Booklovers
We started Booklovers because we wanted to talk about the books we’ve been reading and to introduce those we’ve enjoyed to others.
We each take turn to speak about our chosen book and this invariably leads to discussion of broader topics. Four times a year we agree on a shared title to maintain the value of close reading and to hear each other’s interpretations of different aspects of those works.
We are a friendly group of people, meeting on the third Thursday of each month in a member’s home. You’ll find you’re never short of ideas for a new book to read and we warmly welcome others to join us.
For further details, please contact Christine Roberts.
For upcoming meetings, please visit our events page.
We each take turn to speak about our chosen book and this invariably leads to discussion of broader topics. Four times a year we agree on a shared title to maintain the value of close reading and to hear each other’s interpretations of different aspects of those works.
We are a friendly group of people, meeting on the third Thursday of each month in a member’s home. You’ll find you’re never short of ideas for a new book to read and we warmly welcome others to join us.
For further details, please contact Christine Roberts.
For upcoming meetings, please visit our events page.
Notes from Booklovers’ Meeting Held on 20th February 2020
Present: Simon, Sue & Christine
Simon read: ‘Disturbance: Surviving Charlie Hebdo’ by Philippe Lançon. This the account of the personal experience of a writer who survived the assault by a pair of Islamist terrorist brothers who forced their way into the office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Armed with assault rifles, submachine guns and a pump action shotgun, they slaughtered 12 people and injured 11 others, before fleeing in a getaway car. The publication had offended first by publishing Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Allah, and then by a series of caricatures that mocked Muslims (it also mocked Christians, Jews and other religious groups).
Lançon was shot through the jaw and the memoir begins with the attack when amazingly one terrorist saw he was alive but still fled. The book tells of the year following the attack and his slow recovery from it. In French the book is called ‘Le Lambeau’ meaning the shred or scrap which refers to the lower part of his face as it was left after the shooting and which necessitated much surgery. Simon found himself curious about this story and felt huge sympathy for the author as he deals with the psychological fall out from his injury. It is essentially the story of a man trying to make sense of his new world and his identity within it. Simon was struck by the author’s lack of anger and his acceptance of what had happened to him.
Sue read: ‘Days Without End’ by Sebastian Barry. Sue was impressed with this account of two Irishmen and their lives as young men landing in America at a critical period in its history, notably that running up to the Civil War. The two young men team up and after initially being signed up by a pub owner to dress as teenage girls to dance for customers, they join the army fighting first in the Indian wars and then in the Civil War. One of them, Thomas, is sympathetic to the Indians and the two men adopt a young Indian girl, Winona. Finally they become gold diggers and set up a homestead together.
Despite the terrible and often harrowing hardships they encounter, they are entranced by this new world. The novel was described by the critic of the New York Times as ‘dreamlike’ and despite what life can throw at us, Barry reminds us that our recompense comes in those private moments when “love laughs at history a little.”
Christine read: ‘Uncle Vanya’ by Chekhov. She had just seen a live production of this play and wanted to read the script. The stage production had been newly adapted, possibly to bring out certain issues that are key to the present time, i.e. the interest shown by Doctor Astrov in the environment and his determination to plant more trees. Ultimately though, although landowners in nineteenth century Russia live very different lives to ours, the characters are still struggling with how to get meaning from life and they do it in their different ways.
Disappointment is a major theme, particularly as far as Love is concerned since no one seems to find happiness and all are in love with with unavailable people. Work does not seem to bring the satisfaction it could. The estate owner (a self-absorbed retired University Professor) is determined to sell the house and move back to Moscow and l this will seriously affect the lives of those who live there, including Vanya. Wealth is no guarantor of happiness and the play concludes with Vanya and his niece Sonya carrying on with their dreary lives, engaged in the tedious task of doing the accounts of the estate owner. Sonya has a religious belief in the future and better life, whereas Vanya is a depressive with no hope. Sonya tells him he too will see ‘the angels’.
