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 THE BOOKLOVERS’ MEETING HELD ON 22nd JULY 2021
Present: Di, Sue, Alan, Denise, Christine
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Sue read: An American Marriage (1918) by Tayari Jones. This is the story of Celestial and Roy are newly wed and starting their life together full of promise. He is a young executive and she is artist, a doll maker. However an unforeseen set of circumstances turns their life upside down. Spending the night in a motel, Roy chats to another woman at a drinks machine. Subsequently, Roy and Celestial have an argument when he announces to her that his father is not actually is real father provoking concern in Celestial that he hasn’t been truthful to her. Roy is arrested for the rape of the woman he met earlier in the evening and is subsequently sentenced to twelve years for a crime he didn’t commit. Celestial finds herself alone and unhappy and takes comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. She finds it difficult to stay faithful to their marriage as she cannot bear the shame of Roy’s conviction. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together only to find that Celestial is pregnant with Andre’s baby and no longer romantically attached to Roy. Sue found the book well constructed with sections in the voices of the main characters and good use of letters. She said it also highlighted the inconsistent approaches to black Americans in terms of the application of the law.
Christine read: I am I am I am - Seventeen Brushes with Death (2018) by Maggie O’Farrell. This book falls into the autobiography / memoir categories and is precisely what the title (a quote from Sylvia Plath) says. It consists of a series of essays detailing each occasion when the author came near to death including an encounter with a murderer on a walk in Scotland, haemorrhage during childbirth, miscarriage, childhood encephalitis, amoebic dysentery and an ill-advised leap off a harbour wall into the sea as a teen. It also dedicates one chapter to her daughter who has a severe immune disorder that has, as detailed here, repeatedly requires life-saving treatment. The idea for this book which arose from her daughter’s circumstances is O’Farrell’s way of letting her child know that, in facing down death on a regular basis, she is not alone. She is showing her that life is still possible. The different episodes certainly have different tones and in Christine’s opinion are beautifully written and ultimately life affirming. They reveal the life of a writer who demonstrates resilience and the ability to communicate without self-pity and gives encouragement to others not to ultimately be defined by such episodes in life. It certainly encouraged Christine to review certain events in her own life and feel grateful for survival.
Sue read: Hamnet (2020) by Maggie O’Farrell. This book won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Although it is ostensibly a story about William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, the central protagonist is in fact the boy’s mother known to us as Anne Hathaway but whose name was in fact Agnes and whom O’Farrell here attempts to retrieve from the obscurity of her life. She doesn’t ever mention Shakespeare by name using terms such as “lodger, brother, husband, father, player’ but chooses to focus on Agnes turning her into a rounded character with skills in herbal medicine and a role in her community as one who tends the sick. However this does not stop the plague from reaching her family: “It has come to them, Agnes thinks, from a long way off, from a place of rot and wet and confinement. It has cut a swingeing path for itself through humans and beasts and insects alike; it feeds on pain and unhappiness and grief. It is insatiable, unstoppable, the worst, blackest kind of evil.”
Sue liked the structure of the book and found it ‘very emotional, sensual and descriptive’ and very much about the emotions associated with loss, the central theme of grief being beautifully evoked. It also reveals much about our own concerns and morality.
Alan read Salammbô (1862) by Gustave Flaubert. This book comes after Madame Bovary in Flaubert’s oeuvre. Obsessed with Carthage and the obscure Punic Wars which were mainly fought in Sicily Flaubert wanted to write a novel about it. It is the story of the siege of Carthage in 240–237 b.c. by mercenaries who had not been paid for their help in fighting the Romans. It is also the story of the love of Mathô, one of the mercenaries, for Salammbô, the daughter of Hamilcar, chief magistrate of Carthage, and priestess of the city’s moon goddess. The book was initially a flop and St Beuve castigated Flaubert saying that the author ‘concedes too much pedestal and not enough statue.
Alan said it was unlike any other historical novel he had ever read and that you need stamina to get through it.
Di read Big Brother (2017) by Lionel Shriver. She found this novel extraordinary as the author writes so directly. It draws on Shriver’s own experience of her brother and family relationships. In the novel the main character (a robust character married to a keep fit fanatic. She makes talking dolls. Her brother, Edison, comes to stay for two months and has an eating disorder resulting in morbid obesity. She feels it is her job to keep him on the straight and narrow and takes him to a motel feeding him protein drinks in order to get him to lose weight. However, he goes to a party and gorges himself. The episode at the motel didn’t happen in real life but it is what the author would have liked to have happen. The main character becomes alienated from her husband as she is caught between him and the brother.
Di found the novel very moving with very realistic insights into this sort of problem.
Denise read The Madwomen’s Ball (2021) by Victoria Mas. The story is based on a mental asylum (the Salpetriere asylum) set in a gunpowder factory in 1885. It is an atmospheric novel which deals with the real life Doctor Charcot who deals with hysteric women sent by their fathers to an asylum. The truth is much more complicated - for these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives or strong-willed daughters. Once a year a grand ball is held at the hospital. For the Parisian elite, the Mad Women's Ball is the highlight of the social season; for the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope. Genevieve is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister, she has shunned religion and placed her faith in Doctor Charcot and his new science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugenie, the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family. Because Eugenie has a secret, and she needs Genevieve's help. Their fates will collide on the night of the Mad Women's Ball... there is a plot to get Eugenie out since it is clear that she is not made. Denise thought this was a very, very good story with a very good ending.
