Brixton Book Group

New year resolutions

2012-01-08T12:13:00.002Z

Hi everyone,
apologies for the lack of updates, the blog moderator (Pete) has been off and about, but is now back and catching up with the backlog of 'is the book group still running?' (yes! yay!) type emails.

Thanks to Simon for organising the Christmas / new year stuff - report from last time / meeting details for next time are:

A Sense of an Ending was a popular choice, as evidenced by the number of people who chose to brave the winds and the rain to make the first meeting of 2012! The next meeting will be on Thursday the 26th of January, when we'll be discussing The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.

The other nominations were Waterline by Ross Raisin, And The Land Lay Still by James Robertson, The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt and The Gathering by Anne Enright.

As always we're meeting in Mango Landin, from about 7.30pm onwards. New members are always welcome!

Millions of tiny plays about Britain which is actually quite short and we should be able to finish in time

2011-11-10T16:10:00.000Z

Hi all,
apologies for missing the meeting! so no doodle this time - thanks to Kinga for the update!

I am informed that mostly everyone liked Freedom (I generally enjoyed it, although I'm wondering if Walter's slightly crazy population / mountain top removal ideas get their comeuppance but I haven't got there yet) one member even wrote a review, which is fantastic.

Book for next time is One Million Tiny Plays About Britain and we're meeting on Wednesday the 7th of December in Mango Landin.

The other thing I really wanted to ask was whether or not everyone was up for having some sort of Christmas party - normal tradition is a curry at Khan's followed by some random book swapping (but we don't really have traditions so any feel free to suggest absolutely anything). I'd suggest the 14th?

More or less everything we've read

2011-10-31T22:44:00.001Z

I was doing a bit of tidying up of our slightly neglected twitter account - which is now @BrixtonBook and it occurred to me to do something a bit more interesting with the background. So I cheated and created a wordle:

Nearly everything we've ever read

Every book we've ever read since 2005 is tagged on this blog - so I think this is a slightly selective wordle. Things Man and Book seem to occur more often. Here's to 2012 and discovering new and exciting things to read..

After all that death some freedom (possibly)

2011-10-18T21:45:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the delay in posting - we had a jolly chat about Ian (M) Bank's Transition - with opinions varying from guilty pleasure to teenage sci fi fantasy. It was certainly a page turner.

I cheated, as I don't have that much black ink

The book for next time is Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.

Runners up included Brixton Beach, The Hare with the Amber eyes, Half a Yellow Sun, and Guns, Germs and Steel.

Next meeting is on Wednesday the 9th November in Mango Landin

Transition to (hopefully less chilly book)

2011-09-15T08:12:00.001+01:00

Conclusions from Death and the Penguin? Kiev is chilly, you can buy almost anything with the right amount of cash, and people care more about cute animals than people.

Even the penguin who didn't represent a book got fish.

The book for next time is Transition by Iain (M-but only in the USA) Banks which is a work of speculative fiction (as the in-denial Margaret Atwood would put it)

Next meeting is on Wednesday 12th of October in Mango Landin so you have plenty of time to get reading!

Runners up were: American Wife, Blood Meridian: or The Evening Redness in the West, Perfume: The Story of a Murdererand The Carhullan Army.

More death

2011-08-25T10:04:00.000+01:00

Sorry I missed the meeting! - so no doodle this time, although I can recommend checking out Fela! - Pete

Notes from Becky:

Loads of new people, we struggled to all fit round a table! Lots of good debate about The Sickness. The winner for next time is Death And The Penguin by Andrey Kurkov.

Runners up were:

How To Be a Woman, Catlin Moran
Nothing To Be Frightened Of, Julian Barnes
The Raw Shark Texts, Steven Hall
The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas
Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Adiche
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Song of the Lark, Willa Cather

We agreed to stick to Wednesday meetings for now, next one 14th Sept 7.30ish in Mango Landin

Sickness won over death

2011-08-05T15:15:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the late post (still need to unpack my computer!) - we had a lovely Wednesday summer evening discussing the Famished Road, which made some sort of sense some of the time.

The Famished Road / River / Spirit / Metaphor thingy

Book for next time is The Sickness by Alberto Barberra Tyszka and we're meeting on Wednesday 24th of August in Mango Landin at 7.30ish - it's a short book this time! and note we're meeting on Wednesday instead of Thursday, because that's the crazy way we roll at book group.

Runners up were Half of a Yellow Sun, The Last Hundred Days, Our Kind of Traitor and Death And The Penguin

Booker long list - anyone?

2011-07-28T14:27:00.001+01:00

If anyone's up for a challenge (or some inspiration for things to suggest at the next meeting) the Man Booker Longlist is out:

Helen Dunmore
The Betrayal

David Mitchell
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet

Lisa Moore
February

Paul Murray
Skippy Dies

Rose Tremain
Trespass

Christos Tsiolkas
The Slap

Alan Warner
The Stars in the Bright Sky

We read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet a few meetings ago, although I suspect David Mitchell will be robbed again.

The long and winding Famished Road

2011-07-09T12:51:00.000+01:00

Lovely meeting last night, lots and lots of people came which I think generally indicated that A Visit from the Goon Squad was a good choice and well received.

It makes sense if you have the US copy of The Goon Squad

Book for next time is The Famished Road by Ben Okri - and the next meeting is in 4 weeks time on Wednesday 3rd August (so that's Wednesday not Thursday) in Mango Landin.

A visit from the book squad

2011-06-16T23:42:00.002+01:00

Ok that's a dreadful title, sorry. Lovely meeting - An Awfully Big Adventure went down awfully well and I think most of us will be reading some more Beryl Bainbridge in the future, even if we're not reading her in a northern accent.

I need to draw something other than cityscapes. Those are tinkerbells- see what i'm doing there!

Book for next time is A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. With the bonus book of Gorilla Guerilla by Nick Taussig (I have more free copies than fit in my bag so will bring them along - we'll do another review for that one)

Runners up were White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, and the Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson.

Next meeting is on the 7th of July in Mango Landin again. Plus I need to organise an official film premiere of our appearance on Japanese TV.

An attempt at a crowdsourced review of Witness the Night..

2011-06-01T22:21:00.000+01:00

I appreciate that normally this blog is a monthly collection of book suggestions, but once in a while I get sent books to hand out at meetings and plug on the website. I'm fairly choosy on what to reply to and generally stick to books which look interesting, are from a publisher, and don't look too weird*.

Since I've now got a backlog of books to review I thought I'd get the ball rolling. What I'm hoping is that everyone else who got a copy of the book will pitch in and add their review to the end of this one, or I might look a bit silly after replying to those emails with 'of course we'll review your book'.

The book this time was Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai, which won the 2010 Costa first novel award. It deals with the grim topic of female infanticide, but told in the style of a mystery novel. The plot revolves around the discovery of a catatonic teenager surrounded by her murdered family, and the attempts of a social worker to get to the truth, despite the best efforts of the local patriarchs.

The book rattles along at a fair pace, and is quite an easy read. Some bits did creak a bit. Several of the characters were interchangeable and blurred into each other, and the awful use of interrupted email as a plot device with TXT speak was really irritating. It is however quite thought provoking.

