Book Club

Many Thanks to Steve for hosting last night which went on until around 1.30 am and late in the evening involved 12 year old Bowmore Whisky. A good discussion and a few good arguments on subjects like whether a great meal can ever take be compared to a great cultural or social experience (Brendan No, Leslie YES).

Books were mostly found worthy. Yamato Dynasty suffered from dodgy unsubstantiated history mixed with interesting stuff leading some of us not knowing what to believe and what to discount.

Beyond a Boundary was much admired by all and is worth reading if you have not yet done so. (might even lead to an outing to the next cricket international in Clontarf).

Last Train From Liguria had admirers and detractors and some who just refused to care (ie didn't want to read it). I say its a wonderfully written book but then the author is a friend of mine. our first foray into fiction not an unqualified success but then it was only a third book as part of a summer reading list. I never expected everyone to read it.

Next book club is probably in late October or Early November. Suggested dates are Oct 28th or Nov 4th. No venue yet.

The book is as follows -

The Lost City of Z - by David Grann (Simon and Schuster)
Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett was the last of a breed of great British explorers who ventured into ‘blank spots’ on the map with little more than a machete, a compass and an unwavering sense of purpose. In 1925, one of the few remaining blank spots in the world was the Amazon. Fawcett believed the impenetrable jungle held a secret to a large, complex civilization like El Dorado, which he christened ‘City of Z’. When he and his son set out to find it, hoping to make one of the most important archaeological discoveries in history, they warned that none should follow them in the event that they did not return. They vanished without a trace. In The Lost City of Z, David Grann ventures into the hazardous world of the Amazon to retrace the footsteps of Colonel Fawcett and his followers, in a bracing attempt to solve one of the greatest mysteries. It is an irresistibly readable adventure story, a subtle examination of the strange and often violent encounters between Europeans and Amazonian tribes and a tale of lethal obsession.
the summary above is from the Samuel Johnson prize page - the book was shortlisted this year. This is a good place to find worthy books btw.
http://www.thesamueljohnsonprize.co.uk/pages/previous-winners/2009/the-books/the-lost-city-of-z.htm
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-City-Legendary-British-Explorers/dp/1847374360

2 Other things - I have set up a Blogspot (as a discussion board rather than as an actual blog). This is a place to put thoughts as they occur and to list books worth a look. I will email everyone a login. I am not precious about this so if ye feel it is unnecessary and we should just stick to emailing each other thats fine too.

Finally late in the evening (very late) myself and Brendan started banging on about poetry and decided we should all find a poem for next month in addition to the book. can be something from school or childhood (- e.g. Ogden Nash's poem Ode on my Goldfish - O Wet Pet).

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Other Books Mentioned included -
Pepys by Claire Tomalin
wonderful biography of the social diarist. a good intro to the man well worth looking at before you tackle the diaries themselves (Leslie read this a year or two ago and flew through it - Brendan is in the process of reading it).

Postwar by Tony Judt
I'm in the middle of this. Hugely comprehensive and informative history of Europe from 1945-2005. I learned that over 70 million people were forced to move out of their country (german speakers back to germany from all over, jews anywhere that would take them etc.).

AC Grayling was mentioned (forget the book - possibly the one on the morality of bombing cities)

for contemporary Poetry I recommend Vona Groarke, Jean O'Brien, Michael O Siadhail, Patrick Chapman (who hopes to join the book club).