March 2015 meeting

All present and accounted for at June's for our March meeting. Post the usual catchup and goss, we got down to discussing the following books:

Someone quipped "for a book in which nothing happened, we sure have talked a lot about it!", and such was the spirited discussion regarding 'Blue Thread'. Readers widely agreed that this book did not meet expectations despite being from a prize winning author. Perhaps as Australian readers of this very very American book explains the lack of engagement but even this aside, the novel was lacking a compelling plot (some got excited when the main character died - "at last some action"), with the characters being the only source of connection. One theory of why this book is so widely liked in the US is potentially it is the story of a family made good, and the family myths and legends that are handed down from generation to generation (despite being true or not).

June, Vanessa, Kath and Valerie scored 'Blue Thread' 2.5 and Monique, Kim and Jackie gave it a 2 out of 5.

Not all bookclubbers had gotten the chance to read 'Scared Weird Frozen Guy'

Of those that read at least some it, the feedback was that it was a little too long, with a lot of detail about 'The Scardies', only really a little bit about the ice marathon and virtually nothing about the man's personal life. Readers scored it 2.5
 

February 5 2015

Hey folks, better late than never with this blog post about our February meeting at Jackie's with all bookclubbers present and accounted for.

First cab off the rank was Khalid Hosseini's 'And The Mountains Echoed' which had been Kim's choice, and was popular with the punters.

Whilst it was generally acknowledged that this was not as good as the stellar 'Kite Runner', it was nevertheless a good read with great characters with interesting stories, but to some felt more like disjointed short stories rather than a cohesive epic. Some readers found it a very sad book (there were tears on the tram) and the 'sliding doors' what if Pari had not been 'sold'? discussion was a good one.

Scores:  Everyone who had read the book gave it 3/5.

Next up was the more controversial 'All the Birds, Singing' by Evie Wyld.

 

Intense discussion ensued with 'confronting', 'gender confusion' and 'intriguing' being often used to describe the book. Some of the graphic descriptions were gratuitous for some, however others were spurred on to the end by wanting to know 'what was killing the sheep'? and 'how did she get the scars'?  The book's reverse chronological format was unique, but some readers (and one non-reader* :)) felt that the book's ending was not satisfying.

Scores were diverse: Jackie & Kath* - 3, June - 2.75, Kim, Monique & Vanessa - 3.5, Valerie - 4

We also discussed Harper Lee's new book 'Go Set a Watchman', the sequel to 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
which has just been recently published.