South London Book Club

Hello,

After George and Weedon Grossmith's The Diary of a Nobody scored a solid seven and a half at October's South London Book Club — Online, in November we will be going for The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.

This meeting will take place online via a web conferencing facility.

Of the book, The Guardian writes:

when you wipe your feet in the anteroom to heaven, you will meet five other dead people who in some way or another affected your life and whose role is to make you understand the point of everything that happened to you. So Eddie meets a circus freak whose death he apparently caused, an army captain from Vietnam, the woman who inspired the building of the fairground that has just killed him . . . —https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/18/featuresreviews.guardianreview22

as for our author, Mitch Albom:

Mitchell David Albom (born May 23, 1958) is an American author, journalist, and musician. As of 2021, he has sold 40 million books worldwide. Having achieved national recognition for sports writing in his early career, he turned to writing inspirational stories and themes a pre-eminent early one being Tuesdays with Morrie — themes that now weave their way through his books, plays, and films and stage plays.
— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Albom

Can't go wrong then can we?

You don't need to have a copy during our online meeting, in fact you don't even have to turn on your camera and mic. Just join us, with your opinions and (hopefully) enjoy the book!

Hello,

Before we get around to discussing All Fours by Miranda July, we will be getting together for the South London Book Club Christmas Dinner.

We will simply be getting dinner from the pub menu before book club. Please don't imagine some multi-course affair with After Eights and flaming Christmas pudding.

No additional cost to join this other than your dinner.

Bring your pub dinner money.

Best wishes,

David

Hello,

Sebastian Barry's Days Without End scored a solid 7.5/10 last night at The Roundhouse.

After putting it to the vote, in December we will be going for All Fours by Miranda July.

Of the book, Amazon writes:
"A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey."
— https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Fours-Miranda-July/dp/1838853448/

a review, according to The Guardian:
"July is part of a generation of novelists seeking new forms for midlife – whether it’s “hot-flush noir”, or the plotless, evacuated voice of Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy. The classic menopause novel remains Doris Lessing’s The Summer Before the Dark, another story where a woman abandons her own life and discovers new forms of rage and lust. Lessing’s novel of dark regeneration had life and death stakes, as July’s does. July’s gains added freight from her deep commitment to autofiction across mediums. Because of her film-making and performance art, July exists three-dimensionally for us in ways other narrators don’t. She’s made art out of herself dancing, crying, kissing. Added to this are the literal echoes of her life: she, too, has a semi-estranged husband and non-binary child; even her dead mother and aunt are referenced in the acknowledgments."
— https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/16/all-fours-by-miranda-july-review-larger-than-life

Can't go wrong then, can we?

Make sure you have read the book and bring a suggestion for the Group to read ahead of the February meeting for us all to vote on.

£1.50 fee is to help with the organiser's meetup.com costs.

Bring your pub money but you don't have to bring a copy of the book.

Best wishes,

David