I liked the character of the hard-drinking fast-talking social worker, (although I was half-expecting/wanting her to turn 'dirty-harry' on us and waste the bad guys) and it managed to tackle a really quite horrific subject in an an engaging way. I confess it was a something I didn't know a lot about - there has been some coverage recently in the BBC so perhaps this book will go some way towards getting the issue the attention it deserves.

You can buy Witness the Night on Amazon or direct from Beautiful Books.

There goes my attempt - please add your own in the comments and I'll update the blog post. There are also a few discussion ideas for book groups which might be worth having a look at. I'm afraid I can't remember who I gave copies to (there was beer involved) but you know who you are.

*actually I quite like weird. Particularly graphic novels, but not sure how those would go down with everyone else.

An awfully quiet meeting...

2011-05-19T23:59:00.000+01:00

We had a slightly subdued discussion about Delhi - although quite a few of us didn't manage to finish it. The overwhelming impression was~~n't particularly thumbs up or~~ thumbs down.
Perhaps we just needed to read it in the voice of Alan Clarke, on a train chugging across the Deccan plateau.

Hmm on reflection these temples look a bit middlesex

Book for next time is an An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge.

Runners up were: A Galaxy Unknown, Self, Engelby, The Master and Margarita (May 15th being the 120th Birthday of Mikhail Bulgakov) and the Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.

+ we have an offer of some free copies of Gorilla Guerilla by Nick Taussig which I'll bring to the next meeting.

Next meeting is the 16th of June so you have 4 weeks to get reading!

On to Delhi comrades!

2011-04-21T13:04:00.001+01:00

For the motherland!

Although not everyone managed to finish Red Plenty it still got a positive response as an original way to tell the story of Soviet attempts to computerise their economy, even if it did get a little bit carried away with infinite detail from time to time.

Book for next time is Delhi by Khushwant Singh. This may require a little extra tracking down as it's published by Penguin India although I could find it on the decadent capitalist Amazon
and Ebay web sites.

As this is another long one, we're meeting again in Mango Landin in 4 weeks time on Thursday 19th May.

Plenty read

2011-04-01T09:57:00.001+01:00

Note to publishers: the hardback cover design was much better

We had fun discussing the The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, maniacal bond baddies galore. The general consensus being that we like David Mitchell (no the other one) a lot.

The book for next time is Red Plenty and we're meeting on Wednesday 20th of April. Which is not on a Thursday as usual.

I'm off to read Cloud Atlas again and work out which character pops up in Thousand Autumns, although I wish Cavendish would invent time travel.

Only a small thing

2011-03-16T14:04:00.000Z

I was going to write a post to pass on a lovely thank you message from Minako at NHK for the filming that took place at our last meeting. Sadly this has been overshadowed by the terrible events that have taken place in Japan over the past week, and she has asked us to share the link to the Red Cross Japan appeal:

http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now/Make-a-single-donation/Japan-Tsunami-Appeal

The Red Cross have been working on the ground with over 700 doctors and nurses since the disaster began.

Understandably the TV schedules have been changed a lot by ongoing events, and I'll update the blog when the programme goes out.

Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the earthquake.

Big in Japan

2011-03-05T13:31:00.000Z

Lovely to see a big crowd of people at last night's meeting. Sorry if the filming was a little bit unexpected, once we've got a copy of the documentary we'll have an official premiere / drink in the pub to celebrate. Thank you to everyone who took part.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given that Japanese state TV were filming us for a programme about the author, we were all quite positive about When we were Orphans.

Book for next time is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet and as this is a long and particularly brilliant book, the next meeting will be in 4 weeks time on the 31st of March in Mango Landin as usual.

As the night drew on, Pete realised he didn't know how to draw magnifying glasses properly.

Runners up in no particular order were: The Count of Monte Cristo, The Good Terrorist, Tokyo Year Zero, What Is the What, Waiting for Columbus, The Idiot and A History Of The World In 10 1/2 Chapters.

Also as a bonus book we had a load of copies of Witness the Night donated by the publisher Beautiful Books for us to read - I'll post up a review and some info, and if everyone can add a review that would be super.

When We Were Orphans

2011-02-06T14:55:00.002Z

A big group round a very big table last week. Welcome to the new people!

We shouted across our opinions on The Elegance of the Hedgehog - it mostly seemed to go down fairly well though there was a mix of views and a bit of a split between people who preferred the first half and people who preferred the second half.

We had some good suggestions again, and the winner was When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro.
We'll be meeting to discuss this at Mango Landin on Brixton Water Lane from around 7.30 or 8 on 3rd March.

Runners up were:
The Siege - Ismail Kadare
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Anna Karenin - Tolstoy
Leviathan - Philip Hoare
The Northern Clemency - Philip Hensher
Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder

See you on 3rd March!

Uprising - theatre trip?

2011-01-08T19:11:00.003Z

At the book group meeting on Thursday we talked about planning an outing to see Uprising - Alex Wheatle's show, thought I'd throw it open in case anyone else was interested in coming?

Details of the show are here:https://taraarts.ticketsolve.com/shows/126511828/events
Tickets are £10.

Alex came along to Brixton book group in 2010 to talk to us about his book East of Acre Lane, which was quite a hit with the group.

The show is on Feb 10th/11th/12th so we'd have to choose which date to go. If you'd like to come please register your interest here and let me know what dates you prefer or can't do and we'll take it from there.

Hedgehogs are cool

2011-01-07T10:39:00.000Z

We started the new year with a discussion about and Invitation to a Beheading
which sounded a bit Third Policeman, and the potboiler The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
(feminist hero or 50 year old man's fantasy?)

The book for next time is The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

The date for the next meeting is the 3rd of Feb (4 weeks this time to avoid clashing with Clapham Book Group) meeting in Mango Landin from 7.30ish - new members welcome!

Spiders, violins and dragons.

Runners up were: The Help, The Moonstone (free on ebooks), When We Were Orphans,
I Capture The Castle, The Northern Clemency and Jeff in Venice Death in Varanasi.

You have an Invitation to a Beheading

2010-12-05T21:27:00.002Z

Reading Lolita in Tehran failed to live up to it's promise really. I think most of us thought it had some interesting parts, but did not add up to a very good whole. But it DID make us want to read some more Nabokov, so the next book is Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov. And because we're not meeting for another month, we also have The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson as a bonus book, so feel free to try and read either or both.

Runners up were:
Wandering Star - JMG Le Clezio
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
The Finkler Question - Howard Jocobsen
So Much for That - Lionel Shriver
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
She Came to Stay - Simone de Beauvoir
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

So have a good Christmas and New Year, and see you in 2011!

Christmas Dinner!

2010-11-21T23:07:00.001Z

The date for the Brixton Book Group Christmas Meal is now confirmed as Thursday Dec 2nd.

Please meet up in Mango Landin between 7.30 and 8.30pm then we'll head over to Khans for a curry (yep, its the exact same plan as last year). We probably won't need to book, but it'd be useful to have some idea of numbers, so please sign up here or drop me a message if you're planning to come along.

We'll do a secret santa book swap too. It's optional, but if you want to take part wrap up a book of your choice and bring it along to put in the sack. Everyone who takes part gets back a random parcel.

See you then!

2010-11-06T18:48:00.000Z

On Thursday we met to talk about A Week in December. The overall verdict was that it was a bit disappointing, and didn't really deliver, but that this shouldn't put people off reading other Sebastian Faulks books as some of them are really very good.

