March meeting, May book.

Great discussion of Welcome to the Goon Squad at Ros's place on Sunday, thanks to Sue W for some questions, research and notes that enriched the discussion.

May book is the Booker Prize Winner Julian Barnes - The sense of an ending.

April book group meeting is at Margaret's place. See you there! I'm looking forward to bringing my friend Maggie as a new member. And Maggie, Moy remembers you from camping at Woolgoolga.

February meeting, April Book.

Thanks Jane for your hospitality at Woolstonecraft when we did our classic, Kim by Rudyard Kipling. What a robust discussion, with the group fairly evenly divided between those who'd welcomed the change to catch up with a classic and those who found it hard going to the point of annoyance. A great coming of age story, set in its time, grounded in Kipling's great knowledge of Indian cultures, politics and religion but carrying his assumptions as a man of his time, a British Colonial. A spiritual quest, too, which ends interestingly - shows great insight into the philosophies - Buddhism, Islam particularly - and their place in the politics. A spy novel, the forerunner of writing about 'The Great Game'. Yes I liked it, that's why I'm rattling on!

We had a full roll up too.

March meeting - Welcome to the Goon Squad is the book. We are meeting at Ros's place.

April meeting is at Margaret Lackenby's place and the book is The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna, set in Sierra Leone. Click here for a review.

January meeting, March book.

We met at my place where there was a pretty good rollup, missing Sue E, Moy and Clare.

My sister in law Liz visited.

We looked at The Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore which was very well liked, and provoked discussion of the language, the playfulness of it, the poetry of the descriptions, the good depiction of the age of the protagonist. The irony was appreciated and the themes of birth, death etc made it quite a serious book repaying close reading.

With almost no discussion, we decided on Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad for our March book. We will be meeting at Jane's place in February for Kim.

Cheers

Patricia

November meeting. February book.

Woops, forgot to post in November, when we talked about Anna Funder's book All that I am at Clare's place. Quite a lively discussion and we liked the book. In fact it came through our end of year voting as the book of the year after a rather - well, random - voting process. More people gave it the thumbs up than any other book for the year anyway.

We also decided to do a classic book in February, to give people a better chance at getting it from the library. Hence, for February we are looking at Rudyard Kipling's book Kim.

October meeting - January book

Hi

We met at Sue Woods place - a good roll-up - didn't break up till 5.45pm! Lots to talk about with Annabel by Kathleen Winter - the issues raised and the book itself. We are mostly recommending the book to friends.

November book is by Anna Funder - All that I am. I'm looking forward to it very much. We meet at Clare's. There is a review at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/16/all-i-am-anna-funder-review

The January book is Lorrie Moore's A gate at the stairs at my place. It as been on our list of possibles for a while. We have a new policy in choosing books - we are trying to get away from choosing the book that every other book group is choosing this week!

I saw 2 reviews of the Lorrie Moore, one positive, one not positive at all! But we like a bit of controversy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/apr/11/lorrie-moore-gate-stairs-interview

http://conversationalreading.com/lorrie-moores-sad-decline/

Cheers all

Patricia

October book - Annabel by Kathleen Winter

We had a lovely meeting at Jane's with Ros, Sue W, Clare and me in attendance as well as hostess Jane, who put on a beyoootiful spread. Lots of people had good reasons not to be there, I know, - congratulations to Sue E on the arrival of grandson Arthur born to Rachel. We did talk about babies a lot and can legitimately do so at the October meeting, where we can talk about Annabel by Kathleen Winter. It is a first novel by a Canadian Author, has won lots of prizes in Canada and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

You can read more at:

http://sites.google.com/site/kathleenwinterauthor/

Kathleen Winter keeps a journal, quite a nice one:

http://kathleenwinter.livejournal.com/

Regards

Patricia

September book: Bright and Distant Shores by Dominic Smith

Thanks to all for making the Silver Anniversary book group a success. It was a lovely afternoon and we had pretty much a full turn-up.

Everyone knows the book for September, as above - but you might not know the September venue - Sue E's place. The August venue is Jane's at Willoughby, when we will discuss The Tiger's Wife.

2.30 pm, 31 July 2011: Celebration of 25 years of the book group

The July meeting is at Cheltenham and we are celebrating 25 years of the book group.

It's a silver anniversary, so please dress accordingly - a touch of silver perhaps.

Moy is making a cake - I can't wait to see it.

The book The Hare with Amber Eyes has a Japanese connection - and we will be in the Japanese pavilion weather permitting.

We will be issuing some best book awards, looking back over the 25 years. Bring your favourite books, bring your friends who've been members! Looking forward to a lovely day in the sun.

