Tuesday Tipplers Book Club - newbies welcome

[sparklehorse]

Great list! Will also PM my votes.

[kennethw]

Thanks for all the votes so far, Shall we say another 3 days, then I'll announce the winner?

[Red_Cat]

Yes ok, I'm intending to put mine in tomorrow. Good list, can't quite make my mind up

[kennethw]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all your votes. The secret ballot only needed 1 round and the winner was

A Very British Coup.

See you all on the 11th.

Kenneth

[susan_]

I'm enjoying the coup - especially in light of current political climate ;)

Looking forward to discussing it with you all tomorrow evening - shall we try to get a table in the courtyard at the back if the weather holds?

Did someone volunteer to do a list for next month (I can't remember, so if it was me, somebody please remind me!)

[Red_Cat]

I can't remember who said they were doing the next list - just know it wasn't me!

would be nice to sit upside if the weathers still good.

[LadyBird1977]

Oh gosh, it was me! And I can't make it tonight, sorry. For some reason I had next Tuesday in my diary....

I was going to go with a sunshine theme, I'll try and get a list together and out to you all asap.

Crazy busy at the moment, apologies xx

[LadyBird1977]

Here it is! I had three already, just needed to ponder on another two books that make me feel the heat! :) One of these books is my favourite book of all time!

I can't make it tonight so PM me your votes and I'll announce the winner at the weekend. Have a good evening!

Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis

Set in Los Angeles in the early 1980's, this coolly mesmerizing novel is a raw, powerful portrait of a lost generation who have experienced sex, drugs, and disaffection at too early an age, in a world shaped by casual nihilism, passivity, and too much money a place devoid of feeling or hope. Clay comes home for Christmas vacation from his Eastern college and re-enters a landscape of limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porches, dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine. He tries to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his best friend from high school, Julian, who is careering into hustling and heroin. Clay's holiday turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the relentless parties in glitzy mansions, seedy bars, and underground rock clubs and also into the seamy world of L.A. after dark.

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning - Laurie Lee

Abandoning the Cotswolds village that raised him, the young Laurie Lee walks to London. There he makes a living labouring and playing the violin. But, deciding to travel further a field and knowing only the Spanish phrase for 'Will you please give me a glass of water?', he heads for Spain. With just a blanket to sleep under and his trusty violin, he spends a year crossing Spain, from Vigo in the north to the southern coast. Only the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War puts an end to his extraordinary peregrinations . . .

The Island - Victoria Hislop

On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother?s past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more.

The Rum Diary - Hunter S. Thompson

Paul Kemp has moved from New York to the steamy heat of Puerto Rico to work at the Daily News. He starts hanging out at Al's Backyard, a local den selling booze and hamburgers to vagrant journalists who are mostly crazy drunks on the verge of quitting. Then he meets Yeamon, whose delectable girlfriend has Kemp stewing in his own lust. But the idle tension that builds up in places where men sweat twenty-four hours a day is reaching a violent breaking point.

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific.The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger and Pi - a 16-year-old Indian boy.The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary pieces of literary fiction of recent years. Yann Martel's Life of Pi is a transformative novel, a dazzling work of imagination that will delight and astound readers in equal measure. It is a triumph of storytelling and a tale that will, as one character puts it, make you believe in God.

[susan_]

Hey all, I may be a little late arriving as I've not yet left the office.

[kennethw]

Hi, I'm coming along but I'll be there about 815.

[marlowe]

Hope people are going to turn up as I'm on my own at the moment!

[kennethw]

Am on my way.

[gleonce]

Hi All,

I'm hoping to join your next evening if there is room...you have some great choices and I look forward to meeting you all

[overcaffeinated]

I can't be there in August (we're away) so I won't vote but I'm hoping to be back in Sept!

[susan_]

Hey everyone, we were five last night with a good discussion of the book followed by lots of comparisons to current politics and general commiserations and merriment.

We did do a secret ballot (2 votes each) which resulted in a three way tie; the run off ballot chose "Less than zero".

We also decided to meet on Wednesday 23 August (I know! A Wednesday! v controversial! but diaries in August were a nightmare!). I'm going to do a list for September- no theme as yet.

Gleonce- you're very welcome, just come along and look for us (usually in the front window and sometimes one of even has the book out to signpost us) 19:45 for 20:00 start

[gleonce]

Excellent, thank you. Look forward to meeting you all

[susan_]

Hi everyone- I'm afraid bookclub sneaked up on me and I'm not ready! I'm really jet lagged (arrived home yesterday and not sure how I'll make it through the working day) so I'm not going to come out this evening. I'd be terrible company and might fall asleep in my tapas. I will try to do a list before bookclub time so you'll have something to choose for the next month.

Really sorry gang :(

[kennethw]

Hello everyone,

I'm here, and up at the back, someone else is at the front.

Kenneth

[Red_Cat]

Be there shortly

[marlowe]

Sorry couldn't make last book club. Is there a date and a book for the next one?

[Red_Cat]

Unfortunately we were quite disorganised at the last meeting, we were going to go for 19th September but didn't decide on a book so that dates probably not going to work now.

Does anyone fancy doing a list then maybe we could organise a date for October?

[marlowe]

I don't mind doing a list. As it's black history month in October- I'll do a list of black writers.

[marlowe]

Here's the list:

James Baldwin - Another country

Another Country is a 1962 novel by James Baldwin. The novel is set in Greenwich Village in the late 1950s. It portrayed many themes that were taboo at the time of its release including bisexuality, interracial couples and extramarital affairs.

Toni Morriso - Bluest Eye

Morrison, a single mother of two sons, wrote the novel while she taught at Howard University.[1] She centered the story around a young African American girl named Pecola who grows up during the years following the Great Depression in Lorain, Ohio. Because of her dark skin color, Pecola gets taunted for her appearance as the members of her community associate beauty with "whiteness".

Alice Walker

This book honours and sincerely explores the link between spirituality and sexuality by telling the tale of a family, and all it?s members, after an event that altered their lives forever. Without giving too much away, it?s about the denial of a young girl?s sexuality, and ultimately her self and how that affects her, her father, mother and sister. It also has a huge impact on how they all relate to each other from that point onwards.

Maya Angelou - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a 1969 autobiography about the early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou. The first in a seven-volume series, it is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of character and a love of literature can help overcome racism and trauma. The book begins when three-year-old Maya and her older brother are sent to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother and ends when Maya becomes a mother at the age of 16. In the course of Caged Bird, Maya transforms from a victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a self-possessed, dignified young woman capable of responding to prejudice.

Malcolm X - The Diaries of Malcolm X

The heart of the book is Malcolm's impressions, his personal observations on the people he meets and the circumstances he encounters, his own feelings of trepid

[Red_Cat]

thanks, I think you missed off the name of the Alice Walker book, which one is it?

[marlowe]

For some reason I can't log on to my computer so I had to the list on my phone which is why it's so badly done. I can't find the name of the Alice Walker book so I'll change it to The Colour Purple.