Annual General Meeting

We held our Annual General Meeting in June. Our accounts should be healthy for the coming year thanks to a grant we have received from the Mairie. As you will know if you follow the blog, there has been quite a lot of activity since our last AGM. Foal has organised the Christopher Crimes talk, the Literary Quiz which was a great success and which will become an annual event, we have enhanced the collection with the "100 Best Novels of the XX century" and we add recent literature to the collection on a regular basis. We had a successful partnership with the Mairie at the Comédie du Livre and enjoyed our talks with two of the visiting authors. We held a Book Sale before our move to our temporary premises and there is a permanent book sale at the library. The new opening hours are on the first Saturday of every month from 10-12.30 and the second and fourth Wednesday of every month from 3-6pm at Place de la Chapelle Neuve in Montpellier.
The regular Book Chat meetings are very popular. There are one or two events in the works and you will be informed in due time. Our next objective is to find permanent premises, if you have any suggestions, please contact us at foal@dbmail.com

                                                        Photos taken at the AGM

Membership is down, probably because some people joined in the first flush to show support for our efforts, we still need you so don't hesitate to ask us for information about how to join. Even if you are not a great bibliophile, you can participate in our events, happily we have a very active Board and we do try hard to keep up the good work.

SPECIAL COMÉDIE DU LIVRE NEWSLETTER

As the photos will show, FOAL was present at the Comédie du Livre, and after a few snaffles, we got the computers up and running and the public was able to come and listen to selected recordings of authors and poets from the BBC archives. The stand was manned by Foal volunteers, to whom many thanks. The CDs are now available for loan at the library. We actually didn’t have a lot of people because the part of the stand we occupied was rather hidden away, but we managed to hand out quite a few flyers and hope this will eventually bring in some new members.

We had two very successful breakfast meetings with two British authors, Kate Summerscale and Roger John Ellory. The latter, who we have discovered thanks to the books that the Mairie bought for us (we have 6 of his in the library now), is an extraordinarily pleasant guy and we had a great talk with him. Those of us who have read one or more of his books are really smitten with the quality of the writing and the stories he tells. I told him we were going to set up a Fan Club ! He signed three of his books for Foal including his latest offering, « A Dark and Broken Heart » which came out two days ago (we can’t get more recent than that !) Kate Summerscale signed « Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace », also her latest publication. We took advantage of the fact that authors were signing books during the event to get a signed copy of David Lodge’s latest, « A Man of Parts » and of Marina Lewycka’s « Various pets alive and dead ». She wrote a book that has become quite a cult,  « A Short History of tractors in Ukraine ».

                                                                                                      Kate Summerscale signing her book

For those of you who haven’t yet put the date in your diaries, don’t forget the Annual General Meeting on 15th June at the Martin Luther King venue at 6pm. E-mail your presence to foal@dbmail.com so that we can provide enough food and drink !

 Some members in front of the stand and Roger Jon Ellory signing his latest book

Move to new premises, new books

Unfortunately we have to leave Rue Maguelone and we have been offered temporay premises. We shall be reducing our opening hours to one Saturday morning and one Wednesday afternoon a month. However, to compensate for this, members will be able to borrow three or four books if they can only come once a month. For details of new address, send an email to foal@dbmail.com

As soon as we are installed in the new premises which are centrally located, we shall receive our order for new books and we have also received 9 new books bought by the Mairie by the authors we shall be meeting at the breakfast meetings at the Comédie du Livre, Kate Summerscale on Saturday 2nd June and Roger Jon Ellory on Sunday 3rd June. There is still time to sign up at the Foal email.

Books on order May 2012

FICTION

William Boyd             Waiting for Sunrise
John Grisham             The Litigators
Mary Higgins Clark    The Lost Years
Harriet Lane               Alys, Always
Hilary Mantel             Bring up the bodies (second in the « Wolf Hall »trilogy)
Jo Nesbo                     Phantom
Edward St Aubin       At Last (final volume of « The Patrick Melrose novels » we are also buying a volume which includes the whole set of the previous novels in the series : Never Mind ; Bad news ; Some hope ; Mother’s milk)

NON FICTION

Kathryn Harrison       Enchantments

Don't worry, folks, Foal will keep going strong in spite of this temporary setback!

