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Tuesday Tipplers Book Club - newbies welcome


susan_

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Good food, good wine, good company already makes for a great evening, but throw in a good book, a fascinating discussion and an exciting secret ballot and you?ve got the Tuesday Tipplers Book Club.


Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 21 October at 7:45ish at the House of Tippler and we'll be discussing Senor Vivo and the Coco Lord by Louis de Bernieres. Newbies are always welcome - just read the book and turn up on the night. The next meeting date is usually posted on the thread within a few days of a meeting. Subscribe to the thread if you're interested - we don't tend to have much discussion on the thread, mostly posting the next meeting details and the list for voting on next month's book (so you won't be bombarded up update emails).


Running for over six years, the club brings together a varied group of individuals who share a love of books. The discussions are friendly, good humoured, insightful and at times challenge us to read books outside of our own personal preferences. We meet on a Tuesday at 7:45ish, about once a month, at the Tippler on Lordship Lane.


We take turns making a list of books (usually along some theme) and the group votes by secret ballot to determine the next month's book. Recent themes have been "good books by bad people", childrens classics, ?new beginnings? and ?books you hated as a teenager?! Our choice of themes is often influenced by current events; for example during the 2010 World Cup we read Tsotsi by South Africa writer Athol Fugard and during the height of the phone-tapping scandal we chose to read Scoop, a novel about journalism by Evelyn Waugh.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hi


Looking forward to seeing at least some of you tomorrow evening. A month ago I was in Scotland following the referendum so I've taken that as my cue for this month's list. It's not as well researched as I'd like - I'm a bit busy at the moment - but I hope you'll find something of interest there. Here's a link to the Amazon wish list:


http://www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/3FDWUXDPV8SKK


I'll see if I can type it up before we meet or maybe bring my laptop. I know, pathetic.


Alec

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Hi All,

Sorry not going to make it tonight as been laid low with a nasty cold, not quite recovered so going to stay home with my lem sips.

I'm looking at your list Alec and can't quite decide am tempted by a few of them but think I might go for Wire in the Blood if I can put my vote in.

Cat x

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Next meeting is on Tuesday November 25th at 7:45 for an 8 o'clock start, at the House of Tippler.


We'll be discussing Wire in the Blood by Val McDermid. New members are welcome, just pick up the book, read it and come along on the night for the discussion.


(BTW - I did finish Senor Vivo after our discussion last week and am in agreement with you all now...yuck)


sorry, edited to add: I'll be doing the list for next month

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi All, There's a strong chance I'll be late or absent tonight due to lingering issues with a go-live at work.


Below is the voting list for next month's book. I decided to go with the very random "books published recently that have won awards and sound good to me". All seem to be available in paperback (including lots of second hand options) and Kindle.


We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

(shortlisted for Booker)

Rosemary's young, just at college, and she's decided not to tell anyone a thing about her family. So we're not going to tell you too much either: you'll have to find out for yourselves, round about page 77, what it is that makes her unhappy family unlike any other. Rosemary is now an only child, but she used to have a sister the same age as her, and an older brother. Both are now gone - vanished from her life. There's something unique about Rosemary's sister, Fern. And it was this decision, made by her parents, to give Rosemary a sister like no other, that began all of Rosemary's trouble. So now she's telling her story: full of hilarious asides and brilliantly spiky lines, it's a looping narrative that begins towards the end, and then goes back to the beginning. Twice. It's funny, clever, intimate, honest, analytical and swirling with ideas that will come back to bite you. We hope you enjoy it, and if, when you're telling a friend about it, you do decide to spill the beans about Fern - it's pretty hard to resist - don't worry. One of the few studies Rosemary doesn't quote says that spoilers actually enhance reading.


The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

(winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2013)

?I?ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name?s Simon. I think you?re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he?ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.?

There are books you can?t stop reading, which keep you up all night. There are books which let us into the hidden parts of life and make them vividly real. There are books which, because of the sheer skill with which every word is chosen, linger in your mind for days. The Shock of the Fall is all of these books.

The Shock of the Fall is an extraordinary portrait of one man?s descent into mental illness. It is a brave and groundbreaking novel from one of the most exciting new voices in fiction.


Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

(Shortlisted for the Bailey?s Women?s Prize for Fiction 2014)

From the award-winning author of ?Half of a Yellow Sun,? a powerful story of love, race and identity.

As teenagers in Lagos, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America. There she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

Thirteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a blogger. But after so long apart and so many changes, will they find the courage to meet again, face to face?

Fearless, gripping, spanning three continents and numerous lives, the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning ?Americanah? is a richly told story of love and expectation set in today?s globalized world.


The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey

Not every gift is a blessing

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class.

When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite. But they don't laugh.

Melanie is a very special girl.

Emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end, The Girl with all the Gifts is the most powerful and affecting thriller you will read this year.


Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

(Winner of the Costa Novel Award)

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right?


During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath. During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale.


What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to?

Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. With wit and compassion, Kate Atkinson finds warmth even in life?s bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the past. Here she is at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves.

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Hello all,

I have wanted to join your book group but the timing of your meetings haven't worked out yet. Maybe next month... I have read two of the books on your list (one I enjoyed very much and the other was so boring I stopped reading it halfway through and gave the book away. We are completely besides ourselves sounds interesting; it gets my vote.

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Hi there,


The good news is that I've read the book, but the bad news is that I've got a pretty bad cold and don't want to share it with anyone, so I will have to pass.


I liked some things about the book, like the killer being revealed early on, so it's more of a howdunnit than a whodunnit, but I have a real phobia of violence against women, and found those bits pretty gruesome.


Catch you all next time. I'll go for the shock of the fall as my choice. Then Life after Life.


K

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Hi All,


Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 6th January 7:45 for 8pm at House of Tippler, all welcome as usual.


Our chosen book is:


'We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves' by Karen Joy Fowler


I volunteered to do the next list on the theme of 'Neighbours'

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry haven't managed to do the list for tomorrow, the theme proved more tricky than I anticipated! Will try and think of something for tomorrow or if anyone else has any burning ideas for a book for next month please feel free to suggest!


Hopefully see everyone tomorrow for our first book club of 2015

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Hello all,

Unfortunately I have another commitment tonight so won't be able to attend my first meeting with you all, but looking forward to the next one. Sorry; probably in the minority but I did not enjoy 'We are all...' I found Rosemary terribly annoying and I couldn't get past that. Although I tried very hard to give it several opportunities to improve I just desperately wanted the book to end so I could erase her from my memory. So I ended up reading another book and that helped me get over Rosemary.


Red-Cat,

this may be a stretch on the theme but how about 'All the light we can not see' by A. Doerr? The main characters are from 'neighbor'-ing countries and the story sounds fascinating... Or is that too far of a stretch on the theme?


Looking forward to meeting everybody next month.

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