The winning book for next time is Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.

Runners up were:
Engleby - Sebastian Faulks
My Name is Daphne Fairfax - Arthur Smith
Life Ascending - Nick Lane
One Day - David Nicholls
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch
Seven Types of Ambiguity - Elliot Perlman
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder

We'll be meeting on 25th November in Mango Landin as usual.

However we're still talking about a change in venue, and there is a pub crawl planned on Wed Nov 17th to check out a few other possible places. If you have any suggestions please post them up here - it needs to be fairly quiet on a Thursday night so we can get a table and hear each other talking, and somewhere in Brixton.

We'll also be planning some sort of Christmas meal at the next meeting, again any suggestions for where/when are welcome.

Hope to see you on the 25th! Message me if you need any further info.

Well that was interesting...

2010-10-15T10:46:00.000+01:00

Last night we had a very interesting discussion about Infidel, coming to the conclusion that ultimately men are to blame for all of the world's problems, and that the book had one of the best opening pages ever even if it is full of quite a lot of sweeping generalisations.

Book for next time is A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. Next meeting is on the 4th November at a location to be confirmed. We're on the lookout for a quieter venue since the bring your own record evening is a bit loud. Unless we all bring a copy of four minutes thirty three seconds. Suggestions welcome.

Pete drew a Rainbow Panda

Runners up included: Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Bluest Eye, Never Let Me Go and The Feast of the Goat

Infidel

2010-09-28T17:26:00.003+01:00

Herzog was a real love it or hate it book. Some copies ended up dumped in France after 100 pages, but others really really liked it, and had a good chat about it.

Jungle Book was also a bit mixed. (Pete liked it, but was sad he wasn't there to talk about it)

Book for next time is:

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Runners up were:

The White Tiger- Aravind Adiga
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes - Robert L Stevenson
Brideshead Revisited- Evelyn Waugh
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi - Geoff Dyer
The Woman Destroyed- Simone De Beauvoir

Date of the next meeting is Oct 14th, which is the day after Wolf Hall, now set for the 13th. Probably in Mango Landin, but the noisy bring your own record evening might mean we're on the lookout for a new pub.

Thanks to Alison for taking notes!

The king of the swingers

2010-08-19T22:40:00.001+01:00

Right, everyone seemed to love the Graveyard book by Neil Gaiman, so next time we're reading two books:
The Jungle Book
(which inspired Neil to write about graveyards) and Herzog which is about losing one's mind and writing lots of letters.

Next meeting is on the 23rd of September in Mango Landin (as lots of you people are away on holiday) so you have 5 weeks to get reading.

I'd had a few drinks by this point

Runners up included: Out, Palestine, Orlando, The Shadow Of The Wind and The Grapes of Wrath

The Graveyard Book

2010-08-01T20:56:00.003+01:00

Great chat about the Poisonwood Bible last time in the garden of Mango Landin.

The book for next time is The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman.

Runners up include:
Deaf Sentence,The Grapes of Wrath,Scott Pilgrim - Scott's Pilgrim's Precious Little Life: Volume 1,Tender Is the Night,The Complete Cosmicomics

Special mention to: Bel-ami
which only just missed out - so optional to read as well, but will be suggested again next time.

See you on the 19th August! We'll be at Mango Landin from around 7.30.

The Poisonwood Bible

2010-07-20T21:43:00.002+01:00

Another nice outdoor meet up last time, though only a few of us had managed to get hold of the Freak and the Idol. The book for next time is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. We were going to meet on 5th August, but it turns out that Lis can't make that day so it's going to be the 29th July after all. We'll be in Mango Landin from about 7.30, talking about the book from around 8.00.

The runners up were:
Andrea Dworkin - Pornography
Abraham Verghese - Cutting for Stone
Joseph Heller - Picture This
Aravind Adiga - White Tiger
Steve Toltz - A Fraction of a Whole

See you there!

The Glass Room

2010-06-01T20:39:00.003+01:00

Once again the sun was shining on Brixton Book Group and we sat outside at Mango Landin. Everyone enjoyed the Hotel New Hampshire and we had a good chat.

The book for next time is The Glass Room by Simon Mawer.

Runners up were:
George Orwell - Down and Out in Paris and London
Jenny Diski - Monkey's Uncle
Thomas Middleton - Women Beware Women
Saul Bellow - Seize the Day
David Vann - Legend of the Suicide

We've got a 4 week gap, so next time is the 17th june. See you then!

The Hotel New Hampshire

2010-05-10T14:15:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

The book for the next meeting is: The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving

Runners up were:
The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood (sequel to Oryx and Crake)
Less Than Zero - Brett Easton Ellis
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
The Omnivores Dilemma - Michael Pollen
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - Alan Sillitoe
Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow
The Glass Room - Simon Mawer

Hope to see you on May 20th, and fingers crossed for more good weather!

Oryx and Crake

2010-04-12T13:49:00.001+01:00

Apologies are due since I managed to miss the last meeting by being on holiday. So I'm not sure what everyone thought about postcard writing and the german resistance. If anyone feels like adding something, please do.

The book for next time is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and the meeting will be on Thursday, 29 April in Mango Landin at 7.30ish.

Alone in Berlin

2010-03-22T14:34:00.000Z

Just a quick post to note that the next book is Alone in Berlin by Hans Falada - next meeting will be on 8th April in Mango Landin.
More soon.

Freebies: Our Tragic Universe

2010-03-10T12:56:00.000Z

Hi everyone. Thanks to Waterstones I have 10 copies of Scarlet Thomas's new book Our Tragic Universe to give away - it's not published yet so you get to read it first.

I gave out a few copies at the last meeting so will be bringing the remainder to our next meeting. The books are free but it would be nice if you would consider making a donation to our fundraising appeal for RNIB.

If you've finished reading it please post a review on the Waterstones site (which might encourage them to send us more stuff in the future) or even better swap your copy with another member. For anyone feeling creative you can also post a review on here as well.

Just a reminder: next meeting is on Thursday 18th March in Mango Landin

There's a sting in the tale

2010-02-27T12:19:00.001Z

Sorry that was an awful pun. We had a fabulous meeting, and very much enjoyed having the company of Alex Wheatle to talk about East of Acre Lane (watch this space for a review). The book for next time is The Wasp Factory
by Iain Banks (remember if you suggest it, you have to come next time!).

Runners up in no particular order are: Dark Heart: The Shocking Truth About Hidden Britain,Interpreter of Maladies: Stories of Bengal, Boston and Beyond,The Unlimited Dream Company,Ugly and The Glass Room

I'll check next time in case there is comedy on at the same time (apologies - Thursday is usually a quiet evening).

Next meeting is in 3 weeks Thursday 18th March in Mango Landin - if there's an event on we'll go elsewhere and I'll post the location on here.

PS. Brixton Book group are fundraising to have talking book made by the RNIB - find out more here.

Genius fundraising ideas wanted...

2010-02-24T23:15:00.000Z

Ok last year we talked at a few meetings about doing a bit of fundraising for the RNIB - specifically for their talking book / braille book service, so I've got in touch and asked how we could help. £500 pays to record a children's book (like Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone) in unabridged form, £1,000 pays to record an adult book like Pride and Prejudice) in unabridged form and £1,500 pays for them to transcribe a book into braille.

