2020 Book Group News
Hello and welcome to the Book Group Page
Amidst the current Pandemic we have had to postpone our usual format for our long running book group. However we will be continuing and will be hosting a Zoom meeting this month on April 28th at 8pm. Please see below for further details.
Last month we ambitiously tried to read two books: Less by Andrew Sean Greer (surprisingly light weight for a Pulitzer prise winner) and The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (rather depressing in its view of humanity).
For April, the book group is reading Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, which was a co-winner of the Booker prize last year. Much to our shame none of the members of the book group had read any of Evaristo’s previous work, so we read Blonde Roots, because Girl, Woman, Other was not available in paperback. Blonde Roots was very good; it inverted the black white power ratio in the transatlantic slave trade to challenge the perceptions of the reader. Sort of like a more nuanced Noughts and Crosses, (BBC). Evaristo is an amusing writer with a wry outlook, an appreciation of the truth in cliché and an accessible style. And GWO is more upbeat than the previous two choices – actually The Wall (January’s choice) wasn’t very happy either – so is probably more in keeping with our needs at the moment. And it is now out in paperback.
We had arranged to meet at 8 o’clock in the Wellington on Balls Pond Road on 28th April. In view of the current pandemic though we shall be meeting on line. If you would like to join us, please email the de Beauvoir WI and let them know. We will arrange for you to be included in the Zoom meeting. We are limiting it to eight people, so it will be on a first come first served basis. You really should have read the book
If you are interested in reading and discussing books, please do come along to our book group. We do ask that if you are going to come along you really should have read the book.
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com
The De Beauvoir WI Book Group
We meet once a month and discuss the book we chose between us at the previous meeting. We try not to stick to a particular genre or type, and suggestions from all members are welcome – and more importantly – acted upon.
In January we read The Wall, a dystopian science fiction about Great Britain with a wall built all around it, guarded by Keepers, to keep out The Others. If a patrol of Keepers let in any Others, they are thrown out over the Wall into the sea to replace the Others they had allowed in. Written by John Lanchester in his easily accessible style, it is a well thought through, readable and highly believable story projected only a short while into the future. Bear in mind, the American President is talking of building a wall and the Greeks announced at the end of January they were thinking about building a barrier at sea. It’s only thirty years since the Berlin Wall came down. Recommended – even without the prescience.
What with half term and everything, our next meeting will be on 3rd March. And because it is a long break between sessions, we shall be trying to read two books. If you are struggling with time, read Less first.
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
A novel about mishaps, misunderstandings and the depths of the human heart. Also supposed to be funny. Winner of the Pulitzer 2018
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Surprisingly wise – a novel to be reread and remembered, recalling some of the master of Indian fiction with a deft comic touch. And it won the Man Booker in 2006.
So we shall be meeting in The Wellington in Balls Pond Road at 8 o’clock on 3rd March. Dogs are welcome .
We’ll have a copy of the book on the table so you can recognise us. Or email us beforehand.
If you have any questions please do contact us through the De Beauvoir WI email and one of us will get back to you.
And do bring along your own recommendations for future reads for the group. It should be out in paperback, you shouldn’t have read it already and if you want to come to the meeting, you really should read the book we chose.
Many thanks
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