06.06.2018 - Sandra, Alex, Heinz and Andrew discuss the novel. Schmuel – a young idealistic student – has abandoned his studies in Jerusalem, taking a live-in job as a companion to a cantankerous old man. But Schmuel quickly becomes obsessed with...
09.04.2018 - ‘Story of Your Life’ by Ted Chiang Sonja, Heinz, Thomas, Dee, Sandra and Andrew discuss this sci-fi short story. How does the linguist Louise communicate with the Aliens (‘Heptapods’)? What do we learn of her daughter, who...
14.03.2018 - Linda, Maria, Sonja, Sandra and Andrew discuss the novel. World War 2 is over and Japan sets about rebuilding its shattered cities. Masujo Ono, an ageing painter, looks back over his life and assesses his career, which coincided with the rise of...
28.02.2018 - Set across Istanbul and Oxford, from the 1980s to 2016, ‘Three Daughters of Eve’ is a sweeping tale of faith and friendship, tradition and modernity, love and an unexpected betrayal. Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife and mother, in on...
09.01.2018 - ‘Every Third Thought’, Robert McCrum, (Picador, 2017): On Life, Death and the Endgame The question is no longer ‘Who am I?’ but ‘How long have I got?’ In 1995, at the age of 42, Robert McCrum suffered a dramatic...
13.12.2017 - ‘The Underground Railroad’ (2016) by Colson Whitehead Alex, Georg, Sandra and Andrew discuss and read from an extraordinary novel. ‘The Underground Railroad’ is about a slave named Cora who grows up on a Georgia plantation....
09.11.2017 - ‘Hag-Seed’, by Margaret Atwood (2016) Brigitte, Maria, Sandra, Sonja and Andrew discuss: the cover-picture of the book, the origin of the title, with extracts from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. The novel a clever...
07.08.2017 - “A woman arrives in Athens in the height of summer to teach a writing course. Once there, she becomes the audience to a chain of narratives as the people she meets tell her one after another the stories of their lives. Beginning with the...
05.07.2017 - ‘The Noise of Time’ (2016), Julian Barnes a ‘fictional biography’ of Dmitri Shostakovich, Soviet composer In May 1937 a man in his early 30s waits by the lift of a Leningrad appartment block. He waits all through the night,...
07.06.2017 - A detailed portrait of a marriage, family ties and the community of Crosby, Maine. A penetrating, vibrant exploration of the human soul, with all the joys and grief of a painful journey of love. What sort of town is Crosby? Why is the book called...
11.05.2017 - We review how the Reading Circle started in Sept 2012 and its aims: to share personal reading experiences; to explore different readings, impressions and insights; to enjoy social company and interaction. How do sessions run? Which books, and how...
19.04.2017 - Once upon … one day in a life: March 30, 1924. Jane Goodchild, 22, an orphan, a maid in a country mansion, has no mother to visit on ‘Mothering Sunday’. Her relationship with Paul, of upper-middle class, changes dramatically that...
01.03.2017 - “The compelling, inspiring and comically sublime story of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of Apartheid and the tumultuouis days of freedom that followed.” Questions discussed by Angie, Maria, Sandra, Sonja and...
30.01.2017 - ‘Serious Sweet’, by A. L. Kennedy (2016) Five of us (Maria, Lee Anne, Sandra, Alex and Andrew) discuss A.L. Kennedy’s latest book, the novel ‘Serious Sweet’ , long-listed for the Booker Prize in 2016. A good man in a...
