I am sure that you will all be thrilled to know that as at 1.34pm on Thursday 6th Oct 2011 I can access and post to the blog again. I suspect that this shall last all of a week before I have issues again!!!!!
But while I am on here a little bit of info for the group. If you are interested in buying the book the book for the Dec book club go to:
www.thebookdepository.com
$9.88 including shipping!
Happy reading
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
December book club
Hi it's Hannah. I have chosen "The Guernsey Literary Potatoe Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer. Hopefully it will be good. Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook will know I had help with this one. You may be disappointed I did not choose Karma Sutra although this has been recomended also.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Push, Sapphire
'Push' seemed to be enjoyed by the majority of Book Club, with most people feeling it was a worthwhile story and opened their eyes to a different part of society.
We had much discussion over social security payments and how to ensure that those payments are used wisely, and how to ensure the cycle of poverty is broken. We also talked about child safety, paedophiles, paternity leave, male and female influence in the home/daily lives of children and how Hannah and I can set up a prostitution business if needs be (you kinda had to be there!)
I held forth a bit about the American economic situation and how it doesn't really allow for people to better themselves and how trying to survive is really quite difficult in the current environment.
The website I referred to was this one:
www.wearethe99percent.tumblr.com
Read a few pages they are disturbing.
News reports on occupy wall street -
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3332160.htm
http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/occupy-wall-street-protests-spread-across-us/story-e6frfkur-1226158110369
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street
Nick (Debbie's partner) has a complaint - he says that Book Club is taking up to much of Debbie's valuable time and that she is reading in bed when she should be doing other things!
And the marks are:
Irene - 5/10 – A brutal depiction of an unseen level of society.
Kay – 4/10 Confronting
Tahnee – 7/10 Important – needs to be read
Liz – 8/10 – Story needs to be told; obligated to educate myself to know that these lives exist.
Colleen - 5/10 – The importance of education (haven’t finished yet)
Hannah – 7/10 A good insight into that part of society
Debbie - 5/10 Too superficial; not enough depth - couldn’t connect to the character
Next book is Irene's choice: Tamil Tigeress by Niromi De Soyza
Irene's address is:
9 Reefton Drive, McMahons Creek
If you pass the Reefton Pub, you've gone about 100m to far!
In case you get lost, her number is 5966 8480.
See you all next month, where Tahnee and I will bore the pants off you with our travel stories about China!
We had much discussion over social security payments and how to ensure that those payments are used wisely, and how to ensure the cycle of poverty is broken. We also talked about child safety, paedophiles, paternity leave, male and female influence in the home/daily lives of children and how Hannah and I can set up a prostitution business if needs be (you kinda had to be there!)
I held forth a bit about the American economic situation and how it doesn't really allow for people to better themselves and how trying to survive is really quite difficult in the current environment.
The website I referred to was this one:
www.wearethe99percent.tumblr.com
Read a few pages they are disturbing.
News reports on occupy wall street -
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3332160.htm
http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/occupy-wall-street-protests-spread-across-us/story-e6frfkur-1226158110369
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street
Nick (Debbie's partner) has a complaint - he says that Book Club is taking up to much of Debbie's valuable time and that she is reading in bed when she should be doing other things!
And the marks are:
Irene - 5/10 – A brutal depiction of an unseen level of society.
Kay – 4/10 Confronting
Tahnee – 7/10 Important – needs to be read
Liz – 8/10 – Story needs to be told; obligated to educate myself to know that these lives exist.
Colleen - 5/10 – The importance of education (haven’t finished yet)
Hannah – 7/10 A good insight into that part of society
Debbie - 5/10 Too superficial; not enough depth - couldn’t connect to the character
Next book is Irene's choice: Tamil Tigeress by Niromi De Soyza
Irene's address is:
9 Reefton Drive, McMahons Creek
If you pass the Reefton Pub, you've gone about 100m to far!
In case you get lost, her number is 5966 8480.
See you all next month, where Tahnee and I will bore the pants off you with our travel stories about China!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Push Reading questions
In what way are Precious and her family members invisible to the larger world?
Precious's file reflects the government "workfare" point of view, that Precious should already be earning her own living, possibly as a home attendant. Precious objects violently to this idea. Can you understand the social worker's point of view? Have Precious's and Jermaine's arguments [pp. 121–123] changed any opinions you previously held on this subject?
A famous—or perhaps infamous—Labor Department study, the Moynihan Report, blamed the absence of fathers and the dominance of women (rather than economic and racial inequality) for the problems confronting the African American family. Many black scholars and activists have argued against the report's conclusions. Which side of the argument do you believe Push to support?
Push has been called a Dickensian novel, to which Sapphire has responded, "Part of what's so wrong in this story is that we’re not in a Dickensian era. Those things shouldn’t be happening in a post-industrial society” (Bomb, Fall 1996). She sees the novel as “an indictment of American culture, which is both black and white” (ibid). What aspects of our culture have enabled the inequities described in the novel to develop? Would you say that contemporary American cities consist, as Dickens’s London was said to, of two entirely different cultures, the rich one and the poor?
