Links for the next meeting - New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

Wikipedia is surprisingly sparce - just a few lines of background and a synopsis of each story.

City of Glass was turned into a graphic novel in 1994. It's quite easy to see why this would have worked as a GN more than the other two. You can buy it here - currently £5.48.

A collection of reviews on a Paul Auster fan site

From Amazon - A five star review:

"The NewYork Trilogy is that rare thing, a book that will continue to haunt you long after you put it down. Though the three stories it contains are structured and inspired by thriller novels, the work is essentially a meditation on the art of writing. It draws a parallel between a private investigator having to watch the person he has been hired to spy on and a writer attempting to create and capture a life on the page. All the central characters in the three stories hit a black wall at some point, where they feel unable to penetrate through to the subject under their observation. Auster captures this limitation of writing beautifully. This is a gripping, dark and completely original piece of work. Certainly a twentieth century classic. I shudder to think that I was nearly going to pass it over."

A one star review:

"I am not sure which I found more perplexing, the novel or its ecstatic reviews? Three stories based in New York with the thinnest of threads apparently connecting them. The first is a chapter long pontification on Paradise Lost and The Tower of Babel. The second is a pinch me it's Tarantino collection of Mr Blue, Mr Black and Mr White. The third raises crime literature hopes with 'The Locked Room' title but then does nothing to deliver. This is the first time I've read a book and then felt I should read it again; not for pleasure but because I'm sure I've missed something. As a review to help potential readers I am afraid I am truly at a loss. I struggle to come up with any kind of synopsis, quotes or insight. I read it, I really did, all of it, waiting for something to happen. Is that the point? In Star Trek there are often storylines where the crew have their memory erased. Nothing at all can be remembered for a period of minutes or even hours and then life goes on totally unchanged either for better or worse. That's The New York Trilogy."
(You've got to love that Star Trek reference at the end...)

Solar by Ian McEwan

We (generally) loved Atonement, and we (generally) hated Saturday...

Do we dare try Ian McEwan's new one Solar (when it's out in paperback)?

It does sound promising:

"Michael Beard is in his late fifties; bald, overweight, unprepossessing – a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. An inveterate philanderer, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. When Beard’s professional and personal worlds are entwined in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself, a chance for Beard to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster."

Beautiful book covers

From a collection here.

I particularly like these two:

England Vs. Argentina, World Cup 2002

This is highlights of the match they're watching in Heartland



The Beckham's celebration still feels so emotional!

Waterstones Book Circle - a virtual book group

Book Circle is a new virtual book group for Waterstones card holders.

Each month one of them picks a book (from the books new out in paperback that month, I'm assuming) and then Waterstones produces a reading guide for you to download.

This month it's Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig.

You can download the reading guide here, including an 8 page guide, and 12 questions.

In fact Hearts and Minds looks really good!

On The Road, re-told by Google

Another example of storytelling:



This was a book that really polarised the group - the boys liked it, the girls hated it...

Review of the TV Book Club

We wrote about the new TV Book Club in January when it was first announced. Now, 3 weeks in, it's finally a proper discussion of books.

The first two weeks felt pretty weak and frustrating because too much time was spent on the celebs (Chris Evans and Alan Davies) with the book under discussion squeezed into too much time at the end. Also the interaction between the panelists seemed a bit false.

The third week was a lot better, though. Either by luck or design Gok Wan wasn't there, and one fewer person in the studio made it easier for the others to really get stuck into the book. They also seemed more natural together, and acting more like passionate readers and less like celebs ticking demographic boxes. You don't need to people to be famous, just to have strong opinions, articulately expressed.

For example, I really like Newsnight Review (now re-named The Review Show) on BBC 2, and as you get used to the people on it you look forward to seeing what they're going to think of the items under discussion. The classic line up of Tom Paulin, Tony Parsons and Alison Pearson in the late 1990s was really successful despite the fact that at the time none of them were well known before being on the show. I really wanted that for the TV Book Club, and although they've gone the celeb route, I really want people like Nathaniel Parker and Laila Rouass (neither of whom are really known to me) to live up to that. Hopefully by the time they get onto Matthew Quick's The Silver Linings Playbook I'll be anticipating the stands they'll take on different aspects of the story.

Anyway, it's now starting to feel like a real book club, rather than a plugging machine, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing what they make of Juliet Naked, the only one of the books on the list that I've actually read.

For another example of the TV Book Club, have a look at what they do in Australia. They really get stuck in!