The Great Gatsby

By F Scott Fitzgerald, April 14 2010

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Next up -Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. A literary memoir about a woman reading forbidden Western literature in post-revolutionary Iran.

Meeting at Omar's on 24th,

Just a thought, but should these ladies by showing so much hair?

Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, regarded as an essential classic. Another alienated young man (is this a pattern, guys?) but this time a black American writing before the Civil Rights movement.

This book changed lives and could be said to have changed American literature. It's also apparently still resonant now and regarded as essential reading by many. American Amazon reviews give you a feel for its impact ("A heartbreaking work of staggering genius" - but also a few heartfelt gripes by school student forced to read it).

We're meeting to talk it over on 13 January at Craig's.

The Mighty Walzer

Ping-pong, sex, alienation and coming of age. Howard Jacobson's Mighty Walzer is somewhat autobiographical, given both Howard and Oliver Walzer grew up Jewish in 1950s Manchester and played ping-pong for Cambridge.

Moving and funny when it's implausible tall stories recollected from youth in Manchester, strangely perfunctory when it moves to adulthood.

We discussed it at Peter's

The Brief and Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, a story of a nerd obsessive boy growing up in New York as part of the diaspora of the Dominican Republic.

Sex, comic books, alienation, comedy and police brutality. Can't miss.

Cry The Beloved Country

Next up Cry The Beloved Country, by Alan Paton.

Meeting place to be confirmed, date probably 9 September.

Notes from Underground

Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground is apparently the world's first "existential novel". Like most of the other books we read, it's an awkward guy - this time to the max: it's the "rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator".

We understand it inspired Taxi Driver and American Psycho (Can we have a nice well-adjusted bloke sometime?)

We're reading it because it made Angus the man he is, and because it's shorter than anything else Dostoevsky wrote.

Discussing it at Craig's on 1 July.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist is short and well-written, from a viewpoint we don't often get (though, hey-ho, it's yet another self-absorbed, slightly asocial man).

We liked it, but not as much as the critics. His girlfriend - and her life path - seemed a bit convenient and symbolic (her name is Erica as in am-Erica). The story is left hanging at the end. It's all very allusive, but we're philistines and like events and narrative.

You wouldn't catch Khaled Hosseini doing that in the Kite Runner (but then he was a doctor when he wrote that, not a writer).

The Sheltering Sky

Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky was a big hit when it came out, featuring a marriage breaking down in the exotic setting of North Africa after the War.

Very odd, for me something like a cross between - or a missing link between -- Graham Greene and JG Ballard. You start with Americans lost in a post-colonial world, out of their depth. There's a disaster, and a bizarre closing section where the survivor pushes further into the unknown world.

Well worth reading, and resonates more a little while after

John Updike's Villages

The book for March was Villages, by John Updike. What with him recently dying, we thought we should see what all the fuss was about.

Probably, we should have gone for a better and earlier book. This was yet another book about a self-absorbed bloke, with too much flash-back. Even the presence of sex and the development of the computer graphics industry weren't enough to excite.

Still, the last chapter or two, with ageing people sinking into a tetchy church-administered rest, had something of an American Alan Bennett.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

A German novel that either confronts love law and literature, with grief and guilt (Amazon reviewer) , or "reimagines Nazi war guilt and the death camps in terms of a middlebrow sentimental-erotic fantasy", (Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw on the film) .

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink is our next book, and we'll be talking about it at my place.

Date still to be confirmed.

Engleby , Sebastian Faulks, 16 December

So the Road was great: "Sparsely but compellingly written, the bare bones of a story, but oddlysatisfying. Macabre."

This time round, a portrait of an outsider in the 70s, Engleby by Sebastian Faulks.

I've never read one of his, so I'm pleased. Amazon readers rate this one highly, and many of them also bought another contender, The Book Thief, so Justin is right on the zeitgeist.

We're meeting at Craig's, 16 December.

Lambeth Libraries catalogue is showing copies available...

The Road, Cormac McCarthy, 11 November

We liked Rough Crossings, and picked a short book this time. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Angus says sorry it's a bit miserable and post-apocalyptic.

Update: Angus has now finished it and says: "sorry chaps, even by my standards this is a miserable read. But don't let me put you off, it is beautifully written and compelling."

Lambeth has lots of copies, but 14 of them are "Reading Group" copies, that are between locations.

Rough Crossings, Simon Shama, 7 October

We're meeting at Angus' place on 7 October, to discuss Rough Crossings by Simon Schama.

Surprisingly, we almost unanimously went for the longest book, and the only non-fiction item on the list. It looks a good read, but with lots of footnotes and academic credibility.

It comes recommended.

Not much time left to read it though!

In Cold Blood

Next time round, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, a classic groundbreaking work and one which, as a journalist, is one I've long felt I should have read.

There's interesting background on Wikipedia (did you know that Harper "To Kill a Mocking Bird" Lee helped do the interviews?), and there's a movie to watch.

A nice choice and I'm looking forward to it.

Joy Luck Club

June's book was Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.

A saga of women spanning from China to San Francisco - and an interesting read for a bunch of blokes in South London.

Gulliver's Travels

Next, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.

Meeting at James's on 3 June....

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

We read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, and discussed it at my place, on 29 April.

I found it really powerful, and enjoyed the discussion. One of the best books we've read, in my view.

Wide Sargasso Sea

We met on 25 March at Justin's, to discuss Wide Sargasso Sea, the book that fills in the gaps from Jane Eyre, written by Jean Rhys.

We liked it.

Beautiful Mind

Next up - A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar. A fascinating guidebook to London that Omar needs to read biography of Nobel prize-winning Mathematician John Nash, recently filmed with Russel "Master and Commander" Crowe.

This one comes with recommendations from authorities on maths and mental illness, Simon Singh (of Fermat's Last Theorem) and Oliver Sacks. No recommendation from Fergal Keane, which is good. And only one Amazon reviewer slates it ("The airhead version").

It's quite long, but surprisingly was a unanimous choice - despite a strong field of contenders. Is that the first time we've been unanimous?

We're meeting at Craig's on 12 February!

Peter