardly any plot at all) Salinger's style creates an effect of conversation, it is as though Holden is speaking to you personally, as though you too have seen through the pretences of the American dream and are growing up unable to see the point of living in, or contributing to, the society around you. Written with the clarity of a boy leaving childhood, it deals with society, love, loss, and expectations without ever falling into the clutch of a cliché. |
| Also on Friday, December 7th | Edith Wharton | Ethan Frome | With this intensely short novel Edith Wharton set out to 'draw life as it really was' in the lonely villages and desolate farms of the harsh New England mountains. Through the eyes of a visitor from the city, trapped for a winter in snowbound Starkfield, readers glimpse the hidden histories of this austere and beautiful land. Piecing together the story of monosyllibic Ethan Frome, his grim wife, Zeena, and Mattie Silver, her charming cousin, Wharton explores psychological dead-lock frustration, longing, resentment and passion. First published in 1911, the novella stunned its public with its consummate handling of the unfolding drama,and has remained for many readers the most compelling and subtle of all Wharton's fiction. |
| Author | Title |
|---|---|
| P. D. James | Death Comes to Pemberley |
| Julian Barnes | The Sense of an Ending |
| Mohsin Hamid | The Reluctant Fundamentalist |
| W.G. Seebald | Rings of Sarum |
| Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre |
| Simon Sebag Montelfore | Jerusalem |
| Colin Toibin | Brooklyn |
| Mitch Albom | The Five People You Meet in Heaven |
| Nick Hornby | Juliet, Naked and How to Be Good |
| JG Farrell | The Troubles |
| Roma Tearne | Brixton Beach |
| Iain Banks | The Steep Approach to Garbadale |
| A.S. Byatt | The Children's Book |
| Haruki Murakami | Norwegian Wood |
| Alice Munroe | Runaway |
| Patrick Gale | Notes from an Exhibition |
| Markus Zusak | The Book Thief |
| Janice Frey | A Million Little Pieces |
| Sarah Dunnant | In the Company of Others |
| Kate Atkinson | Case Histories |
| Amos Oz | A Tale of Love and Darkness |
| Anton Chekhov | Lady with Lapdog and other stories |
| Adrei Makine | Le Testament Francais |
| Fyodor Dostoyevsky | The Gambler |
| Bruce Chatwin | Song Lines |
| Peter Carey | The True History of the Ned Kelly Gang |
| Tim Winton | Breath |
| Miles Franklin | My Brilliant Career |
| Doris Pilkington Garimara | Rabbit Proof Fence |
| Khalid Hosseini | A Thousand Splendid Suns |
| David Mitchell | Black Swan Green |
| William Boyd | Brazzaville Beach |
| Ann Tyler | Breathing Lessons |
| Amitav Ghosh | The Glass Palace |
| George Orwell | Burmese Days |
| Emma Larkin | Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Teashop |
| Chimamnda Ngozi Adichie | Half of a Yellow Sun |
| The Book of Illusions | |
| Jonathan Raban | Badlands |
| Carlos Castaneda | The Art of Dreaming |
| William Boyd | Restless |
| Sarah Waters | Night Watch |
| A.M. Holmes | This Book will Save your life |
| Anthony Trollope | The Way We Live Now |
| Stef Penney | The Tenderness of Wolves |
| Carlos Castaneda | The Art of Dreaming |
| Claire Tomalin | Samuel Pepys |
| Joseph O’Connor | Star of the Sea |
| Peter Ackroyd | English Music |
| Monica Ali | Brick Lane |
| Simon Armitage | Little Green Man |
| Margaret Atwood | Surfacing |
| Beryl Bainbridge | According to Queeney |
| Justin Cartwright | White Lightning |
| Tracy Chevalier | Girl with a Pearl Earring |
| JM Coetzee | Waiting for the Barbarians |
| Michael Cunningham | The Hours |
| Louis de Berniere | Birds Without Wings |
| Charles Dickens | Great Expectations |
| Sebastian Falkes | Human Traces |
| Karen Joy Fowler | Jane Austen Book Club |
| Jonathan Franzen | The Corrections |
| Mark Haddon | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time |
| Khaled Hosseini | The Kite Runner |
| Kazuo Ishiguro | When we were orphans |
| Henry James | The Bostonians |
| TE Lawrence | Seven Pillars of Wisdom |
| Ursula Le Guin | Left Hand of Darkness |
| Andrea Levy | Small Island |
| Anne Marie Mac Donald | The Way the Crow Flies |
| Yann Martel | Life of Pi |
| Alexander McCall Smith | No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency |
| Ian McEwan | Atonement |
| Jon McGregor | If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things |
| Ann Michaels | Fugitive Pieces |
| Julie Myerson | Something might happen |
| Audrey Niffenegger | The Time Traveller’s Wife |
| Orhan Pamuk | My Name is Red |
| Ann Patchett | The Magician’s Assistant |
| Jean Rhys | Wide Sargasso Sea |
| Salman Rushdie | Midnight’s Children |
| Carol Shields | Unless |
| Paullina Simons | Tully |
| Dava Sobel | Galileo’s Daughter |
| Abi Smith | The Accidental |
| Manil Suri | Death of Vishnu |
| Graham Swift | Waterland |
| Amy Tan | The Kitchen God’s Wife |
| Rose Tremain | Music and Silence |
| William Trevor | The Hill Bachelors (short stories) |
| William Trevor | Lucy Gault |
| Ivan Turgenev | Fathers and Sons |
| John Updike | Beck is Back |
| Jill Paton Walsh | Knowledge of Angels |
| Virgina Woolf | Mrs. Dalloway |