August meeting, October book: A girl is a half formed thing

Seven of us met at Jane's place today, to consider The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane. It was generally well received, in spite of material that was a bit close to the bone for some of us. Would a bank really allow the transfer of $700,000 by a frail elderly customer? - well, it happened in our street, this month! And what's elderly? Anyway, Fiona M can certainly write a sentence, we said. Sue E, Liz, Pat R and Moy were missed. They missed a great spread and stupendously rich chocolate cake. Thanks Jane!

We decided on the October book: The girl is a half formed thing, by Eimear McBride.in October we'll be at Ros's house (not at Moy's). I made a mistake last month, Moy is hosting us in November.

The September book is Stoner and is at Sue Ellyard's. I will be in Japan but have a great meeting.

July meeting - September book: Stoner by John Williams

Thanks to Maggie for her hospitality on Sunday. A particularly yummy slice went down very well. Recipe please? Congratulations to the Ellyards who are grandparents again, with another little girl, Grace, born to son Sam and his wife Caroline.

We talked with animation but without consensus about Harvest by Jim Crace. It stimulated lots of ideas. But Sue W, we needed your classroom management skills!  I hope the birthday party went well.


Discussion re next book was also quite lively. In the end we chose Stoner by John Williams.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/13/stoner-john-williams-julian-barnes

Julian Barnes says in this review that Stoner was his unexpected best book of 2013 and that's high praise from him! Colum McCann and many others were also effusive in praise.  Moy has given it a try and found it a bit of tough going, so be warned; but we trust it repays the effort.


The August meeting will be at Jane's home. Then in September, we are at Sue Ellyard's and October is at Ros's place. November we will visit Moy ( yes, I've corrected this).
Cheers
Patricia

June meeting - August book - The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane

Hi - Thanks to Pat R for her hospitality on Sunday, when we were a select group of 5 at her Kings Cross residence. Jane, Sue W, Stella and I were the visitors, with Pat making up the group. Nasty weather caused troubles of various kinds for some of us.

We had plenty to talk about with The Signature of All Things. Ros had controversially called it a 'souped up Mills and Boon' - she excused herself to attend a Philosophy weekend (enough said).
Margaret Lackenby loved it - she excused herself with an OS trip. Pat and Stella loved it too, unreservedly. Pat had done some thinking on how the characters were cast to demonstrate survival and adaptation - interesting. Sue W started off liking it, but felt it did soup up after the cupboard orgasm - and the sex in the cave. So though Sue was positive, she had her reservations. Me too.

Next book is another Miles Franklin Award short-lister - The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane. Sue W saw here at the Writers Festival and was impressed. People are going well with Harvest so if you haven't read it yet, get cracking ready for Maggie's place at the end of July. The August meeting will be held at Jane's place.

Congratulations to Sue Ellyard who has baby news - will be emailed.

Regards from Patricia S.

May meeting (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), July book: (Harvest by Jim Crace)

Amazingly warm May day - can't believe we had a fire on a month ago! What's happened to the autumn chills?

I'm modelling the meeting where we took ages to talk about the book - 3.15pm indeed, before we left our talk of the budget behind us. When we did, it was a round-table. Sue W, Sue E, Jane and Pat R were all apologies. Liz hadn't managed to get the book - but now she will.

Stella read it with an interruption in the middle - but her interest didn't flag, even when reading about the most awful content - she has recommended the book to many people. She's sure it will be her book of the year. Superb descriptions.

I admired the writing, and found myself highlighting sentences and thoughts that pleased me right throughout. Loved the fact it tried to get into the heads of the Japanese guards, with some understanding of their belief systems. But I thought that the attempt to tie up the story at the ends was unnecessary, with too many coincidences weakening the narrative. An important book.

Maggie found the diggers realistic, showing their weakness as well as their cameraderie. She had heard Richard Flanagan's address at the Writers Festival on the radio. Margaret attended his session there and was interested in the link with Weary Dunlop - Flanagan claimed it was not modelled on him, that there were 12 other doctors like him. Flanagan relied on his father's reminiscences. Margaret was squeamish about some passages, eg the amputation scene, which Flanagan was asked to read at the festival.

Moy found it a great book but not a good romance, agreed the coincidences were unnecessary.

Ros thought it a complex book but with flaws. Flanagan didn't write women well - only the war bits worked. Plot lines like the bushfire were extraneous, Amy was cliched, but this didn't ruin the book.

Strong book, good discussion.

