Tuesday Tipplers Book Club - newbies welcome

[LadyBird1977]

Hi everyone,

Below is the book list for next month based on a comedy theme in celebration of April Fools' Day. If you can't make it on Tuesday PM me your votes and I'll bring them along for the final count.

See you then x

Our Man in Havana - Graham Greene

Wormold is a vacuum cleaner salesman in a city of power cuts. His adolescent daughter spends his money with a skill that amazes him, so when a mysterious Englishman offers him an extra income he's tempted. In return all he has to do is carry out a little espionage and file a few reports. But when his fake reports start coming true, things suddenly get more complicated and Havana becomes a threatening place.

"As comical, satirical, atmospherical an "entertainment" as he has given us" (Daily Telegraph)

Look Who's Back - Timur Vermes

Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of open ground, alive and well. Things have changed - no Eva Braun, no Nazi party, no war. Hitler barely recognises his beloved Fatherland, filled with immigrants and run by a woman.

People certainly recognise him, albeit as a flawless impersonator who refuses to break character. The unthinkable, the inevitable happens, and the ranting Hitler goes viral, becomes a YouTube star, gets his own T.V. show, and people begin to listen. But the F?hrer has another programme with even greater ambition - to set the country he finds a shambles back to rights.

This uproariously funny satire will have you in stitches (Shortlist)

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

This is Ignatius J. Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged. Ignatius ignores them, heaving his vast bulk through the city's fleshpots in a noble crusade against vice, modernity and ignorance. But his momma has a nasty surprise in store for him: Ignatius must get a job. Undaunted, he uses his new-found employment to further his mission - and now he has a pirate costume and a hot-dog cart to do it with...

'A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities ... it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue'

The New York Times

The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien

A masterpiece of black humour from the renown comic and acclaimed author of ?At Swim-Two-Birds? ? Flann O?Brien.

A thriller, a hilarious comic satire about an archetypal village police force, a surrealistic vision of eternity, the story of a tender, brief, unrequited love affair between a man and his bicycle, and a chilling fable of unending guilt, ?The Third Policeman? is comparable only to ?Alice in Wonderland? as an allegory of the absurd.

?Flann O?Brien is inventive, his storytelling is swift and sure, making the eccentric seem natural and the commonplace hilarious.? The Times

Wilt - Tom Sharpe

Henry Wilt, tied to a daft job and a domineering wife, has just been passed over for promotion yet again. Ahead of him at the Polytechnic stretch years of trying to thump literature into the heads of plasterers, joiners, butchers and the like. And things are no better at home where his massive wife, Eva, is given to boundless and unpredictable fits of enthusiasm - for transcendental meditation, yoga or the trampoline. But if Wilt can do nothing about his job, he realises he can do something about his wife - and as each day passes, his fantasies grow more murderous and more real.

"Superb farce ... If you don't laugh your head off, Crippen wasn't guilty" (Tribune)

[Red_Cat]

I'm not sure if I'll make it or not tonight so I'm going to pm my vote to Ashley just in case.

[LadyBird1977]

Drum roll......... the winner is, Wilt - Tom Sharpe

We didn't agree a date for the next book club because we forgot, and also there were only two of us. Shall I suggest 11th April?

See you soon, Ashley xx

[Red_Cat]

11th is fine with me.

Sorry not to make it tonight.

Cat x

[LadyBird1977]

Hello again,

I actually can't make the 11th April due to a work trip but that's ok, you guys go ahead and I'll join in May again.

I forgot to say Rhian is doing the book list for next month.

See you all soon, I hope that you enjoy Wilt :)

Ashley xx

[susan_]

I'm unfortunately going to miss April due to a holiday, I'm going buy and read Wilt anyway!

Just an FYI that my attendance may be patchy for the next several months. My mom, while more stable and back home, is on a slow recovery. I will be spending a bit of time at my parents home to be an extra pair of hands (chief dog-walker too). No dates are fixed yet but I thought I'd mention it in advance

Susan

[marlowe]

Hi everyone,

I've decided to do a list on books that have been banned:

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis

American Psycho is a novel that makes a statement about modern society. Patrick Bateman is a rich kid who works on Wall Street. Bateman spends his mornings at the gym and his nights clubbing with his friends. Everyone believes Bateman is a nice guy, the shy boy next door.

Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak

Doctor Zhivago tells the story of Yury Zhivago, a man torn between his love for two women while caught in the tumultuous course of twentieth century Russian history. Yury's mother dies when he is still a young boy, and he is raised by his uncle Kolya. He enrolls at the university in Moscow, studying medicine.

Lady Chatterley's Lover - D. H. Lawrence

It tells the story of Clifford and Connie Chatterley and their sterile marriage, which ultimately leads her to have an affair with their gamekeeper, Mellors. The story takes place after the First World War and is set in England, in the heart of the industrialized Midlands.

Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs

In a convoluted and disturbing string of events, a drug addict flees from the police. His journeys take him across the United States and down into Mexico and beyond. On his travels, he meets up with various members of the underground drug and homosexual cultures. Alongside the twisted narrative runs a counter story about the uses of mind control by governments and psychiatrists to manipulate, destroy and direct the masses. Told in lurid detail that disturbs and disgusts many readers, the novel presents a glimpse into the emerging counter cultures of the 1950s and gives interesting insights into how these forces effect the ongoing development of modern society.

The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie

One of the most controversial and acclaimed novels ever written, The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's best-known and most galvanizing book. Set in a modern world filled with both mayhem and miracles, the story begins with a bang: the terrorist bombing of a London-bound jet in midflight.

See you on the 11th!

Rhian xx

[LadyBird1977]

Great list! This one is going to be hard to choose :)

[kennethw]

Lady Chatterley's Lover is filthy and I would be appalled that such a fine, upstanding, moral group of women would even think of reading it. Hehehe.

[susan_]

Oh my goodness I wake to read all of them (even LCL ;))! Excellent list :)

I'm in Sarajevo so will send my vote via PM

[marlowe]

I don't have any morals!

[kennethw]

I won't make it tonight, crazy week at work.

Put me down for Lady Chatterley and the Satanic Verses. In that order.

Thanks

Kenneth

[marlowe]

Is anyone coming as I'm on my own in the bar!

[Red_Cat]

So sorry I didn't put it in my diary and have double-booked myself -aargh!!

hope someone turns up!

[marlowe]

Ok I assume no one is coming so I'll head off home. Boo.

[sparklehorse]

Hello all. Sorry I realised I was still inadvertently unsubscribed from this thread so hadn't registered the date or book! So I'm sorry to R for being the lone reader this week :( I wondered whether people would be interested in rescheduling a date for Wilt, before going to the next list? hope to see you all soon anyway, E.

[marlowe]

How about May 17th? We can discuss Wilt and choose the next book.

[LadyBird1977]

I can't not make 17th, sorry.

[overcaffeinated]

Me neither, sorry!

[LadyBird1977]

I could make 16th if that works xx

[marlowe]

I actually meant the 16th as that's a Tuesday. Doh!

[marlowe]

The 16th is better as it's a Tuesday. Doh!

[marlowe]

Yes 16th is what I meant as it's a Tuesday!

[Red_Cat]

I can do 16th

[marlowe]

Shall we do the 16th then?