Agreed on:
Discussed:
- The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
- The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
- The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
- Falling for a dancer by Deirdre Purcell
- The Dark is Rising Series by Susan Cooper
Special Topic:
- Podcasting Goodness!
- Expansion of the book club!
- Too secret for mentioning stuff...
POINTS TO NOTE:Alas, this was only a mini-book club, as the Silent Partner has tonsillitis! Feel better soon sweet pea!!!
Fortunately, she has text me her thoughts on this months read, so we were able to proceed for the most part.
Additionally, the electricity had faulted on my street that afternoon, so book club was hosted in front of a fire, surrounded by candles. T'was lovely actually...
The Finkler Question
BOOKN00B
- Another choice that she looks forward to forgetting all about.
- found all the characters to be irritating as hell, especially Treslove. She felt that he was meant to be annoying, but the result was that she disliked the book more.
- the style of writing however, was not too bad, and she would read something else by the author.
- would NOT recommend this to anyone.
AVIDREADER
- haunted by one question - HOW WAS THIS A COMIC BOOK?
- it wasn't funny, bits of it were funny, but the overall impression? Not funny.
- I found the women to be totally reactive characters, neglected until death and picked up and dropped on a whim.
- Especially Heza...Hessa...Treslove's love interest, who was created only to epitomise all that Treslove looked for in a partner of Jewish descent. (I still don't get the whole Jewess issue, so am avoiding that word like the plague in future. Nothing worse than inadvertent offence.)
BOOKELF - shockingly didn't finish the book
- considered the book to be a waste of her time
- didn't relate to a single character
- couldn't respect any of them, or the decisions that they made.
- more importantly, she didn't care about any of them
- really disliked that loved ones were only cared about on point of death
- what exactly is the point being made?
AVIDREADER
- agreed about the characters
- thought the writing on the other hand, was very well put together
BOOKELF summed it up succinctly by noting that this book 'is a middle aged man book, written by a middle aged man, for middle aged men.
Score
BOOKNOOB AVIDREADER BOOKELF
4/10 5/10 3/10
Then she took it all back saying that she'll probably read it again at 40 and love it! And that she would try something else by the author.
Unusually, BOOKELF had been the recipient, rather than the distributor of books recently, and had borrowed a mini-pile from AVIDREADER. Her thoughts were as follows:The Long Walk - 9/10
- actually lent by my fella, not me - I haven't read it yet.
- a fantastic first class book that she will be recommending.
- she also really enjoyed the film.
- pretty much the only reason that she had seen the film was because her route to work each day took her past a large poster with Bill Sturgis staring out at her.
- parts of the book were painful to read, as the events depicted were so horrific.
- is going to purchase her own copy to re-read and lend out to people.
- good, but in that 'I-should-have-read-it-during-my-GCSE-years' sort of way.
- the mere act of reading it resulted in her 'english literature' head switching on.
- a very good book, one that she shall re-read and no doubt, appreciate more.
- again, really enjoyed this.
Falling for a Dancer (to be scored)
- the BBC version from 1998 was also watched over the weekend (apparently BOOKELF will be writing a post on the whole reading/watching experience soon!)- lovely, if a little over-long in parts
- the beginning and ending of the book were the strongest parts by far.
- hated Danny though aware that Colin Farrell was playing in, so also acknowledges that he was very pretty.
- thought it was so romantic, the Irish Pride and Prejudice.
- identified with Elizabeth as a sexual beings.
- loved that she met her match, her equal.
- reckons that it is my 'Forever Amber'
The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
AVIDREADER
- has now read the first three books in the series.
- will be discussed later, once BOOKELF has also read them
Finally we discussed the future of the book club.
BOOKELF and I have agreed to run a monthly podcast and post it on the blog, and see if people enjoy.
We have also decided to run a larger book club, from Arcadia Bar in Headingley. The first meeting will be held towards the end of the month, in conjunction with the Travelling Suitcase Library (linked on the right margin!). More details in an upcoming post!
If there is an interest, we will also have the facility to run an online book club, for people who are interested in reading along with us, but can't make it to the physical event.
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
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