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

NEW YEAR GREETINGS

A very Happy New Year to you all

The library has been open for a full year now and thanks to your support we are keeping our head above water. We have been able to order over 100 new books and generous donations enable us to offer a good range of interesting literature. Readership is not very high and we would like you to make suggestions for the opening hours which would suit you best (see below )

Our dynamic board has allowed us to organise some interesting events:

-         The Christopher Crimes talk was well attended and enjoyed by everyone

-         The literary quiz

The evening was a real success thanks to the brilliant organisation of Katharine Claringbull and Philippe Marchand who had put an immense amount of work into the smooth running of the Quiz itself and the drinks and eats party before and after the event. We also thank the American Women’s Group, our partners in this venture. The Book Chat team won by a short margin against their worthy opponents from the AWG. Quiz Master Jonathan James played his role to perfection. Many people among the large turnout hope this might become an annual event.

We hope to have good news for you soon, the 100 Best Novels of the XX century project is coming along nicely and we think this will deserve

A GRAND OPENING

later on, in the Spring, you will be kept informed and with any luck, there will be A SURPRISE

We hope you will continue to give us your support in 2012 so that we can keep our library alive and thriving

 

Thanks to volunteers from the board and members, the library is currently open on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm – 6pm.  Would different opening hours suit you better?

Membership renewal   You will be informed by email when your renewal falls due. You can then either send a cheque addressed to Foal with a stamped, self -addressed envelope  to:

Sunshine Erickson  Mas de Calage  Chemin de Calage 34130 St Aunès

or  renew at the library

New Books

 

Books ordered January 2012

Fiction

PD James                      Death comes to Pemberly

Hal Vaughan                 Sleeping with the enemy

Penelope Lively             How it all began

Esther Freud                 Lucky break

Justin Cartwright          Other  people’s  money

Susan Hill                     The  betrayal of trust

Michael Ondaaje           The Cat’s table

Deborah Levy               Swimming home

Philippa Gregory          Lady of the rivers

Kathy Reichs                Flesh and Bones

Michael Connolly                   The drop

Elisabeth Haynes          Into the darkest corner

Sebastian Barry            On Canaan’s Side

Robert Harris                The Fear Index

Non Fiction

David McCullough        The Greater Journey – Americans in Paris

We have set up a new association called FOAL (Friends of the Anglophone Library). All our efforts to keep the original collection intact and accessible have come to nothing so we have set up a small lending library for members of Foal at 29 rue Maguelone , Montpellier on the 1st floor at the IMLS (opposite the station). We are starting small but the idea is for members to bring along recent books they not longer want to keep (not older than two years) and donate them to the library, or, alternatively, lend books which they could take back after a few months. (in which case, you need to affix a sticker with your name on it). Some of the books you bring will go on the shelves to be lent out, others will go into a permanent Book Sale, the proceeds of which will allow us to buy new books. We hope all this will have a snowball effect. We have what we call the "Front Shelf" where we put the recent purchases, and a good selection of less recent fiction and thrillers as well as biographies and "lifestyle" books. If you bring along really recent literature, we can pay a small sum for books (1 or 2 euros) to add to the collection. We have already bought a selection of nearly 80 recent books. (see list below) The library is open every Wednesday from 15-18, and members can take out two books at a time for two weeks (there will be a small fine for lateness, 50 cents per book per week). A member of the Board is always there to help. We also organise  cultural events about which you will be kept informed in a Newsletter. Book Chat sessions provide an opportunity for members to meet as a group of readers, with each person talking briefly about a book she or he has read. Books are passed round so one can note titles and authors. Eight to ten books will normally be ‘highlighted’ at each session. If you would like to participate in a Book Chat meeting, send your name, telephone number and “best time to contact” to  mishex@wanadoo.fr We are open to all suggestions for new activities. Many of you have voiced support over the past few months; by joining Foal you will be showing this support and, we hope, getting something in return. Membership runs for a year from date of joining THE MORE MEMBERS.....THE MORE BOOKS..... JOIN NOW!