📚 🚶Announcing our Summer 2024 picks
Your summer reading list is here + tonight's zoom reminder
Dear walking book clubbers,
Wonderful to see many of you for our two Per Petterson walks, which felt like the start of Spring. Thanks Natalia for this photo of our moment in Regent’s Park’s secret garden:
A reminder that we’re meeting on Zoom this evening at 8pm to discuss Out Stealing Horses, a beautiful and devastating book.
Our Zooms are open to everyone - so feel free to join regardless of whether or not you’ve read the book. You’re also very welcome to treat it like a podcast and tune in to the discussion while cooking or tidying, or relaxing: after we’ve introduced ourselves you are welcome to turn off your video and listen.
If you can book in via Eventbrite using this button, so much the better, as it means you can pay and I can see how many of you to expect:
If you’d rather connect directly, here are the details:
Join HERE at 8-9pm (yes, I think I’ve managed to extend it to a whole hour).
Meeting ID: 773 9304 7168 | Passcode: Petterson
Our Summer Books
I’m very excited to announce our books for May, June and July:
May The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner
Friday 17 Regent’s Park | Sunday 19 Hampstead Heath | Monday 20 Zoom
June Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Friday 21 Regent’s Park | Sunday 23 Hampstead Heath | Monday 24 Zoom
July Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb, translated by Len Rix
Friday 19 Regent’s Park | Sunday 21 Hampstead Heath | Monday 22 Zoom
Well done those who guessed the titles correctly!!
Once again we’re hopping all over the globe, beginning in Australia with the phenomenal rediscovery of Helen Garner’s devastating novel about a family falling apart, moving on to Americans in Paris with James Baldwin’s landmark depiction of a fated love triangle, and finally travelling through Italy (via Budapest) with Antal Szerb’s classic novel about an errant honeymooning husband, Journey by Moonlight.
Through these books, we will enjoy being abroad, look at love in its many forms, consider how times have changed and so much more.
You’ll receive this newsletter from me every Monday, and there are chances to meet to talk about each month’s book:
On a Sunday late morning while walking on Hampstead Heath.
On a Friday lunchtime, walking in Regent’s Park.
On a Monday evening over Zoom. Due to popular request, these Zooms will now be extended to last an hour, 8-9pm.
We also have our On Our Reading Radar live discussion thread on the last Friday of the month, which is a chance for us all to share our recommendations from the past month and on a theme relating to the book. They often feature a special guest, and a giveaway too.
You can find my short video introductions about all our books from recent years HERE.
And if you can’t make it along to a discussion, but would like to share your thoughts, do drop me a line either on email or on Instagram - I always love hearing from you!
If you’d like to book on to all three of our Summer 2024 walking book clubs, you can do so here:
May
The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner
*** Tickets are now on sale for our May events ***
This exquisitely polished, slim, spare novel is about the Fox family - Dexter, Athena and their two children - fracturing on collision with Dexter’s ex Elizabeth, and her entourage (teenage sister, boyfriend of sorts, plus his daughter). Australian writer, Helen Garner, is especially skilful at capturing the complicated dynamics between her characters, and their shifting misconceptions of one another.
Why did I choose it? First published in 1984, The Children’s Bach has just been republished in the UK and US, along with two of Garner’s other books, Monkey Grip and This House of Grief; it’s the perfect moment to discover this too-long overlooked Australian author. I’ve had an eye on her work for a few years now, and when a kind publicist sent me this beautiful new trio, I was blown away by The Children’s Bach and keen to help bring Garner to a wider audience. It seems I’m not the only fan - these three books are getting rave reviews, and publishers are scrambling to print enough copies, which so rarely happens with so-called ‘backlisted’ books.
Intrigued? Have a read of THIS New Yorker review by Ben Lerner. N.B. I can’t believe either that this is happening or that I will be away for it, but Helen Garner herself is talking at Daunt Books Marylebone on 28th May!! DO GO and please tell me all about it - tickets HERE.
In Regent’s Park: Friday 17th May, 12-1.45pm, setting off from Daunt Books, 84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW, £8-15
On Hampstead Heath: Sunday 19th May, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £8-15
On Zoom: Monday 20th May, 8-9pm, £1-15
On Our Reading Radar: Friday 24th May, 1.30-2pm: Australia Join this month’s discussion thread to share your cultural highlights from the month, as well as your recommendations on the theme of AUSTRALIA - What other great Australian novels and films should we know about?
Buy The Children’s Bach 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.
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.
Tickets go on sale: 1st May
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.
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.
Tickets go on sale 1st June
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.
Here are the links again to book all your walks:
Happy reading,
Emily