June meeting - August book

June meeting at Ros's went well though some missing faces: Sue E, Sue W, Clare, Jane and Patricia in attendance as well as Ros. We spent a whole HOUR on gossip before we got to the book: Grandchild gossip mostly - with new grand-babies on the way for Sue W (her first) and Ros as well as Sue E. Jane has welcomed a grandson just a few days before my new granddaughter in Tokyo.

When we got to the book - Bereft by Chris Womersley - it was worth the wait. Literary, metaphysical, a fairy tale, perhaps a thriller (we decided no), a historical novel featuring damaged people in WWII and afterwards. It evoked memories of 'bereft' childhoods in small country towns, with or without libraries. Sue has seen the author at the writers festival - he was inspired by Les Carlyon's book on WWII and its aftermath. We won't be buying the book for friends and family, but most enjoyed it and it gave us food for thought. Get it at the library.

August book is The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht, the youngest writer ever to win the Orange Prize for Fiction. She is 25. Click to read an interesting Review which appeared in The Guardian. It is apparently 'a novel which mythologises Yugoslavia's history'. We are loving the July book, The Hare with Amber Eyes. More on July to follow.

May meeting - July book

Lovely meeting at Moy's place, good discussion of lots of things including Five Bells by Gail Jones, a contender for book of the year.

The June meeting will be at Ros's house. The book is Bereft By Chris Womersley,

The July Meeting will be at my place at Cheltenham. The book is The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal.

The July meeting will celebrate 25 years of the bookgroup. Moy is making a cake.

Woo Hoo. Please see if you can be there!

April meeting, June book

April meeting was on May 1 this time, at Margaret Lackenby's home.

The June book is Bereft by Chris Womersley. I finished reading our May book Five Bells this morning, loved the language and the characters but ended a little disappointed in where it went. It will be worth further discussion so expect a lovely day at Moy's.

Until next time.

Patricia

March Meeting, May book

We met at Stella's - Sue Woods, Moy Gamblin, Margaret Lackenby, Me and Stell for most of the meeting, then Ros from coffee time on. Very productive discussion of the book, The Vintage and the Gleaning, which we found repaid reflection and second reads and was generally liked.

Clare was missed and we wish her well. Hope all has gone well for Sue and Rachel in Melbourne too.

Remember that the April meeting has been postponed to May 1 and will be held at Margaret Lackenby's. The May meeting will be held at Moy's place at Long Jetty.

We agreed to go ahead with the Gail Jones book, Five Bells for the May bookgroup meeting, so this is what we will be doing at Moy's. Sounds good.

Cheers

Patricia

February meeting: April Book

Sue hosted the meeting where we talked about 'Home' by Emma Donoghue.

The decision about the April book had to be put to the vote. The contenders were 'We had it so good' by Linda Grant and 'Five Bells' by Gail Jones. The winner was 'We had it so good' and 'Five Bells' is a tentative book for May, to be confirmed at the next meeting.

So there are 3 messages to remember

The April Book is 'We had it so good' by Linda Grant. See Review

The date of the meeting is NOT in April - it is on 1 May

The venue of the meeting has been changed again - it is now at Margaret Lackenby's place.

Lastly, best wishes to Clare during her operation and recuperation, it's a time to hope to many good books and many good discussions to come,

And truly last - Peter and Kana are feeling more comfortable and assure us that the situation in Japan is settling. They are in Niigata with Kana's parents and saw their baby's face on the ultrasound yesterday, so are looking to the future.

Cheers

Pat

January meeting; March book; vote on 2010 books; change of date for April.

We met at Jane's gracious and roomy new home in Woolstonecraft. If this is downsizing, it looks very comfortable! Thanks Jane for your hospitality and many tours.

Vote on best and worst of 2010:

Best was February book Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantell (5 votes for best) ; Worst was May book The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pahmuc (5 votes for worst). 2010 was pronounced a strong year. Other books with more than one vote for best book were Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey and Let the great world spin by Colm McCann.

January Book: The Finkler Question

The book under discussion was The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson and we didn't get to say a word about it for at least 20 minutes. Lots to catch up with after the break.

Ros liked the book for its cerebral arguments and its humour - but most others were not as positive.

There were things to like, but the characters were not engaging and not clearly drawn - specially the female characters. Julian Treslove, the central character, suffered a lack of identity and character - and this was the point of the book - but in the end he was just a self-indulgent racist bore.

I for one wouldn't have perservered if it wasn't a book group book - it was quite dense, and without a plot as such, couldn't be skimmed. But it won the Booker Prize. It put us in the central dilemma dealt with in the book - what were we non-Jews doing batting about our opinions on these Jewish questions anyway. Should we? Did we want to?

