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.

As you may know, because very few people attended the last meeting, we put the shortlist of three books out to the book group for everyone to have a vote.

Not a very strong turnout, but if Nigel Farage can claim that the British People are Behind Him with one third of the vote when only one third of the population turned out, then Ordinary People was more popular than that, so Ordinary People has stormed to victory.

Ordinary People by Diana Evans. “Set in London to an exhilarating soundtrack, this is an intimate study of identity and parenthood, sex and grief and the fragile architecture of love – and is a wonderfully warm and intelligent novel.”

We can consider the other two at the next meeting, but of course bring along your own recommendations. 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.

Barbara has recommended a book called The 392 written by Ashley Hickson- Lovence, who lives locally. She is finding out if we can get a discount from Camden Lock Books. It would be nice to support local talent, and the book sounds interesting. It takes place over just 36 minutes and is set entirely on a London bus travelling from Hoxton to Highbury. It’s told through the perspectives of some of the passengers, capturing the voices of many diverse people in remarkable detail, all in the shadow of a possible threat.

If you would like to come along we meet at 8 o’clock in Bavo on Southgate Street. This month we’re meeting on Tuesday, 18th June. If you need any further information please email Nichola or the de Beauvoir WI.

Many thanks

Some of our 2018 reads

Jagua Nana by Cyprion Edwensi. This was republished in 1975 as part of the Heinemann African Writers Series. Although Edwensi has been compared to Dickens, the book was not a richly textured interweaving of many stories and it got a thumbs down from us, mainly for its two dimensional depiction of its main character – and the other characters too. And far too many mentions of buttocks.

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, which is a loose contemporary reworking of Sophocles’ Antigone, without the incest. Sophocles’ simplest message was that older generations do not always know better than their children and that natural law is more important than man-made law. It has had excellent reviews … “elegant and evocative prose” and “pulls off a fine balancing act; it is a powerful exploration of the clash between society family and faith in the modern world, whilst acknowledging the same dilemma in the ancient one”. It was shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award last year.