Sunday, 22 December 2013

2013, The Year of Ties

Decmber 12, 2013

We were so busy chatting and laughing, we almost forgot to vote.  So, here, as decided by Jen, Jane, Gill, Shubha and Nic just before we left, are a few highlights and low lights of 2013.

Book of the Year: Sense of an Ending and Bring Up the Bodies.  I see from the notes, I voted for both.  Shuba also voted twice but her other choice was Therese Raquin, where she was on her own!

Blooper of the Year: MR James Collected Ghost Stories

Most Disappointing Book: MR James Collected Ghost Stories and Tender is the Night

Best debate and Jane's Surprise Like: How to be a Woman

Best Sommelier: Code of the Woosters (Sartoria)

Worst Hangover: Code of the Woosters (Sartoria)

Most Apt Venue: Bring up The Bodies (The Perkin Reveller at the Tower of London) and MR James Collected Ghost Stories (The Grenadier)

Least Apt Venue: City of Thieves (Yauatcha to discuss the siege of Leningrad)

Favourite Character: Jeeves (nicest); Van Helsing (sexiest)

Least Favourite Character: Dick, Laurent and Nicole (a popular category this year)


#80 - Therese Raquinn - Emile Zola (Choice: Jen)(Venue: The Bleeding Heart Tavern)

December 12, 2013

Present: Jen, Jane, Nic, Shubha and Gill

Pre-dinner cocktails were taken by Jen and Nic at the American Bar downstairs at Brasserie Zedel.  We will return.  We will bring others.  We may even dress up.  How glamorous!  We might have to do another roaring twenties book!

At the Bleeding Heart Tavern, we had a space that amounted to a private room and the staff were attentive and gracious, attending to each new arrival as Gill and Shubha dashed from their work dos to the Christmas do that really matters!  The pork wasn't quite as good as it should have been or quite as good as I think the Bleeding Heart think it is.  Hey ho.  We had a super night.

Jane's review of this book, remains my favourite.  Upon hearing of Jen's choice, she said:


NOOOOOOOOOO

NOT ZOLA

NO NO NO NO NO

Not having read Zola at that time, I didn't understand.  Now, having read a third, may be a half (my complete works of Zola showed me still having read 1% of said works!) of this Zola, I understand perfectly.  Naturally, this means that Shubha LOVED the book.  Jen finished it because she'd chosen it and was trying to read it in French so was getting pleasure from that pursuit, if not from the tale itself.  Jane read it and didn't despise it,  I salute her.  I know what happens at the end now, I still don't want to read it.  

If one were forced to describe this book in one word, bleak would be a good one.

Sunday, 10 November 2013

#79 - Dracula - Bram Stoker (Choice: Gill)(Venue: Citrus, The Park Lane Hotel)

November 7, 2013

Present: Nic, Gill, Jen, Doris

A small gathering, at a Piccadilly address that may have been mere metres from Dracula's London residence, enjoyed some surprisingly fine fayre at surprisingly reasonable prices thanks to Gill's eye for a Top Table 50% off your food offer.

The book was generally enjoyed.  We were all pleased to tick this classic off our lists and to be able to say "Done that".  Others enjoyed it more than I did, though, those who have sampled more modern vampire delights found it lacking in romance / sex.  I found the opening tale of Harker's travels to Transylvania and initial time on the Castle a little dull but agreed that things improved when Van Helsing joined the party (see December Review of the Year).  We all felt some characters were a little slow on the up take and removing the garlic wreath was a particular annoyance.  Over all, though, thumbs up.

Monday, 30 September 2013

#78 - Tender is the Night - F Scott Fitzgerald (Choice: Jane)(Venue: St Moritz, Dean Street)

September 26, 2013

Present: Jane, Jen, Gill, Shubha, Mark, Nic

A great turn out - was it for the book discussion or the fondue?!  As we walked into St Moritz, the smell of toasting cheese for raclette was divine.  Between us we had 2x cheese fondue and 1x "Chinois", which was a broth, into which, at the end, when you could eat no more, eggs were beaten.  Jane and Mark did the honours for us, the rest of us having no appetite for it.

The cheese fondue was good but I don't think any of us need another for some time.  By the end, we were scraping and rolling slightly crispy melted cheese from the bottoms of the pans with the forks, unable to eat any more bread or potatoes but unable to actually stop eating.  On the way out, we had all eaten so much cheese that the once so delicious waft of raclette that had made us salivate on the way in made us catch a breath and dash for the door on the way out.

So, the venue was a huge success; the book, less so.  I alone defended it's delights, the air of sumptuous glamour; the fading, now lost era; the ingenious timeline that made me read on to find out what had happened in the beginning; the poignance of a life wasted, a man purchased, who allowed himself to be bought not out of greed but from decency and honour; his tragic demise, fading away, his pride eroded, his shell cast aside by the woman who had depleted him, who had made him what he was and then no longer wanted him because of what he'd become.

