📚 🚶Zooming tonight, typing on Friday
Details for our zoom book club at 8-9pm; more about Friday's On Our Reading Radar GIVEAWAY with Catherine Chidgey
Dear walking book clubbers,
Anzac biscuits and a sharp knife. You can see I was channelling my inner-Athena in preparation for this month’s walking book clubs. (I used this very simple recipe, by the way, and was very glad to use up a load of desiccated coconut that had been lingering in the cupboard forever.)
I loved discussing Helen Garner’s The Children’s Bach with you all in Regent’s Park and on Hampstead Heath. A real Vegemite book - with some of us who hated it, and some who loved it, but nearly all were really intrigued by this short, sharp blade of a book. We asked many questions and found very few answers…
The conversation continues this evening over Zoom. If you’re able to pay and book via Eventbrite, wonderful thank you, here’s the link:
Emily’s Zoom Book Club: Monday 20th May, 8-9pm, £1-15
If you’d rather join directly, you’re very welcome - Emily’s walking and zoom book club is for everyone, whatever your financial situation - here are the Zoom details:
Link HERE | Meeting ID: 898 0985 8768 | Passcode: Garner
A reminder that you are all very welcome to join on 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 Giveaway
It’s half term next week, so our monthly live discussion thread is a little earlier in the month than usual: this coming Friday 24th May, 1.30-2pm.
It’s a chance to share any cultural recommendations from May, as well as any specific tips on great books or films from Australia and New Zealand.
We’re honoured to be joined by special guest Catherine Chidgey, a phenomenally talented New Zealand writer. I’m so touched that she’ll be online with us even though it’ll be in the middle of the night for her - thank you Catherine! And thank you so much to her publisher Europa Editions, who are supplying one copy of each of her two most recent books, Pet and The Axeman’s Carnival for me to giveaway.
I’ve got a few questions for Catherine about her work and her recommendations on Antipodean culture, as well as some tips of my own to share. Please do join in with your own tips and questions!
To be in with a chance to win these two books by Catherine Chidgey, all you need to do is take part in the live discussion thread, this Friday here on Substack.
A link to join 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 topics 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.
June
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
A landmark work of gay writing, Giovanni’s Room is about a fated love triangle: David, an American in 1950s Paris, who has a tormented affair with Giovanni, an Italian barman, while his fiancee is away in Spain. Baldwin begins his story on the eve of Giovanni’s execution, after David has abandoned him … What follows is a painful articulation of shame and powerful exploration of conflicted desire, convention and sexual identity.
Why did I choose it? Pride month seems like the perfect opportunity to revisit this classic novel that is such a key work of gay writing. Also, our recent discussions about To Sir with Love and The L-Shaped Room have made me keen to investigate writing about intersectionality - how one prejudice can layer on top of another. Garth Greenwell’s piece for the Guardian is brilliant, HERE.
In Regent’s Park: Friday 21st June, 12-1.45pm, setting off from Daunt Books, 84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW, £8-15
On Hampstead Heath: Sunday 23rd June, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £8-15
On Zoom: Monday 24th June, 8-9pm, £1-15
On Our Reading Radar: Friday 28th June, 1.30-2pm: Intersectionality Join this month’s discussion thread to share your cultural highlights from the month, as well as your recommendations on the theme of INTERSECTIONALITY - What other great books and films explore aspects of compounded prejudice?
Buy Giovanni’s Room 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.
Look out next week for news of some other June events with me too.
Happy reading,
Emily