one theme
six books
that's The English Book Club
We meet every six weeks on a Thursday night in Tilburg to analyse and discuss various books in English. As the founder of this particular book club I choose six books each season along one theme whereas I focus mainly on creating an awareness of the various literary devices and the inherent structure.
And this is the theme of the season 2016/2017:
An Island of Our Own
Times and events around us seem ever exhausting. Time to flee to our very own island in its broadest sense and escape the everyday exposure to all the news... and just read. But: will it be as comfy as we imagine it to be?And these are the titles:
27/10: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
15/12: I have you to love me by Jaap Robben
26/01: Nora Webster by Colm Tólbín
02/03: All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
27/04: Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
01/06: The Shore by Sara Taylor
Interested in joining? Just send an email to scriemath@gmail.com
Former themes and titles:
2015/2016 The Dystopian Novel - past and present
1984 by George Orwell
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fjorde
The Bees by Laline Paull
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
2013/2014 The Best of Commonwealth Writers
We celebrated The English Book Club's fifth year with a mixture of former prize winners:
The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer (South Africa)
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (New Zealand)
Starbook by Ben Okri (Nigeria)
February by Lisa Moore (Canada)
A Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips (Kittian-British)
The Secret River by Kate Grenville (Australia)
2012/2013 The World in Transition
Nothing remains the same, everything is constantly changing: politically and/or personally. And these were the titles:
The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
My Michael by Amos Oz
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
2011/2012 The Modern Indian Novel
India is booming, Bollywood is hot! But ever read a modern Indian novel? And these were the titles:
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh
Shalimar The Clown by Salman Rushdie
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
2010/2011 Common Ground? The American Family Novel
The diversity of THE American Family. And these were the titles:
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
MotherKind by Jane Anne Phillips
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Home by Marilynne Robinson
What I loved by Siri Hustvedt
First season:
2009/2010 Visiting Places Through the Eyes of the Author
Visiting London, Paris, Kairo, NY and many more. And these were the titles:
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Girl with a Pearl Earing by Terence Chevalier
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
The Street by Ann Petry
That Eye, the Sky by Tim Winton