Others found the characters unlikable, the story dull, the narrative style unappealing.  History appears to be on their side but I loved it.

Sunday, 25 August 2013

#77 - The Honey Guide - Richard Crompton (Choice: Doris)(Venue: Cigalon, Chancery Lane)

August 22, 2013

Present: Doris, Jen, Gill, Eamonn, Carl, Nic

Wow - Carl really hated this book.  Coming to the review somewhat later than planned, that is my lasting memory of the evening.  Well, that and the intriguing bamboo screened mirrors and light decor which made this small intimate restaurant seem much larger than it was.  The staff were charming, the food good and the after-dinner liqueurs, delicious.

As for the rest of us, we generally enjoyed the read without thinking it was amazing and without putting the rest of the series on our Must-Read lists.  The Masai lead character was convincing and his hero "back story" was well-judged and human and, after the recent events in Nairobi, given extra poignance.  The tale revolved around hidden births, stolen babies, a corrupt church.  Sometimes confusing but sufficiently engaging to take us all through the story.

Sunday, 28 July 2013

#76 - How To Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran (Choice: Shubha)(Venue: Cay Tre, Dean Street)

Date: July 26, 2013

Present: Shubha, Doris, Jen, Gill, Mark, (a triumphant return for ) Nathalie and special guests Alex and Davis

Unknown to Shubha, a return to our Christmas venue, where we'd all greatly enjoyed the food (and wine and cocktails) last December.  Again, the food was freshly prepared (some cooked with great care at the table) and full of herbs and balanced (though not always delicate!) spices to produce flavoursome food that feels healthy but satisfying and which found appreciation with all.

The place was busy, loud and buzzy, making it hard for us all to converse and sometimes hard to order but, hopefully, protecting the other diners from some of our more controversial conversation: Caitlin's obsession with what to call her "lady parts" making for some ripe discussion.  We all agreed, we'd never been driven, in the way Caitlin was to analyse and assess what to call them, as though feminism itself depended upon it.  "Boobs" was our winner for up top.  For the rest, Jen, as one might expect, takes a practical and no-nonsense, scientifically accurate approach.  Others fudged it with phrases like "down there" being popular.  "My lily" was a previously unheard description that we found endearing.

This was one of the best book discussions, though not necessarily best books, we could remember.  Our debates about the porn and abortion chapters were particularly spirited and we held and (loudly) espoused a range of differing opinions on these sensitive topics.  The abortion chapter, for example, was criticised for presenting only two possible choices - bring up another (unwanted) baby or have an abortion - and not addressing the possibility of giving birth and giving the child up for adoption where it would be very much wanted by a couple unable to have their own.  But that "oversight" was not universally accepted - some pointed to high adoption failure rates and the problems suffered by adopted children, whilst others countered that was because most adopted children were not new babies given up in these circumstances but children from difficult backgrounds, troubled families often with abusive histories, whose problems were not helped by a society which considers adoption a stigma and castigates a woman as heartless for giving up her baby but empowered for having an abortion.

We didn't all like the book but we were all agreed that Caitlin was forthright and (brutally, bravely) honest, articulate, intelligent and frequently very funny.  Whether the glimpses into her childhood were unwarranted or necessary background was a moot point, with special mention to the dog chewing her used sanitary pad.  And, with that, the final word on this book, must go to Mark, who should get a special award for reading and discussing this, given that:

For a chap who becomes queasy even at the mention of ladies special parts, I found this quite a hard read ;-)

Friday, 21 June 2013

#75 - The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes (Choice: Nic)(Venue: Cookhouse Joe's, Berwick Street)

June 20, 2013
Present: Nic, Jen, Gill, Shubha

First, a word about the venue: on discovering that the John Lewis Brasserie closed at 18.30, further inspiration failed me.  We ended up at Cookhouse Joe's rotisserie chicken joint on Berwick Street for chicken and Pimms.  "Connection?" you may well ask.  What can I say?  Much of the book's action took place in London and we ate in London and the chips did not appear to be hand cut.  Alas, most apt venue of the year award is not mine.  Shubha made a good call with post-dinner cocktails at Yauatcha though - hadn't expected to end up back there again so soon!

The book was somewhat more successful than the venue, however, and, in any other year, I think could be a serious contender.  This year though, it faces Bring Up The Bodies, which was mentioned with fervent love again last night.  Time will tell.  And anything could happen because, as Tony Webster has taught us, what we end up remembering may not be what we witnessed. 

This book is primarily engaged with memory and history and consequences.  It is well written, simple and easy to read but intelligent and thought-provoking.  "Small but perfectly formed", said Mark.