July book - Harvest by Jim Crace, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize last year.

Readers Guide is here. We will be meeting at Maggie's house.

Remember that in June we meet at Pat Rayner's Kings Cross studio apartment, to look at The Signature of all things.

April meeting: All the birds, singing by Evie Wyld; June book: The signature of all things by Elizabeth Gilbert

Hi to everyone after a lovely afternoon at my place with the first fire of the season. It was also the first meeting after Clare's death so we spent a bit of time talking about Clare, her funeral, her voice, her life and so on. We shared round some of her books that her son Jonathan gave us for the book group. We have some set aside for you, Maggie and Jane. Missed you and Liz. We had a good roll up though on a wintry afternoon.

There was a lively discussion about the book, All the Birds, Singing which was liked by most people (I was  a dissenting voice - I was annoyed to the point of fury by small factual inaccuracies!). Stella and Ros weren't wild about the book either, though both found much to admire in the writing. Thanks to Sue W for drawing the book to our attention.

The May book, as you know, is the Richard Flanagan, The Long Road to the Deep North, at Stella's place.

The June book is The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. We will be meeting at Pat R's town residence in Kings Cross.

March meeting (Burial Rites); May book (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)

Hi all. We met in Lady Jane's garden on a perfect day, with Princess Stella, Lady Margaret Hayes, Lady Susan Wood, the Crown Princess Margaret, The Lady Rosalind, The Hon Patricia (Bunty) Strauss and her sister in law Elizabeth, the Maharani of Bonnells Bay. The champagne was by appointment, poured by Sir Keith himself. Cook managed a wonderful feast of ripe cheeses and oat crackers, with a rich rum chocolate cake to follow. What fun!

Seriously, Sue reported in on Clare who is in palliative care, with her son Jonathan in attendance until tomorrow. We were in awe of her organisation and command of the situation. She knew it was book day and that we would be discussing Burial Rites.

Jane was able to share a book and great photos of a trip to Iceland a few years ago, with landscapes and houses like those in the novel. The book was greatly appreciated by all of us. The main idea was 'doing the right thing'.  Agnes was a flawed heroine but most of the characters showed growth throughout the story - even Toti, who disappointed some by not being the one to hear Agnes' story at the end. Margret, the mother was the key, setting the tone. Others thought it fitting that she was the one to hear the story.

We spent time casting the film based on the book - but heard that the film is already in production.

The May book is to be The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, at Stella's place. I have the April meeting - on the long weekend - when we look at the Evie Wyld. We have some apologies already, with Jane, Sue E, and Maggie all travelling. But looks like we will still have a quorum. See you then.

PS

February meeting - April Book

Hi to Clare, Moy, Maggie and Liz who weren't able to be at Margaret's place for the meeting today. We used the round table technique again, revealing that only Margaret has read the book right through - and even she admitted to skimming some pages. Sue W and Ros performed very strategic scans focusing on 'The Golden Notebook' section. (I scanned too after dutifully reading 13% of the book.) They declared the book interesting - but that view wasn't generally shared by those who had tried to read right through from beginning to end. Repetitious, boring - those words were spoken round the table. We had lots to talk about though  - the characters, the structure, the politics, the reception of the book in its day, the prefaces, Lessing's other work...

The discussion about the next book didn't take long as we agreed to read All the Birds, Singing, by Evie Wyld, which has been on our back burner for a little while. That will be at my place on the Anzac day long weekend.

Next time, March, we will be at Jane's place, reading Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.

Sue E will be an apology for March, April and May so I hope she will participate remotely! She has some good news by the way!

Thanks to Margaret for lovely lumberjack cake and chocolate brownie, served on a heritage cloth. Thanks also to Pat R for a contribution of nashi pears for all, picked in her mountains garden that very morning. There are some hard acts to follow in the bookgroup.

Cheers
Pat

January meeting, March book

January meeting was at Ros's place, with a good roll-up, missing Sue E and Liz but otherwise all in attendance. The book was The Namesake by Jhumpa Lampiri. At Sue W's suggestion, we took turns to comment around the table, before opening discussion to the floor. This was deemed a most satisfactory addition to our afternoon's deliberations, to become standard practice in the future. The book was well-received, an easy to read coming of age story for a young man straddling 2 cultures. We liked the way it referred to Gogol's story 'The Overcoat' which added depth. Several of us had sought it out to clarify its relationship to the story.

We voted for the annual best/ worst books of 2013. Everyone agreed that the winner shouldn't really have been The Rosie Project - but 3 people voted for it as their most enjoyable, fun read of the year, and other favourites were split across a range of excellent novels. One person put The Rosie Project as their worst book! We had a fair amount of agreement that the worst book as Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs, not that it was terrible, but this was a strong year.

The March book is to be Hannah Kent's Burial Rites after quite a bit of discussion and shows of hands. Other contenders were a new novel, All the Birds, Singing by Edie Wyld and Life after Life by Kate Atkinson. We've had a few instances of people reading the wrong book so maybe I shouldn't have mentioned them. Forget them, it's to be Burial Rites. That meeting will be at Jane's home.

The next meeting is at Margaret Lackenby's house at Kirribilli, on 23 February so we don't have long to read The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing.

November 2013 meeting and February 2014 book

Hi all - we missed Sue E, Jane and Pat R at Long Jetty today, as we celebrated with a Christmas lunch meeting, catered beautifully by Moy. Ham and Turkey with gorgeous salads, washed down with plenty of bubbly and topped off by a gloriously sinful cheesecake.

Yes, we did talk about the book, American Rust, by Philipp Meyer. Depressing but not as depressing an end as might have been expected. For those who haven't finished it, definitely worth it. Strong characterisations and some wonderful descriptive writing about the beautiful American countryside, as it reclaims the industrial rustbelt of Pennsylvania. Ros filled up her page with comments quite easily even the group was easily sidetracked onto a great range of other topics!

Next book is of course The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, and we will skip December as usual and meet on 26 January (even though it's Australia Day) at Ros's place.

March book is at Margaret Lackenby's place at Kirribilli. Book is The Golden Notebook, in honour of its author, Doris Lessing, who passed away during the month.

October meeting - January book.

Wonderful get together at Maggie's place with a spirited discussion, because we were divided in our response to the book, The Woman Upstairs. Margaret L  told us that even the author, Clare Messud, didn't like the protagonist. Margaret heard her speak at the Writers Festival where she said she had written a most unlikeable lead character. However, some of us rather liked her and saw in her quite a bit of ourselves and our good friends. And even those who had reservations about the character found the book to be quite well written, within the narrow point of view. Lively meeting. Great cake. Clare managed to get to book group, although jet lagged after a 3 week trip to London and thereabouts. Good rollup.

A reminder that the November book is American Rust - that's the one by Philippe Meyer. It is at Moy's and because its our Christmas meeting, it will commence earlier than usual, and Moy will provide lunch. that will be 24th November from 11.30am. Thanks Moy. We will car pool to get to the Central Coast. Hope everyone can come.

The January book will be The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. Jhumpa won the Pulitzer prize for an earlier collection of stories, and was shortlisted for her most recent book for the Booker prize. For ease of availability, we have chosen her earlier work, also well received.

September's Summary

Hello Ladies
I have now had a refresher from Pat for achieving a blog entry. So better late than never to summarize September’s book group discussion on The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. However just before I go on I would like to mention that we did appreciate Stella’s round up of the Organ Master’s Son, the book she read instead of the former. It sounded like a less controversial read Stella.
First comments on the prescribed read were, it was confusing, tedious, lacked consistency and a bit jumpy. The booked worked in some ways in that it brought up the issue of human rights and the atrocities purported to be carried out in North Korea. A question raised was on what authority did the author speak? It’s difficult to know. A consensus reached was that the book was sinister and brought back memories of books read in the 80’s even if half of what the author wrote is true it was indeed traumatic. The agreed genre was political dystopia, comedic and satirical. Sue W and Clare thought the book warranted the Pulitzer, no one else did.
As Pat S has said, November’s book is American Rust by Philipp Meyer, October’s meeting is at my home.
Cheers,
Maggie

September meeting - November book

News from Ros re the September meeting which I was unable to attend, being in Japan - and too much to do to connect in by Skype - or even read the book, I have to admit.

However, I gather there was a lively mixed reaction - always good - and that the November book is to be American Rust by Phillip Meyer. October meet is at Maggie's place you will recall, for the Clare Messud, which I had better read quick start or be drummed out of the group.

Look forward to a good roll-up and the usual great discussion.
Patricia

August meeting: October book

Today we met at Sue Wood's place, so many people we had to put the folding table to work! Sue had catered magnificently and we all enjoyed the Leichhardt Ricotta Cake in particular.

