Tuesday Tipplers Book Club - newbies welcome

[susan_]

See you all this evening :)

[susan_]

We chose We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson for our meeting next month and we'll be meeting on April 24th at the usual time of 7:45 for an 8pm start in the Tippler.

Sahar volunteered to do the list for the next book on a theme of her choosing.

As ever newcomers are welcome, just read the book and turn up (:

I'll PM everyone about film night at my house (long overdue showing of Interview with a Vampire)

[rcrosweller]

Book sounds great. I'm a newbie and hoping to join on the 24th if that's cool (and if I can read the book by then! :)) Becky x

[susan_]

Hi Becky, you?re very welcome :). Do consider coming along even if you haven?t finished (if you don?t mind spoilers). A few months ago I hadn?t finished Interview with a Vampire before bookclub but the discussion convinced me to finish and wow, was I glad I did (what an ending!).

We are usually in the front window area and one or more of us has the book out on the table so we?re easy to spot. Some of us eat dinner whilst we chat through the book (there?s a good tapas offer) and some people eat at home before coming out.

[rcrosweller]

Sounds great! See you then :)

[atSahar]

Hello everyone,

Ahead of the voting please see the list below on the theme of "Contemporary Japanese Literature".

See you all tomorrow!

Sahar

1- Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto

Mikage, has lost every member of her family but is welcomed into the affectionate?home of a young man, Yuichi, and his transgender mother, Eriko, who runs a gay night club. Mikage teaches herself to cook, and the process becomes a passion, an art, and a lifestyle that helps her work through?her pain: ?Perhaps because to me a kitchen represents some distant longing engraved on my soul.? Her relationships with Yuichi and Eriko are tender, bittersweet, and unforgettable.

2- Strange Weather in Tokyo - Hiromi Kawakami

Tsukiko is in her late 30s and living alone when one night she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, 'Sensei', in a bar. He is at least thirty years her senior, retired and, she presumes, a widower. After this initial encounter, the pair continue to meet occasionally to share food and drink sake, and as the seasons pass - from spring cherry blossom to autumnal mushrooms - Tsukiko and Sensei come to develop a hesitant intimacy which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love. Perfectly constructed, funny, and moving, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a tale of modern Japan and old-fashioned romance.

3- The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami

Toru Okada's cat has disappeared. His wife is growing more distant every day.

Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving.

As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out, and he embarks on a bizarre journey, guided (however obscurely) by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell.

4- Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata

Shimamura is tired of the bustling city. He takes the train through the snow to the mountains of the west coast of Japan, to meet with a geisha he believes he loves. Beautiful and innocent, Komako is tightly bound by the rules of a rural geisha, and lives a life of servitude and seclusion that is alien to Shimamura, and their love offers no freedom to either of them. Snow Country is both delicate and subtle, reflecting in Kawabata's exact, lyrical writing the unspoken love and the understated passion of the young Japanese couple.

[susan_]

Great list- see you all this evening (:

[rcrosweller]

Lovely to meet you all at book club yesterday evening. To vote on in June, I wondered if you've done 'banned books' before? https://www.theguardian.com/books/banned-books-week. If not I could pick a few titles under that theme?

Have a great month, I'm looking forward to starting Kitchen. Becky

[susan_]

Lovely to meet you too and thanks for offering to do a list (:

We may have done banned books as a theme in the past but I don?t think it was recently (ie within last few years) so I think that?s a great option.

See you all next time

[Red_Cat]

What date did we decide on for our next meeting? I don?t seem to have put it in my diary.

[susan_]

I think we are meeting on 5 June

[Red_Cat]

Thanks Susan

[overcaffeinated]

Which book did you choose this month? I will try to come along :)

[susan_]

Hey Tash - we chose Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, would be great to see you (:

[rcrosweller]

Hi everyone,

Hope it?s been a good month.

Here are the suggestions to vote on next week, as promised. All banned books on different themes:

See you soon,

Becky x

1) The Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall

Hall?s lesbian romance was the subject of an obscenity trial despite featuring no explicit or erotic scenes. The story follows an upper-class woman who falls in love with a female ambulance driver during World War One, but is rejected by her family and society because of the relationship. The campaign against it was spearheaded by the then-editor of the Sunday Express and a British court judged it obscene for its ?unnatural practises between women?. In 1949 it was republished without challenge and has been in print continuously since.?

2) Not Without My Daughter - Betty Mahmoody

This is the true story of Betty Mahmoody who travelled to Iran from the US to meet her husband?s family. Once there she realised that her husband and his family had always intended them to stay, and that she and her daughter were trapped with an increasingly violent man in a society where most women were treated as property. This account of her attempts to escape with her daughter was banned in Iran for its depiction of the patriarchal culture there.

3) The Last Weapon - Theodora Wilson Wilson

In 1916, Theodora Wilson Wilson, a Quaker and a pacifist, published a novel, The Last Weapon, which made a powerful statement against war. It was so popular that it was reprinted three times in 1916. Theodora depicted fictional characters who represented the arms trade, the imperialists, the hypocritical politicians and people of the church. She even predicted a weapon of mass destruction, which was, its proponents claimed, a superior weapon that would defeat the enemy: Hellite. It could be Trident. The book?s message as it flew round the country would have stopped recruitment. By 1917, the government had banned the book.

