Next Meeting: 5:30pm Sunday 3rd December - Festive Meal

The challenge for the next meeting is to read a Quick Reads Book!

For those of you who haven't come across Quick Reads before, they're published by the Reading Agency for World Book Night each year, and they are usually either written especially for this purpose as a novella, or they are specially abridged to make them short. They are usually 99p to buy, either in paperback or as ebooks, and our local library, at Halton Lea, has a special display of them near to the information counter.

We're also, because it will be our last meeting before Christmas, having a festive meal, it's pre-order and pre-pay, the menu and details are in our Facebook group, or you can email us if you're interested in joining us. And, we're doing a Secret Santa, maximum cost of gifts is £2, and it should be loosely related to books/literature, and ideally a fun/bad taste present. All gifts should be wrapped, and we'll put them in a basket and lucky dip them out with desert on the night.




This time, we'd been reading books about or set in WWI and/or WWII as our meeting fell on Remembrance Sunday. We know that Remembrance Sunday is about more than just the two World Wars, but we wanted to limit the choice a bit this time.

The books read included, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque.

Translated from German in 1929, the book follows a group of German Schoolboys through WWI.

Although the original title translated from German is actually, "In the West, Nothing New", the originally translated title, All Quiet on the Western Front has become so ingrained in the English Language, that all subsequent translations have kept it.

It earned a good review, and was recommended to the group.



and, Rutka's Notebook, by Rutka Laskier,

Described as the Polish Anne Frank, this is the diary of a 14 year old Jewish girl in Bedzin, Poland, from the first few months on 1943.

The diaries were kept by her friend until 2006, when her friend, then aged 82, passed them to the Yad Vashem in Israel.

The diaries have been translated into English and published with photographs and notes, as well as specially written sections by experts, including friend's and Rutka's half sister.  Another good review, and recommendation, but with the caveat that this one is very poignant.


Also, Matti's Miracle by Ann Jungman

This one was about a you German Jewish boy who was sent to the UK as part of the Kindertransport before WWII.

It's a children's book, which was read with our member's little one, and came highly recommended, especially as it comes with child friendly happy ending. I think it's being added to a few reading lists!