It certainly threw up does ideas but all the same, Sue had trouble filling a page with her review as we spoke. Perhaps she was searching for meaty points in our discussion and not finding them!

In the end the topic of circumcision got us to the end of the page.

March book.

Here it is: The Vintage and the Gleaning by first time writer Jeremy Chambers. Margaret Lackenby recommends it.

Next meeting will be at Sue W's house on 27 February.

The following one is at Stella's place on 27 March.

The April one would be on Easter Sunday so we have taken the unusual step of putting the date forward one week to 1 May - so Mayday at my place in Cheltenham.

Summary for 2010
January: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

February: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell

March: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

April: On-Nibus by various authors

May: The Museum of Innocence by Ohran Pahmuc

June: Diamond Star Halo by Tiffany Forgettable

July: Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

August: Truth by Peter Temple

September: Trespass by Rose Tremain

October: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell

November: Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Vote for your best and worst at the January meeting.

November Super-Meeting, February Book
We had an early start at Moy's and a long discussion of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom over a beautiful lunch. Moy finally got to make the quail with rose petals we heard about in Like Water for Chocolate all those years ago. Then she stuffed a duck, just for a follow up. Discussion was spirited, as is usual when the group splits. There were those like Ros who loved the irony, others who didn't like a book full of unlikeable characters. Jane took notes because we are at her place in January, when we are reading the Booker Winner, Harold Jacobson's book, The Finkler Question.

For February, 2011, we chose Room by Emma Donoghue (see above). There is a write up on a site called 'good reads', so hope it is.

If you want to compare prices, have a look at the Booko blog,.
Recently, though, I realised that the Coop bookstore will mail to you very quickly and give great discounts if you are a member, which you probably are from your university days - its a lifelong membership. Then you don't have to feel bad about buying overseas either. I got $10 off an already good price on the Stephen Fry autobiography, delivered to a friend in hospital in Brisbane.



Cheers
Patricia

August meeting, October book
We decided on the October Book:: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. It's set in Japan. Yes, We've read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell before, but not many people read it, those who did loved it, and we decided he could have another turn. Rules are made to be bent. October meet will be at Jane's new house. We are reading Trespass by Rose Tremain for the September book group and that's at Sue E's place.
We had an excellent, fiesty discussion re Truth, with just about everyone in attendance. Sue E sadly didn't get back in time, but it was pretty much a full house otherwise. All in good voice with as Ros commented 'much overtalking'. It was pretty hard reading, tough subject matter, coarse language, demanding in terms of plot and exposition.There were those who didn't like the genre at all, those who embraced the genre and the book and those who found it an interesting excursion into a different world and certainly a different language from our usual book group reading. It is the first entry in our new book group diary - we've filled the old book and I'm holding it safely for posterity.

June meeting - August book

Hi there, June meeting at Stella's was spirited - Moy, Sue W, Ros, Sue E, Jane and of course Stella in attendance. Missing Clare, Margaret and Pat.
We were divided about Diamond Star Halo, as Jane and I enjoyed it, thought it was fun, but most others thought it lightweight, and I think the word 'rubbish' was used.
After Craig Silvey's Jasper Jones at Pat's Potts Point address, we will do Peter Temple's latest book, Truth, which has just won the Miles Franklin Award, remarkably for a crime novel. I'm the venue for August and Sue E has her name down for September. Jane's new place in October and Moy's place in November, so that's the whole year sorted!

Plenty of reviews of Truth online, and an ABC book show podcast at the following site:



I've just realised that Truth follows on with characters from The Broken Shore.
Good as I picked up a copy of that yesterday.
Regards and enjoy
Patricia

Hi
We met at Jane's - last time at her beautiful home, because next time it will be in her new place in Woolstonecraft - beautiful too, I'm sure.

We had little to say about the book. No one had liked it sufficiently to engage.
We did have plenty to say on related topics though!

Next book - June - we have at Stella's place. Jane was already reading the book, Diamond Star Halo, and loving it.

We decided on a new book, Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey for July which we think is at Pat's place in Macleay Street - will need confirmation and details, please Pat.

That's the news for now.

June book -

Book is Diamond Star Halo, by Tiffany Murray, Portabello, $29.99.

It was the Pick of the Week in SMH Spectrum today, if you want to read a summary. Sounds like fun. We rejected lots of other options to settle on this! It sounds like it will take us in another direction - See the Guardian review of it here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/09/diamond-star-halo-murray-review


The May meeting is a Jane's and the June meeting at Stella's.

We had a lively meeting - we got stuck into today's book, On-Nibus straight off, and found plenty to say about it. It was judged a good choice for book group, but we've done our ration of non-fiction for now. Sue made her authentic Anzac Biscuits! (as well as a carrot cake).