Our numbers were a bit depleted on last meetin but we had lively discussion about the Alice Munro short stories we had
read.
They were all quite diverse stories but the common denominator
running through all, was how gifted and perceptive she was as a writer.
Most are beautifully written, cleverly crafted short stories with
characters, not always likeable, and sometimes rather uncomfortably
realistic. Whether one likes or dislikes that genre and her particular
style, she was obviously the grande dame of short stories.
February bookclub meeting will be on February 20th, 2014 and the book chosen is
March bookclub meeting is on March 20th, 2014
and the book chosen is
For April
we have chosen a book by an English author who is living near Auch in the Gers.
Her name is Amanda Hodgkinson and she would like to come and meet us and
talk to us about her writing etc. She does write in La Depeche every
Sunday; short, sometimes amusing observations of life of an ex pat in
France.
It would be interesting to read her book before she visits us
(date to be confirmed depending on her schedule) and her 1st book is 22 Britannia Road.
Cathie has suggested 4 books, which would now be for the May 2014 meeting.
These are listed below so at the February meeting we could choose the book we want to read for May.
Think we’ve had enough rain for now!
'This novel owes as much to poetry as it does to prose. Its opening, an invocation of the life of the city, is strongly reminiscent of Auden's Night Mail in its hypnotic portrait of industrialised society...An assured debut' Erica Wagner, The Times. On a street in a town in the North of England, ordinary people are going through the motions of their everyday existence - street cricket, barbecues, painting windows...A young man is in love with a neighbour who does not even know his name. An old couple make their way up to the nearby bus stop. But then a terrible event shatters the quiet of the early summer evening. That this remarkable and horrific event is only poignant to those who saw it, not even meriting a mention on the local news, means that those who witness it will be altered for ever. Jon McGregor's first novel brilliantly evokes the histories and lives of the people in the street to build up an unforgettable human panorama. Breathtakingly original, humane and moving, IF NOBODY SPEAKS OF REMARKABLE THINGS is an astonishing debut. 'The work of a burning new talent ...Jon MacGregor writes like a lyrical angel' Daily Mail
A dangerous rescue attempt in Michigan has captured the attention of the entire country. A two-year-old girl has fallen down a mine shaft. Ursula Wong is the only child of a poor family and referred to by one member of the TV audience as 'half-breed trailer trash', not worth all the expense.
But Ursula is the last of her family line and her story explodes into a gorgeous saga of culture, history and heredity. Ursula's forebears include a second-century BC Chinese alchemist; an orphaned consort to a Swedish queen; and Ursula's great-great-grandfather, Jake Maki, a miner who died in a cave-in aged twenty-nine.
Ursula's fate echoes those of her ancestors, many of whom so narrowly escaped not being born that any given individual's life comes to seem a miracle.
At the heart of this novel lies the fictional village of Ulverton. It is the fixed point in a book that spans three hundred years. Different voices tell the story of Ulverton: one of Cromwell's soldiers staggers home to find his wife remarried and promptly disappears, an eighteenth century farmer carries on an affair with a maid under his wife's nose, a mother writes letters to her imprisoned son, a 1980s real estate company discover a soldier's skeleton, dated to the time of Cromell...
Told through diaries, sermons, letters, drunken pub conversations and film scripts this is a masterful novel that reconstructs the unrecorded history of England.
'Sometimes you forget that it is a novel, and believe for a moment that you are really hearing the voice of the dead' Hilary Mantel
An unforgettable portrait of a woman bravely confronting loneliness and despair in her quest for self-determination, Jean Rhys's Good Morning Midnight includes an introduction by A.L. Kennedy in Penguin Modern Classics.
In 1930s Paris, where one cheap hotel room is very like another, a young woman is teaching herself indifference. She has escaped personal tragedy and has come to France to find courage and seek independence. She tells herself to expect nothing, especially not kindness, least of all from men. Tomorrow, she resolves, she will dye her hair blonde. Jean Rhys was a talent before her time with an impressive ability to express the anguish of young, single women. In Good Morning, Midnight Rhys created the powerfully modern portrait of Sophia Jansen, whose emancipation is far more painful and complicated than she could expect, but whose confession is flecked with triumph and elation. One of the most honest and distinctive British novelists of the twentieth century, Jean Rhys wrote about women with perception and sensitivity in an innovative and often controversial way.
This is hopefully a good list to make a choice. We hope you enjoy the read and see you on upcoming February meeting.
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For more information about the
bookclub or
any of the above or our next meeting and venue, please contact:
Ladieslunchclub secretary:
lunchclubgascogne(at)gmail.com
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