JANUARY BOOK

Our December book will be Mister Pip (link) by New Zealand author Lloyd Jones. (The film version stars Hugh Laurie).  We're still at the Steamworks Brew Pub (Steamworks) next to Waterfront Station, on the heated patio if it's open or inside if not.  Ring in the New Year with some book lore and brews on Tuesday, January 3 starting at 7pm.  All are welcome always.

  

On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with most everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much curiosity and scorn, who sweeps out the ruined schoolhouse and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens's classic Great Expectations.

     DECEMBER BOOK

Our December book will be Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (a pen name of Danish writer Karen Blixen).  The  (somewhat saccharine) film adaptation of 1985 won seven Academy Awards.  We'll be back at the Steamworks Brew Pub (Steamworks) next to Waterfront Station but moving inside, as the patio is closed for the winter.  Join the crew on the evening of Tuesday December 6 for some lively noshing and nattering, starting at 7pm.  New members always welcome.

From Wikipedia:  Out of Africa is a memoir by the Danish author Karen Blixen. The book, first published in 1937, recounts events of the seventeen years when Blixen made her home in Kenya, then called British East Africa. The book is a lyrical meditation on Blixen's life on her coffee plantation, as well as a tribute to some of the people who touched her life there. It provides a vivid snapshot of African colonial life in the last decades of the British Empire. Blixen wrote the book in English and then rewrote it in Danish.

NOVEMBER BOOK

Our book for November is Burma Chronicles, a graphic novel by Canadian Guy Delisle (link).  We'll continue at the Steamworks Brew Pub covered patio (Steamworks) next to Waterfront Station (with plenty of propane heaters).  Kick off November in style by enjoying some libations and literary palaver with your friendly neighborhood bibliophiles;  7pm this Tuesday (Nov 1) evening.  All are welcome as always.

From Wikipedia:  The book recounts Guy Delisle's trip to the southeast Asian country which is officially recognized by the United Nations as Myanmar but that is referred to as Burma by countries that do not recognize the military junta that controls it. Delisle went with his infant son, Louis, and his wife, Nadège, an administrator for Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF or Doctors Without Borders). At the beginning of the trip, the family must stay in an MSF guest house while they search for more permanent housing. Guy stays home and takes care of Louis while Nadège is frequently absent on MSF business. Guy takes Louis on frequent walks around the neighborhood in his stroller and interacts with local people in Burma.

 OCTOBER BOOK

Our book for October is The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor (link).  (If you don't have time to complete it, we'll be focusing on the following five stories:  A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People, Revelation, The Displaced Person and The Barber.)  We're back at the Steamworks Brew Pub patio (Steamworks) next to Waterfront Station to enjoy the freakishly good early autumn weather.  Come join the book mavens for some brews and blather this Tuesday evening (October 4).  The usual 7pm start time is in effect and anyone is welcome to crash the party.

From Wikipedia: 

Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries.She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a sardonic Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters, often in violent situations. The unsentimental acceptance or rejection of the limitations or imperfections or differences of these characters (whether attributed to disability, race, crime, religion or sanity) typically underpins the drama.  Her writing reflected her Roman Catholic faith and frequently examined questions of morality and ethics. Her posthumously compiled Complete Stories won the 1972 U.S.National Book Award for Fiction and has been the subject of enduring praise.

  SEPTEMBER BOOK

Our September book is All's Well That Ends Well, one of the eternally popular William Shakespeare's comedies (link).  We'll continue at the Steamworks Brew Pub patio (Steamworks) next to Waterfront Station.  Join the merriment this Tuesday evening, September 6 at the usual start time of 7pm.  All are welcome (even non-readers).

    

Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well is the story of its heroine, Helen, more so than the story of Bertram, for whose love she yearns. Helen wins Bertram as her husband despite his lack of interest and higher social standing, but she finds little happiness in the victory as he shuns, deserts, and attempts to betray her.

AUGUST BOOK

Our book for August is Mandarin Gate by the American writer Eliot Pattison (link), the seventh book in a ten novel mystery series.  (Not to worry; the books are fine as a stand-alone read.)  Please note:  Due to unforeseen circumstances we've moved our meeting date ahead one week to Tuesday, August 9.  It's the Steamworks Brew Pub patio again (Steamworks), next to Waterfront Station.  Start time remains 7pm.  All booklovers (and the merely curious) welcome.

In an earlier time, Shan Tao Yun was an Inspector stationed in Beijing. But he lost his position, his family and his freedom when he ran afoul of a powerful figure high in the Chinese government. Released unofficially from the work camp to which he'd been sentenced, Shan has been living in remote mountains of Tibet with a group of outlawed Buddhist monks. Without status, official identity, or the freedom to return to his former home in Beijing, Shan has just begun to settle into his menial job as an inspector of irrigation and sewer ditches in a remote Tibetan township when he encounters a wrenching crime scene. Strewn across the grounds of an old Buddhist temple undergoing restoration are the bodies of two unidentified men and a Tibetan nun. Shan quickly realizes that the murders pose a riddle the Chinese police might in fact be trying to cover up. When he discovers that a nearby village has been converted into a new internment camp for Tibetan dissidents arrested in Beijing's latest pacification campaign, Shan recognizes the dangerous landscape he has entered. To find justice for the victims and to protect an American woman who witnessed the murders, Shan must navigate through the treacherous worlds of the internment camp, the local criminal gang, and the government's rabid pacification teams, while coping with his growing doubts about his own identity and role in Tibet.

