We enjoy reading and talking about books and their hinterland. We are open to a wide range of literature in English, including translations. Our books, on the whole, are likely to be recent, and possibly on prize lists, but there is no reason not to delve into the past for classics and old favourites. They will usually be fiction, but not necessarily.
Individual members of the group will choose books in turn, so that we will discover ones that we would possibly not have come across alone. Some books will be new to everyone, and some recollected from the past.
At each meeting we discuss the book that we have all agreed to read at the previous session. To date most of the chosen books have been fiction but we do not rule out biographies or other works of non-fiction.
Group Convener : Andrew Sich
The Group meets in The Maynard Arms, 70 Park Road, N8 8SX (summer) or a group member’s house (winter) every fourth Thursday, 3 – 4.30 p.m. The number of places available per meeting is no more than 10.
Recently read
The Group has had its first virtual meeting using Google Hangouts and it was pretty successful. We discussed All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison, an enjoyable evocation of early 20th century rural life with a rather bizarre plot.
Other books we have read over the past six months are:
Blueprints for a Barbed Wire Canoe by Wayne Macauley
Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams
Milkman by Anna Burns
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee
Morality Play by Barry Unsworth
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli