Mister Dickens

Our book group choice for January 2018 is The Last Days of Disco by David F. Ross. Early in the decade that taste forgot, Fat Franny Duncan is on top of the world. He is the undoubted King of the Ayrshire Mobile Disco scene, controlling and ruling the competition with an iron fist.

Our book group choice for December 2017 is The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth. Armagh, 1981. The Carney farmhouse is a hive of activity with preparations for the annual harvest.

Our book group choice for November 2017 is My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout. Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation.

Our book group choice for October 2017 is Elmet by Fiona Mozley. Daniel is heading north. He is looking for someone. The simplicity of his early life with Daddy and Cathy has turned sour and fearful.

Our book group choice for July 2017 is The Power by Naomi Alderman. The world is a recognisable place: there’s a rich Nigerian kid who larks around the family pool; a foster girl whose religious parents hide their true nature; a local American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family.

Our book group choice for September 2017 is Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra. Seven years in the making, Sacred Games is an epic of exceptional richness and power.

Our book group choice for June 2017 is Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace. Although Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a collection of short stories, its unifying threads make it an almost-novel.

Our book group choice for May 2017 is Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh. Adam Fenwick-Symes is a man of the world: a novelist, recently returned from Paris, and one of the “bright young people.”

Our book group choice for March 2017 is Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. In a very near future – oh, let’s say next Tuesday – a functionally illiterate America is about to collapse.

Our book group choice for March 2017 is Hag Seed: The Tempest Retold by Margaret Atwood. Hag-Seed is a re-visiting of Shakespeare’s play of magic and illusion, The Tempest, and will be the fourth novel in the Hogarth Shakespeare series.