AGS Book club

Parents, come and join our staff and student book club. All you need is a book nomination for a book that you have either read and think everyone else should, or one that you are dying to read. You don't to need to be an English teacher or to study English-you just need to be an avid book worm. This is your opportunity to hear what other people think about the texts that you either love or loathe and to make sure that your voice is heard too.

(NB. please contact school beforehand if you wish to attend so that we can put the required paperwork in place - Thank you)

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May 2012: A massive thank you to everyone who made our last book club, especially with approaching exams. There was again lots of lively debate and strong opinions shared about our chosen book ' The Perks of Being a Wallflower' with a bit of a generation gap forming, unfornately with me clearly on the older side-how things have changed.

Due to popular requests we will run a book club next month, meeting 20th June when the majority of AS and A2 exams are finished.

The nominations were:

• 'Touch of Power' - Maria V. Snyder
• '1Q84' Haruki Murakami
• 'The Road ' - Cormac McCarthy
• 'Good Omens' - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
• 'One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
• 'The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ' - Philip Pullman
• 'As I Lay Dying ' - William Faulkner.

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The winning choice by a healthy majority was 'As I Lay Dying' by William Faulkner. We will meet in the English POD at 3.05pm Wednesday 20th June to pour over this American literary classic. As always there will be plenty of biscuits and treats to enjoy along side informed discusison. Please come and join us!

'As I Lay Dying' - William Faulkner:

The death and burial of Addie Bundren is told by members of her family, as they cart the coffin to Jefferson, Mississippi, to bury her among her people. And as the intense desires, fears and rivalries of the family are revealed in the vernacular of the Deep South, Faulkner presents a portrait of extraordinary power - as epic as the Old Testament, as American as Huckleberry Finn. 

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March-April 2012 A massive thank you to everyone who joined us at this month's AGS Staff and Student book club where we discussed 'Perfume' and realised that we all really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to others. As always we had some amazing nominations:

'The Picture of Dorian Gray' - Oscar Wilde 'Good Omens' - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 'Stardust' - Neil Gaiman 'The Well of Ascension ' - Brandon Sanderson 'Jurassic Park ' - Michael Crichton 'Veronica Decides to Die' - Paulo Coelho 'Orlando ' - Virginia Woolf 'Wuthering Heights' - Emily Bronte 'Case Histories ' - Kate Atkinson 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' - Stephen Chbosky

The winning nomination was  ' The Perks of Being a Wallflower' which we will discuss at our next book club meeting on Wednesday 25th April 2012. As always there will be plenty of cake and sweet treats to help our powers of speech and discussion.  It would be great if you could join us.

POSTPONED until Wednesday 2nd May at 3pm

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Winning book summary:

Charlie is a freshman. And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it. Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But Charlie can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

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3rd March 2012: A massive thank you to all those who joined us last week for our special World Book Day AGS book club where we discussed the Booker Award shortlisted 'Pigeon English' by Stephen Kelman which was strongly recommended by many of the group.

Our next book club's nominations are:

'The Help' - Kathryn Stockett

'The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

'Slaughterhouse 5' - Kurt Vonnegut

'IT' - Stephen King

'Noughts and Crosses' - Malorie Blackman

'The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson

'Perfume - Patrick Suskind

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Our winner was 'Perfume' by Patrick Suskind and we will be meeting again on Wednesday 28th March at 3.10pm in the English pod for intelligent discussion and delicious cakes and biscuits. Please come and join us.

Description: 'Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets of Paris as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human's. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in all the city. Yet there is one odour he cannot capture. It is exquisite, magical: the scent of a young virgin. And to get it he must kill. And kill. And kill... ' 

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1st February 2012

Thank you for everyone who joined us to discuss 'The Book of Lost Things' by John Connolly on Wednesday 1st February. It was great to see how many different interpretations people had for the novel and its meaning as well as the variety of elements of the story that had stood out in people's minds. A definite recommended read from our AGS book club.

This month's nominations were:

'Veronika Decides to Die' - Paul Coelho

'The Fault in our Stars' - John Green

'House of Leaves' - Mark Z. Danielewski

'The Book Thief' - Markus Zusak

'Pigeon English' - Stephen Kelman

'When God was a Rabbit' - Sarah Winman

'The Switch' - Elmore Leonard

'The Kite Runner' - Khaled Hossein

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Our winning nomination was 'Pigeon Hole' by Stephen Kelman, nominated by Mrs. Napier and shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker prize.

We will be meeting in the English pod armed with opinions, cake and a new nomination each on 3rd March (World Book Day). Please come and join us.

Synopsis:

Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister, eleven-year-old Harrison Opoku lives on the ninth floor of a block of flats on an inner-city housing estate. The second best runner in the whole of Year 7, Harri races through his new life in his personalised trainers – the Adidas stripes drawn on with marker pen – blissfully unaware of the very real threat all around him. With equal fascination for the local gang – the Dell Farm Crew – and the pigeon who visits his balcony, Harri absorbs the many strange elements of his new life in England: watching, listening, and learning the tricks of inner-city survival. But when a boy is knifed to death on the high street and a police appeal for witnesses draws only silence, Harri decides to start a murder investigation of his own. In doing so, he unwittingly endangers the fragile web his mother has spun around her family to try and keep them safe. A story of innocence and experience, hope and harsh reality, Pigeon English is a spellbinding portrayal of a boy balancing on the edge of manhood and of the forces around him that try to shape the way he falls.

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7th December 2011

Hello all,

Thank you to everyone who joined us to discuss '1984' by George Orwell at our last book club. It was really fascinating to draw parallels between the writer's nightmare vision of the future with our own turbulent times.The following novels were all nominated and offer great recommendations for Christmas holiday reading or last minute Christmas gifts. They may even be available in the school book fair beginning next week at break and lunchtimes - definitely worth a visit for lots of great books. view

• 'The Blood Meridian' - Cormac McCarthy
• 'Wuthering Heights' - Emily Bronte
• 'The Outsider' - Albert Camus
• 'The Line of Beauty' - Alan Hollinghurst
• ''The Sense of an Ending' - Julian Barnes
• 'A Tale of Two Cities' - Charles Dickens
• 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' - Thomas Hardy
• 'The Handmaid's Tale' - Margaret Atwood

 

If you would like to join us for our next book club then we will be meeting in the English pod on Wednesday 1st February  and discussing 'The Book of Lost Things' by John Connolly at 3.10-4.10pm. We have biscuits, a love of books and strong opinions. Come join us with your own views on this modern classic and a nomination for a book that we should all read. Mrs Slade 7th Dec 2011

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20th September 2011

This month's nominations were:

'The Book of Lost Things' -  John Connolly, 'Nineteen minutes' - Jodi Picoult, 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' - Khaled Hosseini, 'Catcher in the Rye'- J.D. Salinger, 'Animal Farm'  - George Orwell, 'Fight Club'  - Chuck Palahniuk, 'Love Affair ' - Leslie Kenton, 'The Snowman' - Jo Nesbo, 'The Angel's Game' - Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' - Mohsin Hamid, 'The Wilderness' - Samantha Harvey,

The winning book was 'The Reluctant Fundementalist' by Mohsin Hamid. We will be discussing this on Wednesday 9th November 2011 in Learning 9 - all staff and sixth form are welcome. Cakes and biscuits will be available to help fuel our discussion.  Mrs. Slade 20/9/11