We get to choose from a list of books they're planning to record or can suggest a book to be considered by the book selection panel.

I've added a link to the blog and will post it up on facebook as well - quite a lot of people email me to ask if there's a joining fee etc. so I'm going to suggest to make a donation.
The justgiving page is at http://www.justgiving.com/BrixtonBookGroup

I might bake some cakes too. If anyone has any genius ideas please get in touch or leave a comment - we had a few ideas a while ago so hopefully our collective geniuses will come up with something!.

A little bit more to the east

2010-02-06T15:15:00.003Z

Well we had a lovely chat about bicycles, being dead and getting lost on Thursday and it was great to see some new faces.
The book for next time is East of Acre Lane by Alex Wheatle.

Runners up in no particular order were: Snow Crash, My Life as a Traitor: A Story of Courage and Survival in Tehran's Brutal Evin Prison, The Silver Darlings, American Wife, London
and A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Next meeting will be in three weeks time on the now new time of Thursday 25th February evening at 7.30ish onwards in Mango Landin.

Nearly New year's resolutions

2010-01-19T13:42:00.002Z

Hello everyone, and apologies with the delay in getting things going in the new year (something to do with starting a job in another city). I'm sure like many of you I've resolved to do lots more reading and have a very long commute to make the most of (every cloud).

The book for this time is The Third Policeman well at least I think it is. If not it looks interesting anyway and we can vote on what to read next.

We're meeting on a Thursday 4th Feb in Mango Landin from about 7.30ish - everyone and anyone is welcome.

Happy new year!

Christmas meal plans

2009-12-03T10:48:00.003Z

Hi - the official Brixton Book Group Christmas dinner is on Wednesday 9th December - meet in Mango Landin at 7pm and then on to Khan's for a curry

bring a book and wrap it up for the secret santa book swap
watch out for special guest appearances!

please let me know numbers - rsvp on facebook or by email!

Highly improbable, but not sabotaged from the future

2009-11-12T10:18:00.003Z

Well it seems The End of Mr Y went down a storm, so before everyone goes off and mixes up their own carbo-veg / holy water mixture and vanishes into the trophosphere here is the book for next time: Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie.

Will post the runners up soon, but I'm trying to be more efficient these days.

Next meeting is on Wednesday 2nd of December, in Mango Landin (with newly refurbished loos!)

Getting there eventually...

2009-10-21T16:58:00.001+01:00

Though it took a while to get into, everyone enjoyed Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and found plenty of gory details to talk about.

Calendar confusion, illness and the looming weekend meant we were a bit thin on the ground, but we still came up with a picture page and book for next time - the The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas.

Other books people suggested were City of Thieves by David Benioff, The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, and Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov"

Next meeting will be in Mango Landin on Wednesday the 11th of November

Wow the author came along and everything

2009-09-23T10:43:00.003+01:00

We had the pleasure of Stella Duffy's company at the last book group meeting which was fun, if slightly unexpected because I forgot to tell everyone (sorry) - that's the rollercoaster of emotions you can expect from Brixton Book Group. Plus now you get the excitement of knowing that the author might just turn up, so be careful about suggesting anything by Will Self.

The book for next time is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and I'm suggesting we meet on the 8th of October because I've been late at putting this up (please let me know if you object)

I'll update this with the other books pronto!

I keep losing things..

2009-08-28T11:28:00.004+01:00

Had a lovely meeting although Mango Landin is now looking a little bit busy on a Wednesday, so if anyone has any suggestions of somewhere to try (that doesn't show football) I'm up for a recce, although we will need to test the beer.

Vile bodies went down well - although it was ironic to hear that a gossip columnist has just been appointed to the most read newspaper in the UK.

Book for next time is The Room of Lost Things by Stella Duffy, it's set in Brixton and is about a dry cleaners.

Runners up were:
A Tale of Two Cities
Under the Skin
Farewell, My Lovely
One Big Damn Puzzler
Human Love
Vernon God Little
For Esme - with Love and Squalor: and Other Stories

as always you can read the book we chose, or read something else as well or instead of and blag your way using Wikipedia (I never do this).

Next meeting: 16th September (probably) in Mango Landin unless you hear otherwise...

In other news: we're going to be fundraising for RNIB so let me know ideas for events - so far we have: A party where we can wear nice dresses / cake sale / come dine with me / paid film party showing films of book we've read / abseil down the side of the British Library - email me or watch this space.

And Clapham Book Group now has a web page - first meeting will be 23rd September in the Bread & Roses pub.

Vile weather

2009-08-10T22:21:00.004+01:00

The History of Love was pretty well liked despite outwardly looking a bit too chick lit. We had a nice chat in the Mango Landin garden, which is more than we could have done tonight, since the monsoon appears to have hit Brixton.

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh is the next choice - it's been suggested a few times, and finally won a vote.

Other suggestions were:
Saturday - Ian Mcwan
The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
Netherlands
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick Suskind
Cry, the Beloved Country: A Story of Comfort in Desolation - Alan Paton
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Suzanne Clark

Next meeting: Wednesday, 26 August 2009 in Mango Landin

Shameless plug for my cycle race..

2009-07-28T15:36:00.002+01:00

Ok, sorry about this as it doesn't have much (anything really) to do with books, but I consulted the official book group rules*, and we have done this in the past when one of our members ran in a race for charity.

I'm cycling 20km this weekend in the London Triathlon - in fact I'm going to have to cycle further than that to actually get to the venue, so it's clearly a test of skill and determination. I'm raising money for the World Development Movement (a kick-ass campaigning organisation who campaign for justice for the world's poor) and you can sponsor me at: www.justgiving.com/petetaylor

*Ok there aren't any rules, but sponsor me a few quid and i'll vote for your book next time - whatever it happens to be - even if it's a Richard and Judy book club book.

Love among thieves

2009-07-17T13:32:00.005+01:00

Well Billy Liar went down well, unless everyone was pretending about that as well. Next time the book is The History of Love by Nicole Krauss which beat the The Book Thief but only just.

Other runners up included:The Loved One, The World without Us , The Koran, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
(which has to win a prize for the best title of a book ever) and Under Milk Wood.

Next meeting is on the 5th of August at Mango Landin, usual time.

In other news: I'm looking into helping getting a book group going in Clapham, and we're going to do some fundraising for the RNIB - details will follow but contact me if you want to help!

Tony Blair

2009-06-27T11:10:00.005+01:00

We had a lovely meeting with a real live author - Jayne Joso came and chatted about her book Soothing Music for Stray Cats, which isn't about cats, but does have music in it.

The book for next time is Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse.
runners up were:
Fat is a feminist issue by Susan Orbach
Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell
Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig
Woman's World by Graham Rawle
The Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irwin

Next meeting is on the 15th July in Mango Landin (in the beer garden if it's sunny)

Meet the author

2009-06-08T13:36:00.007+01:00

Hi,
after an evening of zombie mayhem we decided to read: Soothing Music for Stray Cats by Jayne Joso. Jayne has offered to come along and talk about her book.

It's about cats. And music. Well not really it's "Songwriting, Suicide and Samurai philosophy (or some such)"

Runners up included:
Infinite Jest, Infinite Summer
The Room of Lost Things
The Book Thief
The Road Home
The Once and Future King
Woman's World (the book not the periodical)

Plus we talked about how nice it would be to write a letter to a friend using a pen rather than a word-processor.

