Reading

Français

Come and join the

EuroMayenne Reading Group

We share a love of books !

This EuroMayenne group is for members to get together each month to discuss a book that they have all just read.

It will encourage you to read more books and books that you might not normally choose.

The reasons that people give for joining a reading group include reading a wide variety of books, making friends, having fun, meeting like-minded people and stimulating the brain cells!

So please come and join us for our fourth year in this venture.

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When

Monthly on the last Wednesday at 2.30 pm.

Please let Pam know (contact details at the bottom of this page) at least one week in advance if  you will be going.

So, make notes in your diary for

Book titles – see table below. 

These are to be across a wide range of genres including general fiction, mysteries, historical fiction and non-fiction. They are always available in English and French versions. They allow for discussion between both English and French speakers.

Future books to read are decided by the group members.

2025

Month	Title	Author	Synopsis
September 24	Never	Ken Follett	A stolen US army drone. A shrinking oasis in the Sahara Desert. A secret stash of deadly chemicals. Each is a threat to global stability. Each can be overcome with only the highest levels of diplomacy. But when those in charge disagree and refuse to back down, an international chain reaction kicks off with potentially catastrophic consequences: a world edging closer to war . . . Now three people must work with the utmost skill to stop that from happening…
October 29	Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother	Amy Chua	Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. It was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it’s about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how you can be humbled by a thirteen-year-old. Witty, entertaining and provocative, this is a unique and important book that will transform your perspective of parenting forever.
November 26	Fresh water for flowers	Valérie Perrin	Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Her daily life is lived to the rhythms of the hilarious and touching confidences of random visitors and her colleagues—three gravediggers, three groundskeepers, and a priest. Violette’s routine is disrupted one day by the arrival of police chief Julien Seul, wishing to deposit his mother’s ashes on the gravesite of a complete stranger. Julien is not the only one to guard a painful secret: his mother’s story of clandestine love breaks through Violette’s carefully constructed defences to reveal the tragic loss of her daughter, and her steely determination to find out who is responsible.
December			(no meeting)

2026

Month	Title	Author	Synopsis
January 28	I, Claudius	Robert Graves	Despised for his weakness and regarded by his family as little more than a stammering fool, the nobleman Claudius quietly survives the bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the imperial Roman dynasties. In I, Claudius he watches from the sidelines to record the reigns of its emperors: from the wise Augustus and his villainous wife Livia to the sadistic Tiberius and the insane excesses of Caligula. Written in the form of Claudius’ autobiography, this is the first part of Robert Graves’s brilliant account of the madness and debauchery of ancient Rome.
February 25	Out of Africa	Karen Blixen	In 1914 Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya with her husband to run a coffee farm. Instantly drawn to the land, she spent her happiest years there until the plantation failed. Karen Blixen was forced to return to Denmark in 1931 and it was there that she wrote this classic account of her experiences. A poignant farewell to her beloved farm, Out of Africa describes her strong friendships with the people of her area, her affection for the landscape and animals, and great love for the adventurer Denys Finch-Hatton.
March 25	The last list of Mabel	Laura Pearson	Mabel Beaumont’s husband Arthur loved lists. He’d leave them for her everywhere. But now Arthur is gone. He died: softly, gently, not making a fuss. But he’s still left her a list. This one has just one item on it though: ‘Find D’. Mabel feels sure she knows what it means. She must track down her best friend Dot, who she hasn’t seen since the fateful day she left more than sixty years ago. What she doesn’t know is that her list isn’t just about finding her old friend. And that if she can admit the secrets of the past, maybe she could even find happiness again…
April 29	How to talk about books you haven’t read	Pierre Bayard	How and why do we spend so much time talking about forgotten books, books we’ve skimmed or books we’ve only heard about? In this mischievous and provocative book, Pierre Bayard contends that the truly cultivated person does not need to read books: understanding their place in our culture is enough.
May 27	The Fairy Gunmother	Daniel Pennac	A policeman on a mission of mercy is shot dead at point-blank range by a sweet granny on a frosty morning. The neighbourhood, Paris’s bubbling Belleville quarter, is already in uproar, because half a dozen other grannies have been found with their shrivelled throats slit. Into this tense situation stumbles Benjamin Malaussene, with his overly complicated life. Benjamin’s unusual profession – that of a scapegoat in a publishing house – makes him the ideal person to be framed for just about everything, and he is.
June 24	The Glassmaker	Tracy Chevalier	Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives perfecting. In secret, Orsola Rosso learns to craft glass. As a woman, she must flout convention to save her family from ruin. We follow her through hundreds of years of war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss. Skipping like a stone across the centuries, The Glassmaker is a virtuoso portrait of a woman, a family and a city that are as everlasting as glass.

Where

At the home of a member in Evron

Contact Pam Davies for details (see below)

 

Cost

There will be no cost other than the member purchasing/downloading the book of the month.

Refreshments (tea/coffee/cakes) will always be available – all that is asked is for a small donation.

Interested ?

Contact the reading group:

Pam DAVIES

02.43.00.87.17

contact@euromayenne.org