Thursday 12th November - Warwick Arms

Apologies for the lateness of this update, life seems to have got very hectic recently. We met (ages ago) to discuss 'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll. To be honest there wasn't much to discuss! I think we were thinking that there might be some adult themes and hidden messages but it was exactly the same story I remember from childhood. I forgot to take a vote, but no one particularly hated it.

We chose our next book from the following winter themed books:

• The Snow Queen - Hans Christian Andersen
• The Winter House - Nikki Gerrard
• If on a Winters Night a Traveller - Italo Calvino
• Love Begins in Winter - Simon van Booy
• Skipping Christmas - John Grisham
• A Country Christmas - Miss Read
• The Winter King - Bernard Cornwell
• The True Deceiver - Tove Jansson

We chose 'The Winter King' by Bernard Cornwell. It was a close run thing with 'Skipping Christmas' running a close second.

The next meeting will be on Thursday 10th December. It was suggested in the October meeting that we hold the meeting at someone's house to avoid the Christmas rush in town. I'll confirm who's house it will be by email.

September Meeting

Thursday 10th September - Warwick Arms Pub, Reading

Another select meeting of 3 due to a last minute flurry of cancellations, you missed a corker! We tried the food at the Warwick Arms (£10 for starter and main, Thai food) and it was delish. The start of the meeting was mainly in silence due to food appreciation but we soon got started on the book 'Engeby' by Sebastian Faulks. Feelings were mixed with Lisa having not finished it and Rachel not really getting into it. I, on the other hand, loved it! I didn't have a clue that this book was a murder mystery so my expectations were a life story of a strange man. I think that made the story more gripping than it was for others, they were waiting for the disappearance and eventual confession while I was happy reading about his university life. With questions supplied by Gail (thanks Gail!) we had quite a meaty discussion about his motivations and whether people really can suppress memories as he claims to.

Result: 2 people liked this book (I think - correct me if I'm wrong).

Our book choice this month was restricted to 'Classics'. This was the first time we tried having a theme and I think it worked quite well. We chose our book from the following:

• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

We chose 'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll.

The next meeting will be in the Warwick Arms, Thursday 8th October. No food this time, we decided to do food maybe once in 3 months as we know not everyone wants to eat Thai every month.

The theatre trip last month to see 'Twelfth Night' at Oxford was a huge success, 5 of us clustered together to watch the open air performance. It was rather chilly but great fun and something we'll definitely do again.

Lisa has volunteered to organise our next outing, a guided walk around Reading. I've set up a doodle poll here so please put your availability if you're interested.

We also discussed the themed book choices, I think they worked rather well as it focuses our choices on unusual books instead of choosing from the best sellers. If you have any ideas for future themes, please leave a comment on here so others can see them. The list so far is:

• Christmas (this will obviously have to be the book we choose in November to read over Christmas)
• Biography (auto or not)
• Historical Fiction
• Fantasy

We won't do this every month, just every so often to keep the books different and fresh. As always, this is up for discussion so new ideas are always welcome.