Latest Books
Want to know what kinds of books we read? You can find all of our previous selections as well as reviews written by members of our club below. Some they loved, others not so much. We trust you'll make up your own damn mind once you get to turning the pages. Watch out for a few spoilers too!
Books are added each month with our current book being the first in the list! Want to know what we're reading next? You'll have to attend a chapter as we only reveal our next book on the night of our meetings.
Goons - Track your read books
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut (1965)
September 05, 2017
"Those who write on Heaven’s walls should mold their shit in little balls. And those who read these lines of wit Should eat these little balls of shit." Kurt Vonnegut....
The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
August 01, 2017
'Science fiction' is a much maligned term. Hearing those two words coupled summons images of treckies squeezed offensively into orange skivvies and weathered paperbacks in bargain bins featuring wide chested...
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway (1952)
July 04, 2017
In Ernest Hemmingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago’s search for The Big Fish is a means for turning his luck and reputation around. More than just a mere...
The Big Nowhere - James Ellroy (1988)
June 07, 2017
The character tropes of the noir genre are: the anti-hero, the dirty cop, the femme fatale and the snarky deadpan one. ‘The Big Nowhere’ has them all. Set after Ellroy’s...
Home - Toni Morrison (2012)
May 02, 2017
In the 2012 novel Home, Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison again returns to the themes that have dominated her literary career: race and identity. These are certainly...
The Jesus Man - Christos Tsiolkas (1999)
April 05, 2017
How important is a sense of belonging to the health of a man's psyche? And what happens to a man when he cannot "belong" no matter what he does? Rejection...
Good Omens - Pratchett & Gaiman (1990)
February 28, 2017
‘Good Omens’ (or more precisely Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch) is often listed as one of the funniest books of all time – with...
On the Road - Jack Kerouac (1957)
January 31, 2017
Kerouac hammered out this semi-autobiographical novel on a single scroll of paper in just three weeks, describing road trips he took between 1947 and 1950. This rapid approach comes through...
A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James (2015)
December 06, 2016
A brief history of seven killings doesn’t pull any punches. Right from start James throws you in to the deep end, trying to drown you in names, places and pages...
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy (1985)
November 01, 2016
Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West An abattoir - Dying trout – A journey – The kid – Language barriers – Whisky and whores – Liquid prose...
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1932)
October 04, 2016
We are still waiting on a reivew for this one. Are you up for it? Let us know!
The Roving Party - Rohan Wilson (2011)
September 30, 2016
Can the success of a work of fiction about the atrocities perpetrated on the aboriginal people by our early colonial forebears suggest we are coming of age in accepting that...
Trout Fishing in America - Richard Brautigan (1967)
September 06, 2016
The TGBC Review of Trout Fishing in America assumed that the novel Trout Fishing in America would be about trout fishing in America, which is not neccessarily to say it...
Casino Royal - Ian Fleming (1953)
August 02, 2016
Daniel Craig's James Bond was the first Bond I properly got to know. In my young mind James Bond was unreasonably handsome and effortlessly cool, but at his core was...
A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemmingway (1929)
July 05, 2016
Published in 1929 Ernest Hemmingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” is a semi-autobiographical account of the tragic love affair between American ambulance driver Frederick Henry and British nurse Catherine Barkley set...
Death in Brunswick - Boyd Oxlade (1987)
May 31, 2016
Set in the late 1980’s Boyd Oxlade’s novel Death in Brunswick is a claustrophobic, greasy, alcohol fueled trip back in time, to a place we at the Brunswick Chapter know...
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (1960)
May 03, 2016
“Remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie...
Rumble Fish - S. E. Hinton (1975)
April 05, 2016
A whiskey fueled conversation between James and Alex about Rumble Fish by S. E. Hinton. A: So, James, we read Rumble Fish. What did you think about the protagonist?J: I...
Wake in Fright – Kenneth Cook (1961)
March 01, 2016
A booze-soaked Aussie horror yarn of misadventure and self-destruction. Wake In Fright tells the story of John Grant; bound by financial handcuffs to the State Education Department, he serves as...
Our Man in Havana - Graham Greene (1958)
February 02, 2016
Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana adds to the masterly storyteller’s vivid depictions of nomadic and faithless urbanites. This time, we are introduced to Wormold, a dreamy vacuum cleaner salesman...
American Gods - Neil Gaiman (2001)
December 01, 2015
This book is not just about gods. This is also a story about what we choose to do with our gods. Gaiman once again crafts a beautiful tale rich in...
The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler (1939)
November 01, 2015
First a confession or two: I wasn’t at the Book Club when we discussed Raymond Chandler’s first Philip Marlowe novel. I hadn’t joined the club yet. I read the book...
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey (1962)
October 01, 2015
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is genius and wonderfully entertaining. Ken Kesey crafts an extraordinarily compassionate story about the healing, unifying and empowering strength and potential of man and...
The Sisters Brothers - Patrick DeWitt (2011)
August 31, 2015
I read this book some time ago And was glad to read again The first person views Of gruesome tales From a tough guy Who needs a friend. The Journey...
The Sound of Things Falling - Juan Gabriel Vásquez (2011)
August 04, 2015
Juan Gabriel Vásquez’ ‘The Sound of Things Falling’ is a masterful work that not only draws the reader through a gripping story of love, loss, drugs and crime spanning two...
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway (1962)
June 30, 2015
Hemingway was already a noted author but not yet the widely known, larger than life figure he went on to be. Fiesta took him to the next level of acclaim....
I Am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes (2013)
June 03, 2015
I am Pilgrim pieces together a complex series of interwoven crimes and sinister plots, set to the modern theme of extremist Islamic terrorism. Pilgrim is the man charged with tracking...
Rabbit, Run - John Updike (1960)
May 06, 2015
Poor Rabbit, his life was meant to be so good. Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrum was young, popular and the high school basketball star. But now, only a few years later, nothing...
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess (1962)
March 31, 2015
Our humble narrator in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is Alex, Alex is 15, living with his not so strict, caring and hard working parents, he goes to school and has a...
Brighton Rock - Graham Greene (1938)
March 04, 2015
It is quite apt that in the month of promising to undertake this review, Graham Greene himself a member of the secret intelligence service whom worked under the infamous Kim...
Post Office - Charles Bukowski (1971)
February 04, 2015
Henry Chinaski is a tough guy. He’s the invention of Charles Bukowski, a poet and writer who used to work with the post office. And this is where Chinaski works...
The Martian - Andy Weir (2011)
December 03, 2014
A boys own adventure set on the big red planet, The Martian sets up our ‘hero’ biologist/astronaut Mark Watney as a McGuyver type character who can solve almost any problem...
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway (1940) Take 2
August 06, 2014
I am a big fan of Hemingway’s writing - the man not so much. His ability to evoke a particular time and place is what has drawn me to his...