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BASS BOOK CLUB

EVENING BOOK CLUB
This is a monthly activity, that meets in different locations and on different nights. Book Club members suggest books and then we agree on what to read. As we don't have a regular venue, we try to meet in areas of town that are the most central to those planning to participate. We also have a Kakao chat group. See below for list of past books.  

Book Resources

Seoul Metropolitan Library - The Seoul Library has 18,000 online books that can be borrowed directly from your smartphones or PCs, including 15,000 domestic and international e-books and 3,000 audio books.  You need an ARC and a Korean mobile phone (not pre-paid) in your name to get a library card.  You can get a library card at any library near you. At the Seoul Metropolitan Library, you can get your library card on the 2nd floor.  English language children's books can also be found there.  Adult English and other foreign language books are on the 4th floor.    https://lib.seoul.go.kr/rwww/html/en/use.jsp

Kyobo Bookstore in Gwanghwamun.  The foreign book corner offers numerous books written in various languages. If you can't find a specific book, you can place an order for delivery at the counter.  This is the flagship store. 

http://www.kyobobook.co.kr/index.laf?OV_REFFER=https://www.google.com/

Itaewon Foreign Bookstore - second-hand bookstore in Noksapyeong-daero area with a large selection of every kind of book from fiction, non-fiction, crime, inspirational, cookbooks, travel books and a large selection of children's books.  You can trade in your books for a discount on books you buy. 

https://english.visitseoul.net/attractions/Foreign-Bookstore_/29114

 

Sehwa's English Bookstore - opened at the end of 2020.  

New Books and Used Books, Fiction/Non-fiction Books, Children's Picture Books, etc.

Used books are 3,000 won each. (You can trade in your books for 1,000 store credits per book. You can use the credits when you buy used books.)  Open from 11:00 AM to 9:30 PM (Tuesday: closed), Address: 1257-2, Gireum-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul (Exit 7, Gireum Station, Subway Line 4), (서울특별시 성북구 길음동 1257-2), Cell: 010-8452-9988, Instagram/Facebook: sehwa.eb, Email: sehwa.eb@gmail.com

 

 

Seoul Book Bogo - this is a new cultural space created by Seoul Metropolitan Government to house old, secondhand books they gathered from old bookstores around the city. Featuring an old secondhand bookstore, library, and cultural programs.  There are some English books mixed in with the Korean books.  More children books than adult books.  Check sections 13 and 17 for children's books.  Subway Line 2, Jamsillaru Station, Exit 1.  Turn left at the exit and walk straight for about a minute. Photos below are from Seoul Book Bogo

https://english.visitseoul.net/jamsilarea/Seoul-Book-Bogo_/30865

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BOOK CLUb READING LIST

Past Books
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt  
Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown
 
At Dusk by Hwang Sok-Young 
 
Still Life, Sarah Winman - November
 
Mrs. England, Stacey Halls - October
 
One Italian Summer, Rebecca Serle
 
The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa
 
A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles 
 
The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah
 
Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason
 
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Chongmi Zauner 
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
 
The Grown Ups by Marian Keyes 
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet 

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

 

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

Our House by Louise Candlish 

 

Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith 

Without You There is No Us by Suki Kim 

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

The Abstainer by Ian McGuire

In Between Days by Andrew Porter

If I Had Your Face by Francis Cha

Kim Jiyoung Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon

Homeland by Fernando Aramburu

Trust Exercises by Susan Choi

The Yellow House by Sarah Broom

The Secret Patient by Vaughan W. Smith

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

Normal People by Sally Rooney

The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 

CRIME BOOK CLUB
READING LIST

Past Books

A Slow Fire Burning - Paula Hawkins

Both of You, Adele Parks

The Good Girl, Mary Kubica

The Flight by Julie Clark

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

The Dinner Guest by B P Walter

Conviction by Denise Mina

The Last House Guest, Megan Miranda

The Dry by Jane Harper

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan


The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid

The Woods by Harlan Coben

The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish 

Need to Know by Karen Cleveland


The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekanen 
What Members are Reading and Recommending
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stewart
Shuggie Bain is Stuart’s first novel and was the winner of the 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction. Based on his own childhood, it is a searing account of a young boy growing up in Thatcher’s Glasgow of the 1980s, with a mother who is battling addiction. Stuart, 44, dedicated the book to his own mother, who died of alcoholism when he was 16.  "Harrowing difficult read but brilliant."  BASS member.
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
"Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals – in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organisation, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country – Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong." (quotes from betterreading.com.au)  "Worth a read but not if you're looking for a lighthearted tale." BASS member.  
Paris in the Present Tense by Mark Helprin - Available at Seoul Metropolitan Library
"A masterpiece filled with compassion and humanity. Perfect for the pure pleasure of reading.  A modern-day story of love, music, and death, with echoes of the Nazi retreat in World War II France." (quotes from www.kirkusreviews.com)
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