| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Convenor: |
Maggie Doherty
Tel: 07951 299 113
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| Convenor: |
Coleen Bee
Tel: 07450 938 777
|
| When: | Monthly on Tuesdays 2:00 pm-4:00 pm 1st Tuesday of the month |
| Venue: | Carlton Fire Station |
The Book Club is made up of friendly people who enjoy reading and discussing a wide variety of books.
We usually meet on the first Tuesday of the month at Carlton Fire Station to discuss a book read by the group during the previous month.
Every third month or so we have either Readers' Choices where everyone brings in a book they have read and they introduce it briefly or we explore an agreed genre or writer.
For an overview of future meeting dates and book choices tap the Calendar button and select Book Club from the Group drop-down list.
Books read recently:
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The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
August 2026: Published in 2016, this novel is based upon the vicissitudes faced by Shostakovich, the Russian composer who faced severe criticism and constraint by the Communist Party, particularly during Stalin’s rule. His works, though appreciated by music lovers, were publicly attacked by those in power, as they were said to flout the values and tastes of the Party. Barnes presents a detailed picture of Shostakovich’s dread of punishment and the tactics he used to survive and protect his family, whilst continuing to practise his art and follow his inspiration. He was forced to deliver prepared speeches at home and… Read More
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American Authors
July 2026: We read a variety of books written by American authors. It proved to be a wide array of styles and genres and many of us have taken away new reading material or authors to explore. Thanks everyone for your individual synopses. Middle Age: A Romance by Joyce Carol Oates Themes are Art especially Sculpture, Nature in the surrounding vastness and dark forests, and Isolation, in the breakdown of 'tired marriages'. Also Love, in the form of Adam, who dies in a harbour accident at the start of the story, but who is the main character, and how the… Read More
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The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff
June 2026: For this month we read a historical novel loosely based on the intelligence officer, Vera Atkins, who worked in the French section of the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.) during WWII. The book is written from the point of view of three women; Grace, Eleanor and Marie. Grace is a widower in New York in 1946 who discovers in Grand Central Station 12 photographs of women which intrigues her and compels her to investigate. In 1944 Eleanor works at the S.O.E. and she realises that the male special agents in France were being caught too easily because they stood… Read More
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The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe
May 2026: Published in 1959, the title comes from the first story in this collection inspired by Sillitoe’s poverty dominated childhood in Nottingham in the 1930s. In the story Smith, an opportunistic 17 year old thief sentenced to a borstal stay, describes his thoughts and memories as he’s sent out on long distance training runs by the borstal governor. The outpouring of feelings of anger in driven energetic prose, in an authentic Nottingham voice, is very effective at telling the reader how this resilient anti-hero plans to take his revenge. It’s a political story from a different time, about a… Read More