The Life and Times of a Teaboy by Michael Collins

It begins with the recollections of a Christmas past and ends in madness – a crisis in personal growth that mirrors the nation’s.

Ambrose Feeney has seen his hopes and ambitions dashed by others’ influence and his own inertia. His Limerick is an old siege city of walls, both real and psychological. As Ambrose descends into lunacy he paints a starkly sane portrait of one family’s life in an Ireland unsoftened by the mists of legend.

 

The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin

As the clock chimes the turn of the twentieth century, Lilly Nelly Aphrodite takes her first breath. The illegitimate, orphaned daughter of a cabaret performer, she finds early refuge at a Berlin Catholic orphanage. From there follows a lifetime of reinventions, from orphan to maid, war bride, tingle-tangle nightclub girl, and script typist. Her eventual transformation into one of Germany’s leading silent-film stars, and a partner in a remarkable romance that crosses decades and continents, could ultimately cost her everything she has worked for.

 

The Infinities by John Banville

On a languid midsummer’s day, old Adam Godley, a renowned theoretical mathematician, is dying. His family gathers at his bedside: his son, young Adam, struggling to maintain his marriage to a radiantly beautiful actress; his nineteen-year-old daughter, Petra, filled with voices and visions as she waits for the inevitable; their stepmother, Ursula, whose relations with the Godley children are strained at best; Petra’s “young man”—perhaps more interested in the father than the daughter—who has arrived for an untimely visit.

And around the Godley family hover the mischievous gods: among them, Zeus, who has his eye on young Adam’s wife, and Hermes, our narrator: “We too are petty and vindictive,” he tells us, “just like you, when we are put to it.” As old Adam’s days on earth start to run out, these unearthly beings start to stir up trouble, to sometimes unintended effect . . .

 

Mr Toppit by Charles Elton

When the author of The Hayseed Chronicles, Arthur Hayman, is mown down by a concrete truck in Soho, his legacy passes to his widow, Martha, and her children – the fragile Rachel, and Luke, reluctantly immortalised as Luke Hayseed, the central character of his father’s books. But others want their share, particularly Laurie, who has a mysterious agenda of her own that changes all their lives. For buried deep in the books lie secrets which threaten to be revealed as the family begins to crumble under the heavy burden of their inheritance. Spanning several decades, from the heyday of the British film industry after the war to the cut-throat world of show business in Los Angeles, Mr Toppit is a riveting tale of the unexpected effects of sudden fame and fortune.

 

Or She Dies by Gregg Hurwitz

First, Patrick receives the mysterious DVDs. They show invasive footage of him in the privacy of his own house. Soon, Patrick and his wife Ariana find themselves questioning everything and everyone as their lives unravel. Someone is clearly out to get them. And then, the email arrives: Go Alone Do What We Say Or She Dies A compulsively readable novel about an ordinary couple in a deadly situation, Or She Dies is the must-read thriller of the year.

 

2009 Schedule

Date                 /  Venue    /       Book Choice for Discussion

August 6th        Carols            Catherines

Sept 3rd             Claires           Carols

Oct 1st                Michelles     Claires

Nov 5th             Bers                Michelles

Dec 3rd              Graces           Bers

Jan  7th             Niamh L        Graces

 

No one belongs here more than you by Miranda July

In these stories, July gives the most seemingly insignificant moments a sly potency. A benign encounter, a misunderstanding, a shy revelation can reconfigure the world. Her characters engage awkwardly — they are sometimes too remote, sometimes too intimate. With great compassion and generosity, July reveals their idiosyncrasies and the odd logic and longing that govern their lives. No One Belongs Here More Than You is a stunning debut, the work of a writer with a spectacularly original and compelling voice.

 

Next Bookclub

Next event July 2nd, at Catherines.

 

The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey

It’s Jake’s birthday. He is sitting in a small plane, being flown over the landscape that has been the backdrop to his life – his childhood, his marriage, his work, his passions. Now he is in his early sixties, and he isn’t quite the man he used to be. He has lost his wife, his son is in prison, and he is about to lose his past. Jake has Alzheimer’s. As the disease takes hold of him, Jake struggles to hold on to his personal story, to his memories and identity, but they become increasingly elusive and unreliable. What happened to his daughter? Is she alive, or long dead? And why exactly is his son in prison? What went so wrong in his life?

 

Next Bookclub

At Maggie’s. Thursday June 4th