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Book Lovers Group
Join us at the popular SBC Book Club. Enjoy lively discussions over a
drink or two. Whether you are an avid reader or would like to read more,
you'll love our relaxed friendly group.
2011 Books
The book group has been going since October 2008 but books before
January 2010 are not listed online
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR BOOK CLUB AND SEE CURRENT BOOKS
click here
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- Wednesday 5 January 2011
The Stars in the Bright Sky by Alan Warner
"The Sopranos are back: out of school and out in the world,
gathered in Gatwick to plan a super-cheap last-minute holiday to
celebrate their reunion. Kay, Kylah, Manda, Rachel and Finn are
joined by Finn's equally gorgeous friend Ava - a half-French
philosophy student - and are ready to go on the rampage. Just
into their twenties and as wild as ever, they've added acrylic
nails, pedicures, mobile phones and credit cards to their
arsenal, but are still the same thirsty girls: their holiday
bags packed with skimpy clothes and condoms, their hormones
rampant. Will it be Benidorm or Magaluf, Paris or Las Vegas? One
thing is certain: a great deal of fast-food will be eaten and
gallons of Guinness will be drunk by the alpha-female Manda, and
she will be matched by the others' enthusiastic intake of
Bacardi Breezers, vodkas and Red Bull. With Alan Warner's
pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, pinpoint characterisation and
glorious set-pieces, this is a novel propelled by conversation
through scenes of excess and debauchery, hilarity and sadness.
Like the six young women at its centre, "The Stars in the Bright
Sky" is vivid and brimming with life - in all its squalor, rage,
tears and laughter - and presents an unforgettable story of
female friendship."
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Wednesday 2 February 2011
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank
"Ever since the piano was invented, people have longed
to own one. By the nineteenth century the big, unwieldy
instruments were everywhere: they shrank in the heat of the
colonies, swayed on steamships and sang in the drawing room of
every genteel home. Some of these old pianos have become
treasured family heirlooms, some just firewood. But others have
led a more itinerant life, occasionally finding their way to a
secret, glass-roofed workshop in Paris where they are lovingly
restored by a piano repairer with a passion for his job.When T.
E. Carhart came upon Luc and his atelier, his life changed. As
he explored the Eldorado of pianos in Luc's back room, absorbed
Luc's wisdom on life and music and finally found the baby grand
of his dreams, he rediscovered his deep love for this most
magical of instruments.In this wonderfully atmospheric book,
full of Parisian life, the story of a musical friendship and a
mutual obsession is intertwined with reflections on how pianos
work, their glorious history and the people who care for them,
from the most amateur pianist to the tuners and craftsmen who
make the mechanism sing."
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Wednesday 2 March 2011
One Day by David Nicholls
' I can imagine you at forty,' she said, a hint of
malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now.'
He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then.'
15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the
night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate
ways.
So where will they be on this one day next year?
And the year after that? And every year that follows?
Twenty years, two people, one day. From the author of the
massive bestseller Starter for Ten.
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Wednesday 6 April 2011
The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll
"Spy stories are great fun. James Bond, Tom Clancy...
And Now Cliff Stoll, with only one minor difference.
This one's true.
In the Eighties, Clifford Stoll ran out of money for his
research into Astronomy at the University of Berkeley and was
'recycled' into the lab's computer division. A couple of days
into his new job, his boss brought an interesting problem to his
attention, their accounting software - logging, and charging
for, time on the mainframe - was missing 75 cents. Would he like
to look into it?
A year later Clifford Stoll had tracked a hacker across half
the planet, through dozens of supposedly secure military and
civillian networks, he'd interfaced with a dozen or more
three-letter agencies (CIA, FBI, NSA, CID and more) and become
one of the world's most respected experts in computer security.
I wish I had half the brains this man has. I'd reccomend this
book to anyone with even a passing interest in the internet,
computer security, networks and other computer related hardware.
The book'll leave you feeling like an idiot, but you'll love
every second."
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Wednesday 4 May 2011
Your Blue-Eyed Boy by Helen Dunmore
"Simone is 38, a district judge whose husband Donald is
on the verge of bankruptcy and breakdown. Whilst she is at
court, passing judgement on the lives of others, Donald stays at
home and looks after their two young sons. One morning a letter
arrives; someone she has tried to forget has not forgotten her
and Simone's private history is about to collide with her public
world."
