| Status: | Active, full but can join waiting list |
| Contact: | |
| When: | Monthly on Friday mornings 1st Fri 10.00 |
| Venue: | Applegarth Farm Shop Cafe |
Leader: Elizabeth Nuttall
The venue is Applegarth Farm Shop Café, Grayshott on the first Friday of the month at 10am.
There is no charge for the space, but the expectation is, naturally, that Group members will buy a coffee (and maybe lunch afterwards...).
Each session focusses on a book one member of the Group in turn has chosen for group discussion. It could be a book new to them which they wish to discover and explore with the Group, or a work previously enjoyed, inspiring them to re-discover it with the Group. There is no restriction on the age or genre of the work. The choice for a session could be a classic or equally, a brand-new publication. The only stipulations are that the book be reasonably priced and easily available. The Haslemere Bookshop will provide a 10% discount to Group members on purchases of chosen books.
The book discussed at the Group's inaugural meeting was Penelope Fitzgerald’s elegant novel ‘Offshore’. Winner of the 1979 Booker prize, it was controversially the judges’ unanimous compromise decision because they had a split first choice between V S Naipaul’s ’A Bend in the River’ and William Golding’s ‘Darkness Visible’. We have also read and discussed Willa Cather’s ‘My Antonia’ an exquisitely descriptive novel written in 1918 about early frontier life in the American mid-West. This choice is a wonderful illustration of the thinking behind the Group. An American-born member of the Group studied the book at High School (it is still set reading in US schools) but took little from it as a schoolchild. On picking it up again however, loved it so introduced it to the Group, none of whom had read it before, most indeed never having heard of it. Everyone much enjoyed the novel, and it gave rise to lively discussion. A real case of ‘Discover and Re-discover’.
At a Summer meeting we departed from the usual format and instead each member chose and discussed with the group three books they would want with them on a desert island.
The Group is currently at capacity. However, if you are interested, please contact me using the link above and I will put you on the waiting list in case a space in the Group becomes free. Or we may form a second group!
Happy reading!
Elizabeth
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