Listening to the stones

Book Club for November

We had a good blether at the book club. It's an excellent group. Lots of side stories and experiences and ideas and questions. You really ought to come along. We meet again on the 12th December and will enjoy some Chritmas goodies along with the insightful and wise discussion!

While we're there we'll make comment on this months books which are:

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas

Can't wait to get started, but first I need to finish on I started but didn't finish becasue I had to finish one that I hadn't started until a few days ago than needed to be finished by the end of tonight for the book club. Don't waste your Wednesdays.

Does that make sense...?

 

BookClub for October

This month's good reads are:

Maggie O'Farrell "The vanishing act of Esme Lennox" and G.J.Moffat "Daisy chain".

The Book Club is easy to come along to. You need to be able to drink tea and coffee to start off with and then blether. It's not that difficult. What you don't necessarily have to have done is have read the book. That's optional.

And if you have read one book then you don't need to have read the other but it is interesting how one speaks into the other which is a bit like the Bible where one story interprets another. But we don't necessarily do holy books. Its mind broadening, community deepening, laughter inducing and bring explorers and adventurers. See you on November 14th.

If you are going to buy either of them on line hen click the easyfundraiser button to the side and help the church raise some money. We've already raised £75 just with 20 members shopping online.

 

Book Club

I'm looking forward to this months books for the book club. I never managed to read them last month: got to page 87 of House by the Dvina and will read the rest. Great. But this month has two very readable stories and quite different from each other. But as always we'll see how they talk into one another.

Anyway (drum roll)

I can announce this months good reads are:

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and Retribution by Jilliane Hoffman. I have both of them already so off to bed for an early start on them. See you on the 10th October. There's a finance meeting that night but I wonder if having actually finished one of the books is good enough excuse to miss that and attend the book club? Dilema, dilema...

Just remember to buy them through Easy Fundraising because the congregation gets a donation every time you to that and not just for books. Everything else. You'll spend a fortune but it's got the good of the church!

 

 

The Presbyterian Bookclub

The next book are out for the bookclub and hopefully you are halfway through the first one.

Given one of the ways we traditionally express our faith is by word (being good Presbyterians and all that) and given imagination and image is at the heart of our faith (given we centre everything round bread and wine and water - being good Presbyterians and all that), and given poetry it the language of faith for we are allowed to express our faith in a myriad of different understandings - it's called liberality of opinion which is one of the richest traditions of our faith (being good Presbyterians and all that) then the bookclub seems to be right there in the centre of everything. It's also on a Wednesday too just to prove the point. 

Bet those that come along and are part of the discussion didn't realise how holy they were being even if the conversations is quite so holy! If yo haven't been, then try us out this month. You've got to the second Wednesday on September to read either one or the other or both books. Or if you are like me, partly read one of them. Don't miss out on being a good presbyterian!

Eugenie Fraser: The house by the Dvina

Victoria Hyslop: The Thread

   

Bookclub for July/August

We had a great discussion tonight at the bookclub and we got out teeth into our reflections of last month's two books: Spies (Michael Frayn) and A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) and it was interesting how the two got tangled together and spoke into each other. We got onto the British Empire once more (a recurring theme somehow - what's that about), how we see things only from our own culture and judge them against that rather than anothers culture, and how we feel some cultures are 'primitive' and they ought to be brought into the contemporary world when in truth that 'primitive' culture is indeed more appropriate for the lifestyle.

There was a whole lot more too and others can add that by hitting 'comment' below but we had a good blether  and unpacked quite a few things.

Next months books are:

The secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) and The Summer of the Bear (Bella Pollen). So it is bees and bears this month. Looks like the honey will be sweet. Enjoy.

Bookclub for June/July

We had our first bookclub discussion night. It went well, especially as only one person had finished last months book. Yet we managed to talk for almost an hour. It is amazing how so many different strands come together and you realise, even though you read only 57 pages in my case, you absorb quite a bit and we had an hours conversation on a book hardly any of us had read all about the British Empire, racism, history, story telling, and a lot of laughter. Result.

Next month we offer two books. You can read either or both and the idea is to come and let one book speak into the other or listen to others speak. We meet in a konths time on the second Tuesday of every month and the books are....

Spies by Michael Frayn

and

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

This Month's Read

The book club met yesterday. It was good fun and a lot of laughter and there were even two men (if you could me as one of them).

And I am proud to announce that this months winner in the book selection department is:

Wait for it....

White Mughals by William Dalrymple and you can go here to purchase online or better, spend your money in a local bookshop.

If you weren't able to be there on Wednesday that's not a problem. We've kept your seat for next month (Wed 13th June) so please, please come and join us even if you haven't read the book. The only rule is that we are allowed to talk about the ending evening if people haven't got there.

So get to it. It's going to be a good, big read. If any of us don't turn up at some event we are meant to be organising or part of you'll know we're doing the churches work else where buried in a good book for the sake of the Lord.

Enjoy.

Book Club

What would you call a book club? It's an important question becaus the New Kilpatrick Book Club begins on Wednesday next week (9th May) in the Walkround just to see who turns up and what choice of book we'll get round to reading. 7.30. So if you have any ideas for a name, don't hesitate toi reply.

Which got me thinking, what books would the Almighty read in Heaven's Book Club?

Divine Comedy?
Great Expectations?
Angels and Demons?
War & Peace?
Brave New World?

Any other suggestions....?

 

Online/offline bookclub

I think we need to start the bookclub soon. We ought to have a face to face one with coffee as well as an online one where we can continue the discussion.

But I wondered firstly about putting together a list of books we  might read. If we plan well then I think we could possibly help Oxfam or something like that and order through them. I'm not sure if I'm making this up (probably) but I think there is a way we could do a fairtrade-eco-friendly book selection.

But we need so get some ideas together. So thoughts on books you think others might like to read or books you have been aiming to read yourself but never had an excuse to do so?

"The winter of our disconnect" by Susan Maushart is one I've been meaning to get my teeth into...

Bookclub

I've just had a wee (probably unoriginal) idea for the blog. We should have an online book club. Each month someone can choose a book, we'll read it and then discuss it on the blog. Anyone up for that?

It certainly doesn't have to be a religious book or a classic though it could be either of these. We should have a complete variety and allow oursevles to read things we've never read before or wouldn't normally pick up.

Just click the comment button below and type 'yes' if you are interested and if we gat a big enough core then we'll go for it. The Bible has rules about corum: where two or three are gathered... I've always wanted to be part of a book club but don't have enough friends! So good people of the blog, let us read together, wonder together, discuss together and see if it is possible.

Of course we might just have to meet face to face and have coffee every so often. My daughter has a bigger social circle than I do. This might expand mine somewhat! So what do you say...