Double Booked!

One of my highlights of every month for the past several years (I forget how many, but a fair few!) has been attending my book club meetings, and our occasional film nights and theatre visits.

We somehow always manage to come to an acceptable democratic decision each month about what the next month’s book will be (if only all elections and referendums were so straightforward...) and our conversations range far beyond the pros and cons of each month’s chosen book, touching on politics, podcasts, cinema, telly, food, cosplay, and all manner of nerdy and downright random discussion topics.

Our book for February is Sally Rooney’s ‘Conversations With Friends’, should you care to read along with us!

The book club wouldn’t function so smoothly - in fact, probably wouldn’t function at all - without these two women, who are the de facto coordinators of the group. Which is why I recruited them today to star in a reading-related photo shoot for mysterious top-secret purposes! (See the Extra for an out-take)

Hannah (left) is currently hard at work conducting research for a PhD in Public Health, and Kate is a secondary school history teacher. Needless to say, they’re both fabulous!

Today’s musical offering has nothing to do with any of the above but I’ve been excited by the first single from The Specials in the best part of 40 years, and I’m pleased to say that ‘Vote For Me’ picks up pretty much exactly where the classic ‘Ghost Town’ left off in 1981. This has been on heavy rotation here at Booknerd Towers of late https://youtube.com/watch?v=hs8WNk8tDsg

And, since my maternal grandfather would have been 119 today, I’m including an extra song - one which, if I recall correctly, was a favourite of his. It’s The Platters with ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’ https://youtube.com/watch?v=H2di83WAOhU