Review of our March 09 Northern Readers meeting

We met as planned at Apotheca in the Northern Quarter of Manchester. The Northern Quarter seems to have expanded massively over recent years, as I remember it as a collection of shops and bars around Oldham St, Tib St and the old market. That's the effect of city living for you.

Apotheca seemed quite a friendly place, with a good selection of trendy beers on draught served in tall glasses, at not TOO ridiculous prices. As I am off booze at the moment, I was disappointed that they did not have any Fentiman's Ginger Beer - though I did have one of that brand's "Curiosity Cola" drinks. Much nicer than Coca Cola, but I could still feel the enamel being stripped off my teeth with every sip.

We ate at the adjoining Dough restaurant, which has been open since October 2008. I have to start with a criticism: the service was incredibly slow, especially given the fact that it was only about two thirds full, and they had what seemed like dozens of staff roaming around. However, when the food did eventually turn up, the pizzas were absolutely delicious - my Florentina was the best pizza I have eaten in years. Highly recommended - and the waiter even listened to my gentle griping about the service, and seemed eager to improve.

The book itself (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) was very well received, and provoked lots of intelligent-sounding discussions. I chose it after searching around online for weeks - I was originally going to get a PopScience book, but stumbled upon the Michael Chabon book, and placed my order for 5 copies.

I won't give it an in-depth review here. In fact, at meetings my usual level of critique is not much more in-depth than "I liked it" or "I did not like it". I leave it to the others to raise the level of debate. However, the book manages to sustain its pace througout its 600+ pages, and it vividly brings to life the wartime and post-war era in New York, when it seemed anybody with artistic skills and a little imagination could make a stab at a (short-lived) career during the boom of comic books.

One of the joys of the book group meets are "discovering" authors to cherish - though the downside is the impact it has upon one's bank balance. Michael Chabon looks set to join Haruki Murakami, Magnus Mills and Scarlett Thomas on my "must buy" list.