A Hero of Our Time -- Mikhail Lermontov

Different translations highlighted the issue of reading books in translation. Interesting to see the origin of troubles in Chechnya going back 150 years

White Tiger -- Aravind Adiga

O na cold and snow-bound night we discussed this tropical book ; the narrator gets to the top of the slippery pole in a tale set as India changes from a rural and fuedal society to a modern capitalist state .

A good read ... certainly worth the acclaim it has received .

Shanghai Nights -- Juan Marse

For our 75th book in seven years we had a book that pleased the majority. Raising questions of truth and forlorn hope it is an easy to read novel set in Franco's Barcelona and in Shanghai. It just avoids magical realism .

North -- Louis-Ferdinand Celine

A disappointing book which many failed to finish - well done A and J . Not his best but do try Journey to the End of Night .
This is a self-indulgent work at the end of his career and life , but not often one reads a book by a French Nazi collaborator

Fight Club -- Chuck Palahniuk

One disappointed comparing it to the film ,the rest not sure if it is a good book or a book full of more or less amusing ideas that is not a great book .
Still some discussion of what it means to be a man... the pointlessness of existence and the need for aggression

New season

So after the Summer break we are about to start again; Fight Club informal soundings suggest a mixed reception - we'll see.
The next book we had planned is not available ( short of scouring Amazon for second-hand copies which has worked before) despite having had two good reviews recently .
We originally thought of reading through Booker or Nobel winners - but lots of them are out of print.

Sorrows of Young Werther -- Johann W. von Goethe

An early- ? the first? Romantic novel - Feelings more than actions . The illness of uunrequited love , Great says Bloke D . Not my cup of tea says I. Historically important it may be but really Werther is a tedious plonker.