The meetings of the group are always very lively with everybody chipping in with different opinions. For our last meeting we had read ‘Two Steps Forward’ by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist, a ‘light weight’ reading of a romance story woven into a travel description of the Camino de Santiago. The romance part is following the script for a typical love-story of two people meeting and going through a lot of complications and misunderstandings for in the end to get together and live happily ever after. The description of the Camino was concentrating on the French part, with very little about south of the Pyrenees. The book did spur a debate about why people do the walk, reaching the conclusion that the motivation for going on the Camino has seen a shift from a purely religious pilgrimage to a commercialised, alternative holiday-form since its start in the early 10th century.
The Passengers by John Marrs – eight lives in the hands of the internet mob, each individual hiding behind a keyboard; a vicious hacker, who has hacked into the ‘un-hackable’ system that runs the driver-less cars; a politician without scruples, lining his own pockets, and with the only aim to save his own skin. This was all food for an interesting debate about artificial intelligence and how it is on its way to take over our lives. Gathering information about individuals, as is already taking place eg. from Facebook and similar fora, was also a topic of the book and an issue that the group found rather scary.
We are taking a break for the summer, having no meetings in July and August. We therefore selected three books for out next meeting: ‘The Disappearance of Emily Marr’ by Louise Candlish – a stunning story of secrets and scandal, identity and infidelity.
‘My Sister’s Lies’ by SD Robertson – ‘With great skill and humour SD Robertson guides us through a minefield of family misunderstandings and discontent. I’m not sure I’ve seen such dynamics tackled better.’ (Stewart Foster, author of The Bubble Boy)
‘Blood Sisters’ by Barbara & Stephanie Keating – the story of painful transition, from the innocent ideals of childhood to the demands of reality, amidst the cataclysmic events of the African continent.
We normally meet every first Thursday of the month between 2pm and 4pm in The Social Centre, Camposol B. Everyone is welcome; the only requirement is that you like to read. After two months’ holidays, the next meeting will be Thursday 5th September. You can also follow us on Facebook, if you cannot come to the meetings.
Email creadingg@gmail.com for further information.