FOAL at the Comédie du Livre (1st 2nd 3rd June)

I have had several meetings with Régis Penalva at the Mairie as he wished Foal to become involved with the Comédie du Livre (1st 2nd 3rd June), British authors invited this year. I put forward three suggestions, a Quiz, a Round Table and readings by British authors and poets from the BBC archives. Although I made these proposals at least a month ago, time has flown by, Régis became a proud father and took paternity leave and it is now too late to change the schedules of the authors to organise the quiz and the round table. However, he and Laurence Patri from the association “Coeur de Livres” do like my idea of readings. The plan is to set up some computers at the Ville de Montpellier stand so that people can come and listen (they would be informed that the selection was made by Foal so our name and logo will be somewhere at least). I have ordered the CDs and will make a first selection to be confirmed along with suggestions from Régis P and LPatri.

The better news is that they are going to organise for Foal members two breakfast meetings with two authors; Kate Summerscale and Roger Jon Ellory at la Maison des Rélations Internationales (I attach the bios of the two authors). This will be the Saturday and Sunday morning (2nd and 3rd June) so clear your diaries as we will need a good turnout. The Mairie is going to order some of the books of the two authors and donate them to Foal so that we can do some reading before we meet the authors.

They will need to know numbers in order to know how much coffe to make and how many croissants to order(!) so you will need to send me an email at foal@dbmail.com to confirm your presence (lets say by the end of April).

Annual General Meeting 2012 Date changed

Date change for Annual General Meeting 2012

The AGM will take place on 15th June at 6pm at Martin Luther King, 27 Boulevard Louis Blanc

Books bought by Foal since opening of the library

Non Fiction

Margaret Atwood                                          Payback

Peter Baldwin                                                 Narcissism of minor differences

Rosamund Barlett                                         Tolstoy : A Russian life                                 

Michael Caine                                                The elephant to Hollywood  

Stephan Clarke                                              One thousand years of annoying the French

Theodore Dalrymple                                      Spoilt rotten   

Guy Deutscher                                              Through the language glass

Joshua Foer                                                    Moonwalking with Einstein: The art and science    

                                                                       of remembering everything      

 Antonia Fraser                                              Must you go  

Judy Golding                                                The children of lovers            

Christopher Hitchins                                     Hitch-22                                                                                

Ivana Lowell                                                             Why not say what happened: A memoir

Robert Mc Crum                                          Globish: How English became the world’s

                                                                      language

 David McCullough                                      The Greater Journey – Americans in Paris

Wendy Moffat                                              E.M. Forster; A new Life                 

V.S. Naipaul                                                  The Masque of Africa           

 Joyce Carol Oates                                         A widow’s story: a memoir

Andrew O’Hagan                                          Life and opinions of Maf the dog and of his

                                                                      friend Marilyn Monroe                          

Olivier Philippoonat                                      Life of Irene Nemirovsky     

Edmund de Waal                                          The Hare with amber eyes                                        

FICTION

Kate Atkinson                                                           Started early, took my dog

Paul Auster                                                    Invisible

Julian Barnes                                                 Pulse  

Sebastian Barry                                              On Canaan’s Side

William Boyd                                                Ordinary Thunderstorms

Andrea Camilleri                                           The wings of the sphinx

Peter Carey                                                    Parrot and Olivier in America

Justin Cartwright                                           Other  people’s  money

Michael Chambon                                          Amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Michael Connolly                                           The drop

Don Delillo                                                    The falling man

Robert Edric                                                  London Satyr

Ken Follet                                                      Fall of giants

Ariane Franklin                                              A murderous procession

Jonathon Franzen                                          Freedom

Nicci French                                                  Complicit

Esther Freud                                                   Lucky break

Jane Gardam                                                  The man in a wooden hat