I also had fun drawing Zombies.

Next meeting is on 24th June in Mango Landin

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

2009-05-15T13:48:00.002+01:00

After a busy evening of talking about spoilt princesses, sadistic Kings, talking sausages and impractical architecture we decided (after tossing a coin, in accordance with book group rules*) to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

You can get a fiver off the book from Firebox if you use the special Brixton Book Group code: BRIXTON in the voucher box at the checkout.

Runners up - which you're welcome to read as well - included: East of Acre Lane, The Satanic Verses, The Dice Man, The Lovely Bones, American Pastoral, Pickwick papers, Madame Bouvary and The Handmaid's tale.

Next meeting is the 3rd June in Mango Landin.

In the Brixton Book Group postbag...

2009-05-12T13:35:00.002+01:00

Every now and again I get sent stuff so here is an offer to meet an author and go to another (clearly not as good as Brixton) book group meeting.

Sadly I never seem to get any really nice freebies (Kindle? something-not-published-yet?)

Message follows:

Join A Reading Group With A Difference. Meet the author.

Should you be free on the evening of June 8th I am starting up a Reading Group in conjunction with the Southwark News. Once a month we will meet up and discuss a book. The author of the book will also be present for part of the evening and can answer your questions about the book, or getting into writing.

The venue is the new Shortwave Cinema in Bermondsey Square. 7.00 Start. Atmosphere will be informal. Group will provide a chance for people to socialise, as well as talk about literature.

The first book up for discussion will be Imogen Robertson's Instruments of Darkness. Please note the book will not be published till May 14th. Isbn 9780755348404

Please email info@shortwavefilms.co.uk should you wish to attend. Event is free, but please reserve a place in advance.

Instruments of Darkness, by Imogen Robertson
Daphne du Maurier meets CSI in this exhilarating debut Sussex, 1780. Anatomist and recluse Gabriel Crowther is reluctantly drawn into the lives of local high society when a dead body is found by impulsive, frustrated Harriet Westerman. Her lands share a boundary with the great estate of the county, Thornleigh Hall, home of the crippled Earl of Sussex, his beautiful second wife and his alcoholic younger son. The Earl's heir disappeared after a family dispute some fifteen years earlier, and has not been seen since. Meanwhile, in London, two children lose their father in a violent attack. Their new young guardian, a young writer, attempts to protect them in the confusion of the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots as he dodges his creditors among the alleyways, and learns more of his wards' complicated history -- which may lead back to Sussex. When a second body is discovered near Thornleigh Hall, the pressures on Harriet and Gabriel begin to mount and the secrets of the Hall, both ancien
t and modern, threaten to overwhelm them all.

Imogen Robertson lives in Southwark. She won the Daily Telegraph Crime Writing Competition. She is also a film maker and poet.

If you have any questions or wish to obtain a discounted signed and dedicated copy of Instruments of Darkness please contact nicolabudd.chalke@hotmail.co.uk

Grimm and bear it

2009-04-17T16:44:00.004+01:00

The book for next time is Grimm's Fairy Tales - as there seem to be numerous versions of this it might make it interesting to see what people bring, although the official version we're reading is the Penguin Classics version.

Next meeting is on the 13th of May in Mango Landin. Practically summer.

Runners up were:
Vile Bodies - Evelyn Waugh
War and Peace - Tolstoy
Lord of the Flies - Wiliam Golding
The Road Home - Rose Tremain
The Fountain
The Book Thief
Tortilla Flat - John Steinbeck
Madame Bovary

and I wrote something in my book about the beard song which doesn't make sense any more.

PS the version we're reading looks like this:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

2009-03-26T17:48:00.001Z

is the book for next time. We'll be meeting in Brixton on Wednesday the 15th of April. Be there.

Who watches the watchmen?

2009-03-05T14:21:00.004Z

The book for next time is Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons - next meeting is on Wednesday 25th of March in Mango Landin'

Runners up were:
Wetlands
God's own country
Bad traffic
White noise
Alfred and Emily
Wuthering heights
Middlemarch
Lark rise to Candleford
The brief wonderous life of Oscar Wilder

I'm so sorry Anne, Meryl, Kristin - and who's the other one?

2009-02-12T12:03:00.003Z

The book for next time is Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.

Runners up were:

Watchmen

Wuthering Heights

Dracula

Everything is illuminated

A thousand splendid suns

Das reader

By the sea

Wetland

The brief wonderous life of Oscar Wilde

White noise

The time traveller's wife

The picture of Dorien Grey

Vernon god little

God's own country

The golden notebook

The outcast

Next meeting: 4th March in Mango Landin

Lolita

2009-01-15T18:00:00.002Z

After reading Shutter Island (he's a patient) we had a lively discussion and decided to read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

Date for next meeting is Wednesday 11th of Feb in Mango Landin.

Runners up were:
A thousand splendid suns
My name is red
Engleby
Revolutionary road
The promise of happiness
Perfume
Everything is illuminated
and What a carve up!

Shutter Island

2009-01-02T12:14:00.001Z

Happy new year! the next book is Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

We will be meeting at 7.30ish in our regular haunt (Mango Landin) on Wednesday the 14th of January

Book Group Christmas Party

2008-12-11T18:19:00.001Z

Will be in the Bonnington Café on the 16th of December

please RSVP to pete.taylor(at )gmail.com

Lets all go to the tate and be arty

2008-11-13T17:08:00.003Z

Next meeting: in the Tate Modern turbine hall on Sunday 7th December at 3pm

We're reading the Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick (one of the books featured in the TH.2058 installation (see the Tate website for more info)

Runners up included:

Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane, The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas, The Flounder - Gunter Grass, Moad is my Wash Pot - Stephen Fry, The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett, Blindness - Sarah Mago, and Never Let me Go, The L Shaped Room and Things to Come (the film)

Our Christmas do with be on December 16th - put the date in your diary now!

Apples and pears

2008-10-23T13:29:00.003+01:00

The book for next time is Apples by Richard Milward.
Runners up were:
Germinal Emile Zola
The Sea, the sea Iris Murdoch
Disgrace Jim Coetzee
Something about drifters in Iceland
The Book Thief Markus Zusak

Next meeting: Tuesday 11 November in Mango Landin at 7.30ish (meaning we probably won't get there till 7.45)

We can be Heros (of our time)

2008-09-25T13:36:00.002+01:00

After a burning discussion of Fahernheit 451 we decided on A Hero of our Time by Mikhail Iur'evich Lermontov

It's short and modern, and you've got 4 weeks to read it since the next meeting is on the 22nd of October.

Runners up were (in no particular order)
The fish can sing - Halldor Laxless
Then kill your friends - Jon Niven
How green was my valley - Richard Llwellyn
The way I found you - Rose Tremaine
Dirt music - Tim Winton
Jude the obscure - Thomas Hardy
Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas
Something from the Bible
The Night Watch - Sarah Waters
Shire hell - by the idiot's sister

As a special bonus you can also read Did I ever tell you how lucky you are by Dr Seuss. It'll do you good.

It's getting hot in here..

