Welcome to Exeter Book Club!
(Devon, UK)
Who we are: We're an informal, social group, with typically between 15-30 individuals attending each meeting. Everyone can just turn up to any meetings they are available. There is no expectation of 'serious' debate and the ethos is very open, respectful and friendly. If you're interested in coming along and have not yet read or finished the book, don't worry, you won't be alone.
We share news of any local literary events then discuss the book choice for about an hour or so, before taking a vote on what to read next. Everyone is welcome to stay on for a drink and general chat afterwards.
We always pick our books two months in advance to allow as much time as possible to read them. You're welcome to bring a book suggestion.
When we meet: The first Wednesday of each month at 8.00pm.
Four times a year (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct), we also hold an optional book swap event at 7.30pm. You can bring up to five books to the table that you are happy to give away, and take home up to five books (plus any of yours that may not have been picked up).
Where we meet: The City Gate Hotel in Exeter.
The address is Iron Bridge, North St, Exeter, EX4 3RB. The nearest car park is the Harlequin's (the outdoor car park being the closest) which does charge. There is free, on-street parking in the nearby area (e.g. Bartholemew Street, Fore Street, Southernhay Gardens) and the Cathedral Quay car park is still free after 6pm.
We’ll likely be in the large room beyond the kitchens (and if not there then the ‘snug’, which is in the far right-hand corner as you enter through the main entrance). In the warmer months, we might be outside in the beer garden, which includes a marquee.
The venue is lovely, with reasonably-priced drinks, and is free of charge for us to use, meaning there is no members fee.
Socials
Whereas the book club meetings are focused on a specific book, the socials are a chance to get together to discuss anything and everything. These take place on the third Wednesday of the month (with a different venue each time) so that, in combination with the main meetings, we have the option to get together fortnightly.
We also have occasional outings, including theatre trips and pub quizes.
Next Meetings and Books:
UPDATE: For a year across 2023/4, we reached capacity and had to pause new membership. There is now space for new members! Please feel free to come along to a meeting to see how you find it.
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 1st May 2024 at 8.00pm.
The book for discussion is Flowers for Algenon by Daniel Keyes.
The book we voted for June is The Second Coming by John Niven.
Contact Us:
We ask that you only request to join our mailing list or Facebook group if you intend to attend, or have already attended club meetings. This helps keep the mailing list and Facebook group for active members.
Our email address is exebookclub@outlook.com
If you're on Facebook, you can also find us here: www.facebook.com/groups/exeterbookclub/
Previous Books:
· The Seven Agres of Death by Richard Shepherd
· Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
· Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
· The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
· Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
· Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson
· Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
· Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
· American Gods by Neil Gamon
· Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
· Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
· The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
· Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
· The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.
· The Seven Husbands of Eevelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
· Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
· The Road by Cormac McCarthy
· The Timekeeper by Mitch Albom
· We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
· Middlemarch by George Elliot
· A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman
· Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
· The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way by Bill Bryson
· The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
· The Appeal by Janic Hallett
· Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Karuki Murakami
· The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
· A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
· The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett
· Pine by Francine Toon
· Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
· Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister by Jung Chang
· The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
· Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
· The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
· A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
· The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
· Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
· Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
· Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
· Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
· The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
· To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
· The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
· Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
· Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
· The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
· Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
· Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
· The Secret History by Donna Tartt
· The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
· Animals Strike Curious Poses by Elena Passerello
· The Just City by Jo Walton
· The Man in The High Castle by Philip K Dick
· The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
· Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
· Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
· Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
· Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
· The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer
· No is Not Enough by Naomi Klein.
· All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
· The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
· The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
· The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
· The History of Bees by Maja Lunde
· Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
· Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
· His Bloody Project by Graeme Burnet
· The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier
· The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
· Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
· The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
· The Power by Naomi Alderman
· Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
· The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany
· Changing Places by David Lodge
· The Crucible by Arthur Miller
· The Muse by Jessie Burton
· 1984 by George Orwell
· Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
· The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
· The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
· The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn
· The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
· Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
· Sky Burial by Xue Xinran
· A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
· The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz
· The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
· The Establishment by Owen Jones
· The Road by Cormac McCarthy
· The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
· The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
· Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
· The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
· Brick Lane by Monica Ali
· The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
· We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
· The Bees by Laline Paull
· I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
· A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
· Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
· Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
· Still Alice by Lisa Genova
· The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
· Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
· The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore
· The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
· How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran
· The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
· The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
· The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
· The Walker's Daughter by Janet Allison Brown
· Longbourn by Jo Baker
· Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
· The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
· The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier
· The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
· Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
· The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
· Suicide by Édouard Levé
· Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
· Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
· Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
· Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver
· The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd
· The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
· The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
· The House of Silk by Anthony Horrowitz
· How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
· A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
· The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling
· Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
· Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
· After Dark by Haruki Murakami
· Captain Pantoja and the Special Service by Mario Vargas Llosa
· The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
· The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
· Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail by Hunter S. Thompson
· The Fear Index by Robert Harris
· Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
· The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
· The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
· Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
· The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
· Room by Emma Donaghue
· A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
· The Plague by Albert Camus
· Atonement by Ian McEwan