History is the lies of the victor, one of the characters said.  Adrian, of course, had thought it through a little more: History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.  A lifetime later, Tony has reassessed: History isn’t the lies of the victors … it’s more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious nor defeated. 

Our memories are deliquescent (Jen's favourite word of the book): they have a tendency to dissolve and melt away.  What Tony remembered, it transpired, was not what had happened.  Even the innocuous letter he thought he had written was other than he'd remembered: bitter and with far reaching and unintended consequences. 

Jen hated Veronica; we all found Tony sympathetic; we were all intrigued by his relationship with his ex-wife.  We were hugely disappointed that we never got to read the diary.  "... if Tony ..." had so many possible conclusions: if Tony stayed with Veronica, hadn't written the letter, had understood Veronica's mother ...  But the diary was only someone else's flawed history so it could not have been conclusive.

Shubha (who didn't hate my pick!) hopes that, at Tony's age when we looked back at our lives, we'll feel more fulfilled, less passive.  We can all agree with that.


Friday, 31 May 2013

#74 - The Earth Hums in B Flat - Mari Strachan (Choice: Mark)(Venue: Bibigo)

May 16, 2013
Present: Mark, Gill, Nic

Mark choose this novel because it was on a friend's list of all time favourite reads.  The three of us enjoyed the novel but did not rank it as a "must read".

The book is about Gwenni's loss of innocence as she comes to a more mature understanding of what she has witnessed and realises the complexities of adult relationships.  Because Gwenni has all the relevant facts at hand from the beginning, we, the reader, know what has happened from the beginning and, therefore, there is no real sense of suspense and no compelling thrust to the narrative.  The question is not what happened but whether and when Gwenni will realise what happened. 

The setting is a small and close-knit community where everyone knows everyone else's business: to paraphrase Nain, a secret is something everyone knows but no one talks about.  The characters, even many of the supporting cast, all have a back-story and their life's baggage to carry, which Gwenni doesn't always understand and the book has a strong sense of place and time which is demonstrated through the prominence of the chapel, the treatment of people with bipolar disorder and depression and the willingness of people to stay in abusive marriages. 

Bibigo was a far from obvious choice as a venue for this book but it was £12 for 2 courses and they did have goldfish-shaped waffles for dessert.  We enjoyed a mix of starters, mains and desserts between us as we speculated about Bethan's mental health.

Tuesday, 30 April 2013

#73 - Collected Ghost Stories of MR James (Choice: Jen)(Venue: The Grenadier, Belgrave Square)

April 11, 2013
Present: Doris, Gill, Jen, Nic

The walk to this venue was an absolute treat, from Hyde Park Corner, via Belgrave Square, along Wilton Crescent (which could put Bath's crescents to shame) to a cobbled mews street called Wilton Row and a genuinely, old and old-fashioned London boozer that is allegedly the most haunted pub in London.  We saw and felt no unearthly presence but, the spirits cannot be expected to perform on demand and Jen cannot be held accountable for that.  It was the perfect venue to discuss ghost stories. 

What Jen can be held accountable for is this book choice!  (And may it be known, she was her harshest critic.  The rest of us tried to make her feel better by referring to her previous excellent and well-received choices.  Hmmm... that didn't quite go to plan!) 

Most people had read only a handful of the collection, anticipating that they were samey and lacking atmosphere.  I had been on holiday and, therefore, read them all.  I was able to confirm that conjecture to be correct.  Even Mark, who couldn't make it, and sent email report that he'd loved them (particularly the "moving painting" - and we present agreed with this) found them samey by the end. The rest of us were less charitable.

Perhaps on a dark and stormy night, with yew trees clattering against the windows, told around a flickering and failing fire in a creaking cottage, abutting a cemetery, during a power cut, PERHAPS one of these stories could have raised a chill of fear.  However, in a collection, read quietly, not told aloud, one after another, written in the same style and tone of voice, they fell rather flat. 

Not so the evening though.  The bar staff were friendly and welcoming, offered tasters of the excellent draft beers for the indecisive and under-played the food, with insouciant charm.  In fact, the food turned out to be rather well executed, simple pub fayre like steak and chips with, frankly, marvellous onion rings - crisp batter and sweet, fresh, chunky-cut onions with just the right amount of bite.

Fantastic venue choice by Jen, again.  And, um ... a book.

Sunday, 31 March 2013

#72 - City of Thieves - David Benioff (Choice: Jane)(Venue: Yauatcha)


March 7, 2013

Present: Jane, Gill, Jen, Nic

A rare book group appearance by Jane, who undoubtedly travels furthest to get here - Mexico City's loss is our gain and delight.

Mark couldn't make it but sent comments: "... very much enjoyed the book and am a little bit in love with one of the characters!". It transpired that Gill, too, was in love with Kolya. Well, I didn't see that coming, any more than he saw the bullet that hit his arse! Entertaining in print, irritating as a really serious irritant in real-life, I suspect, especially if you were female.