Elisabeth George                                           This body of death

Robert Goddard                                            Blood count   

Shilipi Gowda                                                           Secret daughter

Michel Gregario                                             A visible darkness

Philippa Gregory                                           The Red Queen

Philippa Gregory                                            Lady of the rivers

Elly Griffiths                                                 The house at sea’s end          

Paul Harding                                                 Tinkers

Robert Harris                                                  The Fear Index

Elisabeth Haynes                                            Into the darkest corner

Susan Hill                                                       The  betrayal of trust

Michael Holroyd                                           Book of secrets

Howard Jacobson                                          The Finkler Question            

PD James                                                       Death comes to Pemberly     

Jonathan Kellerman                                       Evidence

Steven King                                                   Full dark, no stars      

Donna Leon                                                   Drawing conclusions 

Deborah Levy                                                 Swimming home

Penelope Lively                                             How it all began

Michelle Lutze                                               Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart

Sofi Oksanen                                                 Purge

Tom McCarthy                                              C

Val McDermid                                              Trick of the dark

Jo Nesbo                                                        The Devil’s star (the new Stieg Larsson)     

Jo Nesbo                                                        The Redbreast

J Carol Oates                                                 Little bird of heaven

Edna O’Brian                                                Saints and Sinners                 

Sofi Oksanen                                                 Purge

Michael Ondaaje                                            The Cat’s table

James Patterson                                             Worst case

Jodi Pecoult                                                   Sing you home                      

Kate Pullinger                                                The Mistress of nothing

Tom Rachman                                               The Imperfectionists

Kathy Reichs                                                  Flesh and Bones

Ruth Rendall                                                             Tigerlily’s orchids

Andrew Rosenheim                                       Fear itself                  

Philip Roth                                                    Nemesis

Polly Samson                                                 Perfect lives   

C.J.Sansom                                                    Heartstone

Kathyrn Stockett                                           The Help

Antonio Tabucchi  (new translation)             Pereira Maintains       

Colm Toibin                                                   The empty family      

William Trevor                                               Love and summer

Joanna Trollope                                             Daughters-in-law

John Updike                                                  My father’s tears

David Vann                                                   Caribou Island           

Hal Vaughan                                                 Sleeping with the enemy

NEWSLETTER

March 2012

New books

The new books have arrived and we are expecting a significant donation of about 150 books, good titles and good authors.

100 Best Novels of the XX Century

We have got there, the books are on their new shelf in the library. Many thanks to Philippe Marchand who initiated and followed the project through,  Art Fell and the AWG who have donated generously  and other members of Foal. (list of the 100 in attachment) These books will be on loan soon, once we have done some covering.

 Comédie du Livre  1st, 2^nd and 3rd June

The authors invited this year are British 

Foal has been consulted by the Mairie who asked us to come up with some ideas. We have suggested doing the Quiz again with invited authors on the teams ; a Round Table, again with invited authors,  focussed on the 100 Best Novels which will give wide publicity to the project; and possibly some form of audio event where the public could listen to readings from poets and authors past and present drawn from the BBC archives. The people at the Mairie like our ideas and this partnership will be a huge boost for our association. We will keep you informed about this

Renewal

Renewal raates have been satisfactory, thank you all for your support, if you haven’t renewed yet or when the time comes (renewal end of the same month you joined last year), you can send a cheque addressed to Foal for 25 euros or 40 euros (benefactor) with a stamped, addressed envelope to

 Mrs S Erickson Mas de Calage Chemin de Calage 34130 St Aunès

Or drop by the library any Wednesday afternoon between 3pm-6pm

(29 rue Maguelone 1st floor Institut Méditerranéen de Langues)

Annual General Meeting

We already have a date : 20th June at 6pm  at the Martin Luther King venue (drinks after) so make room in your diaries but we will remind you nearer the time.

Book Sale

We plan to have a BIG BOOK SALE soon as we are getting quite overwhelmed with books and a book sale is a good way for us to raise funds for new books. Don’t forget, we have a permanent Book Sale at the library