Yep, somehow six months have passed – and the 1977 Club kicks off today.
To join in, just read and review a book published in 1977 – any sort of book, any language – and put a link to your review in the comments here. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to link to GoodReads or wherever, or put a whole review in the comments if you want to!
Because of A Century of Books, I’ll probably only manage one or two 1977 books myself – but I’m really looking forward to what you all come up with. Between us, we can get a really good overview of the year.
Dancing Girls by Margaret Atwood
Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
Madame Bibi lophile Recommends
Starring Sally J Freeman as Herself by Judy Blume
Dreaming of Babylon by Richard Brautigan
A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo
The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter
Adventures in reading, writing and working from home
In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
A Flat Man by Ivor Cutler
The Golden Child by Penelope Fitzgerald
Madame Bibi lophile Recommends
The Women’s Room by Marilyn French
Apple of My Eye by Helene Hanff
Midnight Express by Billy Hayes
Fluke by James Herbert
Little Mountain by Elias Khoury
The Shining by Stephen King
The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carre
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
The Harafish by Naguib Mahfouz
The Danger Tree by Olivia Manning
Coming into the Country by John McPhee
Sextet: Six Essays by Henry Miller
The End of a Family Story by Peter Nadas
I Want To Be A Christian by J.I. Packer
A Morbid Taste for Old Bones by Ellis Peters
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath
Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
Ramblings of a Red Headed Snippet
Staying On by Paul Scott
The Box Garden by Carol Shields
Die Widmung by Botho Strauss
Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones
Adventures in reading, writing and working from home
A round up of a number of books!
Hurrah! Here we go! 😁😁😁
I’m also looking forward to see what everyone reads.
I’m reading my second 1977 book – The Dancing Girls by Margaret Atwood. I’m also sticking to two because of A Century of books.
My review if Olivia Manning’s The Danger Tree is now up.
https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2018/04/16/the-danger-tree-olivia-manning-1977/
Sadly I won’t be able to join this time. But I hope it would be loads of fun for everyone participating.
Here’s one from me:
http://harrietdevine.typepad.com/harriet_devines_blog/2018/04/staying-on-by-paul-scott-the-1977-club.html
I’ve just started Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym. If I have time I’ll also post about The Thorn Birds which I reread a couple of weeks ago.
Thanks for organising the 1977 Club. I enjoyed searching for suitable books. Here’s my contribution, one I read earlier.
https://www.bookword.co.uk/the-1977-club-quartet-in-autumn-by-barbara-pym/
Caroline
So, looking through my Century of Books itinerary, I see the 1977 book is Marguerite Yourcenar’s ‘How Many Years’, so have placed it on bedside table….
Catching up with Poldark before the latest series starts next month.
The Angry Tide by Winston Graham fits the bill being published in 1977 so I will be joining you with that.
How long is the reading challenge on?
16-22 April :)
Hi, Simon,
Here is a link to my review of The Honourable Schoolboy. This review also contains links to three other books published in 1977: A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor, The Angry Tide by Winston Graham, and The Beggar Maid by Alice Munro:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2018/04/16/day-1203-the-1977-club-the-honourable-schoolboy/
I was able to dig up my copy of Judy Blume’s Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself which I enjoyed re-reading: http://ruthiellareads.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-1977-club-starring-sally-j-freedman.html
I think I need to join you! I am contemplating which book to read this week, and also I have linked to a few favorite 1977 novels here: http://danitorres.typepad.com/workinprogress/2018/04/joining-the-1977-club.html
As I mentioned to Kaggsy my project of only reading randomly selected TBR books for the rest of the year (I am so tired of so many unread books in my home) turned up the first book published in 1977! I will be participating after all.
Hi Simon, My link to the 1977 is up. https://travellinpenguin.com/2018/04/17/the-1977-book-event/
Looking forward to seeing what people read.
Here’s my review of The Women’s Room by Marilyn French: https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/day-1204-the-1977-club-the-womens-room/
I’m reading the humorous Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge.
I loved Injury Time when I read it in 2015 (rated it 4/5 stars for the audiobook version). Thanks for the reminder to add it to my re-read list.
Great book! I read it for one of Annabel’s Beryl Bainbridge weeks.
Although I don’t write book reviews, I did enjoy and recommend Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz. In my online memo to myself I wrote, “Her writing is mesmerizing. I had no idea what I was getting into, but read it all in one evening.”
