New Philadelphia book club tackles “Wolf Hall”

I’m delighted to announce the first meeting of the new Philadelphia book club, which will be tackling literary fiction and general-interest nonfiction.

Our first book will be Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, a novel about Tudor England that won the Booker Prize. The publisher’s description:

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

The paperback runs 600 pages, which is a lot for people who have lives, as I assume you do. We’re asking that people read at least the first half for our first meeting on Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 2 pm. We’ll meet in Center City Philadelphia at Le Pain Quotidien, 1425 Walnut Street. (The second meeting will be about a month later, specific time and place TBD.)

If you’re interested, let me know either by leaving a comment below or by emailing me directly (jmweightman at gmail dot com).

Hope to see you next month!