December Meeting

Oh dear, my dedication to this blog is waning, life seems to have got in the way.  I have no excuse, sorry people.  My notes from the Christmas meeting have gone walkabouts, so I'll wing it.

We discussed 'Born on a Blue Day' by Daniel Tammet, an autobiography by an autistic man about his childhood, relationships and his record-breaking attempt at reciting pi to thousands of places.  An interesting book which explains autism clearly and savant-ism (is that a word?).  But we found the tone of the book quite bland, it went into great detail about some aspects of maths but glossed over more interesting bits like his relationship with his boyfriend.  OK, ok, I know he's autistic and it's wonderful that he's written a book but it's not fantastic and I wouldn't read anything else by the same author.  Why do I feel the need to appologise for that?

We chose our book after next, 'Her Fearful Symmetry' by Audrey Niffenegger which we'll discuss at the February meeting.

Oops, almost forgot, we voted on the book of 2010 and the results were:

1. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
2. The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas

April Meeting

It's so nice to have sunny weather and meet in daylight again!  Six of us met in The Warwick (not The Warwick Arms as I previously thought) to discuss 'The Thirteenth Tale' by Diane Setterfield.  We mostly enjoyed this book with it's gripping story line and intriguing characters.  Lisa brought some discussion questions but they mostly went above our heads and we ended up discussing the characters in our own special way (Ros we missed you and your slapping!).  Everyone was still liking the book until we came to talk about the ending, it seemed a bit contrived and neat, all the bits were too nicely sewn up and it became a bit unbelievable.  After that we were a bit confused over whether we still liked it!  That's what I love about this book group, I can come to the meeting loving the book and leave with more to think about and vice versa.

Result: 5 of us enjoyed this book.

We didn't need to chose our next book as we've already chosen 'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel, it won a vote ages ago but was only out in hardback, now it's in paperback, we've added it to our reading list.

Instead we discussed the meeting venue, it was suggested at our last meeting (at Lisa's house) that we might want to hold the meetings at people's homes instead of a pub in town.  After a long discussion, it was decided that we'll do half and half, we'll alternate between someone's house and the pub.  This means that we're not too dependant on people to volunteer their houses as our numbers are few and we want to encourage new members to join us at the pub meetings.  So at every other meeting we'll ask that someone hosts the next meeting, they just need to provide drinks (tea, squash etc) if anyone wants anything specific they can bring their own (this keeps the cost down for the host and makes things simple).  And we'll see how it goes.

The next meeting will be on Thursday 13th May, 7:30pm at my house.  I'll send out directions closer to the time.

We also discussed the blog name, you may have noticed it's changed.  When I started the book group, I lived in Lower Earley and we had several members who also lived there (or near there).  But now that I've moved and Ros has also left, we only have one member left in Lower Earley and we now meet in central Reading (well half the time) it seems silly to still be called 'Lower Earley Book Group'.  We're also hoping to improve our searchability of the blog so a name change was called for.  Hope you like it, any further suggestions welcome.

Enjoy the sunshine and happy reading.

February Meeting

A rather more healthy group of 6 of us met at the Warwick Arms to discuss 'The Behaviour of Moths' by Poppy Adams, thanks to everyone who came and also welcome to our newest member, Louise.

I think most people enjoyed the book which was voiced by an aging moth collector (lepidopterist), Ginny, who after years of living alone is suddenly joined by her sister, Vivien.  Ginny starts to recall her youth and the story of her family which is very bizarre and dark in places.  Vivien rocks Ginny's world when she uncovers secrets from their youth which were maybe better left unsaid.  Some of us thought that Ginny was just an eccentric whilst others though she was mentally ill, her narration is quite cold and severe in places which backs up the mental illness case and her decision at the end of the book (not to give anything away) is surprising and unnerving.  There were many unanswered questions raised by the book which made a lively discussion which really made me appreciate this book all the more.

Result: 5 of us enjoyed this book.

We chose our next book from the following:

• Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
• The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne Harris

We chose 'The Thirteenth Tale' by Diane Setterfield.  The next meeting will be on Thursday 11th March, this meeting will be our 1 year anniversary so we're planning a special meeting at Lisa's house, details to follow on email to our regular members.