Jan suggested then that we read William Trevor’s, ‘The Story of Lucy Gault’ and because we’ve been wanting to read this author too, we’ll be discussing this novel in October’s meeting.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2010-10-06
End Time: 21:00

We really enjoy running the book groups but as much as we enjoy the challenge of reading and then discussing books we’re not sure we’ll like, the book chosen for September is guaranteed to be a ‘benchmark’ read. A customer who’d bought China Mieville’s ‘The City and The City’ from us to read on the plane home called us from Florida the next day to say how much he’d enjoyed thisbook – praise doesn’t come from much further than that.

We’ll be meeting at the usual time at our new address but as we’re currently re-jigging our book groups, you’ll have to get in touch early if you want to join in.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2010-09-08
End Time: 21:00

We will be discussed the much-loved contemporary French classic novel, ‘The Elegance of the Hedgehog’ which has proven to be a great hit with book groups everywhere.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2010-09-16
End Time: 21:00

Tickets are £5 each, available only from The Edinburgh Bookshop. Each ticket gives £2.50 off the cover price of Robin’s book on the night.

To obtain your ticket, call into the bookshop and see us or purchase over the telephone on 0131 229 9207.
Start Time: 21.15
Date: 2010-08-12

A tale of two extraordinary heroines – Christina Goering, a wealthy spinster in pursuit of sainthood, and Frieda Copperfield, who finds a home from home in a Panama brothel.

The novel was first published in 1943 and draws on the experiences of the Bowles’s honeymoon (Jane’s husband Paul was the novelist perhaps best known for his novel, The Sheltering Sky).

If you’d like to join in, please get in touch (via the Contact Us).
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2010-08-04
End Time: 21:00

Though Fiennes is perhaps best-known for his previous work, The Snow Geese, The Music Room won The 2009 Costa Biography Award. Customers who we know to have read the biography describe it as one of the books of the decades.

If you want to join this book group, get in touch through the ‘Contact Us’ part of the website.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2010-07-29
End Time: 21:00

Perhaps because two of the members of this book group work in areas where encounters with the general public run to the crazy end of the ‘Eh?’ spectrum, those who came along to June’s meeting have chosen Augusten Burroughs’ first volume of memoir. Does it out-crazy Sedaris? Will it be nuttier than a squirrel in a nutsack?

Whether you’re the sort of reader who laughs out loud, snorts, snickers or harrumphs, there’s room to spare in this group. Just get in touch via the ‘Contact Us’ bit of the website.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2010-07-22
End Time: 21:00

In July, Book Group I will be looking at the novel suggested by Tim – James Runcie’s contemporary classic, ‘East Fortune’.

If you want to join in with this – or another book group – just let us know. Joining is free but entitles you to 20% discount on any of the books chosen by the book groups.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2010-07-07
End Time: 21:00

Proof-copies are special editions of books that are printed in small print-runs – and therefore very collectable – in advance of a book’s official publication. They are sent to a few select folk in The Book World: journalists and reviewers, booksellers and trade buyers, TV producers and so on. They are not for sale.

Chuck Palahniuk is in the sort of fighting-fit form that made such a success of Fight Club and Haunted. ‘Tell-All’ is a Sunset Boulevard-infected homage to Hollywood’s Golden Age which inevitably butchers a few sacred cows in a blistering haze of name-dropping, melodramatic grand gestures and psychic torment in a merciless send-up of every beloved, name-checked black-and-white movie.

Karin Fossum is very familiar to every reader who loves a good Scandinavian crime. ‘Bad Intentions’ continues the adventures of Inspector Sejer.

Jo Nesbo is a thriller writer attracting acclaim from authors as diverse as Michael Connolly and Mark Billingham. In ‘The Snowman’, Inspector Harry Hole is in pursuit of a serial killer with a very chilling calling-card.

Shannon Burke’s debut ‘Black Flies’ caught my eye when it first came out: a gripping novel that follows rookie Paramedic Ollie Cross through Harlem in the mid-1990s and asks what happens when the people sent to save you can’t even save themselves?

More locally, Alan Warner returns to the alcohol-fuelled chaos of The Sopranos in his latest novel, ‘The Stars in the Bright Sky’ – this is unforgettable holiday reading, a story of debauchery, Guinness, one-night stands, Bacardi Breezers, hormones and female friendship.

Finally, acclaimed by James Ellroy as the best first novel he’s read in years, Stuart Neville’s debut thriller novel, ‘The Twelve’, is launched on 24th June but you can be among the first to enjoy this novel if you enter our competition.

To enter, simply leave a comment (the link is above the image; all comments are moderated) telling us which thriller was your favourite and in 20 words or less what you liked about this book. Alternatively, you can drop into the bookshop and fill out a wee competition form.

We’ll pick 5 names at random on Friday 4th June – including 2 Tweeters/ online entrants – and send the winners an email. Winners will receive proof-copies of the books described above, some of Random House’s best authors, to read over the holidays and all in the very swanky, eco-friendly bag (also pictured above).