JULY BOOK

Our July book is Murder in Amsterdam by the Dutch writer and editor Ian Buruma (link) which remains topical even though it was written some sixteen years ago.  Once again we'll meet on the Steamworks Brew Pub patio (Steamworks), next to Waterfront Station.  Join the books and beer brigade this Tuesday evening, July 5.  We'll be off and running at our regular 7pm start time and would welcome any and all interested parties.

Ian Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam is a masterpiece of investigative journalism, a book with the intimacy and narrative control of a crime novel and the analytical brilliance for which Buruma is renowned. On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that "insulted the prophet Mohammed." The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Ian Buruma returned to his native land to investigate the event and its larger meaning as part of the great dilemma of our time.

JUNE BOOK

Our book for June is The Power of the Dog by American novelist Thomas Savage (link), just recently made into an Oscar nominated film by noted director Jane Campion.  We'll be back in Gastown again on the Steamworks Brew Pub patio (Steamworks), kitty corner to Waterfront Station.  Enjoy a pleasant pre-summer evening of book banter and beer on Tuesday, June 7.  It's the usual 7pm start time with all and sundry welcome to join.

Set in the wide-open spaces of the American West, The Power of the Dog is a stunning story of domestic tyranny, brutal masculinity, and thrilling defiance from one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in American literature. The novel tells the story of two brothers — one magnetic but cruel, the other gentle and quiet — and of the mother and son whose arrival on the brothers' ranch shatters an already tenuous peace. From the novel's startling first paragraph to its very last word, Thomas Savage's voice — and the intense passion of his characters — holds readers in thrall.

MAY BOOK

Our book for May is Napoleon: A Political Life by French history scholar Steven Englund (link).  We'll be trying a different venue this month, namely Steamworks Brew Pub (Steamworks), located just a half block east of Waterfront Station.  Join the Gastown gang on the Steamworks patio this Tuesday evening, May 3.  As usual, it's a 7pm start and all are welcome.

This sophisticated and masterful biography brings new and remarkable analysis to the study of modern history's most famous general and statesman. As Englund charts Napoleon's dramatic rise and fall―from his Corsican boyhood, his French education, his astonishing military victories and no less astonishing acts of reform as First Consul (1799–1804) to his controversial record as Emperor and, finally, to his exile and death―he explores the unprecedented power Napoleon maintains over the popular imagination.

APRIL BOOK

Our book for April is Between the World and Me (link) by the American journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates.  Join the April book fools this Tuesday evening (April 5) at Joey Shipyards location (Joey) in North Van, a short walk from the Seabus terminal. Start time is the usual 7pm and all are welcome to join us on the spacious outdoor patio.

 

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation's history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race," a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

MARCH BOOK

Our March book will be The Best Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield (link) by the famous New Zealand born writer who moved to England and mixed with the Bloomsbury circle, only to succumb to tuberculosis at the tragically young age of 34.  We haven't yet decided on a venue or ZOOM meeting, so check the Comments section below this post after next weekend for updates.  Once again, the first Tuesday of the month falls early (March 1).  One way or the other, festivities will begin at the customary 7pm and all are welcome to join our humble gathering.

An artist who excelled at the expression of subtle details and concentrated emotion, Katherine Mansfield ranks among the twentieth century's greatest short story writers. Her elegant, ironic tales reflect her own bohemian lifestyle, which involved tempestuous relationships with Bertrand Russell and Virginia Woolf. This collection of a dozen of Mansfield's finest works features compelling tales of fraught relationships and shattering revelations, all recounted in an intensely visual and impressionistic style. These stories range through Mansfield's brief but prolific career. They include "Prelude," a reminiscence of the author's New Zealand girlhood; "Bliss," involving a young mother's disillusionment; "Je Ne Parle Pas Français," concerning a romantic young woman's betrayal; and "The Garden Party," a contrast of snobbery and social responsibility.

FEBRUARY BOOK

Our book for February is The Dawn of Everything  (link) by David Graeber and David Wengrow (a hefty tome, so I hope everyone started reading early). We'll stick with our ZOOM meeting once again (ZOOMlink) as we wait for the pesky Omicron variant to recede into the dustbin of history.  Join the virtual fun this Tuesday evening (Feb. 1) at the usual 7pm start time.  All are welcome but supply your own food and drink.

For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike―either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization itself.

JANUARY BOOK

Happy New Year to one and all.  Our book for January is The Kraken Wakes  (link) by noted English sci-fi author John Wyndham.  (Several of his novels have been filmed.)  We'll be having a virtual ZOOM meeting once again (ZOOMlink) as we wait for the Omicron variant to reach its omega point.  As usual, the entire universe is invited to join us dedicated bookateers, commencing at 7pm this Tuesday evening, January 4.  White tie and tails strictly optional.

An "ingenious, horrifying" (The Guardian) first contact story by one of the twentieth century's most brilliant—and neglected—science fiction and horror writers, whom Stephen King called "the best writer of science fiction that England has ever produced."

What if aliens colonized Earth's oceans, rather than its land?