📚 🚶My Ántonia Zoom + a giveaway
2 x Willa Cather conversations: on Zoom tonight + On Our Reading Radar (with a GIVEAWAY) on Friday
Dear walking book clubbers,
Thanks so much to those of you who came along to our walks discussing My Ántonia by Willa Cather in Regent’s Park and Hampstead Heath. Lovely conversations about this very popular book, and we were so lucky with the weather: on both occasions, it started raining as soon as we returned to real life!
Some of you wanted to know how I made cornbread, which I brought along on the walks. The good news is, it is extremely easy to make. I followed THIS simple recipe, minus the sugar, in case you too feel inspired to create your own Willa Cather snack.
Please see below for booking details of our March events. OH MY GOD I AM SO ENJOYING RE-READING THE L-SHAPED ROOM!!!!! Look out next week for my introduction to it.
First, read on for all the info you need for our two online discussion events this week, including news of an exciting giveaway.
Tonight’s Zoom
Hope to see you on Zoom, tonight at 8-8.40pm, £1-10: please decide where you are on this scale of what you can afford to pay. 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: after we’ve introduced ourselves you are welcome to turn off your video and just listen.
If you are 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 | Meeting ID: 784 9129 9084 | Passcode: Cather
Friday’s On Our Reading Radar and a giveaway
I’m looking forward to Friday 1st March at 1.30-2pm GMT when we will become a typing book club for this month’s On Our Reading Radar discussion thread.
The theme this month is US AND THE LAND, along with your tips for anything else you’ve enjoyed reading or watching over February.
I’m delighted to welcome Ashley Olsen, Executive Director of the Willa Cather Foundation (pictured above), who’ll be joining us all the way from Nebraska to share her expertise, live, on the thread.
It’s a wonderful opportunity to discover a bit more about the Willa Cather Foundation - including their work to preserve Cather’s prairie landscape; Cather’s other writing about the land; and their other recommendations for books that capture our relationship with the land both in Nebraska and around the world.
I’m also really looking forward to hearing all your recommendations for great books and beyond.
*** GIVEAWAY ALERT!! ***
I’m thrilled to have 5 proof copies of the forthcoming book Weathering by Ruth Allen, thanks to Ebury Press, to give away. It ties in perfectly with this month’s theme, showing how we can learn from the land about how to weather the storms that life throws our way. You can read more about the book here.
To be in with a chance to win one of these five proof copies, all you need to do is take part in this month’s On Our Reading Radar live discussion thread. The five winners will be selected at random from the participants and notified by email.
For those of us who are a little unsure about how a live discussion thread works, here’s a bit more information about how to join, and what to expect. Any further questions, just drop me a line.
First of all, I encourage you to have a look at our previous threads HERE, including our most recent one HERE with Barnaby Rogerson from Eland Books. You will see these are typing only events.
Anyone who receives these emails can leave a comment and join the discussion - you do not need to be a paying subscriber. However, substack asks you to create a ‘profile’ before you leave your first comment. All you need to do is create a username - don’t worry there’s no hassle with d.o.b. or favourite colour or anything like that. If you’re not sure about this, I’d advise leaving a comment on a previous discussion thread (you can delete it afterwards if you like), so that you go through the set-up process and are all ready to go next time.
On Friday 1st March, shortly before 1.30pm, an email will arrive in your inbox announcing the discussion thread, including a link button to ‘see the discussion’. If you click on this link, you go to the substack post, where you can see all the comments and leave your own. Alternatively, just click HERE at 1.30pm and you’ll see the post up on our homepage
On the thread, I’ll be sharing some of my own recommendations and asking Ashley Olsen some questions. We would love you to do the same.
All participants will be entered into a draw to win one of five proofs of Weathering, which I will then get to you. Good luck!
March
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
Jane Graham - 27, unmarried, pregnant and kicked-out-of-home - retreats to a dingy boarding house in West London. In this collection of misfits and outsiders, she discovers friendship, love and happiness; vitally, she finds that self-respect is always worth fighting for. N.B. This was written in 1960 and contains offensive language that reflects the attitudes of the time.
Why did I choose it? This is another hark back to my bookselling days, when a particular colleague loved this book so much she insisted a stack of it remained on the till at all times. It’s in a similar vein to two of our popular previous picks: Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone and Barbara Comyns’ Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, and I’ve been waiting for the right moment to add it to our repertoire.
You can watch the trailer for the award-winning 1962 film adaptation, starring Leslie Caron HERE.
In Regent’s Park with The Daunt Books Festival: Friday 15th March, 10-11.45am, setting off from Daunt Books, 84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW, £8 (please note the earlier start time). Thrillingly, La Fromagerie are supplying L-Shaped biscuits for this walk!
On Hampstead Heath: Sunday 17th March, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £8-15
On Zoom: Monday 18th March, 8-8.40pm, £1-10
On Our Reading Radar: Friday 22nd March, 1.30-2pm: London Join this month’s discussion thread to share your cultural highlights from this month, as well as your recommendations on the theme of LONDON - Which books and films do you think capture the spirit of the city?
Buy The L-Shaped 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.
Happy reading,
Emily