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.