Our group was formed in Autumn 2015 and normally has about eight members. Do get in touch if you would like to join us (either through 'Beacon' or by email contact clciking on the link above).

Our Next Meetings
The dates of our next meetings are on 'Beacon' (the Members System) and also below:

Friday September 6: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (if you enjoy this one, you're in for a treat because it's the first in a series of (so far) seven novels and a novella — I'm currently reading the seventh one, Lies Sleeping, which was published last year).

Friday October 4: Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett

Friday November 8: Doughnut by Tom Holt

Friday December 6: Embassytown by China Miéville

Suggestions for future reading are always welcomed!

Previous Reviews
2017
October: the book reviewed was The Power, by Naomi Alderman. This chosen book was this year's winner of the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction:
review 1
review 2

July: The Cat who Walks Through Walls by Robert Heinlein

June: The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1974)

The March book reviewed was Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (1953)

The February book reviewed was Beauty, by Sheri S. Tepper, 1991. "The princess Beauty sidesteps the sleeping curse placed upon her by her wicked aunt" according to the blurb on the back.


2016
Our October book, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, also divided the group, but led to a wider discussion about two of the main themes — the function of religion, and the role of women in society.

We had to beg to differ on our September book. Pavane by Keith Roberts (1968) is a book of linked short stories set in an alternative England, where Queen Elizabeth I's assassination in 1588 had ensured that the country remained Catholic — and where technological information was kept secret by a very small minority.
 
July meeting — we discussed The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, a collaboration between a fantasy writer and a writer of hard science fiction. In general we thought that the collaboration of those two particular authors didn't work so well. Some even give up trying to finish the book!










Although our June meeting was held on the day after the EU Referendum, we managed (almost) to steer clear of politics. We found that we all had similar views about our two John Wyndham books, The Midwich Cuckoos, and The Day of the Triffids.









The meeting in May discussed 2 books published even earlier than the ones we discussed in March; we went from H.G. Wells back to Jules Verne. The books were Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island. We seem to like books set on islands!

The meeting frequently went off at tangents (what a surprise), often on the subject of the Mayoral/GLA elections. There will be another opportunity for similar tangents at our next meeting, as it will be on the day after the Referendum. We agreed that future selected books should not be anything like as long as Verne's The Mysterious Island !


The meeting in March discussed 2 books by H.G. Wells — The Island of Doctor Moreau and The War of the Worlds. 













The meeting in February discussed Neuromancer by William Gibson.















The second one, which was discussed in late November 2015, was The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. 














The first book which we tackled in 2015 was the The Martian by Andy Weir — yes, the one on which the film was based.