Tuesday 23 October 2012

Any suggestions for book group reading?

I suspect that no matter how far in advance we planned our book group meetings, I'd always be finishing the book at the last minute.

There are so many works in progress at the moment, that I was determined to reach the end of My Cousin Rachel before starting anything else. I'm pleased I did - I'm sure my brain's not as good as holding stories concurrently as it used to be. So now it's a canter through Trumpet before tomorrow evening. I hope that I'm not doing Jackie Kay's wonderful prose a disservice.

Meanwhile, the photography course is progessing slowly. The light was great for photography on Sunday, but if anyone would care to explain f-stops to me, then that would be much appreciated.

So whilst I'm finishing Trumpet and doing some emergency hoovering, can anyone recommend a good read for this month's book group?

7 comments:

  1. Ha ha! Wait until you're doing focal lengths and crop factors. The maths side is a bit of a shock at first. If you really need help give me a shout. I get my reading recommendations from you so no help there I'm afraid. If you fancy something a little odd and different Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book might do. It's really for teenagers although I think there may be an adult version. It will definitely engender discussion.

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    1. Thanks Denise. I shall have to swallow my pride and ask The Mathematician (aka my husband) for help.

      I've heard Gaiman recommended before. I'm not sure it'd be my bag, but perhaps that's a good reason to try it. I'm all for books that encourage discussion.

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    2. I'd have said the same but was surprised to find that I loved it. Of all the books I've read this year it's the one that keeps coming to mind despite being a light, easy read.

      Feel free to email me if you want any help with the f-stops/photography stuff. I realise that it sounded like I'd help only if you were really stuck when what I meant was if you actually were stuck. If you see what I mean!

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  2. Well I just discovered your blog by following a comment you left on Cornflower's blog and now I'm taking it upon myself to offer recommendations for your book group! I have no idea what you usually read but a book that offered up one of the best discussions our group ever had was The Lover by Marguerite Duras. Another book which we just read was Daughters of Copper Woman by Anne Cameron. Now this is a retelling of Northwest Coast Native creation myths which may not be readily available except through Amazon and may not be exactly what those on your side of the "pond" (I'm from Canada) would think of but I think it would offer up lots of discussion... once again our group really enjoyed it for the content as well as the discussion. For our reading group we plan the list out a year in advance but, like you, reading the books is always a dash to finish!! Well I'm going to post this even though I feel I am being quite forward.
    Elizabeth

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    1. Thank you very much Elizabeth for your suggestions - I'm very pleased you made them. I've heard of Duras, but not of Cameron. I'm going to look into both for next month.

      Your book group sounds much more organised than ours. Some months readers come with two or three suggestions each, and other months with none at all!

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  3. Karen, I'm sending you the website I maintain for the groups to which I belong. It will give you some idea of what we've read over the past two years.

    https://sites.google.com/site/bookwormsbham/

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    1. Thank you for the link Alex. There are some great choices there.

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