2008-09-01T13:57:00.004+01:00

After discussing ~~I know what you did last summer~~ The Secret History which everyone universally enjoyed and thought wasn't at all slow paced dullness where nothing happened and all the characters were multi-dimensional, believable automatons we chose the next book:

This week's book is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

runners up were:

Money - Martin Amis
Shabby Tiger - Howard Spring
If on a winter's night a traveller - Italo Calvino
A million little pieces - James Frey
The Phantom toll booth
A fraction of the whole
I am a cat - Soesemi Matsuke
Bonjour tristrese

Next meeting: Wednesday 24th September at 7.30 in Mango Landin

The Secret History

2008-08-07T16:23:00.002+01:00

The book for next time is the Secret History by Donna Tartt

next meeting is on 27th August in Mango Landin*

*or another pub if we find a better one.

living in a box..

2008-07-16T11:12:00.003+01:00

..a ~~cardboard~~ heart-shaped box

After discussing The End of Alice (which I didn't like, but wasn't there so everyone probably disagrees with me on that one)

The book for next time is:

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill.

Runners up were:
Engleby - Sebastian Faulks
Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
What is the What - Dave Eggers
Bitter Chocolat - Lesley Koko
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

Next meeting on Wed 6th August (4 weeks not 3), at Mango Landin again.

If you're new look out for the people with the books. And the drinks. Or just ask, it's quite a good chat up line.

The End of Alice

2008-06-18T12:43:00.001+01:00

next book is the End of Alice - next meeting is Wednesday 9th July in Mango Landin

Neverwhere

2008-05-22T12:13:00.003+01:00

Next book is Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - meeting is on Tuesday 17th of June in Mango Landin

Special offer for book group members

2008-05-21T12:40:00.002+01:00

Another one in the Brixton Book Group postbag:

Dickens Unplugged

Comedy Theatre, London

2 tickets for the price of 1!

Dickens Unplugged takes you on an extraordinary journey through the life and works of Charles Dickens. Brought to the stage by founder member of the Reduced Shakespeare Company and hilariously performed by a company of talented actor-musicians, this is a side-splitting, top-hat tipping, aisle-rolling, musical extravaganza.

This fantastic offer is valid for tickets costing £46, and is available until 30 June 2008. Performances are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7.30pm, Thursday and Saturday at 3pm and Sunday at 4pm.

To book, simply contact the box office on 0870 060 6637 and quote ‘Book Group offer’. Subject to availability.

Although it's still £46.

Beware Egyptian Cotton

2008-05-07T11:40:00.003+01:00

This weeks book is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller - chosen I think because the person who always suggests it wasn't there.

Runners up included Imperial Life in the Emerald City (a sort of modern Catch 22 set in Iraq) Blood Meridian, Beowulf, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The People's act of Love, The Great Gastby and This Book will save your life.

Next meeting is on the 21st of May in Mango Landin @7.30ish although if it's nice shall we go to the park?

Dreamtime

2008-04-17T13:16:00.003+01:00

We discussed The Man who was Thursday last night - a must read book although the ending got a bit biblical.

Book for next time is the lovely Persepolis (which i think got mentioned before as a result of this meeting last year, but my ex has my copy)

With a bonus book group mission of writing your own Persepolis style childhood memory...

and lets go and see the film - details to appear here and on facebook shortly.

Next meeting is in 2 weeks time 30th April in Mango Landin.

The man who was Thursday on Wednesday

2008-03-31T22:15:00.003+01:00

This week we discussed The Age of Reason which was surprisingly readable but a bit shallow.

The Book for next time is the Man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton.

Runners up were:
If nobody speaks of remarkable things - John McGregor
No one belongs to him more than you - Miranda July
and What was lost - Catherine 'o Quinn

Next meeting: Wednesday 16th April in Mango Landin (rapidly becoming the Book Group local)

Reasonable

2008-03-06T11:47:00.003Z

Lovely to see lots of people at book group last night - we discussed the merits of The Diving bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre Et Le Papillon) and decided to go and see the film (will post more details on here).

The book for next time is the Clio-inspired not SSSSShakespeare but Jean-Paul Sartre The Age of Reason.

runners up included:
Nights of the Circus by Angela Carter
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
The aspidistra flying by George Orwell
Beyond Black by Hilary Mentell
Gods own Country by someone from Yorkshire
Death of a murderer by Rupert Thomspon
and Love in the time of Cholera.

I also wrote something down about With their backs to the world, but I can't read my writing.

Next meeting is in 3 weeks time: Wednesday 26th of March. I'm going on a flash mob to Heathrow that day, so someone might have to deputise if I get arrested.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

2008-02-21T11:58:00.002Z

Hi,
just a few of us discussed the reluctant fundamentalist - the book for next time is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a translation of the French memoir Le scaphandre et le papillon by journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby. It describes what his life is like after suffering a massive stroke that left him with a condition called Locked-In syndrome.

The entire book was written by Bauby blinking his left eyelid. An amanuensis repeatedly recited a frequency-ordered alphabet (E, L, A, O, I, N, S, D ...), until Bauby blinked to choose the next letter. The book took about 200,000 blinks to write and each word took approximately two minutes.
Runners up were: Vernon God Little, The Elfish Gene and The Butterfly Collector.

Date of next Meeting: Wednesday 5th March (note only two weeks, but it's a short book) in Mango Landin on Brixton Water Lane.

Reluctant fundamentalism

2008-02-10T15:01:00.000Z

(Apologies for the delay!)

Last time we read and enjoyed The Colour of Memory by Richard Dyer.

Book for next time is:

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
with The Book with the Missing First Page and other stories by Alex Andronov as a bonus (since it comes with a think back guarantee )

Runners up were:
Mr Pipp - Lloyd Jones
The Songlines - Bruce Chaton
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby
Sunset Song - Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Disgraced - J. M. Coetzee
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir

Next meeting is on Wednesday 20th February in Mango Landin

Local books from local authors

2008-01-09T21:15:00.001Z

Lots of people in the pub this evening...
Book for next time is:
The colour of memory by Geoff Dyer

runners up were:
A million different pieces by James Frey
Wizard of the crow Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver
Janice Dunn's Confessions of a rock journalist
Fiesta Ernest Hemmingway
Snow Orhan Pamuk
Generation X Douglas Copeland

Next meeting: 30th January in Mango Landin

new year new meeting...

2008-01-07T12:46:00.000Z

Hello! just kicking off the new year with a Brixton Book Group meeting in Mango Landin on Wednesday 9th January
http://www.mangolandin.com/
which is about 5 minutes from the Tube. I might do a mini visit beforehand to see if its all right. We'll be having a fresh start to the year so bring a book suggestion!
just watch out for the people with the books.

Meal booked

2007-12-04T14:15:00.000Z

Ok I've booked a table for 10 people at the Bonnington at 8pm - we're meeting in the pub round the corner The Royal Oak at 6.30
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/74/7455/Royal_Oak/Vauxhall#picture

Aged Punks and Christmas meal

2007-11-16T10:18:00.000Z

annoyingly the pub last night was invaded by aged punks but we still

managed to have a chat about Pattern Recognition when they'd all left
to go and watch the sex pistols (I thought they were dead)

Book for next time is:
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Next meeting is the annual christmassy meal!

Wednesday 5th December - venue to be announced (thinking of either the
Bonnington Café or Ferndales)

Instead of the usual format everyone brings a book wraps it up and
gives it to someone else! Santa might even make an appearance...