4) Into the River - Ted Dawe

Into the River, the coming-of-age story of a Maori boy whose intelligence wins him a place at a prestigious boarding school, where he faces racism and bullying, won Dawe the 2013 New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award. Its ban has prompted a wave of outrage from New Zealanders, authors and the international book community, with silent readings planned tomorrow (2015) in Auckland, Dunedin and Wellington as the literary world throws its weight behind Dawe.

[Annamarie]

Our next meeting will be held at the House of Tippler on Tuesday 10 February, 7:45 for an 8pm start. We voted to read The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer. Red_Cat volunteered to do the list for the next meeting.

[susan_]

Great list Becky - looking forward to Tuesday- see you all at 7:45 for 8!

[marlowe]

Hi all,

I've done a list on biographies:

The Diary of Anne Frank

"The Diary of a Young Girl" is among the most enduring documents of the 20th century. Anne Frank kept a diary from 1942 to 1944. Initially she wrote it strictly for herself. Then, one day in 1944, a member of the Dutch government in exile announced in a radio broadcast from London that after the war he hoped to collect eyewitness accounts of the suffering of the Dutch people under the German occupation, which could be made available to the public. As an example, he specially mentioned letters and diaries. Anne Frank decided that when the war was over, she would publish a book based on her diary. Anne's diary ends abruptly when she and her family were betrayed. Since its publication in 1947, "The Diary of a Young Girl" has been read by tens of millions of people.

Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell

A memoir of a searingly intense time: Orwell?s months in Spain during the Civil War, when he fought the fascists alongside mountain peasants. Among many unforgettable images ? the terror in Barcelona, the moment he was shot in the neck ? was the pervasiveness of the lice, and their fondness for trousers.

I Know Why The Cage Bird Sings - Mayo Angelou

The poet?s hugely influential biography (this was the first volume, dwelling on her early years) was on the US bestseller lists for two years. The story of her childhood is harrowing ? the racism of the deep south and the trauma of rape. But it is also to do with the freedom that literacy and poetry brings.

7

life - Keith Richards

eith Richards was born on December 18, 1943, in Dartford, England. He eventually joined the group Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, which by 1963 became the Rolling Stones. The band made the British charts in 1964 and over the ensuing years became a huge worldwide phenomenon with major hits such as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "Angie" and "Miss You," along with albums like Out of Our Heads, Sticky Fingers, Some Girls and Tattoo You. In 2010 Richards published his autobiography, Life.

I am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban" by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb

Written by Malala in collaboration with critically acclaimed author, Patricia McCormick, this children's edition tells the remarkable story of a girl who knew from a young age that she wanted to change the world - and did. Her journey will open your eyes to another world and will make you believe in hope.

See you on the 3rd of July!

[marlowe]

Hi all,

I've done a list on biographies:

The Diary of Anne Frank - Anne Frank

"The Diary of a Young Girl" is among the most enduring documents of the 20th century. Anne Frank kept a diary from 1942 to 1944. Initially she wrote it strictly for herself. Then, one day in 1944, a member of the Dutch government in exile announced in a radio broadcast from London that after the war he hoped to collect eyewitness accounts of the suffering of the Dutch people under the German occupation, which could be made available to the public. As an example, he specially mentioned letters and diaries. Anne Frank decided that when the war was over, she would publish a book based on her diary. Anne's diary ends abruptly when she and her family were betrayed. Since its publication in 1947, "The Diary of a Young Girl" has been read by tens of millions of people.

Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell

A memoir of a searingly intense time: Orwell?s months in Spain during the Civil War, when he fought the fascists alongside mountain peasants. Among many unforgettable images ? the terror in Barcelona, the moment he was shot in the neck ? was the pervasiveness of the lice, and their fondness for trousers.

I Know Why The Cage Bird Sings - Mayo Angelou

The poet?s hugely influential biography (this was the first volume, dwelling on her early years) was on the US bestseller lists for two years. The story of her childhood is harrowing ? the racism of the deep south and the trauma of rape. But it is also to do with the freedom that literacy and poetry brings.

Life - Keith Richards

Keith Richards was born on December 18, 1943, in Dartford, England. He eventually joined the group Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, which by 1963 became the Rolling Stones. The band made the British charts in 1964 and over the ensuing years became a huge worldwide phenomenon with major hits such as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "Angie" and "Miss You," along with albums like Out of Our Heads, Sticky Fingers, Some Girls and Tattoo You. In 2010 Richards published his autobiography, Life.

I am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban" by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb

Written by Malala in collaboration with critically acclaimed author, Patricia McCormick, this children's edition tells the remarkable story of a girl who knew from a young age that she wanted to change the world - and did. Her journey will open your eyes to another world and will make you believe in hope.

See you on the 3rd of July!

[susan_]

Hi everyone- I am really sorry but I?m not able to make it to book club tomorrow- I?ll send my votes through by PM

[kennethw]

Hi, just saw this, I've not been well this last week so I won't manage tomorrow unfortunately,will send my votes in.

K

[rcrosweller]

Eek, I'm going to struggle to get there too! Also, have found the book impossible to get into this month - my pick I know :/. I'll also PM my vote for next time, sorry not to be able to make it. x

[Red_Cat]

I may also not be able to get there till quite late as may have to work late, I'm wondering if we should postpone to another week as the football (England!)will be on tonight and they have the matches on i tippleralso so not sure how cpractical book club will be!

[susan_]

I think that?s a great idea Cat (altho would mean a concerted effort at finishing the book would be required!)

I?ll look out to see if it is moved to 10 July

[atSahar]

Hi all,

I was alos going to suggest Tuesday 10 July.

Best,

Sahar