Book Club

So I've joined my first real book club.  My new sister-in-law (and mom) and her friends (plus their mom and their mom's friends) met tonight to discuss what we should read.  It actually turned out to be less of a what book to decide on and more so "how literature influenced my life"  We spoke about our first memories of books - a lot of us remembered Beatrix Potter's books as our first, I also remembered a series of books about a clumsy maid named Amelia Bedelia, and those crazy choose your own adventure books that drove my Mom crazy.  We also spoke about our favourites, and our not so favourites.  I mentioned Outlander of course and took turns jotting some notes down as to the next few books that we should be reading.  Jane Austen was tossed about for a while but in the end we settled for "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel.  Indigo lists the description as :


"England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.  Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.

From one of our finest living writers, Wolf Hall is that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage."

In any case, it should be great.  However, I seem to be getting myself deeper and deeper into a reading debt with my military university courses and my current book "The Guns of Normandy".  It's an intriguing account of the canadians in Normandy after D day and one of the artillery sergeants at work brought it to my attention.  With Pete being artillery now it is very fitting that I should be reading this.

Alright, time for bed - good night!