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.

January Meeting

Happy New Year!

Despite the snowy conditions in Reading, we managed to scrape together 4 of our most loyal members and had a cosy meeting in the pub.  We discussed ‘The Winter King’ by Bernard Cornwell which is a historical fiction novel based in the dark ages centering on Arthur’s time.  The story is told from the view point of a young druid, Derfel who grew up at Glastonbury under Merlin’s protection and became a great warrior beside Arthur and Galahad.  I particularly love this period in history and the magical, mystical folklore which surrounds it, so I loved this book.  Everyone else did too and we discussed the emerging Christian faith being shown alongside the traditional Pagans and how violent those times must have been and the author does describe particularly gory battle scenes.  The book takes a slightly off centre view to the more traditional Arthur/Merlin stories and shows them in a less idealistic light.  Merlin is portrayed as an absent/distracted man who seems more interested in the ‘Holy Grail’ than helping Arthur win his battles.  Lancelot is shown to be a whining, spoilt prince who spreads rumours of his battle victories rather than actually doing anything useful.  A great book and we will all be reading the final 2 books in the series.

Result: 4 of us liked this book.

We chose our next book from the following:

• Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
• The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

It was a draw between ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘The Big Over Easy’ and with a flip of a coin we decided on ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The next meeting will be at the usual place on Thursday 11th February.

Thanks to Lisa who arranged a lovely, snowy walk on Sunday 20th December.  We took our lives in our hands as we navigated around the icy paths of Reading.  The scenery was beautiful and many of us saw parts of Reading we didn’t know existed.  We finished on a high note in Forbury Gardens with hot mulled wine before slipping and sliding to our individual houses.  I think it would be really nice to repeat the walk in summer.

10th December - Mary's House

Merry Christmas! And what a lovely Christmas party we had at Mary's. Everyone brought a dish and we had some lovely grub.

We discussed 'Sum' by David Eagleman, a collection of short stories about what the afterlife might be like. It was a little different to our usual books, there was no story line or characters we could talk about but the little ideas it planted gave us a good opportunity to discuss our ideas of the afterlife. Everyone liked the book, it was ideal for reading in short bursts.

Result: 6 of us liked this book.

We chose our book after next from the following:

• Generation X by Douglas Coupland
• The Memory Garden by Rachel Hore
• The Behavious of Moths by Poppy Adams

We chose 'The Behaviour of Moths' by Poppy Adams, although votes were tied with 'Generation X' but a toss of a coin decided for us.

The next meeting will be back at the Warwick Arms on Thursday 14th January 2010 (!)

Don't forget our Christmas (Oscar Wilde themed) walk on Sunday, lets hope the snow doesn't hamper our progress too much.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.