Lerwick Book Group

Read the Book Group Blog!

Group News: to raise funds, we are baking cakes for a Library Coffee Morning! This is being organised to complement a talk by popular author Jean Saunders, who will be giving a talk. It is on Monday, 7th July.

The group is also off to Whalsay in September for a joint session with the excellent Whalsay Book Group.

In July the group is reading The Second Husband by Louise Candlish. We have been given free proof copies by publishers Little, Brown. We are also reading the books of Will Self, since he is coming to Shetland in September. The next book group meeting is on Thursday 24th July at 7.30pm in the Old Library Centre. New members are welcome at the Book Group: just contact Karen or Morag here at the library if you want to join.

Kevin MacNeil Visit

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

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

"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

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.

At Random House Publishers in Pimlico.	The London Library in Picaddilly, venue of the Shortlist Party.	At the party: Laura, Aileen, Morag, Karen.	The Group members with Hermione Lee, Chair of the Booker judges.	Nice party, interesting old library.	Waiting in Aberdeen airport: reading our way home.

Man Booker Prize Project

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

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

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

Autumn 2005: 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!

The Lerwick Book Group was set up in April 2005 by Literature Development Officer for Shetland Arts, Alex Cluness.

The Group is closely linked to 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 – some members bring along food or drink.

We choose the next book to read in a variety of ways – we’ve had lucky dips, votes, just read something because we got free copies, or tied our reading to visiting authors or promotions.

What We Have Read:

July 2008

The Second Husband by Louise Candlish (also the books of Will Self, soon to visit Shetland)

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

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.

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Last Updated on 25 June 2008