.
Sue read: An American Marriage (1918) by Tayari Jones. This is the story of Celestial and Roy are newly wed and starting their life together full of promise. He is a young executive and she is artist, a doll maker. However an unforeseen set of circumstances turns their life upside down. Spending the night in a motel, Roy chats to another woman at a drinks machine. Subsequently, Roy and Celestial have an argument when he announces to her that his father is not actually is real father provoking concern in Celestial that he hasn’t been truthful to her. Roy is arrested for the rape of the woman he met earlier in the evening and is subsequently sentenced to twelve years for a crime he didn’t commit. Celestial finds herself alone and unhappy and takes comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. She finds it difficult to stay faithful to their marriage as she cannot bear the shame of Roy’s conviction. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together only to find that Celestial is pregnant with Andre’s baby and no longer romantically attached to Roy. Sue found the book well constructed with sections in the voices of the main characters and good use of letters. She said it also highlighted the inconsistent approaches to black Americans in terms of the application of the law.
Christine read: I am I am I am - Seventeen Brushes with Death (2018) by Maggie O’Farrell. This book falls into the autobiography / memoir categories and is precisely what the title (a quote from Sylvia Plath) says. It consists of a series of essays detailing each occasion when the author came near to death including an encounter with a murderer on a walk in Scotland, haemorrhage during childbirth, miscarriage, childhood encephalitis, amoebic dysentery and an ill-advised leap off a harbour wall into the sea as a teen. It also dedicates one chapter to her daughter who has a severe immune disorder that has, as detailed here, repeatedly requires life-saving treatment. The idea for this book which arose from her daughter’s circumstances is O’Farrell’s way of letting her child know that, in facing down death on a regular basis, she is not alone. She is showing her that life is still possible. The different episodes certainly have different tones and in Christine’s opinion are beautifully written and ultimately life affirming. They reveal the life of a writer who demonstrates resilience and the ability to communicate without self-pity and gives encouragement to others not to ultimately be defined by such episodes in life. It certainly encouraged Christine to review certain events in her own life and feel grateful for survival.
Sue read: Hamnet (2020) by Maggie O’Farrell. This book won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Although it is ostensibly a story about William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, the central protagonist is in fact the boy’s mother known to us as Anne Hathaway but whose name was in fact Agnes and whom O’Farrell here attempts to retrieve from the obscurity of her life. She doesn’t ever mention Shakespeare by name using terms such as “lodger, brother, husband, father, player’ but chooses to focus on Agnes turning her into a rounded character with skills in herbal medicine and a role in her community as one who tends the sick. However this does not stop the plague from reaching her family: “It has come to them, Agnes thinks, from a long way off, from a place of rot and wet and confinement. It has cut a swingeing path for itself through humans and beasts and insects alike; it feeds on pain and unhappiness and grief. It is insatiable, unstoppable, the worst, blackest kind of evil.”
Sue liked the structure of the book and found it ‘very emotional, sensual and descriptive’ and very much about the emotions associated with loss, the central theme of grief being beautifully evoked. It also reveals much about our own concerns and morality.
Alan read Salammbô (1862) by Gustave Flaubert. This book comes after Madame Bovary in Flaubert’s oeuvre. Obsessed with Carthage and the obscure Punic Wars which were mainly fought in Sicily Flaubert wanted to write a novel about it. It is the story of the siege of Carthage in 240–237 b.c. by mercenaries who had not been paid for their help in fighting the Romans. It is also the story of the love of Mathô, one of the mercenaries, for Salammbô, the daughter of Hamilcar, chief magistrate of Carthage, and priestess of the city’s moon goddess. The book was initially a flop and St Beuve castigated Flaubert saying that the author ‘concedes too much pedestal and not enough statue.
Alan said it was unlike any other historical novel he had ever read and that you need stamina to get through it.
Di read Big Brother (2017) by Lionel Shriver. She found this novel extraordinary as the author writes so directly. It draws on Shriver’s own experience of her brother and family relationships. In the novel the main character (a robust character married to a keep fit fanatic. She makes talking dolls. Her brother, Edison, comes to stay for two months and has an eating disorder resulting in morbid obesity. She feels it is her job to keep him on the straight and narrow and takes him to a motel feeding him protein drinks in order to get him to lose weight. However, he goes to a party and gorges himself. The episode at the motel didn’t happen in real life but it is what the author would have liked to have happen. The main character becomes alienated from her husband as she is caught between him and the brother.
Di found the novel very moving with very realistic insights into this sort of problem.
Denise read The Madwomen’s Ball (2021) by Victoria Mas. The story is based on a mental asylum (the Salpetriere asylum) set in a gunpowder factory in 1885. It is an atmospheric novel which deals with the real life Doctor Charcot who deals with hysteric women sent by their fathers to an asylum. The truth is much more complicated - for these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives or strong-willed daughters. Once a year a grand ball is held at the hospital. For the Parisian elite, the Mad Women's Ball is the highlight of the social season; for the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope. Genevieve is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister, she has shunned religion and placed her faith in Doctor Charcot and his new science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugenie, the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family. Because Eugenie has a secret, and she needs Genevieve's help. Their fates will collide on the night of the Mad Women's Ball... there is a plot to get Eugenie out since it is clear that she is not made. Denise thought this was a very, very good story with a very good ending.
Read the notes from previous sessions here.
