Books

This week in books: Jonathan Franzen to Drinking and Thinking

Jon Davis | Friday 7 January, 2011 09:29

Please welcome new literary correspondent Jon Davis to Snipe. Davis will be covering all things bookish in London, beginning with his weekly picks for readings.

One Year On: A Night for Haiti – Friday 7th Jan
One year on since the disastrous earthquake in Haiti this fundraising event looks to raise much need cash. There’s live music and spoken words from those poetry slammer’s Jacob Sam La Rose and Ben Mellor, as well as home homemade food.
Union Chapel, Compton Avenue, N1 2XD. Tickets £10

ELS Book Club – Sunday 9th Jan
Join this monthly book group to discuss Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom. Yes, he’s the one who recently had his glasses kidnapped, but he also knows how to write a book or two. This, his most recently novel has been heralded by some as the novel of the decade, of course you’ll have had to its 570 pages first.
Bar Music Hall, 134 Curtain Road, EC2A 3AR. Free

Kid, I Wrote Back – Monday 10th Jan
Hear from word slingers new and old at one of London’s freshest open mic poetry nights. Whether you like your poetry with a slice of humour, a fist of irreverence or a banana of surrealism there’s plenty here for everyone. But that’s if you can pull yourself of Bar Kick’s table footy table.
Bar Kick, 127 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JE. Tickets £3

Drinking and Thinking: Interrobang – Tuesday 11th Jan
Drinking and thinking go hand in hand at Old streets’ The Book Club and Interrobang celebrates the power and diversity of the humble word. Marcel Lucont supplies the comedy, Josienne Clarke the music and the Riding the Valkyrie the operatic sideshow, whatever that may be.
The Book Club, 100 Leonard Street, EC2A 4RH. Tickets £3

Book Slam – Thursday 13th Jan
One of the big guns on the spoken word scene plays host to the Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson, the web geek, poetry spouter Jacob Sam La Rose and the award festooned Jackie Kay.
The Grand, 21-25 St John’s Hill, Clapham Junction, SW11 1TT. Tickets £8

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