Update from the Book Group

Many thanks to Andy, for reviving our badly neglected blog. We had a good discussion about Madame Bovary - I think everyone had very much appreciated it, and would enjoy Andy's comments. We talked a lot around how Emma was really a selfish and horrible person, but yes, we couldn't help rooting for her a bit too. We also appreciated the humour in the book. I particularly liked Flaubert's delicious sarcasm about the pompous bore Homais.

Other things we discussed at the November meeting: a promo by Mira publishers offering us free books! They sent us 5 sample novels and we had to choose one. We picked what we hope is a jolly historical crime romp called Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn. Copies have now arrived so we'll have them as light reading in tandem with our other choices.

We also decided to try and choose books a couple of months ahead. So January is Morag's choice: Mr Pip, and February will be Jean's choice The Memory Keeper's Daughter. March will be my choice but I've still not decided...

For our December meeting we are having Secret Santa, and maybe I shall concoct some mulled wine. I am also going to try and persuade a different member each month to write up a meeting report for this blog, so that it doesn't slip back into the doldrums.

Madame Bovary 2

I'm reading Alexander McCall Smith's "Love Over Scotland" between books and came across this nugget:

"...it's so refreshing to see a male writer having a go at a truely nasty woman; male writers don't dare do that these days... You wouldn't get a modern day Flaubert punishing Madame Bovary as the real Flaubert did. Oh no. By the way, did you know that Flaubert wrote terribly slowly? He managed five words an hour, which meant that on a good day he wrote about thirty words. Now they were good words, of course, but even so..."