#145 - The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel (Choice: Gill C)(Venue: Pho, Covent Garden)

November 30th, 2022

Present: Nic, Nat, Jen, Sabine

Well, tying this date and venue to the book may be stretching things, given that few have ever finished it and Gill C, who subjected us to this (I mean chose this), wasn't present.

Who started this tome, I am not sure. Who finished it, many, many fewer. 

This may be the book that breaks Book Group. Whilst the first two books of this trilogy and Eight Months on Ghazzah Street (a previous LGAG read) were a delight, flowing prose carrying us effortlessly to the end, this is like wading through treacle. There's a tension to it, which comes from knowing what will happen to our "hero" but the prose is dense and difficult and much of it appears extraneous. Was Hilary too big and successful a name to edit any more? Will we ever read again? These questions haunted us. But we do know that Gill C uses it as a computer monitor stand. 

Thank goodness for Richard Osman, come to save us with our unofficial book group reads The Thursday Murder Club series. How we love Joyce and Elizabeth et al. We are reborn.

#144 - Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Grams (Choice: Sabine)(Venue: Heddon Street Kitchen)

May 4th, 2022

Present: Jen, Gill C, Gill F, Sabine, Nic

Our first post-Covid meet-up. The restaurant was chaotic, the service almost non-existent, one of those times when you had to repeatedly beg and plead to be allowed to pay and get out. It was also one of the first times most of us had seen the calories on a menu - we weren't fans. Who really needs that when they are eating out?!

As for the book, it was very well received by those who had read it (all but me) and I adored it when I finally got caught up. The talk was brief so as not to spoil my experience. Gill F was "Gripped at the first page". Top marks. Everyone should have a SixThirty. The jury is out on the already announced Apple TV dramatisation. 

Pass the sodium chloride and let's get stuck into the food.