March Book Club: ‘Slaughterhouse Five’

Hello All

Thanks to the record number (33) of people who came down for Book Club last time. It was a great night. The book however was not so great and scored a disappointing 4.16!

Next Book Club is 11th March, 7.30 at the Crucible Corner. We're reading 'Slaughterhouse Five' by Kurt Vonnegut.

"...Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden."

Big Book

This month is also Big Book, 25th March, 7.30 at the Crucible Corner. We'll be reading the hefty 'The Blind Assassin' by Margaret Atwood.

"Laura Chase's older sister Iris, married at eighteen to a politically prominent industrialist but now poor and eighty-two, is living in Port Ticonderoga, a town dominated by their once-prosperous family before the First War. While coping with her unreliable body, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life, in particular the events surrounding her sister's tragic death. Chief among these was the publication of The Blind Assassin, a novel which earned the dead Laura Chase not only notoriety but also a devoted cult following. Sexually explicit for its time, The Blind Assassin describes a risky affair in the turbulent thirties between a wealthy young woman and a man on the run. During their secret meetings in rented rooms, the lovers concoct a pulp fantasy set on Planet Zycron. As the invented story twists through love and sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real one; while events in both move closer to war and catastrophe. By turns lyrical, outrageous, formidable, compelling and funny, this is a novel filled with deep humour and dark drama."

Book Club trip to Bath

This year's outing is going to be to the lovely Spa town of Bath, loosely related to reading Persuasion in April. I think we're going to go with Saturday May 2nd till the 3rd or 4th. If you fancy going then let us know as we're going to start looking for accommodation and things to do. If you have any suggestions we'd love to hear them.

2015 Book list

  • March - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

  • April - Persuasion by Jane Austen

  • May - Tainspotting by Irvine Welsh

  • June - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D.Salinger

  • July - Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

  • Aug - The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

  • Sept - The Reader by Prof Bernhard Schlink

  • Oct - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Big Book

This is an extra Book Club that happens every 3 months to allow us extra time to read a bigger book. It is on the 4th Wednesday of the month, 7.30 at the Crucible Corner.

  • 25th March - The Blind Assassin by Margaret Attwood

  • 24th June - American Gods - Neil Gaiman

  • 23rd Sept - The Stand - Stephen King

Happy Reading!

Rachel & Emily