Next Meeting: December 12, 2022

🌲 Winter Holiday Potluck at Kim's 🌲

The Uncommon Reader

by Alan Bennett

Staff Pick (from Powell's Books)

The queen of England stumbles across a mobile library one day while walking her dogs and feels obligated to check out a book. She reads it and realizes she wants to read another, and another. Soon, the queen doesn't want to go to dinners or openings or luncheons; she just wants to read. A completely delightful tale, this tiny story speaks to all of us who are in love with reading. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

From one of England's most celebrated writers, the author of the award-winning The History Boys, a funny and superbly observed novella about the Queen of England and the subversive power of reading

When her corgis stray into a mobile library parked near Buckingham Palace, the Queen feels duty-bound to borrow a book. Discovering the joy of reading widely (from J. R. Ackerley, Jean Genet, and Ivy Compton-Burnett to the classics) and intelligently, she finds that her view of the world changes dramatically. Abetted in her newfound obsession by Norman, a young man from the royal kitchens, the Queen comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with the routines of her role as monarch. Her new passion for reading initially alarms the palace staff and soon leads to surprising and very funny consequences for the country at large.

Long-listed for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and An Economist Book of the Year, The Uncommon Reader is a novella that celebrates the pleasure of reading. What if Queen Elizabeth at the age of 70-something were suddenly to become a voracious reader? What if she were to become an avid fan of Proust and Balzac, Turgenev and Trollope and Hardy? And what if reading were to lead her, in turn, to becoming a writer? Mr. Bennett's musings on these matters have produced a delightful little book that unfolds into a witty meditation on the subversive pleasures of reading

Review

"Bennett has fun with the proper behavior and protocol at the palace....There are lessons packed in here, but Bennett doesn't wallop readers with them. It's a fun little book." Publishers Weekly