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.