Here’s my review of A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters:
https://shereadsnovels.com/2018/04/18/a-morbid-taste-for-bones-by-ellis-peters-1977club/
I don’t know whether this qualifies, but I wrote about Olivia Manning’s The Danger Tree (1977) last year as part of my re-reading project: https://oldgeezerrereadingblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/april-2017-re-reading-olivia-manning/
I will try to read something else from 1977 if possible before April is out, though …
my first post for 1977 is https://winstonsdad.wordpress.com/2018/04/18/the-end-of-a-family-story-by-peter-nadas/ Peter Nadas debut novel from 1977
I’ve just reviewed Diana Wynne Jones’ “Charmed Life” here https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/book-reviews-georgette-heyer-april-lady-and-diana-wynne-jones-charmed-life-a-1977club-fail-and-a-confession/ – I wonder if I’m the only person to read that one!
Here’s a link to my review of Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym: https://karensbooksandchocolate.blogspot.de/2018/04/the-1977-club-quartet-in-autumn-by.html
Thanks again to you and Kaggsy for organizing!
I’m a third of the way through The Shining – but might not get to review it until next week.
Don’t look at the end!
Just finished “The Shining ” by Stephen King. It’s my first club read. And, what a story! I peaked at the end, and wish I hadn’t, because it kept me on the edge of my seat and it would have been more fun not to know what happened. But, I certainly enjoyed it! What a thriller ! Could hardly put it down. Thanks, Simon and Karen. Can’t wait until the next club read…..1980s?
Hi Simon, really enjoying this particular round-up. I’ve just posted my own contribution here – https://literasaurus.wordpress.com/2018/04/21/bruce-chatwin-in-patagonia-1977club/
A write-up of Bruce Chatwin’s ‘In Patagonia’… And my first Chatwin.
I just finished Staying On by Paul Scott and here’s my review: https://whatcathyreadnext.wordpress.com/2018/04/21/book-review-staying-on-by-paul-scott-1977club/
Here’s my review of Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym:
https://shereadsnovels.com/2018/04/21/quartet-in-autumn-by-barbara-pym-1977club/
Simon, I also had links to three formerly reviewed books on my first review:
The Angry Tide by Winston Graham
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2016/11/08/day-991-the-angry-tide/
A Time of Gifts by Patrick Fermor
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/day-335-a-time-of-gifts-on-foot-to-constantinople-from-the-hook-of-holland-to-the-middle-danube/
The Beggar Maid by Alice Munro
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/day-1047-the-beggar-maid/
Finished. Here’s my review The Shinying.
Here is my review of Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones:
https://perfectretort.blogspot.com/2018/04/charmed-life-book-review-1977club.html
Time got away from me – I had been planning to read The Ginger Tree but could not get a copy quickly.
I’ve just posted my third contribution to the 1977 Club: Sextet by Henry Miller.
I don’t think you have my second one on your list: Fluke by James Herbert.
Just posted my review for ‘Quartet in Autumn’. See link below:
http://ramblingsofaredheadedsnippet.com/2018/04/22/quartet-in-autumn-by-barbara-pym-1977club/
Darn. Darn. Darn. April has been a beastly month and I completely missed this! It just occurred to me today to check and see if this spring’s Club was still going on. Now I have to hope that Octoberish will be much better and I can join in then.
Phew, just finished Marguerite Yourcenar’s “How Many Years”
“Recreating vanished lives and times…empathetic reanimation”
By sally tarbox on 26 April 2018
Format: Paperback
This is a very difficult book to classify. Primarily a biography of her paternal ancestry – even touching on autobiography towards the end- the author nonetheless moves into the realms of imagination and literature as she conjures up Northern France and Flanders back in the mists of time. Depicting a pre-human world; using her historical knowledge to describe the early peoples; and then drawing on medieval documents and old paintings to portray long-dead forebears, whom she fleshes out into believable individuals.
But the major part of the narrative concerns those whom she knew; her great-grandparents and their family. Here too, Marguerite Yourcenar draws somewhat on imagination and conjecture as she attempts to understand the motivations and mindsets of the players in her account, to give detail and interest to the great events of their lives. Thus she muses over photographs of her father, from his childhood , his middle age and latter years, concluding:
“The eyes of the child and those of the old man gaze at us with the serene candor of someone who has not yet joined the masked ball or who has already left it. And the entire interval between them seems a vain confusion, an agitation with no point, a useless chaos that makes one wonder why it was necessary to pass through it at all.”
A thoughtful, intelligent but utterly readable and enjoyable work. Companion to Yourcenar’s “Dear Departed”, which trats of her mother’s ancestry in similar fashion
I am hopelessly late with this, but I did start reading it for the 1977 Club and here it is, my review of Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/05/13/petals-of-blood-by-ngugi-wa-thiongo-bookreview/