Books

I have joined a book club here in England; I have to say that I am really enjoying it. It meets once a month, either in a cafe in downtown Cambridge, or in a pub on Cherry Hinton Ave (southwest of the downtown area). There are about 12 members; we usually get around 6-8 people each meeting.

Here are some of the books that we have read:

"The Photograph" by Penelope Lively
"Arthur and George" by Julian Barnes
"The Rain Before it Falls" by Jonathan Coe
"The Falls" by Ian Rankin

A lot of the books we read are things that were short-listed for the Man Booker prize (or some other English award), but the main criteria seems to be that the library has to have a lot of copies of the book. During the meetings we talk about the books; each person voices his or her opinions, and we assign a numeric rating to the book (1-10). It's surprising what a different range of opinions you can get on a single book (for the Jonathan Coe book, we had several 2's and several 9's).

Other reading outside the club: "The Anglo Files" by Sara Lyall (funny but somewhat caustic take on things British written by a long-time American ex-pat), "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke (one of Ethan's books), "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull (another one of Ethan's books), and "Howl's Moving Castle" (a book I tried to get Lydia to read, but she rejected it). I think I am going to have to start being more careful about recommending books to my kids-- these days it seems that the fact that I am offering a book is one strike against it. I may need to start applying full-blown reverse psychology before too long.