Thanks to everyone who came to the Bookclub  meeting in December, including our newest members – you are very welcome. 

This time we had lively discussions on three very different books ‘Clara and the Sun’ the futuristic, AI focused novel by Kazu Ishiguro, the magical tale of ‘The Lost Bookshop’ by Evie Woods and the epic classic  ‘East of Eden, that John Steinbeck considered his finest work. 

The Book Club is developing into a community of real friends and anyone who enjoys a insightful discussion on books, a laugh and a drink or two is very welcome. 

Next meeting …

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 29th January 2025, 6-8pm. This month’s selections are below. 

If you would like to join the Bookclub just read one of these titles ( or more if you have time) and drop in for a drink to tell us all what you think. 

A warm welcome and lively discussion awaits. 

This month’s selections …

‘Orbital’ – Samantha Harvey – Booker Prize winner 2024 (138 pages – fiction) “Uplifting” –  S Times
A team of astronauts observe endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

‘Thunderclap’ – Laura Cummings (198 pages – non-fiction) “Brilliant” – Edmund de Waal
On the morning of 12 October 1654, a gunpowder explosion devastated the Dutch city of Delft. Among the fatalities was the painter Carel Fabritius, dead at thirty-two, leaving behind his haunting masterpiece The Goldfinch. Thunderclap explores what happened to Fabritius before and after the disaster whilst interweaving the lives of Laura Cumming, her painter father and the great artists of the Dutch Golden Age. This is a book about what a picture may come to mean. ‘Superb…this book taught me to see anew’ Daily Telegraph

‘The Black Prince’ – Iris Murdoch (474 pages – classic) “Best all-round novel I’ve read” – Express
Both a remarkable thriller and a story about being in love. Bradley Pearson is an elderly writer with a ‘block’. Finding himself surrounded by predatory friends and relations – his ex-wife, her delinquent brother, a younger, deplorably successful writer, Arnold Baffin. Bradley attempts to escape. His failure to do so and its aftermath lead to a violent climax and a most unexpected conclusion. Her best novel in my opinion… It has a breathtaking narrative skill and a triumphant ending – S Faulks