📚 🚶Zoom tonight, type on Friday
Details for this evening's Zoom 8-9pm & Friday's On Our Reading Radar giveaway
Dear walking book clubbers,
It’s been such a pleasure to see some of you at our Giovanni’s Room walks over the last few days. Here we are on Hampstead Heath, where our discussions ranged from Tender is the Night to The Simpsons, via Chalet Girl - never let it be said that we are too highbrow! Alfie behaved himself extremely well. Thanks Charlotte for the beautiful pic. HERE is the link to the episode recommended by a walker about Americans (including Baldwin) in Paris.
This evening, the conversation continues on Zoom. If you’re able to book (and pay) using Eventbrite, then wonderful, please use this button:
Emily’s Zoom Book Club: Monday 24th May, 8-9pm, £1-15
This book club is for everyone, whatever your financial situation, so if you’d rather join directly, you’re very welcome - here are the Zoom details:
Link HERE | Meeting ID: 880 3387 4303 | Passcode: Baldwin
A reminder that you are all very welcome to join the Zoom, whether or not you’ve read the book. You can join the conversation, or if you’d rather you can turn off your screen after saying hello and simply listen in, while you get on with your usual Monday evening. Do bring along knitting / wine / pasta - whatever you like!
Friday’s On Our Reading Radar
Looking forward to seeing you here on substack for our June live discussion thread. This takes place this Friday at 1.30-2pm.
As ever, we have two things to share in our monthly live chat:
Inspired by Giovanni’s Room, please share your recommendations on books or films that explore intersectionality, i.e. writing from a position of compounded prejudice.
Anything we’ve loved this June.
As a thank you for taking part in building our community, I am giving away a copy of my favourite intersectional novel to one lucky participant. To be in with a chance to win, all you need do is leave a comment on Friday.
My own hardback copy of this book is hiding here beneath Giovanni’s Room. Can you guess what it is? All too be revealed on Friday. I can’t wait to see your own recommendations.
How to take part?
A link to join the discussion will arrive in your inbox shortly before 1.30pm on Friday, or you can find the post directly on our homepage (here) at the same time.
N.B. It can be a bit of a fiddle leaving your first comment on the thread as you have to register with substack. To avoid this ruining your experience on Friday, I recommend leaving a comment on one of our previous On Our Reading Radars (like THIS ONE on Solitude) now, so that you go through the registering process ahead of time. Over the past year, we’ve shared recommendations on all sorts of themes, so if you’re after some good ideas for what to read next, you may like to have a browse HERE. Thank you so much to all of you who take part.
July
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb translated by Len Rix
On his honeymoon in Venice, Mihály manages to lose his wife before embarking on a picaresque journey through Italy, attempting to escape his middle-class life and reconnect to an intense friendship of his adolescence. Funny, bizarre, and psychologically fascinating, Journey by Moonlight is a beloved Hungarian classic, first published in 1937 and brilliantly translated by Len Rix into English in 2000. Antal Szerb, born to assimilated Jewish parents and baptised a Catholic, was murdered at Balf concentration camp in January 1945, aged 43.
Why did I choose it? I first came to this book a decade ago, via Pushkin Press who beautifully publish Szerb’s books alongside their other big heritage author Stefan Zweig. I loved it, but somehow it has remained idle on my shelf all these years until I was recently reminded of it by a Hungarian member of our group. High time to re-read this absolute delight of a book! HERE is an enlightening long piece from the New Republic.
In Regent’s Park: Friday 19th July, 12-1.45pm, setting off from Daunt Books, 84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW, £8-15
On Hampstead Heath: Sunday 21st July, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £8-15
On Zoom: Monday 22nd July, 8-9pm, £1-15
Buy Journey by Moonlight from Daunt Books HERE and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout, or just tell them you’re in the group if you’re buying it in the shop.
Happy reading,
Emily