Books Appreciation 2
Coordinator Anne Santos
Meets 4th Wednesday of each month, 2:15pm
at
79 Meeting House Lane
Telephone 01676 534003
This group is now full. If anyone wishes to join a waiting list please call the coordinator
Programme:
23rd November 2011 One Day by David Nicholls
– now a major film.
22 January 2012 Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2009 'Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning,' says Thomas More, 'and when you come back that night he'll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks' tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money.' England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor. Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages. From one of our finest living writers, Wolf Hall is that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage. Facilitator Celia
29 February 2012 - The Night Train to Lisbon - Pascal Mercier
'One reads this book almost breathlessly, can hardly put it down... A handbook for the soul, mind and heart.' Die Zeit (Germany) 'If you liked Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind, you'll love international bestseller, Night Train to Lisbon.' Image 'Night Train to Lisbon is a novel of ideas that reads like a thriller: an unsentimental journey that seems to transcend time and space. Every character, every scene, is evoked with an incomparable economy and a tragic nobility redolent of the mysterious hero, whom we only ever encounter through the eyes of others... Pascal Mercier now takes his rightful place among our finest European novelists.' Daniel Johnson, Sunday Telegraph 'A meditative novel that builds uncanny power...Night Train to Lisbon maintains a remarkable immediacy that makes for a rare reading pleasure.' Joseph Olshan, San Francisco Chronicle. - Facilitator Christine
28 March 2012 Fall of Giants Ken Follett Facilitator SUE
25 April 2012 The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy Facilitator CELIA
23 May 2012 Great Expectations Charles Dickens Facilitator JANE
27 June 2012 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy Facilitator MARGARET
25 July 2012 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte Facilitator GILL
22 August 2012 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini Facilitator Anne
26 Sept 2012 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins Facilitator - CHRISTINE
Please support the U3A by buying products via the Amazon link below.
Balsall Common U3A will receive a referral fee AT NO EXTRA COST TO THE PURCHASER!