Given the current american economic client (much worse that the economic climate in the book), do you think it's fiscally resonable and/or ethical to provide finacial support to people such as Precious to achieve high level education?
Precious's file reflects the government "workfare" point of view, that Precious should already be earning her own living, possibly as a home attendant. Precious objects violently to this idea. Can you understand the social worker's point of view? Have Precious's and Jermaine's arguments [pp. 121–123] changed any opinions you previously held on this subject?
A famous—or perhaps infamous—Labor Department study, the Moynihan Report, blamed the absence of fathers and the dominance of women (rather than economic and racial inequality) for the problems confronting the African American family. Many black scholars and activists have argued against the report's conclusions. Which side of the argument do you believe Push to support?
Push has been called a Dickensian novel, to which Sapphire has responded, "Part of what's so wrong in this story is that we’re not in a Dickensian era. Those things shouldn’t be happening in a post-industrial society” (Bomb, Fall 1996). She sees the novel as “an indictment of American culture, which is both black and white” (ibid). What aspects of our culture have enabled the inequities described in the novel to develop? Would you say that contemporary American cities consist, as Dickens’s London was said to, of two entirely different cultures, the rich one and the poor?
Given the current american economic client (much worse that the economic climate in the book), do you think it's fiscally resonable and/or ethical to provide finacial support to people such as Precious to achieve high level education?
Saturday, October 1, 2011
The Black Dahlia
Posting on behalf of Meg because she is a techno loser and can't figure out how to sign in AGAIN!
Ok I have to start (again!) by apologising for being uber slack about the blog!!! Sorry its just really NOT my thing and not helped by the fact that I can't access it again! Anyway I have done it at last!!
The book this month was "The Black Dahlia" by James Ellroy and the overall view of the group was that they didn't enjoy the book. In particular, a number of us felt that the characters were misleading and that there was too much about Bucky and not enough about the murder. While some thought the book had a strong voice in that you could easily picture the setting there was also a strong sense that it didn't read true. Many of us found it hard to get into and then often hard to follow.
Specifically:
Irene - 5/10 - Tried too hard to be complex
Liz - didn't read it
Debbie - 3/5/10 - misleading, hard to feel empathetic
Tahnee - 2/10 - misogynistic, superfluosly descriptive
Harriet (who shall now be known as Hannah) - difficult read
Kaye - 5/10 - more twists and turns than a contornist
Kerry - 5/10 crap writing, twist intrigued enough to finish
Meg 5/10 haven;t finished it yet - strong voice but disjointed and disconnected.
We then proceeded to have a great conversation about children which completely freaked Irene out and a very heated debate about whether the Black Dahlia asked for her death by her behaviour. While Toot did an exemplary job in arguing this, it really needed Trilby's passion!
The next book club meeting is tomorrow night and is at Trilby's place. The book is Push by Sapphire
The following book club meeting will be the 2nd Tuesday in November due to Cup Day and is at Irene's. The book is Tamil Tigress by Niromi De Souza
Colleen - 2/10 - badly written all US slang cheap crap cops and robbers story, hated the book
Trilby - 6/10 liked the noir feel but was longwinded. The afterword freaked me out.
Ok I have to start (again!) by apologising for being uber slack about the blog!!! Sorry its just really NOT my thing and not helped by the fact that I can't access it again! Anyway I have done it at last!!
The book this month was "The Black Dahlia" by James Ellroy and the overall view of the group was that they didn't enjoy the book. In particular, a number of us felt that the characters were misleading and that there was too much about Bucky and not enough about the murder. While some thought the book had a strong voice in that you could easily picture the setting there was also a strong sense that it didn't read true. Many of us found it hard to get into and then often hard to follow.
Specifically:
Irene - 5/10 - Tried too hard to be complex
Liz - didn't read it
Debbie - 3/5/10 - misleading, hard to feel empathetic
Tahnee - 2/10 - misogynistic, superfluosly descriptive
Harriet (who shall now be known as Hannah) - difficult read
Kaye - 5/10 - more twists and turns than a contornist
Kerry - 5/10 crap writing, twist intrigued enough to finish
Meg 5/10 haven;t finished it yet - strong voice but disjointed and disconnected.
We then proceeded to have a great conversation about children which completely freaked Irene out and a very heated debate about whether the Black Dahlia asked for her death by her behaviour. While Toot did an exemplary job in arguing this, it really needed Trilby's passion!
The next book club meeting is tomorrow night and is at Trilby's place. The book is Push by Sapphire
The following book club meeting will be the 2nd Tuesday in November due to Cup Day and is at Irene's. The book is Tamil Tigress by Niromi De Souza
Colleen - 2/10 - badly written all US slang cheap crap cops and robbers story, hated the book
Trilby - 6/10 liked the noir feel but was longwinded. The afterword freaked me out.
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