Book Club 1 News
Update - July 2023
A splendid afternoon cream tea was enjoyed by 3 members of Book Group 1 at The Hearing Dogs for the Deaf Grange Restaurant at Saunderton.
Carol Lyons, convenor bookclub1@chalfontsu3a.org.uk
Update - June 2023
Since we formed way back in 2015 we have read and discussed around 70 to 75 books of various genres from classics to psychological thrillers. It is amazing how during the meetings, with members giving their different views, it can quite often change how the book is perceived by the whole group.
Out of the 5 books we have already read, from the 10 chosen for this year, we have had very mixed reviews. The book we started with in January was Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. It is about women's lives, careers, and struggle for empowerment in the late 50s and early 60s. It follows the story of Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist who is forced to become a television chef when she finds herself a young, single mother. We score the books at the end of each meeting for writing style and enjoyment and Lessons in Chemistry scored almost full marks.
It was decided that the book was well-written, funny and powerful. The book that was chosen for May was The Black Dress by Deborah Moggach. It is the story of a divorced lady who is looking for a new partner. Whilst in a charity shop she finds a black dress and decides to gate crash funerals of married ladies in the hope of meeting and socialising with the widower. Although the book was well received by the critics it was decided by the group to be a very poor story with no depth or plot. It scored only 4 for both style and enjoyment.
The group also has 2 social months, in June we will be having a full cream tea at The Grange which is the restaurant at Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. Carol Lyons, convenor.
Carol Lyons, convenor bookclub1@chalfontsu3a.org.uk
Update - September 2022
I took over as convenor for Book Group One about a year and a half ago from Jane our chairwoman. As this was a new experience for me I wanted to investigate the different ways book groups were run and to try and engage every member of the group in its organisation.
There seemed to be to be about three different ways of running a book group, but I settled on the one where each member takes responsibility for one month providing the title of the book to be discussed, the venue and the refreshments. There are ten members in our group, so we had two months left over. We had in the past compiled a list of classical books to read so the 11th month is from this list and the 12th month we have a Christmas celebration.
At the end of each meeting, we rate the book in two different ways, its writing style and secondly for pleasure and hopefully the results will be discussed at our Christmas meeting.
It has not always been easy to keep to our meeting schedule during this year but with some juggling we have managed to keep on track. At our June meeting, with everybody supplying something, we had a cream tea and I know we will enjoy a Christmas meal together in December.
Carol Lyons, convenor bookclub1@chalfontsu3a.org.uk