Our first meeting

Meeting the First.

Book Club the First - BOOKELF - 01-11-2009
Agreed on: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (AvidReader)
Discussed: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Three of us.

One spicy seed cake.

A ton of coffee.

And books...in bags, on tables, in laps... books piled up all around us!

It was heavenly!

We agreed that our first official book that we would read as a group was the Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova.

We set a date for our next meeting and swopped a few books, suggested a few potential future books, and ate the spicy seed cake. Three very positive responses, one person who...shockingly...doesn't like cake! We gasped, our determined chef resolved to try again, and cakes have now become incorportaed into our book club routine.

Could this get any better?

Well, turns out that we had all read Memoirs of a Geshia by Arthur Golden, so we were actually able to rate a book, our first meeting in!

BOOKELF = 4/5 stars

BOOKN00B = 4/5 stars

AVIDREADER = 3/5 stars

• We agreed that the female characters were beautifully realised, and the setting and 'world' created seemed realistic and poetic simultaneously.
• However, the male characters were much more one dimensional, and seems to serve purely to develop the plot further.
• After all the agonies suffered by our heroine, was the happy ending feasible? While it certainly served to tie up the story neatly, and provide some much needed stability for the primary characters, it seemed to be hastily drawn together. There were other incidentals - the prince charming being many years older, and she being satisfied with her status as a mistress.
• Nonetheless, a very enjoyable read, and a wonderful introduction to an otherwise unknown culture and time.
• And we *ALL* preferred the book to the film. Like soooo much!

Original LBC

Meeting 10 - The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson

Meeting 09 - Everything You Know - Zoe Heller

Meeting 08 - A Chat

Meeting 07 - The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

Meeting 06 - The Island - Victoria Hislop

Meeting 05 - Firman - Sam Savage

Meeting 04 - The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak

Meeting 03 - Daisy Dalrmyple, Jane Austen et al

Meeting 02 - The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

Meeting 01 - Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden