Lerwick Book Group
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The Lerwick Book Group is run by the Shetland Library, and usually meets at the Old Library Centre in Lerwick. Membership is free, and open to all adults who want to attend meetings to discuss books. Meetings are very informal, and a different member chooses the book to read each month. New members are welcome: just contact Karen or Morag here at the library if you want to join.
Our next meetings and what we're reading...
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Tuesday 21 February 2012
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
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Tuesday 20 March 2012
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Chosen by Janet |
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Tuesday 17 April 2012
And then forever by Christine de Luca
Chosen by June
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Everything we've read or are going to read:
January 2011
Peace by Richard Bausch
November 2011
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
October 2011
The Sea, the sea by Iris Murdoch
September 2011
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
August 2011
Islanders by Margaret Elphinstone AND Thief of Time by John Boyne
July 2011
Room by Emma Donoghue (Jen's choice)
June 2011
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Kathleen's choice)
May 2011
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (Janet's choice)
April 2011
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry ( Marghie's choice)
March 2011
Testimony by Anita Shreve (June's choice)
February 2011
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay (Andy's choice)
January 2011
One Day by David Nicholls (Janet's choice)
December 2010
Small Island by Andrea Levy (Helen's choice)
November 2010
The Girl on the landing by Paul Torday (Margaret's choice)
October 2010
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee (Marghie's choice)
September 2010
On the Beach by Nevil Shute (Janet's choice)
August 2010
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (June's choice)
July 2010
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Morag's choice)
June 2010
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson (Andy's choice)
May 2010
The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason (Caroline's choice)
April 2010
Full Tilt by Dervla Murphy (Karen's choice)
March 2010
The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant (Morag's choice)
February 2010
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Janet's choice)
January 2010
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (June's choice)
December 2009
The Key by Junichiro Tanizak (Andy's choice)
November 2009
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (Morag's choice)
October 2009
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (Kathleen's choice)
September 2009
Felicia's Journey by William Trevor (Janet's choice)
August 2009
Orchid Fever by Eric Hansen (Anne's choice)
July 2009
What I loved by Siri Hustvedt (Laura's choice)
June 2009
The Sea Road by Margaret Elphinstone (Margaret's choice)
May 2009
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Andy's choice)
April 2009
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger (Thelma's choice)
March 2009
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Karen's choice)
February 2009
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Jean's choice)
January 2009
Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones (Morag's choice)
December 2008
Dubliners by James Joyce (Marghie's choice)
November 2008
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (Janet's choice)
October 2008
Freedomland by Richard Price (Anne's choice)
September 2008
Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell (Karen's choice)
August 2008
Peacocks Dancing by Sharon Maas (Jean's choice)
July 2008
The Second Husband by Louise Candlish (Publisher freebie)
June 2008
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
May 2008
The books of Patricia Highsmith
April 2008
Misery by Stephen King
March 2008
A variety of Central European Fiction.
February 2008
A variety of travel books.
January 2008
A variety of biographies or autobiographies.
December 2007
A Package of Measures by Jim Mainland - and other Shetland poetry
November 2007
The Reader by Bernard Schlink AND a selection of Latin American literature
October 2007
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
September 2007
Venus as a Boy by Luke Sutherland & The Stornoway Way by Kevin McNeill
August 2007
An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg
July 2007
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
June 2007
Hard Frost by R. D. Wingfield
May 2007
The books of Stuart MacBride and Mark Billingham
April 2007
Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller (and we went on another book group cinema trip!)
March 2007
The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson
January 2007
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (because we went on a book group trip to see the film!) and
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
November/December 2006
Short stories: five shortlisted for National Short Story prize, and individual further reading.
October 2006
Our favourite childrens classics: a journey down memory lane
September 2006
The Man Booker Prize shortlist
August 2006
The Earthquake Bird & Water Lily, Susanna Jones (for a visit from the author)
July 2006
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
June 2006
We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver
May 2006
Orange Prize Short List 2006
April 2006
Cloth Girl (Pre-publication), Marilyn Heward Mills
February 2006
Raven Black, Ann Cleeves
January 2006
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
December 2005
Fond Hopes Destroyed (NF), Mary Prior
November 2005
Housewife Down, Alison Penton Harper
October 2005
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
September 2005
*Christopher Brookmyre
August 2005
*Iain Banks
July 2005
Rogue Male, Geoffrey Household
June 2005
The Woman in Black, Susan Hill
May 2005
The Point of Splitting (Poetry), Sally Read
April 2005
The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
*On these occasions the group didn’t all read the same book, but various books by the same author, or from a shortlist.
The Ice Cream Army enjoyed by group
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In November 2010 the group got free copies of Jessica Gregson's The Ice Cream Army from a Legend Press publisher promotion. We enjoyed this book a lot - an interesting and unusual historical viewpoint of Turkish immigrants in Australia in 1915, and issues and attitudes which have very real parallells today. The book is based on a true incident in Australian history, the Battle of Broken Hill.
Wikipedia.- The Battle of Broken Hill
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Coffee and Cakes
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Monday, 7th July 2008 - To raise funds, we baked cakes for a library coffee morning to accompany the visit of popular author Jean Saunders. Unfortunately Jean didn't make it - she was visiting Shetland on the cruise ship Marco Polo, which went behind schedule and wouldn't allow any passengers ashore! But the coffee morning went ahead anyway... |
Kevin MacNeil Visit
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On the 19th February 2008 the book group was delighted to welcome author Kevin MacNeil to our meeting. Kevin - author of The Stornoway Way and Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides - was spending a month in Shetland as a writer in residence for Shetland Arts. Members had a very enjoyable discussion about Kevin's work, the wealth of writing talent in Shetland, travel books, Central European literature and much more. Thanks to Kevin and his partner Elsa for spending time with the book group. |
Stuart MacBride night
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22nd May 2007: the book group invited members from other book groups to join them in meeting visiting author Stuart MacBride. Members from South Mainland Book Group and from the newly-formed Bressay group attended. It was a delightful night offering an amusing look into the world of writing, crime, violence and bondage. Stuart was asked to choose the group's next book to read, and he picked Hard Frost by R. D. Wingfield, who he said was one of the authors he most admired. |
Short story project
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"One may lose oneself in a novel but turn to a good short story to find oneself." V.S. Pritchett
In November 2006 the group signed up as one of 100 groups round the country to participate in a national short story reading project. Members got free copies of a book containing the five shortlisted stories for the 2006 National Short Story prize, and went on to read our own choice of short stories both classic and modern, swap views and recommendations, and put together our own top five stories. The project also involved the library, where a dedicated short story section was created.
The group's top five short stories are: Island by Alistair Macleod, The Twenty-Four Hour Dog by Jeanette Winterson, The Darling by Anton Chekhov, A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor and Long Distance by Edna O'Brien. More about short stories on www.theshortstory.org.uk |
Man Booker project
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After the trip to London, it was down to three weeks of serious reading, weekly meetings,
- a web chat with Kate Grenville - she was in Australia, it was 6am her time.
- blog-keeping - online on the Man Booker site.
- radio interviews, debate among members and with the other groups
and then the grand finale on the 10th October, when the group met upstairs in the Thule bar to watch the result on their big screen. The winner was the group's chosen favourite - The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. This was an enjoyable and very involving project for the members, who enjoyed all the reading immensely. As well as the blog, the group kept a diary during the event. |
Man Booker Shortlist Event
Four group members - Karen, Morag, Laura and Aileen - made the trip to London for the shortlist party on 14th September. They had hoped the list would be announced live at the event, but it was slightly less exciting as it was announced at 3.30pm and they were informed in the Tate Britain with a phone call from Radio Scotland, who were giving a lot of publicity to the group's involvement. Surprising shortlist and disappointment that James Robertson didn't make it as he'd been to the Shetland book festival the previous weekend, and his book The Testament of Gideon Mack is excellent. There was a reception for group members at Random House publishers - a chance to meet folk from the other reading groups, then on to the the shortlist gathering at the London Library, which was very friendly and convivial. Book group members mixed with judges, authors, publishers and booksellers and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Hermione Lee, chair of the judges, welcomed the involvement of the reading groups in her address to the event.
Man Booker Prize Project
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Summer 2006: We were delighted to be picked as one of only six groups nationally (and the only one outside England) to participate in the Man Booker Prize process. This is the first year that book groups have been involved. We get some copies of the six shortlisted books and have to read and swap them all frantically in the few weeks between the shortlist (14th September) and winner (10th October) announcements, then decide on our favourite. We will keep an online diary about the group and it’s deliberations, hope for a web chat with one of the authors, get invited to the shortlist party in London (bit expensive to get there, but a few of us hope to go), and generally get a feel for the process of this major literary prize. The group will meet at least once a week during the shortlist reading, with a final get-together on the night the prize is announced. |
Author Visit: Susanna Jones
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August 2006: the Book Group meet reader in residence Susanna Jones, (second row, third from left) having read her two novels, The Earthquake Bird and Water Lily. These were books we greatly enjoyed - atmospheric and sparely-written crime thrillers set in Japan - and it was really interesting to meet the author. |
Little Brown Project
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Spring 2006: We were one of five reading groups round the country picked to work with publishers Little Brown on a project about the importance of book covers and marketing. We got the chance to read pre-publication proofs of Cloth Girl by Marilyn Heward Mills, a novel set in Ghana. Three executives from Little Brown, a journalist from The Bookseller, and Tom Palmer from The Reading Agency all travelled to Lerwick to meet with the group, at a very interesting session in the Lerwick Hotel. They listened to members’ views and gave us an insight into the cover design process. And the group featured in a full-page spread in The Bookseller! |
How to Get Published Project
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Autumn 2006: We participated in a Pan Macmillan project, where we read a sample book of the opening chapters of five winning novels from Richard and Judy’s How to Get Published competition. We then voted on which book we’d like to read in its entirety, and all got free copies of Housewife Down by Alison Penton Harper. Unfortunately, this turned out to be the book (so far) Most Thoroughly Slated by the group, but it gave us a lively discussion! |
Last Updated on
18 January, 2012
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