Jane and Jen were not in love with Kolya but did love the book. I didn't, though I found it hard to express why. It had everything a compelling book should have: a transformative adventure, a hapless young hero, a more mature guide, vile villains and virtuous victims, a quest, an astonishing mix of comic, tragi-comic and downright tragic events, snippets of breath-stopping information about the siege of Leningrad that we had never known and the shocking recollection that it was a true story. Something about the style - the simplicity? - failed to engage me as much as that story would have done in other hands but it was, possibly, that same quality that set up a juxtaposition between the complexity of human nature and the simplicity of the telling that beguiled others.

The book was declared a winner, the food was delicious, the service was abysmal (well, I do love to say I told you so). Seeing Jane is priceless. For everything else, there's Mastercard and it does take a hammering at Yauatcha.

Thursday, 28 February 2013

#71 - Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel (Choice: Gill)(Venue: The Perkin Reveller, The Tower of London)

18th February 2013
Present: Mark, Jen, Gill, Nic.

Well, good wife Gill has, uncharacteristically for a woman of Henry's reign, thrown down the gauntlet and what a challenge it is. This has to be a firm favourite for most apt venue of the year.  We dined at the Wharf of the Tower of London, through which Ann probably passed, where Thomas had been so often, on ground that probably had shaken beneath Henry's feet and, returning to earth, we drank beer out of jugs and goblets, bathed in candle light! 

So I had to send my food back.  So we'd probably never return.  So what, I ask you?  I was looking at Tower Bridge as I waited for my replacement meal to arrive!

Mark, Gill and I had finished and loved this book.  Jen was enjoying it but was preoccupied by the number of characters and compelled to keep flicking to the frightening list of dramatis personae and selection of maps at the opening of the book, unhelped by the fact that she had not read the Woolf Hall, the first in this series.  Ignore it, was our advice.  The main players are so clearly written and so well-formed that, over the course of the book, you get to know and identify them and build up a full picture of them without this and, if a character is so minor that you cannot place them, their story little matters.  Relax, enjoy. 

This is a huge novel but is only physically weighty: the writing is adept and flowing and the plot marches along with a reassuring rhythm - slow enough that one can take everything in, pacy enough that you keep on turning the page.  We could (and did) find faults but they were nit-picky and in no way marred the experience of this tremendous read.  We liked Mantel's way of referencing Cromwell as He - she did it in the first book and it worked.  We disliked the fact that she seemed to lose faith this time, using "He, Cromwell," too often - the context always indicated who it was and it felt heavy-handed.  A small gripe indeed.

Thomas is more majestic that Henry: calm, deliberate, hard, mean, determined, loving, romantic, giving and gentle in turn; always in control.  As Kipling could have written about Thomas: "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you ...".  Many did and it was often his fault.  As to Thomas keeping his head ... well, that is book three and we cannot wait to read it albeit the anticipation is marred by the knowledge that there cannot be a fourth.

Sunday, 20 January 2013

#70 - The Code of the Woosters - PG Wodehouse (Choice: Doris)(Venue: Sartoria, Mayfair)

Thursday January 17th 2013
Present: Doris, Gill, Jen, Nic and special guest Katy

I trotted up and down Saville Row, in Bertie's stomping ground of Mayfair, twice before managing to find Sartoria - hidden in plain view much as Jeeves suggested the Cow Creamer should be.

The tonic in my gin-and was lacking sparkle but nothing else about this evening fell flat, well, until the strudel (but let's not dwell on that tart end to the evening - boom boom). 

Wodehouse's book was generally considered a belter.  I was, perhaps, the most dissenting voice, finding it, ultimately, too frothy: feel-good without self-improvement, a giggle without learning.  I don't like being lectured too (See The Children's Book) but I do like to feel that a book as been in some small way transforming, thought-provoking.  Wodehouse is undoubtedly a master of the English language, weaving an entire novel from nothing more than a few, flimsy, fortuitous or otherwise, coincidences and his skilled wordplay but it left me wanting something a little more heavy-weight.  I would read another but not with the same enthusiasm as everyone else. 

I would return to Sartoria with greater enthusiasm.  The staff were gracious and attentive and impressed with Jen's Italian skills.  Starters and main courses were delightful and the wine ... well, it flowed freely, especially after the sommelier took a shine to us sharing (i) his thoughts on authors and books as well as (ii) some bin ends we didn't order and which didn't appear on the bill .  All in all, he helped ensure a night that was memorable, albeit in the best of hazy ways.  The following morning found us all suffering much as Betie did after Gussie Fink-Nottle's bachelor party and in need of one of Jeeve's patent morning revivers and vowing to be more abstemious than Aunt Agatha next month.