Thursday, September 22, 2011

Suggestions for 2012

These are some suggestions for our meetings in 2012. Please add any more in the comments sections or bring them along to the next meeting.

Suggestions for Book Club Meetings in 2012

·      Geraldine Brooks

·      Stories set in Medieval times

·      Daphne Du Maurier

·      Larry McMurtry

·      Jane Yolen    (Briar Rose)

·      Biography/Autobiography

·      Peter Carey

·      Jill Kerr Conway  (The Road to Coorain)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Books we would like to recommend

The following are books that members of the book club have read recently and would like to recommend to others. The highlighted titles are available from the Library

Wendy:  Maeve Binchy  "Minding Frankie"
              Rosie Thomas   "The Kashmir Shawl"
              Deborah Rodriguez  "Little Coffee Shop of Kabul"

Connie:  Joy Fielding  "Still Life"

Joan:  Rebecca Skloot  "The Immortal Life of Henrieta Lacks'

Dianne: Adam Hochschild  "To End all Wars: How the First World War Divided Britain"


Pamela: "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" 

Kris:  365 Thank Yous

Shiela:  Geraldine Brooks  "People of the Book"  


Julia & Kathy:  Michael Robotham  "Lost" "The Wreckage" "The Night Ferry" "Bombproof"


Judy:  Rupert Isaacson "The Horse Boy; a father's quest to heal his son" 


Ann:  S J Watson  "Before I Go To  Sleep"  


Maree:  Markus Zusack   "The Book Thief"
              Diane Chamberlain  "The Midwife's Confession"


Connie also recommended "goodreading" a magazine published monthly in Australia.
It is available in the Library or you can subscribe at www.goodreadingmagazine.com 

September Book Club Meeting

This month we met and discussed the following books by Mitch Albom: Tuesdays With Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, For One More Day and Have a Little Faith.
Following are a selection of comments from the discussion.

Tuesdays With Morrie is the chronicle of Mitch's time spent with his beloved professor. As a labor of love, Mitch wrote the book to help pay Morie's medical bills.
*written with compassion - mostly positive the way he faced death
*his wife suffered through his death
 *gave ideas of ways of facing death - lucky to have so many people around him - could help others facing death
*a teacher to the end
*made me think about things I should do
*couldn't understand why he wanted to make his death so public
*maybe author got more out of it, learnt a lot about himself, grew up

The Five people You meet in Heaven
*its about forgiveness and being forgiven, full of emotion
*I like the idea that you die and go to heaven and everything is explained
* I've met one of my 5 people - sent briefly to speak to me at a particular time
*found it very confronting - all his books are reflective and about what transpires before death. Don't want to be there.
*thought of Kerry Packer's near death on the polo field. He reckons there is nothing on the other side.
*shmaltzy and light - If you were not religious in any way, meeting these people has a point. Calms people down. There is another way of coping with the thought of death
*very descriptive language used eg how he describes all the colours

For One More Day is the story of Charley, a former baseball player who encounters many problems with his career, finances, family and alcohol abuse. This leads to a suicide attempt and the opportunity to spend the day with his mother who had died many years before.
*about the unconditional love of his mother
*children often try to win the love of the parent who shows them the least amount of affection
*gave good insight into how difficult it was for divorced women and separated families...not just financial but the attitude of the community
*syrupy writing  but made me think about the importance of family
*he never really understood how many sacrifices his mother made for him and yet he was easily led by his father
*confused by the ending and the revelation of the identity of the narrator...didn't seem necessary or make sense
*Albom has said that his relationship with his own mother was largely behind the story of he book, and that several incidents are actual events from his childhood.


Have a Little Faith - the Rabbi is dying and asks Mitch to write his eulogy
*a true story story
*brings together Jewish faith, black and white, rich and poor etc
*has to go back and learn about his faith again which he had left in his childhood
*also meets a local pastor preaching to the poor and homeless in his rundown church
*what is faith?

Friday, September 2, 2011

Upcoming books for discussion

The following are the titles for Book Club discussion for the rest of the year.
Copies of these books will always be available from the Library

September
Any book written by Mitch Albom.

His best known titles are 'Tuesday with Morrie' and 'The Five People You meet in Heaven'

October
The World Beneath by Cate Kennedy

Her debut novel -  'a beautifully written novel of ideas with vibrant characters, and fraught relationships that savvily questions the way we live now'.

November
 Russian stories

An historical story of your own choice,  set in Russia

December
Christmas stories







August Meeting - Catcher in the Rye

Our book for discussion this month was Catcher in the Rye written by J D Salinger and first published in 1951. This evoked a variety of responses from...'couldn't finish it, I had other books I would rather read' to 'can't wait to read it again and discuss it with my son'. Others suggested that they were glad they had read it even though they really didn't enjoy it..
Most agreed it was a difficult book to read and either didn't like or became frustrated with the main character, Holden Caulfield.
*he was a thoroughly unlikeable young man
*lonely discontented young man
*poor little rich boy trying to grow up too quickly
*amazed at the life style of a 16 year old

There were thoughts expressed that the story was about 'unresolved grief' over  the death of his brother. This lead to what was assumed to be a nervous breakdown. There was hope at the end though, when he talks about the people he missed.

There were problems with an absent father, not uncommon in those times, and a mother who was barely coping. It is only his younger sister Phoebe that he shows any affection and concern for.

After hearing a bit more about the author's own life, there were thoughts that some of the story may have been autobiographical.
The book was originally written for adults and panned by critics when first published. But is now studied in many schools and Holden has become an icon for teenage rebellion.

Next month: books by Mitch Albom