Our last book club meeting of the year 2017
The Festive One, is next Thursday 14 December.
Special Christmas time of 3.30pm
Please
bring your favourite Christmas reading, if you have one, and a little
plate of snacks/sweet or savoury, or a bottle of fizz.
I
have Jo’s selection of books for the January 2018 meeting which I have
printed below. Have a look at them and we can then choose the book on
Thursday.
Jackie
I
have actually opted for 4 books; two by women and two by men. Books
written by incredibly intrepid travellers, both through life and through
adventure. Tales of Derring-do and “gung-honess” (is there such a
word?). I have enjoyed them immensely – hope the bookclub also enjoys.
Jo B x They are:
Jupiter's Travels -Ted Simon's astonishing 4 year motorbike journey around the world
The book that inspired Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round
In
the late 1970s Ted Simon set off on a Triumph and rode 63,000 miles
over four years through fifty-four countries in a journey that took him
around the world. Through breakdowns, prison, war, revolutions,
disasters and a Californian commune, he travelled into the depths of
fear and reached the heights of euphoria.
He
met astonishing people and was treated as a spy, a welcome stranger and
even a god. For Simon the trip became a journey into his own soul, and
for many others - including bikers Charley Boorman and Ewan McGrergor -
it provides an inspiration they will never forget.
Brought
up in England by a German mother and a Romanian father, Ted Simon found
himself impelled by an insatiable desire to explore the world. It led
him to abandon an early scientific career in favour of journalism, and
he has worked for several newspapers and magazines on Fleet Street and
elsewhere. Ted Simon is also the author of Riding Home and The Gypsy in
Me.
A
fascinating story about one man's perilous journey across the Atlantic
in a tiny open dinghy, to prove his theories that castaways could
survive on only fish (from whose insides a certain amount of fresh water
is procured), plankton, rainwater and a small amount of seawater. Dr
Bombard was influenced by the Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947, but unlike
that famous voyage, Bombard's trip is now largely forgotten, though it
caused a sensation at the time in 1952.
Paula McLain – Circling the Sun
Beryl wrote a book about her trans-Atlantic flight called “West with the Night?” which was heralded by Hemingway, is available online.
As
a young girl, Beryl Markham was brought to Kenya from Britain by
parents dreaming of a new life. For her mother the dream quickly turned
sour, and she returned home; Beryl was brought up by her father, who
switched between indulgence and heavy-handed authority, allowing her
first to run wild on their farm then incarcerating her in the classroom.
The
scourge of governesses and a serial absconder from boarding school, by
the age of 16 Beryl had been catapulted into a disastrous marriage - but
it was in facing up to this reality that she took charge of her own
destiny.
Scandalizing
high society with her errant behaviour, she left her husband and became
the first woman ever to hold a professional racehorse trainer's
licence. After falling in with the notoriously hedonistic and gin-soaked
Happy Valley set, Beryl soon became embroiled in a complex love
triangle with the writer Karen Blixen and big-game hunter Denys Finch
Hatton (immortalized in Blixen's memoir Out of Africa).
It was this unhappy affair which set tragedy in motion while awakening Beryl to her truest self and to her fate: to fly.
After
her husband died of cancer, 57-year-old Rosie set off to run around the
world, raising money in memory of the man she loved. Followed by
wolves, knocked down by a bus, confronted by bears, chased by a naked
man with a gun and stranded with severe frostbite, Rosie's breathtaking
20,000-mile solo journey is as gripping as it is inspiring. Rosie's solo run around the world started out of sorrow and heartache and a wish to turn something around.
Heartbroken
when she lost her husband to cancer, Rosie set off from Wales with
nothing but a small backpack of food and equipment, and funded by the
rent from her little cottage. So began her epic 5-year journey that
would take her 20,000 miles around the world, crossing Europe, Russia,
Asia, Alaska, North America, Greenland, Iceland, and back into the UK.
On
a good day she'd run 30 miles, on a bad day she'd only manage 500
yards, digging herself out of the snow at -62 degrees C, moving her cart
inches at a time. Every inch, every mile, was a triumph, a celebration
of life, and 53 pairs of shoes later Rosie arrived home to jubilant
crowds in Tenby, Wales.
Remember, Book Club is always on the 3rd Thursday of the month. All meetings, unless notified, are at Pam’s at 2.30.
For more information about any of the above or our next meeting and venue, please contact:
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