Christine felt that although it would be easy to be critical of these characters who are in many ways blessed in their relatively comfortable station in life, Chekhov manages subtly to convey them as human beings as we all are with our own different ways of making things work and passing our time on this planet.
Simon read: ‘Disturbance: Surviving Charlie Hebdo’ by Philippe Lançon. This the account of the personal experience of a writer who survived the assault by a pair of Islamist terrorist brothers who forced their way into the office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Armed with assault rifles, submachine guns and a pump action shotgun, they slaughtered 12 people and injured 11 others, before fleeing in a getaway car. The publication had offended first by publishing Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Allah, and then by a series of caricatures that mocked Muslims (it also mocked Christians, Jews and other religious groups).
Lançon was shot through the jaw and the memoir begins with the attack when amazingly one terrorist saw he was alive but still fled. The book tells of the year following the attack and his slow recovery from it. In French the book is called ‘Le Lambeau’ meaning the shred or scrap which refers to the lower part of his face as it was left after the shooting and which necessitated much surgery. Simon found himself curious about this story and felt huge sympathy for the author as he deals with the psychological fall out from his injury. It is essentially the story of a man trying to make sense of his new world and his identity within it. Simon was struck by the author’s lack of anger and his acceptance of what had happened to him.
Sue read: ‘Days Without End’ by Sebastian Barry. Sue was impressed with this account of two Irishmen and their lives as young men landing in America at a critical period in its history, notably that running up to the Civil War. The two young men team up and after initially being signed up by a pub owner to dress as teenage girls to dance for customers, they join the army fighting first in the Indian wars and then in the Civil War. One of them, Thomas, is sympathetic to the Indians and the two men adopt a young Indian girl, Winona. Finally they become gold diggers and set up a homestead together.
Despite the terrible and often harrowing hardships they encounter, they are entranced by this new world. The novel was described by the critic of the New York Times as ‘dreamlike’ and despite what life can throw at us, Barry reminds us that our recompense comes in those private moments when “love laughs at history a little.”
Christine read: ‘Uncle Vanya’ by Chekhov. She had just seen a live production of this play and wanted to read the script. The stage production had been newly adapted, possibly to bring out certain issues that are key to the present time, i.e. the interest shown by Doctor Astrov in the environment and his determination to plant more trees. Ultimately though, although landowners in nineteenth century Russia live very different lives to ours, the characters are still struggling with how to get meaning from life and they do it in their different ways.
Disappointment is a major theme, particularly as far as Love is concerned since no one seems to find happiness and all are in love with with unavailable people. Work does not seem to bring the satisfaction it could. The estate owner (a self-absorbed retired University Professor) is determined to sell the house and move back to Moscow and l this will seriously affect the lives of those who live there, including Vanya. Wealth is no guarantor of happiness and the play concludes with Vanya and his niece Sonya carrying on with their dreary lives, engaged in the tedious task of doing the accounts of the estate owner. Sonya has a religious belief in the future and better life, whereas Vanya is a depressive with no hope. Sonya tells him he too will see ‘the angels’.
Christine felt that although it would be easy to be critical of these characters who are in many ways blessed in their relatively comfortable station in life, Chekhov manages subtly to convey them as human beings as we all are with our own different ways of making things work and passing our time on this planet.
Notes from Booklovers’ Meeting Held on 23rd January 2020
Present: Mary, Simon, Di, Denise & Christine
Mary read: “Handle with Care” by Jodie Picoult. She is struck by the diverse subjects that this author writes about and concludes she must have a huge team of researchers to gather all the information required to make them so believable. This book is about a little girl suffering from IO osteogenesis imperfect, a disease with a collagen defect resulting in brittle bones. The story is complicated by the fact that it is Willow’s mother’s (Charlotte) friend Piper who failed to diagnose the disease and and who has sued her. This results in a crisis in Willow’s family which includes the story of her sister Amelia who suffers from bulimia and self-harm through the parental attention being so focused on Willow. Mary describes this as a well-written story covering the highs and the lows – mostly lows, of caring for a child with IO and the toll this has had on family and friends. Mary was impressed by Picoult’s knack of getting into her fictitious character’s mind and wonders how life may have taken its toll on her to be able to write so vividly.