Most were positive about the book Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stroud. A novel made up of a series of stories, loosely linked by the presence of Olive, but a big cast of well drawn characters. Liz didn't like the small town claustrophobia of the setting. We agreed that Olive herself wasn't entirely a likeable character, but do we alway want to read about nice people! Some great writing.

The October book will be Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs. Margaret has read it and liked it, so there is high praise.

Remember that the September book group meeting is at Stella's place, and the book is The Orphan Masters Son by Adam Johnston.

Cheers from Patricia

July Meeting at Jane's - September book will be The Orphan Master's Son at Stella's place
We managed to have an almost perfect attendance record today - just Pat R who is travelling and Liz who is welcoming a traveller couldn't be there. Three - yes 3 - new babies! A grandson for Sue W, and two new granddaughters to Maggie. Congratulations to all. We marvelled at the lovely foodstuffs they have at Wollstonecraft - beautiful charcuterie spread! And a yummy cake too.

Didn't get to The Reluctant Fundamentalist till 3pm as a result - too much to tell. But when we got there, we had much to admire about this pithy book in the form of a dramatic monologue.
A few of us had seen the film too and liked it too, but it was of necessity less subtle than the book.

The next book is the Pulitzer Prize winner - a recent one - The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson, set in North Korea.

We have worked out the places for the new few book group meetings:

August - Sue W - Olive Kitteridge
September - Stella O'R - The Orphan Master's Son
October - Maggie H - TBA
November - Moy - TBA

Cheers to all
Pat

June Meeting; August book

Thanks to you all for coming to my place today for book group. I thought The Rosie Project was fun. Not everyone liked it - and it was lightweight - but still it gave us plenty to talk about. Most of us did the quiz to see which character we are like - there were lots of Claudias and a few Dons! Those who weren't there can check it out at:

http://quiz.therosieproject.com.au/character.html

The important thing - the next book... It is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stroud, a Pulitzer Prize Winner from a few years ago.

Next book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, will be at Jane's place, and the one after, in August, at Sue Woods. See you next month.

May meeting and July book
Today we met at Clare's, feasted on lovely food in Clare's elegant dining room and created conversational chaos! Missed Margaret in Canberra, Moy on the Coast, and Pat who is en route to Iran, and Liz  - come next time if you can (Maggie can't I know)!

Today's book was Elizabeth Harrower's The Watch Tower. We found so much to talk about! It wasn't universally liked - Sue Woods loved it enough to read it twice. Jane didn't like it very much at all. We all HATED Felix Shaw, the male protagonist, and wondered where Elizabeth H. found that character - in her life or in her imagination? Our research showed that all her writing seems to focus on controlling men and trapped women - except where women are the controlling characters, ruining the lives of other women. Indeed the mother in The Watch Tower was a pretty awful character. The writing was excellent - 'austere, intelligent, ruthless in its perceptions...'. It was published in 1966 - how did we miss it all this time?  I have the job of writing to Elizabeth Harrower and asking her to a meeting -yes, she is still alive and lives in Sydney.

Next book is The Rosie Project at my place on 30 June - and then on July 28th, we read The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid at Jane's place.

April meeting - June Book
We had a great meeting at Ros's place, with lots of conversation about Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. A rich and complex book to discuss, framed entirely through the voice of the narrator, the Reverend John Ames. The extent of his unreliability as an informant was debated.  It was a topic that raised many others, and we can now read another version of the events in the book, if we read Robinson's book Home, singing Verdi and Pat R getting ready for a big trip.

Our June book was decided from several contenders - including Kate Atkinson, Life after Life, Toni Jordan's Nine Days and Drusilla Modjeska's The Mountain. None of these got the nod this time, it's to be Graeme Simsion's current bestseller, The Rosie Project at my place in June. Clare's place in May.

March 2013
I missed this one, at Stella's place, but am told that Middlemarch proved hard work for some people.
The May book was decided - a 1960s Australian publication that is having another lease of life - The Watch Tower by Elizabeth Harrower and that will be at Clare's place. Ok I'm up to date now. See you at Ros's place for Gilead at the end of April.

February 2013 - Dear Life by Alice Munro
This was another winner, and prompted a very lively discussion and it wasn't just that we related to the well-told stories that dealt with ageing. We don't always do well with short stories, but these worked well.
The April book was decided - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

January 2013
Still catching up  - I missed the discussion of The Dark Room by Rachael Seiffert, a collection of 3 stories linked in theme. I'm sorry I missed it because I loved these stories, and I hear that was pretty much the unanimous view.  The March book was set - George Elliot's Middlemarch as our annual classic.