*Please let me know if you can definately make it, and your preference
of venue as I need to book*

*Plus I've noticed that we have 50+ people on this email list (and 4
people at last night's meeting) - please let me know if you still want
to get book group emails. We do have the group on facebook and the
blog for details of the meetings*

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2397588773

http://brixtonbookgroup.blogspot.com/

*I'm going to look for some better venues for book club meetings - so
if anyone knows of a quietish pub with enough seating on wednesday
nights, or would like to join me for a wednesday pub crawl / recce let
me know!*

Pattern Recognition

2007-10-30T15:05:00.000Z

We discussed On Beauty by Zadie Smith (it was ok - not amazing, not awful).
The book for next time is Pattern recognition by William Gibson. We'll be meeting on wednesday 14th November at the Canterbury Arms.

Runners up were:
The Ballad of Lee Cotton
The Third Policeman
Crying of lot 49
Out Stealing Horses
Madame Bovary

On beauty

2007-10-04T14:13:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,
last night we discussed the Time Travellers Wife -
Book for next time is:
On Beauty by Zadie Smith

Runners up were:
Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe
Pattern recognition by William Gibson
Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Terrorist by John Updyke

Next Meeting is on THURSDAY 25th October in the Trinity Arms.

Crossbows: ouch

2007-09-17T13:55:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone - apologies for the delay:

(Notes from Alison)

Everyone enjoyed the book, and we a long but inconclusive discussion
about whether Kevin was intrinsically evil or whether it was his mothers
fault. We also talked about how the ending is still shocking/surprising
even though the murder of his sister and dad and use of crossbow rather
than a gun is heavily signalled through the book once you know about it.

The book we chose for next time was The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey
Niffenegger.
The runners ups were:
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Snow - Orhan Pamuk
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
It went to a tie break between the winner, Snow, and Kafka on the Shore.
Weirdly I suggested Kafka on the Shore though I hadn't seen your email
at the time - has been sitting on my shelf for a while waiting to be
read. It was a close second, perhaps you should suggest it again next
time...

Next meeting: October 3rd in the Trinity Arms again (rapidly heading towards the status of Brixton Book Group Local)

We need to talk about Book Group...

2007-08-22T09:53:00.001+01:00

This week we discussed A Concise Chinese English Dictionary for lovers, and gave it a thumbs up.

The book for next time is: We need to talk about Kevin, by Lionel Shriver.
Runners up were:
For whom the bell tolls - Ernest Hemmingway
The testament of Gideon Mack - James Robertson
Two lives - Vikram Seth
The kite runner - Khaled Hossini
Salmon fishing in the Yemen - Paul Torday

next meeting in 3 weeks time on a Wednesday 12th September. In the Trinity Arms again - fingers crossed for a September heatwave...

Copies of A Concise Chinese ENglish Dictionary for Lovers

2007-08-02T11:44:00.000+01:00

Amber has offered to post out review copies if you email her with a request. Alternatively it's available online from about 6 quid so it's not too expensive for a hardback. See the link here.

I love 1982

2007-08-02T11:31:00.000+01:00

Black Swan Green got an overwhelming thumbs up from book group - despite Jason's attempts to swap his Big Trak for an MG, and the slightly overdone 1980's popular culture references to Findus Crispy Pancakes.

The book for next time is:

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
by Xiaolu Guo

Unfortunately it is only available in hardback, but it has been out for a while and Amber has offered to find some review copies - please check the blog for more details!

The runners up were:

For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemmingway
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Blindness by someonewhosenameicantreadmywriting

next meeting is on TUESDAY 21st August (not the normal Wednesday) back in the delightful Trinity Arms again.

The Road

2007-07-12T13:16:00.001+01:00

Last night we talked about the Road, which I think everyone enjoyed (despite its lack of ''""""") and we decided to give it The Brixton Book Group Thumbs up.

The Book for next time is Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

Runners up were:
VOX by Nicholson Baker
White Noise by Don Dellio
The Raw Shark Texts
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
and
Apples by Richard Millwod.

We might talk about Harry Potter if anyone's read it.

Next Meeting: 1st August in the Trinity Arms

Facebook

2007-07-10T18:25:00.000+01:00

We've now joined the 21st Century web 2.1 and have a facebook account:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2397588773

i think that should work if you click on it once you've logged in...

Very Naughty!

2007-06-21T14:59:00.000+01:00

Following an exciting discussion where (with one or two exceptions) we universally panned the Dirty Havanna Trilogy we decided on Cormac McCarthy the Road as the next book to read.
Runners up were: The Wisdom of Crocodiles by Paul Hoffman, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, White Noise by Don Delillo, Experience by Martin Amis, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie. Someone also mentioned The Cub Hunting Season by Steve Ferris.

Next meeting is in 3 weeks time Wednesday 11th July in ~~the Trinity Arms again.~~

sorry I mean't to say the back garden of the Duke of Edinburgh!

All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies

2007-05-31T13:08:00.001+01:00

Last night we discussed war and the end of the world in Cat's Cradle and 1950's attitudes towards homosexuality in the Chrysalids. Although everyone seemed to enjoy both books, Kurt Vonnegurt just managed to push John Wyndham into second place as Brixton Book Group's favourite pre/post apocalyptic writer.

The book for next time is the Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutierrez (Author), and Natasha Wimmer (Translator).

Runners up were:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Less than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis
The Night Watch by Sarah Walters
Unless by Carol Shields
and Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.

Next meeting: Wednesday 20th of June in the Trinity Arms
at 7.30ish

Speculative fiction double bill!

2007-05-11T16:04:00.000+01:00

We had a lovely meeting on Wednesday, where we were a little bit divided on Mother's Milk; it seemed that those who had read the preceeding trilogy had a lot more sympathy for Patrick, whereas those who hadn't found him an irritating 40 something going through a mid life crisis.

Book(s) to read for next time are: Cats Cradle by the late great Kurt Vonnegurt and The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.

And for posterity here is a picture of the cover of the Chrysalids that my parents deemed so offensively irrelevant to the book they tore it off:

Next meeting is in three weeks time on Wednesday the 30th of May in the Hope and Anchor again - hopefully this time we'll make it into the award winning garden to be over/underwhelmed.

runners up were:
House of the Spirits by Isabella Allende
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
How to lose friends and alienate people
Altered land by Jules Harvey
and Middlemarch by George Elliott

Mother's Milk

2007-04-16T17:41:00.001+01:00

Righto - sorry this is a bit late, but i've been a bit busy.

We all hated Great Apes by Will Self, but he was lacking supporters on the night!

Next time we're reading:
Mother's Milk by Edward St Aubyn

Runners up included: The Shipping News, Status Anxiety, Essays in Love, Ghostwritten, 1599 and a Handmaid's Tail.

We're meeting in 4 weeks time (from the last meeting) so that's Wednesday the 9th of May in the Hope and Anchor again, because it was quiet and had a big award-winning garden.

Great Apes

2007-03-22T12:59:00.000Z

Well after another busy book group meeting we decided that Music and Silence was brilliant, and that the next book we're going to read is Great Apes by local lad Will Self.

Also there are a few optional extras to do for next time:
#Read a graphic novel (could be anything from Fluffy to 2000AD)
#Come up with a good idea for a historical novel.

