Hadji Murat, one of the most feared and venerated mountain chiefs in the Caucasian struggle against
the Russians, defects from the Muslim rebels after feuding with his ruling imam, Shamil. Hoping to
protect his family, he joins the Russians, who accept him but never put their trust in him — and so
Murat must find another way to end the struggle.
This week's book is Hadji Murat by Leo Tolstoy and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
“The Essex earth had bucked as if trying to shake off all its towns and villages; for twenty
seconds, no more, a series of convulsions that paused once as if breath were being drawn and then
began again.”
This week's book is The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
Into the intrigue and violence of 1950s Saigon comes CIA agent Alden Pyle, a young idealistic
American sent to promote democracy through a mysterious Third Force.
As Pyle's naive optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler, a cynical foreign
correspondent, finds it hard to stand aside and watch. But even as Fowler intervenes he wonders why:
for the greater good, or something altogether more complicated ?
This week's book is The Quiet American by Graham Greene and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
As we're coming to the end of our reading list, we'll be pitching books at the meeting. You may like to consider the unread books list and the unreadable books list.
“So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein — more, far more, will I achieve; treading
in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the
world the deepest mysteries of creation.”
This week's book is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
“I was forced to acknowledge too late, much too late, that I too had loved, that I was capable of
suffering, and that I was human after all.”
This week's book is I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
The Romans have long since departed, and Britain is steadily declining into ruin. But at least the
wars that once ravaged the country have ceased. The Buried Giant begins as a couple, Axl and
Beatrice, set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not
seen for years.
They expect to face many hazards — some strange and other-worldly — but they cannot yet foresee how
their journey will reveal to them dark and forgotten corners of their love for one another.
This week's book is The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct
scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they
watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling
through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of
oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.
Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the
death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers
over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.
The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth,
they have never felt more part — or protective — of it. They begin to ask, what is life without
earth ? What is earth without humanity ?
This week's book is Orbital by Samantha Harvey and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she
recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a
lawyer who has been successful at everything until — betrayed and brokenhearted — she must turn to
the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial
powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s
housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America — but faces an unthinkable hardship that
threatens all she has worked to achieve.
This week's book is Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
Elio — 17 years old, precocious, the son of an academic — finds himself falling for the older
Oliver, a postdoctoral scholar completing his manuscript on Heraclitus at the beautiful home of
Elio’s family. Oliver is worldly, handsome, a seductive contrast to Elio’s own naivety. Both are
bright and questioning; the hook of desire is soon caught fast.
This week's book is Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
“What is the meaning of life ? That was all — a simple question; one that tended to close in on one
with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did
come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the
dark; here was one.”
This week's book is To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
“Reality is neither the subject nor the object of true art which creates its own special reality
having nothing to do with the average ‘reality’ perceived by the communal eye.”
This week's book is Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
“A family can be the bane of one's existence. A family can also be most of the meaning of one's
existence. I don't know whether my family is bane or meaning, but they have surely gone away and
left a large hole in my heart.”
This week's book is The Bone People by Keri Hulme and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.
“I stand at the window of this great house in the south of France as night falls, the night which is
leading me to the most terrible morning of my life.”
This week's book is Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin and we'll be meeting at Ye Olde Cocke on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury — contact us for details.