Simon read: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The book is based on Dostoevsky’s own experience of serving 8 years penal servitude for killing a student. The book was initially published in a journal, The Russian Messenger, in twelve monthly instalments during 1866 and subsequently in a single volume. It is considered the first great novel of his mature period of writing.
The book’s hero Raskolnikov sees himself as a superman, a person who is extraordinary and above the moral rules that govern the rest of humanity He justifies his murder of the pawnbroker and it is only in his final surrender to his love for Sonya and the joys resulting from this that he escapes his conception of himself as a superman and the terrible isolation that this belief brought on him. The book reflects the philosophy of Nihilism which rejects family and societal bonds and emotional and aesthetic concerns in favour of utilitariansism, the idea that moral decisions should be based on the greatest happiness for the largest number of people. Thus the murder of Alyona is justified on utilitarian grounds claiming that a louse has been removed from society. The novel condemns Nihilism as an empty philosophy. Simon felt that the novel is very even-handed and a fascinating exploration of ideas prevalent in Russia at the time. It also fits into other nineteenth century novels such as Les Miserables and Oliver Twist, whose worlds show where the lines between innocence and corruption, good and evil cross.
Di read: This Bleeding City by Alex Preston. The debut novel of a British author, Di describes it as a ‘compelling’ read. It is set during the 2007– 8 financial crisis and its main character is Charlie Wales a new trader involved in a lucrative hedge fund. His intelligence does not prevent him by falling deeply into a life of excess and depravity. He realises that he may end up ruined and seeks redemption following the advice from a boy he is mentoring in Dalston who advises him to escape the moral bankruptcy of high finance to become a journalist. However, this doesn’t pan out as hoped.
A critical comment from one reviewer reflects on the fact that Charlie is not some poor boy polluted by the City, but an example of the greed that pollutes it. And the fact that this story takes such an apparently cock-eyed view of its protagonist's moral universe makes the book itself seem less like a depiction of corruption than an exemplar of it. However, Di found it to be a compelling read and did like the portrayal of Charlie.
Denise Best was reading: The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. A review of this novel appeared in last month’s notes.
Christine read: Will and Testament by Vigdor Hjorth. This is a Norwegian novel by an acclaimed writer of some twenty books and with several awards to her name. It created a stir when it was published in 2016 because readers identified strong autobiographical elements in it. These upset Hjorth’s sister so much that she wrote her own rebuttal in the form of her own novel which presented a more rosy-coloured view of their shared upbringing.
Christine found the book fascinating both in form and meaning. It is written very much in a ‘stream of consciousness’ style which she said at times could be irritating as there were major repetitions and, rather, than recognisable chapters there were some of only a paragraph long and others of several pages. However, she did feel this was justified given that the protagonist, Bergljot, the eldest daughter in a family of four has been leading a life marred by sexual abuse by her father in her childhood which has been denied by her mother and siblings. She has spent her adult life suffering psychologically not just from the crime of child sexual abuse but of the denial of it by the perpetrator and his wife. It is an excellent account of the power within families regarding a shared story of how they function and what happens when secrecy takes over. Issues about unfair inheritance take centre stage and it is hard to imagine that Berglljot will ever find resolution. She is seriously damaged and only her brother believes her account since he also suffered from his father’s parenting. The Norwegians seem very taken by ‘autofiction’ as the success of the seven volume autobiographical novel ‘My Struggle’ by Karl Ove Knausgaard testifies.
