Did you know that ‘The ‘OU’pen Book’, the OU Students Association's Book Club that runs in conjunction with Write Club, turns one this week?
I know, how did that first year go so quickly?
Book Club was started as part of a range of drop-in events by the Students Association that were scheduled at the beginning of the pandemic to enable students to have some sense of community.
We meet once a month, which started in June 2020 so when we meet next on the 4th of June it will be our first birthday.
We have read a range of books, listed below in full if anyone wants to know specifics, and we choose a theme each month and vote on those books as a group. Our themes have been as random as ‘books with the prettiest cover’, to ‘best adaptation', to ‘books you always wish you had read’ which ensures we get a range of options each month to choose from.
We chose the two top-voted books each month, and members get to read whichever of them you have at home or just the one you fancy the most. There is nothing to stop you from reading both, and the discussion is rambling and engaging enough that you can get away with not reading them either. We are a very forgiving bunch. You just have to love books, like talking about them and be free one Friday evening a month to join us.
So pop along, the link is always on the oustudents.com community events page, and this month we are discussing Ian McEwan's Atonement, and Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Cin McGuigan
Chair of Write Club and co-host of ‘The ‘OU’pen Book’ Book Club sessions.
What we have read so far:
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Haven’t They Grown by Sophie Hannah
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelis
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Forde
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
The Handmaid's Tale/The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
1984 George Orwell
The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
The BFG by Roald Dahl
Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Circe by Madeline Miller
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
The HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Atonement by Ian McEwan
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.
Book Club
Book Club meets on Teams from 7pm to 8pm one Friday a month.
I would love to join in with this club.; I enjoy reading and have read lots of the books in your list.