Hi everyone
And a Happy New Year to you all.
Sorry I didnt make it to the December meeting but will definitely be there for January. I have been reading some interesting books
The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen
On Chesil Beach by Ian Mc Ewan
The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards as well as the short stories which I am fitting in as well!!!
It would be great to hear from anyonein the group
Keep reading!!!!
Paula
Monday, 5 January 2009
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Alice Munro article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/oct/11/alice-munro
Dear All
As you know I am having a short story phase. The above article on Alice Munro is really interesting and written by Margaret Attwood. I will post a list of the short story books I have read in case anyone is interested. I am also trying to write some short stories so if anyone is interested I might post those as well. A bit of editing needed so comments will be welcome.
An interesting meeting last night and the first time that there has been universal approval for some time - good old Thomas Hardy.
Would be good to see some posts on our favourite and least favourite books. I will try to post 2008 books in the next few days.
Paula
Dear All
As you know I am having a short story phase. The above article on Alice Munro is really interesting and written by Margaret Attwood. I will post a list of the short story books I have read in case anyone is interested. I am also trying to write some short stories so if anyone is interested I might post those as well. A bit of editing needed so comments will be welcome.
An interesting meeting last night and the first time that there has been universal approval for some time - good old Thomas Hardy.
Would be good to see some posts on our favourite and least favourite books. I will try to post 2008 books in the next few days.
Paula
Monday, 27 October 2008
The Mayor of Casterbridge
I have finished reading The Mayor of Casterbridge and enjoyed it alot. After reading Hardy's biography last month there is quite alot of Hardy himself in the book. Some lovely sections where he describes things like the horses tails swishing the schoolboys' faces really made me wonder if this was a childhood memory of his. Henchard also had alot of regret in his life which has parallels with Hardy's treatment of Emma and his subsequent poetry about her. After Terrible Tess on the telly we now have Little Dorrit perhaps we should read some Dickens the next time we have room for a classic.
Come on reading group - gentle reminder post a blog!!
Paula
Come on reading group - gentle reminder post a blog!!
Paula
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Thomas Hardy
Hi everybody
It was a really good meeting last night and as well as a good discussion on Thomas Hardy A Time torn Man by Claire Tomalin. It also raised lots of issues about the nature of biography. I will be very interestied to hear how you all approach the Mayor of Casterbridge after reading Hardy's biography. I certainly feel that it will make me read it differently.. Especially now that I am used to reading with two bookmarks one for the book and one for the notes.
Clive - If you read this perhaps you can post the list of books to be read on the blog.
See you all soon
Paula
It was a really good meeting last night and as well as a good discussion on Thomas Hardy A Time torn Man by Claire Tomalin. It also raised lots of issues about the nature of biography. I will be very interestied to hear how you all approach the Mayor of Casterbridge after reading Hardy's biography. I certainly feel that it will make me read it differently.. Especially now that I am used to reading with two bookmarks one for the book and one for the notes.
Clive - If you read this perhaps you can post the list of books to be read on the blog.
See you all soon
Paula
Friday, 29 August 2008
Great to hear from another blogger
Jill,
It's great to see someone else blogging.Confession - I didn't read Northern Lights - I know it's not in the spirit of the reading group and I promise not to do it again but I really couldn't face it.I agree with you about The Tenderness of Wolves I liked the characters and descriptions of life in that bleak landscape very much.I have recently read Small Wars Permitted by Christina Lamb. She was really interesting at Ways with Words as well and this book is a collection of articles and recollections from her career as a war corerespondent in almost every conflict in the last 20 years.I have also really enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. this would make a great reading group book. I am also renting the dvd this week so hopefuly that won't be too disappointing. Paula
It's great to see someone else blogging.Confession - I didn't read Northern Lights - I know it's not in the spirit of the reading group and I promise not to do it again but I really couldn't face it.I agree with you about The Tenderness of Wolves I liked the characters and descriptions of life in that bleak landscape very much.I have recently read Small Wars Permitted by Christina Lamb. She was really interesting at Ways with Words as well and this book is a collection of articles and recollections from her career as a war corerespondent in almost every conflict in the last 20 years.I have also really enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. this would make a great reading group book. I am also renting the dvd this week so hopefuly that won't be too disappointing. Paula
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Hello From Jill
I was so sorry to miss July' s meeting as I would have liked to hear views on Northern Lights. I re-read it and was again bound up in it all, and ended up reading the trilogy again. Loved the first part, enjoyed the second even more, but do find part three too long in parts.