Mary read: “Handle with Care” by Jodie Picoult. She is struck by the diverse subjects that this author writes about and concludes she must have a huge team of researchers to gather all the information required to make them so believable. This book is about a little girl suffering from IO osteogenesis imperfect, a disease with a collagen defect resulting in brittle bones. The story is complicated by the fact that it is Willow’s mother’s (Charlotte) friend Piper who failed to diagnose the disease and and who has sued her. This results in a crisis in Willow’s family which includes the story of her sister Amelia who suffers from bulimia and self-harm through the parental attention being so focused on Willow. Mary describes this as a well-written story covering the highs and the lows – mostly lows, of caring for a child with IO and the toll this has had on family and friends. Mary was impressed by Picoult’s knack of getting into her fictitious character’s mind and wonders how life may have taken its toll on her to be able to write so vividly.
Simon read: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The book is based on Dostoevsky’s own experience of serving 8 years penal servitude for killing a student. The book was initially published in a journal, The Russian Messenger, in twelve monthly instalments during 1866 and subsequently in a single volume. It is considered the first great novel of his mature period of writing.
The book’s hero Raskolnikov sees himself as a superman, a person who is extraordinary and above the moral rules that govern the rest of humanity He justifies his murder of the pawnbroker and it is only in his final surrender to his love for Sonya and the joys resulting from this that he escapes his conception of himself as a superman and the terrible isolation that this belief brought on him. The book reflects the philosophy of Nihilism which rejects family and societal bonds and emotional and aesthetic concerns in favour of utilitariansism, the idea that moral decisions should be based on the greatest happiness for the largest number of people. Thus the murder of Alyona is justified on utilitarian grounds claiming that a louse has been removed from society. The novel condemns Nihilism as an empty philosophy. Simon felt that the novel is very even-handed and a fascinating exploration of ideas prevalent in Russia at the time. It also fits into other nineteenth century novels such as Les Miserables and Oliver Twist, whose worlds show where the lines between innocence and corruption, good and evil cross.
Di read: This Bleeding City by Alex Preston. The debut novel of a British author, Di describes it as a ‘compelling’ read. It is set during the 2007– 8 financial crisis and its main character is Charlie Wales a new trader involved in a lucrative hedge fund. His intelligence does not prevent him by falling deeply into a life of excess and depravity. He realises that he may end up ruined and seeks redemption following the advice from a boy he is mentoring in Dalston who advises him to escape the moral bankruptcy of high finance to become a journalist. However, this doesn’t pan out as hoped.
A critical comment from one reviewer reflects on the fact that Charlie is not some poor boy polluted by the City, but an example of the greed that pollutes it. And the fact that this story takes such an apparently cock-eyed view of its protagonist's moral universe makes the book itself seem less like a depiction of corruption than an exemplar of it. However, Di found it to be a compelling read and did like the portrayal of Charlie.
Denise Best was reading: The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. A review of this novel appeared in last month’s notes.
Christine read: Will and Testament by Vigdor Hjorth. This is a Norwegian novel by an acclaimed writer of some twenty books and with several awards to her name. It created a stir when it was published in 2016 because readers identified strong autobiographical elements in it. These upset Hjorth’s sister so much that she wrote her own rebuttal in the form of her own novel which presented a more rosy-coloured view of their shared upbringing.
Christine found the book fascinating both in form and meaning. It is written very much in a ‘stream of consciousness’ style which she said at times could be irritating as there were major repetitions and, rather, than recognisable chapters there were some of only a paragraph long and others of several pages. However, she did feel this was justified given that the protagonist, Bergljot, the eldest daughter in a family of four has been leading a life marred by sexual abuse by her father in her childhood which has been denied by her mother and siblings. She has spent her adult life suffering psychologically not just from the crime of child sexual abuse but of the denial of it by the perpetrator and his wife. It is an excellent account of the power within families regarding a shared story of how they function and what happens when secrecy takes over. Issues about unfair inheritance take centre stage and it is hard to imagine that Berglljot will ever find resolution. She is seriously damaged and only her brother believes her account since he also suffered from his father’s parenting. The Norwegians seem very taken by ‘autofiction’ as the success of the seven volume autobiographical novel ‘My Struggle’ by Karl Ove Knausgaard testifies.
Read the notes from previous sessions here.