The next meeting is in the Hope and Anchor on the 11th of April (note: that's in four weeks time)

Runners up were:
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
The Revenge of Gaia by James (or Jim to those that know him) Lovelock
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Sallinger
Intimacy by Hanif Kereishi
Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
Nightwatch by Sarah Walters
and
The Song Before it's been Sung by Justin Cartright.

We've also decided to invite Will Self to the next meeting, and i'm sure he'll attend in an ironic way.

The Round Tower, Copenhagen

2007-03-21T15:40:00.000Z

As featured in Music and Silence - Christian did build his round tower after all...
it slopes all the way to the top where there is still an observatory.

Music and Silence at the RiTzY

2007-03-09T10:08:00.000Z

Hi everyone - right to make this official:

We're reading Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
next meeting is on WEDNESDAY the 21st of MARCH

so you've got plenty of time to read it.

The venue will be the RiTzY cafe bar (upstairs) - it gets busy so i
suggest you get there early - i'll wonder down from work and try and
get a table about 7ish

Brixton Book Gr-OOps!

2007-02-26T14:40:00.000Z

Hi everyone,
apologies for the mix up with the last meeting - the Tuesday was a one
off, and the original bar with no name was shut, although I don't
think everyone got the message that it was shut, so as a result we had
a really quiet meeting and missed everyone...

The only book suggested was Music and Silence by Rose Tremain. I would
really like to read this, although since it's longer do we need more
than the usual 3 weeks? I think sticking to Wednesdays too makes sense
since that's the usual time.

I've also been a bit busy the last few days, so apologies for the
lateness of this email - could everyone / anyone let me know their
preferences for reading, meeting and venue and i'll send a follow up
email this evening.

I've also posted this on the website if you want to leave your thoughts there.

ta,
PEte

The bar with no name...

2007-02-02T16:23:00.000Z

Last meeting we discussed Yeats is Dead by Roddy Doyle and 14 other Irish writers - it seemed more like a badly made charity record, but was interesting nonetheless.
The book to read for next time is: The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford. Runners up were: Notes on a scandal by Zoe Heller, The Great Gatsby Scott F Fitzgerald, A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle, How the Dead Live by local boy Will SElf, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and Music and Silence by Rose Tremain.
Next meeting: In the Bar with No Name on the 20th (Tuesday) of February.

Long live Yeats!

2007-01-11T10:22:00.000Z

Wow, after a superbly busy meeting where millions of new people turned up to read new and exciting books this year, we decided on the suitably unusual Yeats is Dead by Roddy Doyle, Frank McCourt, et al, and Joseph O'Connor .

Runners up this time included: Some hope by Edward St Aubyn, Music and Silence by Rose Tremaine, Arthur and George by Julian Barnes, The Boy who fell from the sky by ~~David Bowie~~ Ken Dornstein, Morvern Caller by Alan Warner, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón and The Game by Neil Straus 'The seduction master' (his own words).

Next meeting will be on the 31st of January in the Hope and Anchor.

Happy new year! (updated)

2007-01-03T15:28:00.000Z

Hi,
happy new year everyone! - I hope everyone had fun over christmas, and did lots of reading/drinking/eating and other seasonal type things.

I'm about to update the website with the photos from the Christmas party, and realised I hadn't put any details of this year's meetings up - I have a vague memory of us agreeing to meet up in January...

It seems like the overwhelming consensus is that we should have our
first meeting next week:

so thats Wednesday the 10th of January in the Trinity Arms

we'll be talking about what we read over Christmas, and suggesting
what to kick off 2007 with - so its an ideal first meeting for any
prospective book group members out there to come along to!

pub details are here.

best,
Pete

In the Brixton Book Group postbag

2006-12-01T12:06:00.000Z

Hello

I'm writing to ask if there's some way we can draw to the attention of Brixton Book Group members the launch of the Commuters Book Club? (www.commutersbookclub.com)

It's not a book club in the traditional sense but, rather, aims to encourage and facilitate book swapping amongst people who live in or travel through London. As you'll be aware, literally hundreds of thousands of Londoners read books on their daily commute. We're trying to set up a quick and safe system where all those people can swap all those books as they commute.

We're launching CBC with an offer of a year's free membership for the first 500 people to sign up. It would be great if these could go to real booklovers.

I'd be very grateful for your thoughts on if and how we can advise your members about CBC.

Many Thanks

Colin Clews
Director
Commuters Book Club
http://www.commutersbookclub.com

Expecting something great...

2006-11-20T14:18:00.000Z

The last meeting was held in the unexpectedly busy Trinity Arms. We talked about Flatland, and since we'd decided to continue with Great Expectations by Charles Dickens didn't hold a vote on what book to read. The Brixton book review will be posted on here shortly.

Next meeting will be our Christmas meal at the Bonnington Café on the 6th of December - since I need to book this I'll need to know if you're definately coming. Its veggie food and the booze policy is bring your own. Also, its traditional to bring along a book to give to someone in a secret santa-esq frenzy of seasonal goodwill.

Multidimensional Romance

2006-10-27T12:46:00.000+01:00

This week we discussed Blink by Malcolm Gladwell - this was our first popular science book we've read so far.
The Brixton Book Group Review was: Blink: less like a blink, more like a boring waking dream.. boo!; jumped-up good magazine article; thin-slicing, self help book in disguise; interesting anecdotes but contradictory argument; interesting concept; lots of good ideas but no idea what the main argument was.

Next time we're reading Flatland by Edwin A Abbott, and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (this might run over the next meeting or two).

Other books suggested were:
A fine balance by Rohinton Mistry
Music and Silence by rose Tremaine
You shall know our velocity by ave Eggars

We also decided that we should hold a Brixton Book Meeting in Newcastle in the new year, possibly in the "music room".

Next meeting: Wednesday 15th November in the Trinity Arms.

Oh and the IAT is available here.

Blink and you'll miss it

2006-10-09T10:38:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Anna for taking notes - normal service will be resumed next time:

Right, there was general consensus last night that Beyond Black was
really good, here are some of the comments offered:

"light-hearted yet harrowing"
"dark, comic and genuinely chilling"
"at times tedious"
"spooky, funny and gripping"

We nominated the following books:

'We need to talk about Kevin' Lionel Shriver
'The Time Travellers Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger
'In Cold Blood' by Truman Capote
'Freakonomics' by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
'Blink' by Malcolm Gladwell

and Blink won it so we'll be reading this for the next meeting on 25th
October where we will be meeitng at The Effra pub where apparently
there won't be any jazz on that evening. We also talked about the
Christmas dinner which we thought we should have at the Bonningtons
again - the date for the diary is the 6th December.

Beyond Black: Infrared?

2006-09-14T14:03:00.000+01:00

This week we talked about Indecision: the official Brixton Book Group review was..

"wittily written but with a bollocks excuse for a plot, damp squib not firework, a bit of a shame, and disappointing"

Next time we will be reading Beyond Black by Hilary Mantell

Runners up were:
Blindness by José Saramago
Experience by Martin Amis
The 911 Commision Report Graphic Novel

Next meeting: Wednesday 4th October in the Trinity Arms

Meet the Hoff

2006-09-13T14:49:00.000+01:00

The Hoff will be signing books in Waterstones on the 15th
More details

Party

2006-09-12T16:42:00.000+01:00

My flatmate's celebrating her birthday in October - please come!!