The Official Unofficial Book Group Book Discussion thread

57 watchers
May 2022
11:54am, 18 May 2022
54,652 posts
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LindsD
:)
May 2022
12:49pm, 18 May 2022
22,288 posts
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Red Squirrel
Oscar - what a lovely story. I'm squealing inwardly when I go to local libraries. They all seem to have different specialisms, so I never get bored. All well-used by kids + there are regular book-related activities laid on for them too.
May 2022
1:39pm, 18 May 2022
5,839 posts
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TheScribbler
I downloaded The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually by Helen Cullen which I really enjoyed. Also dipped into Dead Famous by Greg Jenner, but ended up not having much time to reason planes and in airports as I was mainly trying to sleep!
May 2022
2:16pm, 18 May 2022
54,660 posts
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LindsD
:)
May 2022
2:43pm, 18 May 2022
35,828 posts
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LazyDaisy
I'm reading Seating Arrangements at the moment too - something recommended by Linds and Sharkie has git to be worth a punt, after all :-) Enjoying it so far!

I love the library story. Reminds me of me and my Dad going to the village library every Monday evening when I was a child. It was a new, purpose-built library and I can still visualise the layout inside.

Needless to say, it's been closed now for quite a few years. Very sad :-(
May 2022
3:21pm, 18 May 2022
54,669 posts
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LindsD
Glad you like it. Our little library is still open. Hope it stays that way
May 2022
5:23pm, 18 May 2022
19,232 posts
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Chrisull
Just barging in for a quick shout out for "The Premonitions Bureau" by Sam Knight. For those who know my occasionally occult leanings, they won't be surprised this was catnip to me. However, while easily falling into the Jon Ronson cabinet of curiosities, it delves a bit deeper.

For the uninitiated, Barker - a psychiatrist at a Shropshire mental health facility in the 1960s, notes after the Aberfan disaster where a coal-tip starts a landslide and destroys a school with over 100 people and children losing their lives, that several people seemed to have precognitive "knowledge" of the event (including one . Long story short, he starts up a bureau/advice line for people to phone in with their dreams/premonitions to see if they could be used to avert future disasters.

It's a fascinating, more than slightly "woo" premise, and in less deft hands could be little more than voyeuristic sensationalism, but in Knight's it becomes a finely etched character study of the flawed but fascinating lead character Barker, and his two most successful guinea pigs.

Knight neither overplays their troublingly accurate predictions, nor heavy-handedly rubbishes the whole area. He weaves together historical folklore about Gaelic second sight, to rather more scientifically robust digressions on the roles of nocebos and people giving up and dying (resignation syndrome). With authors as diverse as Carlo Rovelli, JB Priestley, Oliver Sacks, John Berger and Marina Warner being quoted or alluded to in the text, it's a deeper, more thoughtful piece than say "The Men Who Stare at Goats", and by its conclusion is moving and offers empathy and solace for all those troubled by the human condition.
May 2022
5:24pm, 18 May 2022
19,233 posts
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Chrisull
And of course strangely enough, it's all true!
May 2022
8:33pm, 18 May 2022
54,672 posts
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LindsD
Sounds v uninteresting
May 2022
8:34pm, 18 May 2022
21,748 posts
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Columba
Meaning, non-fiction?

About This Thread

Maintained by Diogenes
Unofficial books, underground discussion, MASSIVE SPOILERS.

Some of the most discussed books include:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
(mind-bending mystery with halls and statues)
hive.co.uk



The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (geriatric murder mystery from Britain's tallest comedic brainbox)
hive.co.uk

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
(Memoir of a homeless couple walking the SWCP)
hive.co.uk

Milkman by Anna Burns
(Superlative prize-winning fiction)
Hive link: hive.co.uk

The Player Of Games by Iain M. Banks (Sci-Fi)
Hive link: hive.co.uk

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley (weird steampunk)
Hive link: hive.co.uk

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