November meeting - A Spool of Blue Thread and February book - Charlotte Wood's The Natural Way of Thing

November book group was at my place and nice enough weather to sit outside.  Thanks to those who were able to come, and sorry that Margaret and Jane were detained by their choir commitments.

We marked a technical innovation with Sue E joining us by FaceTime from Melbourne.

It worked well and gave hope to Maggie who shared the news that she and Ken will be leaving Sydney for the Byron Bay area. She may be able to keep up with book group online.

Pat R joined us direct from the Climate Change rally. She is also consulting the real estate agent, with plans to say goodbye to Blackheath and locate herself in Potts Point.

We did take a while to get to the book - but then there was a lot of stuff to talk about. There was no shortage of things to say about A Spool of Blue Thread,  either. Some of us enjoyed it very much, for the family saga with character delineations over generations, surprises, wry comments, its riffing on the idea of the American Dream.

It is Tyler's 20th book, someone said. Was it nominated for the Booker as a legacy, based on her body of writing, or on this book? Some of us thought it rather ordinary, lightweight. Even those who liked it agreed that the central image of the blue thread was a bit strained. But there was plenty of talk about motivations and plot developments, until someone remarked we were talking about the characters as if they were real people. And is that a bad thing?

We took a while to get to the February book but finally decided to do the Australian writer Charlotte Wood's latest, The Natural Way of Things. See your library or bookstore, I don't think I am going to be providing a copy. Remember January book group meeting is at Sue W's place.

October meeting and January book: Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings

I neglected to write up the blog in October, but I sent an email:

Hi all
We met at Ros’s place today - Moy and Stella, Ros and me, along with Maggie and her daughter Rachel. The good news is that Rachel has decided to stay with us, so the average age of our book group will tumble considerably. Maggie, please pass on to Rachel and let me know her contact details to add to the list.

Discussion of the book took the customary 30 mins to get started but was quite brisk and continued into cakes and tea. Most people enjoyed the read even if ‘reluctantly’ as in Ros’s case.
Flaws in characterisation, a bit plot driven, but a well planned structure, muscular and energetic writing, which certainly engaged us all.

Next month, November, will be the Christmas meeting which will be at my place - A Spool of Blue Thread, by Ann Tyler.

The January book will be the Booker Prize winner, A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James. It’s anything but brief, but we have two months to read it, with no book in December. 

So lets consider October written up and go on to November.