Tuesday Tipplers - we also read books

[Gubby]

Hello All,

I must have got the dates totally mixed up.....I was lookign forward to discussing this book, but I am unable to make the meeting tonight. I have been trying to come all year but always seem to fail!

I look forward to hopefully meeting you at the next meet.. I like the list above Sparkelhorse.

[sparklehorse]

Agh sorry all, I may be late this evening ... speed reading as we speak ...

[kennethw]

Hi,

I won't make it this evening.

Please don't vote for Villette. It's the most miserable book.

[susan_]

Disaster! Just arrived to find the Tippler is shut tonight - I'll wait for reinforcements to decide where to reconvene

[susan_]

Okay, we are headed over to the Palmerston - look for us there.

[Red_Cat]

Will be late, see you about 9

[sparklehorse]

Hello all

Another lovely evening this Tuesday ... and the winner for next month (by a bit of a landslide) was Something Happened by Joseph Heller. So I think the details of the May meeting are:

Next meeting: Tuesday 20 May

Time: 7:45 for 8:00

Place: House of Tippler

Book: Something Happened, Joseph Heller

Someone please correct me if I've got that date wrong! Look forward to seeing you soon, E x

[Alec John Moore]

Hiya

The following list is possibly as far removed from Something Happened as it's possible to be while still remaining on the same continent. As ever, putting together the list has been really interesting and challenging. All the time I'm aware that at least two of the book group members are American and that seems to have intimidated me slightly. Perhaps Judy or Susan should choose the next list of Scottish writers. I also found that I didn't want to fully pursue the idea - Westerns - in the way that I originally had. But, I think there's only one distraction that managed to stay on the list. I'll leave you to work it out.

Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions (Enriched Classics), John (Fire) Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes, 1972

Storyteller, rebel, medicine man, Lame Deer was born almost a century ago on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. A full-blooded Sioux, he was many things in the white man's world - rodeo clown, painter, prisoner. But, above all, he was a holy man of the Lakota tribe. The story he tells is one of harsh youth and reckless manhood, shotgun marriage and divorce, history and folklore as rich today as ever - and of his fierce struggle to keep pride alive, though living as a stranger in his own ancestral land.

Little Big Man, Thomas Berger, 1964

'I am a white man and never forget it, but I was brought up by the Cheyenne Indians from the age of ten.' So starts the story of Jack Crabb, the 111-year old narrator of Thomas Berger's masterpiece of American fiction. As a "human being", as the Cheyenne called their own, he won the name Little Big Man. He dressed in skins, feasted on dog, loved four wives and saw his people butchered by the horse soldiers of General Custer, the man he had sworn to kill.

As a white man, Crabb hunted buffalo, tangled with Wyatt Earp, cheated Wild Bill Hickok and survived the Battle of Little Bighorn. Part-farcical, part-historical, the picaresque adventures of this witty, wily mythomaniac claimed the Wild West as the stuff of serious literature.

Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson, 1919

In this moving collection of interrelated stories, Ohio-born Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) illuminates the loneliness and frustration ? spiritual, emotional and artistic ? of life in a small American town. Winesburg, Ohio subtly portrays as well a young writer's coming of age, searching for love, yearning for a less stifling world.

The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane, 1895

Henry Fleming, a private in the Union Army, runs away from the field of war. Afterwards, the shame he feels at this act of cowardice ignites his desire to receive an injury in combat?a ?red badge of courage? that will redeem him. Stephen Crane?s novel about a young soldier?s experiences during the American Civil War is well known for its understated naturalism and its realistic depiction of battle.

True Grit, Charles Portis, 1968

There is no knowing what lies in a man's heart. On a trip to buy ponies, Frank Ross is killed by one of his own workers. Tom Chaney shoots him down in the street for a horse, $150 cash, and two Californian gold pieces. Ross's unusually mature and single-minded fourteen-year-old daughter Mattie travels to claim his body, and finds that the authorities are doing nothing to find Chaney. Then she hears of Rooster - a man, she's told, who has grit - and convinces him to join her in a quest into dark, dangerous Indian territory to hunt Chaney down and avenge her father's murder.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, 1884

'We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.'

Huck Finn escapes from his alcoholic father by faking his own death and so begins his journey through the Deep South, seeking independence and freedom. On his travels, Huck meets an escaped slave, Jim, who is a wanted man, and together they journey down the Mississippi River. Raising the timeless and universal issues of prejudice, bravery and hope, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was and still is considered the great American novel.

Sorry if these descriptions are a bit brief and for the lateness of sharing the list. There's a lot out there about the titles, of course, and you could have a look at the Amazon Wish List I created for this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/15R8BWPNC0WXM/ref=topnav_lists_5

See you on Tuesday, Alec

[kennethw]

Hi everyone, will have to miss this again, unfortunately.

Will definitely try to get myself along next month.

And I vote for Huck Finn. :)

K

[susan_]

Good discussion last night (despite many of us not having finished the book)...I'm going to keep reading as I want to know what happened!

We voted for Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson and our next meeting will be held on Tuesday 24 June at the Tippler at the usual time of 7:45 for 8. I volunteered to do the July list...no theme as yet

[Alec John Moore]

Hi

Yes, a very interesting discussion. I wonder how we can get more members of the group who are of the male gender. looking forward to Winesburg, Ohio; apparently the inspiration for a number of 20th century American novelists. Following on from Alex's mention of The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies, which sounds very interesting, The Reading Agency has two related programmes - Reading Well Books on Prescription and Reading Well Mood-boosting Books. See more here: http://readingagency.org.uk/adults/quick-guides/reading-well/

Alec

[maw501]

Hello all,

I'm interested in attending - is it fine to just turn up? This would be my first ever foray into a book club environment.

Obviously I'll read the book in advance...

Thanks,

Mark

[susan_]

Hi Mark,

You are very welcome - just come along to the Tippler on the 24th. We tend to sit in the front by the windows.

See you next month

Susan

[susan_]

Hi everyone, here's the list for next month. After chatting with two of my sisters for book theme ideas I settled on Young Adult fiction. Adults reading YA fiction seems to be a reasonably hot topic in popular press (http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/06/against_ya_adults_should_be_embarrassed_to_read_children_s_books.html) and, July is summer...so the perfect time for something a bit escapsist and guilty-pleasure?

Anyway, I hope you find something you like - remember you get two votes and I'll bring some printed copies tomorrow night.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few more years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at the Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

S.E. Hinton was just 16 years old when she wrote this novel about kids getting caught up in class struggles. Ponyboy is a greaser, from the wrong side of the tracks; he runs afoul of the upper-class Socs, leading to an epic rumble between the two gangs.

Inexcusable by Chris Lynch

In a story that moves between the past and the scene of the rape, Keir attempts to defend his character from the monstrous crime of which he has been accused. But the anecdotes from Keir's senior year at high school fall short of giving the innocent and 'good-guy' picture, Keir is determined to paint of himself. Instead he is revealed somehow as a morally ambiguous and deluded young man. In this extraordinary book, Chris Lynch has pushed the boundaries and set a new standard in YA fiction. It is a gripping and masterfully written story about a subject very few people will dare to explore. Any person who reads it will have much to think about.

Go Ask Alice (Anonymous)

Upon its publication in 1971, this brooding, interior novel was marketed as excerpts from a real teenager?s diary. Later, it was revealed to be the brainchild of the book?s editor, Beatrice Sparks. The line on Go Ask Alice is that it?s a harrowing tale of a socially awkward, timid young woman who gets swept up into the late 1960s drug scene and never comes back. And it?s true that Alice?s story ? which goes from dutiful diary entries about what she ate for breakfast and her fear of sex, to prostitution in exchange for heroin and, eventually, institutionalization ? makes Girl, Interrupted seem quaint. But what?s so affecting about the novel is its lack of sensationalism. If you are or ever have been a teenage girl, you will recognize many of your own thoughts in Alice?s reveries.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

It is the future. There is no war, no hunger, no pain. No one in the community wants for anything. Everything needed is provided. And at twelve years old, each member of the community has their profession carefully chosen for them by the Committee of Elders.

Twelve-year old Jonas has never thought there was anything wrong with his world. But from the moment he is selected as the Receiver of Memory, Jonas discovers that their community is not as perfect as it seems.

It is only with the help of the Giver, that Jonas can find what has been lost. And it is only through his personal courage that Jonas finds the strength to do what is right?

The Giver is the award-winning classic of bravery and adventure that has inspired countless dystopian writers as the forerunner of this genre.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

?Fifteen men on the dead man?s chest, yo ho ho and bottle of rum!? Treasure Island is a tale of pirates and villains, maps, treasure and shipwreck, and is perhaps the best adventure story ever written.

When young Jim Hawkins finds a packet in Captain Flint's sea chest, he could not know that the map inside it would lead him to unimaginable treasure. Shipping as cabin boy on the Hispaniola, he sails with Squire Trelawney, Captain Smollett, Dr Livesey, the sinister Long John Silver and a frightening crew to Treasure Island. There, mutiny, murder and mayhem lead to a thrilling climax.

[Red_Cat]

Sorry looks like I'm not going to be able to make it tonight - again! If I can have my votes I'm going for Go Ask Alice (had completely forgotten about this book but it was a complete 'must read' when I was a teenager!) and Treasure Island.

Hope you have a good evening and hope to see you for 'film night' next week if that is definitely still on.

[kennethw]

Hi everyone, really sorry but I'll not be able to make it this evening. I vote for Treasure Island.

Kenneth

[susan_]

And the winner is: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Next meeting: 22 July, 7:45 for 8pm at the Tippler

See you there! Newcomers are welcome

[kennethw]

Is it bring your own parrot?

[Alec John Moore]

Aye, Ken lad. Ye can get 'em from Aaargos, where all pirates shop.

[JS33]

Although at the last meeting I'd floated the idea of hosting at my place, it turns out Tuesday evening isn't looking like a good day for it, so we should meet at HOT as per usual. May invite the group over for a daytime meetup one of the coming weekends instead -- we can discuss timing at the meeting. I'm about 50% through the book so hopefully will be done by Tuesday!

[waddinac]

Unfortunately I won't be able to join you this week - it's my last week on placement so frantically trying to get my portfolio finished for Friday! Have a lovely evening. Alex

[susan_]

Last night we were joined in the Tippler by a large party of teachers, we presume celebrating the end of term. The atmosphere was a little different than our typical book club evenings ;)

It sounded like everyone enjoyed Treasure Island and we had a good discussion. We seem to have forgotten to pick a theme and list-maker last month so we made the impromptu decision to read the first in the Narnia series - The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C S Lewis. Next meeting: Tuesday 19th August, 7:45 for 8 at the Tippler (newcomers welcome).

Catherine volunteered to make next month's list, with the theme Good Books written by Bad People

[Red_Cat]

Dear All,

I've had much trouble posting the book list for tomororow's meeting. I've actually managed to accidentally start a new thread title 'book list' goodness only know how I've done that but if you check that thread hopefully you can see the list as I'm going up for now want to go to bed...

[Alec John Moore]

Hi, a great list, thanks Kat. I can't make it tonight I'm afraid and my vote goes for V S Naipaul. Alec

[sparklehorse]

This is a great list Kat, thanks, and look forward to seeing you later.