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Wednesday 1 June 2011
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
"Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2009 'Lock Cromwell in
a deep dungeon in the morning,' says Thomas More, 'and when you
come back that night he'll be sitting on a plush cushion eating
larks' tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money.'
England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no
heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with
securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this
atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as
Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor. Cromwell is a wholly
original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political
genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and
deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in
pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider
politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried
out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who
fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages. From
one of our finest living writers, 'Wolf Hall' is that very rare
thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the
intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a
vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident,
it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made
society, moulding itself with great passion, suffering and
courage."
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- Wednesday 6 July 2011
Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor
"On
a cold, quiet day between Christmas and the New Year, a man's
body is found in an abandoned apartment. His friends look on,
but they're dead, too. Their bodies found in squats and sheds
and alleyways across the city. Victims of a bad batch of heroin,
they're in the shadows, a chorus keeping vigil as the hours
pass, paying their own particular homage as their friend's body
is taken away, examined, investigated, and cremated. All of
their stories are laid out piece by broken piece through a
series of fractured narratives. We meet Robert, the deceased,
the only alcoholic in a sprawling group of junkies; Danny, just
back from uncomfortable holidays with family, who discovers the
body and futilely searches for his other friends to share the
news of Robert's death; Laura, Robert's daughter, who stumbles
into the junky's life when she moves in with her father after
years apart; Heather, who has her own place for the first time
since she was a teenager; Mike, the Falklands War vet; and all
the others. Theirs are stories of lives fallen through the
cracks, hopes flaring and dying, love overwhelmed by a stronger
need, and the havoc wrought by drugs, distress, and the
disregard of the wider world. These invisible people live in a
parallel reality, out of reach of basic creature comforts, like
food and shelter. In their sudden deaths, it becomes clear, they
are treated with more respect than they ever were in their short
lives. Intense, exhilarating, and shot through with hope and
fury, Even the Dogs is an intimate exploration of life at the
edges of society--littered with love, loss, despair, and a
half-glimpse of redemption."
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- Wednesday 3 August2011
*****date changed as the book was not available from the
library scheme earlier*****
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
'A spirited and exhilarating read...Dawkins comes roaring
forth in
the full vigour of his powerful arguments...' Joan Bakewell,
The Gaurdian
For this book we will be using Edinburgh City Council's
Book Group Collection, which allows book groups to
borrow up to 15 copies of a selected titles for up to 6
weeks. To collect your copy come along to our book group on
Wednesday 6 July. |
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- Wednesday 7 September 2011
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
'A Gothic horror story of quite
exceptional quality...macabre, bizarre ...quite impossible to
put down' - Financial Times 'A mighty imagination has arrived on
the scene' - Mail on Sunday. |
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- Wednesday 5 October 2011
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
"An
extraordinary true-life tale, and Julian Barnes' most acclaimed,
fully-achieved and best-loved novel to date"
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- Wednesday 2 November 2011
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
"Waugh's most deeply felt novel .
. . Brideshead Revisited tells an absorbing story in imaginative
terms . . . Mr. Waugh is very definitely an artist, with
something like a genius for precision and clarity not surpassed
by any novelist writing in English in his time." The
New York Times |
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- Wednesday 7 December 2011
Skallagrigg by William Horwood
"The story concerns Arthur, a
young boy suffering from cerebral palsy, abandoned in a grim
hospital in the north of England and subject to extreme cruelty
and neglect; Esther, a keenly intelligent teenager who also
suffers from CP but whose talents are recognised in these
enlightened days; and Daniel, an American computer-gaming
genius. They are linked by the Skallagrigg; whatever or whoever
it is will transform their lives. Esther sets out on a quest to
find the truth of the Skallagrigg, founded in the life and
experiences of Arthur. She encapsulates what she finds in a
tortuously complex computer game, knowing that the truth is
never likely to be uncovered. A man named Martin has heard the
word Skallagrigg from his senile grandmother and when he hears
of Skallagrigg the game, he is determined to solve it and
discover what it means..."
This book has 39 reviews on Amazon, of which 36 are 5*. Really
looking forward to seeing if it lives up to the hype.
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