The Story So Far

Seven of us met this month, welcomed into the home of Erilys.  However, some of us, despite gathering in the house of a former teacher, had failed to do our reading homework!  Previously, with all good intentions, we thought it might be interesting to tackle a classic – The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens.  Our founder member reported that she thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of us had read the opening chapters, others had progressed a little further and one member, although she had not managed the whole book (yet) provided us with some interesting newspaper articles featuring the Old Curiosity Shop.

So we spoke about the changing times, and in fact how many of the social problems in the days of Dickens are still relevant today. The original telling of the tragic story of Little Nell was by serialised instalments (the literary soap of the day) and it was suggested a good way to tackle the book may be a chapter at a time.  Like any soap today there are villains and heroines, compassion, injustice – 72 chapters (episodes if you prefer) no less of wonderful quirky characters, beautiful descriptive passages and intense situations.  So, although not all of us completed our assignment, it was pretty impressive that by us merely owning a copy of the book today Mr Dickens had managed to provoke some meaningful discussion.

As usual we all had books to exchange and along with books we discussed cakes, trees, William Morris, the wonderful voices of the WI, holidays …… so, it would appear its good to talk as well as read!  The next meeting will be held at the Bengal Lancer in Longbridge Road – so anybody up for curry and conversation should come along on Wednesday 14^th of December at 7pm.  As its Christmas it was decided that we would all bring a gift of a wrapped book, one that we have particularly enjoyed – a wonderful idea.  Will anyone receive The Old Curiosity Shop, I wonder?  

A suggested to read was The Time of my Life by Cecilia Ahern – and it will be interesting to see if more of us complete the journey of Little Nell. 

New readers welcome – wrap a book you would like to share and come along on the 14^th – guaranteed an excellent curry in good company.

October Book Club

Our August meeting was at the Japanese restaurant in Barking town centre, just a few days after they'd cleared up after the local riot. We were given a friendly welcome, and the menu was carefully explained to those of us who didn't know anything about Japanese cuisine. With our book of the month on the table ('Afterwards' by Rosamund Lupton) our waiter joined in the discussion from time to time, telling us what a good book it was and how we ought to read 'Sister' by the same author! It was a nice change to discuss a book over a good meal (can recommend the restaurant). Some were more enthusiastic about out of body experiences than others, some felt it was just a bit too long but we all agreed that the plot was intriguing, the characters believable, and that we'd enjoyed reading it. Conversation then turned to the rather wet picnic and those who failed to find it, achievement at school, summer holidays, the ageing process, the riots, moving house....... well, whoever said we just meet to talk about books.

Someone suggested choosing a classic for our next meeting, so we're reading 'The Old Curiosity Shop' by Charles Dickens. Come and join us on Wednesday 12th October at 7.30 pm at Eirlys's home (details via the blog). You'll be very welcome.

The Book Club So Far

Book Club

Book Club Meeting Three and August details
At the last get together the book club met at Elaine’s house and talked, among other things, about  two books we had jointly chosen the previous month – Trespass by Rose Tremain and The News Where you Are by Catherine O’Flynn.  Two very different books, one dark and sinister set in France  and the other funny and uplifiting set in a fictional city (could it be Birmingham?).   

There were shared takes on both books, but also some quite different conceptions from individual members.  That’s exactly what’s so interesting, meeting and discussing – voicing an opinion or listening and understanding others.    We don’t analyse too much just enjoy and appreciate a good read.

Next month we have chosen Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton and we will be meeting on 15th August at 7pm in Barking at the Japanese Restaurant Ouishi Sushi - a great opportunity to sample Japanese cuisine (not raw fish) and take another small literary journey, set in London this time.   Alternatively just listen, digest some excellent food and some interesting ideas from the fellow WI readers.  (We don’t have to agree on everything – except enjoying ourselves.)

Hope to welcome some new readers.

Details of the next book club - Wednesday 15th JuneBecause of all the bank holidays, we're meeting again on Wed 15th June at 7.30 at Elaine's house (details via emailing the blog) and we'll be reading 'Trespass' by Rose Tremain and 'The news where you are' by Catherine O'Flynn. Please don't feel you have to buy the books, as they can all be borrowed from libraries. Cheap secondhand books can be bought from site such ashttp://www.abebooks.com/, http://www.play.com/ or http://www.amazon.com/, but watch the postage, which can sometimes cost more than the book! Hopefully some books will be available to borrow at the WI meetings in May and June. If you enjoy reading, come and join us - we're not terribly earnest and intense, just enjoy books and chat. If anyone is reading other books you'll be very welcome to talk about them too.

Book Club Meeting Two
16th March - another successful Book Group meeting - we discussed Alan Bennett's 'A life like other people's'. Sorry, Mr Bennett, but we weren't all that impressed. The book was taken from parts of his other writing and didn't seem to fit together very well. The larger part of it dealt with his mother's mental illness and eventual dementia, and although this was a bit depressing, it was interesting (and sometimes nerveracking) to read about the treatments taking place from the 1950's. Light relief was provided by his two eccentric aunts.
Book Club Meeting One
A first successful meeting for the Book Group. We discussed quite a few books that folk had read/enjoyed (not necessarily the same thing...) and it was good to know what other people were reading and what they thought. Fortunately no-one seemed shy at expresing a point of view! We discussed various web sites where  books could be bought cheaply, and found out about interesting book sales taking place from time to time at the Barbican library. We decided to meet monthly after all, on the third Wednesday of the month - and promptly had to alter that for April's meeting to avoid school Easter holidays. So there's a warm welcome for anyone else who would like to join us on Wednesday 13th April at 7.30, when we'll be discussing 'A Life Like Other People's' by Alan Bennett. Venue will be available via the blog and at the next WI meeting on 7th April if anyone has any breath to talk after the jiving! If you would like to come but can't get hold of, or haven't got time to read read the book, don't worry - you'll be very welcome