Meetup Recaps

The 43rd meetup of BBB happened on the 25th of October 2021. This was the first physical meetup since the pandemic started, so it was a big deal!

The 42nd meetup of BBB happened on the 26th of September 2021. This was the first physical meetup since the pandemic started, so it was a big deal!

The 41st meetup of BBB happened on the 27th of June 2021. The entire list of books discussed can be found here - https://www.notion.so/Books-discussed-in-Jun-2021-86b78fae17a4435e86e8044880c20bd0

The 40th meetup of BBB happened on the 30th of May 2021. The entire list of books discussed can be found here - https://www.notion.so/Meetup-40-BBB-May-2021-46839dd59b0e4788b7707f0e7f03e304 Books discussed: A People’s Constitution by Rohit De Words of Radiance Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolfe Story of the Office Invincible Ubik Short Stories from New Voices No Full Stops in India Alone in Berlin Girl A by Abigail Dean Forgetting and other Short Stories by Debashish Makhija A wizard of earthsea The Sirens of Titan Wyrd Sisters (Discworld #6) Shadow and Bone Cradle 1-9 Arsene Lupin Men at Arms (Discworld #15) Nightwatch (Discworld #29) Lords and ladies (Discworld #14) Soul Music (Discworld #16) Power of Geography An astronaut’s guide to life on Earth Kitchen Confidential The Traveling Cat Chronicles Artistotle and Dante discover the secrets of universe A short note on grief Essentialism Project Hail Mary When All is Said Mortality By Christopher Hitchens Can’t hurt me by David Goggins Maybe you should talk to someone Hamlet Love & Gelato Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine Heartstopper (Graphic Novel) Bone (Graphic Novel) Nimona Normal People Well of Ascension Man’s Search for Meaning Song of Achilles People we meet on Vacation Peter Pan The Worm at the Core The Future Is Faster Than You Think Malazan Freedom at Midnight Hooked Deep Work Indistractible A Short History of Nearly Everything

The 37th meetup of BBB and the 1st meetup of the year happened on the 31st of Jan. We had a couple of newbies and also Deepti Srivatsa, who happens to be the author of a Crime novel called “The Hauntup”! The discussion also meandered into talking, among other things, about authors who build interlinked worlds in their noves a la Brandon Sanderson and also whether or not movies that end up having multiple sequels are cashgrabs or actually have significance. ...

The 34th meetup of BBB happened on the 25th of October and we had a fun and spirited discussion as always! Some of these books Have been discussed before but that didn’t prevent us from exploring their existence from perspectives we hadn’t before - for e.g. translated works - Is there necessarily a possibility of the source and the translator having different levels of importance? Or do they play an equal role? There was also quite a lot of chatter about Pratchett :D But no meetup is complete without one, is it!? ...

Our 31st meetup in all and our third meetup online was a small informal meetup that quickly escalated into a discussion of books! A lot of history, and non-fiction this time, with a dash of fiction. And that, is one good recipe for an awesome discussion. One of the books on this list opens up closer home,an amazing work of fiction penned by a BBB member and a friend of ours - John Raju :) ; the book in question being The Purgatory of Half Forgotten Riddles. ...

The first Meetup of 2020 and our 26th meetup in all, this one had a nice mixture of newbies and regulars. Amid cheesy chilli pops and coffee, much was discussed about the law, Indian authors and much fiction and non-fiction. We even had some people flit in and sit in randomly because they saw us discussing books. Another interesting observation was the reference to books discussed in earlier meetups. Bhaunri and Daura for example, were books that were reads from people in a previous meetup and someone else had started reading it this time :) This sort of recommendation-culture is something we’ve strived to build and it’s happening!! Another recurring book has been The Nine-Chambered Heart. It’s been making the rounds for the last few meetups, and I daresay I will be reading it soon as well! ...

This was a special meetup for a couple of reasons. This was the first meetup that was conducted at a house rather than at a cafe or a park. And when one of our members, Gayathri, generously offered up her art studio as a venue for our meetup I jumped at the offer. I didn’t know how it would go because we’d always relied on snacks and beverages from a cafe. But the place looked beautiful so I didn’t think twice and we had a lovely time! It was our 25th meetup (quarter century babyyy!) Anyway, there were 13 people at our 25th meetup on the 22nd of December and this time and I thank you all for coming despite the holiday season! ...

There were 17 people at our 24th meetup on the 24th of November and this time, we were joined by the awesome Gautam Shenoy, but in true celebrity fashion, he escaped the glare of the paparazzi and therefore does not feature in the picture below :( Jokes apart though, I learnt about a lot of new books in this meetup and I hope you all did too. The following were the books discussed (and yes, this is a Lot of books. Guess this is what happens when you skip a month’s meetup :D) - ...