Well-Read Dragons Book Group

Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, 11:45 am - 1:00 pm on Zoom

Join us to discuss the book and chat with other members. You do not have to have read (or finished) the book to participate. Contact Ilene Alexander at ilene.dawn@gmail.com for more information.

Fresh Apples, by Rachel Trezise.Parthian Books, 2006.  $6 - $15 / used and new

Welsh writer Rachel Trezise won the inaugural Dylan Thomas Prize in 2006 with Fresh Apples, a gritty collection of ‘observational and darkly comic’ short stories that showcased her cool and confident style. 

The Fantastic Fiction website says: “For decades now we have been searching for the authentic literary voice of post-industrial South Wales, where fly-by-night factories have replaced the mines and their steelworks, television and pop music have swept away chapel religion and the chosen drugs of recreation are heroin and cocaine. Now the publication of a collection of short stories confirms the arrival of a major new literary talent which has grown organically out of the unpromising Valleys.

The Book Group will discuss the following books in the 2026-2027 fiscal year:

5 December 2026: Whale Fall, by Elizabeth O'Connor. Vintage, 2024.  $5 - $16 / used and new

A stunning debut from an award-winning writer, about loss, isolation, folklore, and the joy and dissonance of finding oneself by exploring life outside one’s community. In 1938, a dead whale washes up on the shores of remote Welsh island. For Manod, who has spent her whole life on the island, it feels like both a portent of doom and a symbol of what may lie beyond the island's shores. A young woman living with her father and her sister (to whom she has reluctantly but devotedly become a mother following the death of their own mother years prior), Manod can't shake her welling desire to explore life beyond the beautiful yet blisteringly harsh islands that her hardscrabble family has called home for generations. The arrival of two English ethnographers who hope to study the island culture, then, feels like a boon to her—both a glimpse of life outside her community and a means of escape. The longer the ethnographers stay, the more she feels herself pulled towards them, reckoning with a sensual awakening inside herself, despite her misgivings that her community is being misconstrued and exoticized. With shimmering prose tempered by sharp wit, Whale Fall tells the story of what happens when one person's ambitions threaten the fabric of a community, and what can happen when they are realized. O'Connor paints a portrait of a community and a woman on the precipice, forced to confront an outside world that seems to be closing in on them.

6 February 2027: Something Wonderful: Stories, by Jo Lloyd. Tin House, 2021. (UK title The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies.)  $7 - $24 / used and new

In this debut collection of stories that delight in language and shine with wit, wisdom, and deep humanity, a vainglorious mine owner dreams of harnessing all of nature to the machinery of commerce. Two women hunt rare butterflies in a pre-First World War landscape already experiencing the first bites of biodiversity loss. A young man tracks down the father who abandoned him inside a festival exhibit. A rural Welsh community is fascinated and angered by glimpses of its invisible, wealthy neighbors. Whether seeking knowledge, riches, or a better life, the characters in Something Wonderful are united by a quest for lasting value, as they ask how we should treat our world, our work, our selves, and each other in both past and present.

3 April 2027: The Woman Who Helped Win the War: The Welfare Campaigns of Margaret Lloyd George, 1914–1918, by Richard Rhys O’Brien. Y Lolfa, 2022. ~$25 as new and used b/c shipping for used often from UK; US used <$10 with shipping

This fascinating book tells the story of the multiple welfare campaigns—supporting troops, sailors, healthcare, food, temperance, and recruitment—conducted from 1914 to 1918 by Margaret Lloyd George, wife of Prime Minister David Lloyd George, “The Man Who Won the War.”   

This book is a prequel to The Campaigns of Margaret Lloyd George, The Wife of the Prime Minister, 1916–1922, by J.T. Rhys, former private secretary to Margaret Lloyd George at 10 Downing St.

5 June 2027: Cambrian Tales, by Jane Williams (aka Ysgafell), Honno Press, 2023.
$17 - $25 / new and used (currently out of stock at Honno, where the costs would be a bit less)

Review by Lynzie Fitzpatrick, writing for Honno Press in 2024, notes that the Cambrian Tales, by Jane Williams is a collection of pieces written in the 1840s-50s  to defend Wales against the infamous Blue Books government reports which unfairly labelled the Welsh as ignorant, immoral, and barbaric! Williams’ fiery and witty writing is filled with patriotism and defiance, not only dispelling the awful description of the Welsh but smashing it to pieces.

Cambrian Tales is a hilarious and fun comedy of manners with bold characters. Readers be warned, this book will have you snorting with laughter whilst being charmed with old fables and Welsh pride. 

Jane Williams is an inspirational author, one who published her first work at just eighteen and then battled poverty to get her other work into print. Her life experience adds so much richness to our history, both to literature and to Welshness, this book is a must-read for patriots of Wales, lovers of social history and fans of 19th Century literature.

The book appeared in serialised form in Ainsworth Magazine and is a rich collection of humorous and sharp commentary on Welsh country house life, inspired by Jane Williams’ own surroundings living with Lady Llanover. Quick and dynamic chapters are interspersed with poetry which showcase Williams’ incredible talent and make for a perfect “dip-in-and-out” book, ideal for holiday reading.

7 August 2027 - Mystery book selection to be determined