Why is there a tendency for sequel books to get longer as these multi-part sagas develop? It's the same with Harry Potter. A good editor's red pen would have helped hold the Dark Materials trilogy together better at the end, I feel. But these are three wonderful imaginative books, and really poignant on several occasions. For those who stopped after Northern Lights, the real hero of the books for me is Will, who is introduced in The Subtle Knife, a good foil to Lyra. And I will confess to an abiding affection for Lee Scorsby. Oh well....
On the topic of length, the same is true of some biographies, including Claire Tomalin on Hardy, I fear. Her recent books are much fatter than the earlier ones! Like Paula, I am keeping that to read again in September. I saw Claire Tomalin at Ways with Words as one of four biographers, with Patrick French amongst others. Thought she was a bit conscious of her position as the "elder statesman" of biography there, but liked Patrick French very much. I enjoyed reading him on Younghusband - his first book, I think, on one of the participants in the Great Game carried out by Russia, GB etc in places like Afghanistan and Tibet at the end of the 19th Century. Seems we still haven't learnt the lessons of history.
My faourite speaker at Dartington? Gavin Menzies, who wrote 1421, which is subtitled The Year China Discovered the World. It too is rather fat, and I am still to get round to actually reading it.
Some recent reads:
The Tenderness of Wolves, Stef Penney.
This is a page turner, it really reeks of the period and place, as far as I can judge anyway. One of the best books I've read in ages. Highly recommended.
Bless'Em All, Allan Saddler.
Cathy mentioned this local author, who might be wiling to come and talk to us as a group. This is a novel of the second world war, set in the Blitz in London. I enjoyed it, it is quite evocative of the period too, lots of authentic detail, but ultimately unmemorable. Probably good as nostalgia, or social history even, but I did not warm to any of the characters or really care about what happened to them, which is why it hasn't stuck with me.
Jill T
Why is there a tendency for sequel books to get longer as these multi-part sagas develop? It's the same with Harry Potter. A good editor's red pen would have helped hold the Dark Materials trilogy together better at the end, I feel. But these are three wonderful imaginative books, and really poignant on several occasions. For those who stopped after Northern Lights, the real hero of the books for me is Will, who is introduced in The Subtle Knife, a good foil to Lyra. And I will confess to an abiding affection for Lee Scorsby. Oh well....
On the topic of length, the same is true of some biographies, including Claire Tomalin on Hardy, I fear. Her recent books are much fatter than the earlier ones! Like Paula, I am keeping that to read again in September. I saw Claire Tomalin at Ways with Words as one of four biographers, with Patrick French amongst others. Thought she was a bit conscious of her position as the "elder statesman" of biography there, but liked Patrick French very much. I enjoyed reading him on Younghusband - his first book, I think, on one of the participants in the Great Game carried out by Russia, GB etc in places like Afghanistan and Tibet at the end of the 19th Century. Seems we still haven't learnt the lessons of history.
My faourite speaker at Dartington? Gavin Menzies, who wrote 1421, which is subtitled The Year China Discovered the World. It too is rather fat, and I am still to get round to actually reading it.
Some recent reads:
The Tenderness of Wolves, Stef Penney.
This is a page turner, it really reeks of the period and place, as far as I can judge anyway. One of the best books I've read in ages. Highly recommended.
Bless'Em All, Allan Saddler.
Cathy mentioned this local author, who might be wiling to come and talk to us as a group. This is a novel of the second world war, set in the Blitz in London. I enjoyed it, it is quite evocative of the period too, lots of authentic detail, but ultimately unmemorable. Probably good as nostalgia, or social history even, but I did not warm to any of the characters or really care about what happened to them, which is why it hasn't stuck with me.
Jill T
Monday, 4 August 2008
Claire Tomalin was great
The Claire Tomalin event at Ways with Words was fantastic. Claire was a very accomplished and interesting speaker and gave an insight into the life of a historical biographer. The extensive research and how it took over her life for months or even years making her - in her words - difficult to live with. She had a real passion for Hardy and read poems from the book of Hardy poems that she edited. In the environment of the Great Hall this was very evocative of Hardy's assocaition with both landscape and human emotion. I sat next to a lady who told me that in her younger days she had a boyfriend that used to read her Hardy poems and how even though they went their seperate ways it inspired her to pursue a career in literature. She could obviously remember him very clearly and some - but not all of Hardy's poems are very romantic. Claire is now working on a biography of Dickens.
I am saving The Time-torn Man to read in September so that its fresh in my mind for the meeting.
I spoke to Claire and she signed my book and she was very flattered that we had chosen her book as one of our reading group choices.
I will make sure I bring the poetry book along and perhaps we can read some of them.
Paula
I am saving The Time-torn Man to read in September so that its fresh in my mind for the meeting.
I spoke to Claire and she signed my book and she was very flattered that we had chosen her book as one of our reading group choices.
I will make sure I bring the poetry book along and perhaps we can read some of them.
Paula
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)