Book Club Report The One in a Million Boy Monica Wood

This month's book was well received by most. Most felt a connection with the boy even though he didn't have a physical presence in the book or had a name.  Ona was the favorite character, while we had mixed feelings about Quinn and had no attachment to Belle. 

The boy and Ona's relationship was the centre piece of the novel.  Ona felt she could trust the boy and told him about her secrets while the boy considered Ona as his only friend.  After the boy's death the relationship between Quinn and Ona, helped them both through their grief giving them a purpose by chasing the Guiness World Record.

Ona didn't see the boy as different, but, Quinn had always felt there was something not quite right with him. We all felt that he probably was on the autism spectrum somewhere and maybe if Belle had not ignored him when he wanted to seek medical help he might have been a better father.

Overall an interesting novel.

Ratings

Tahnee- 7 Bittersweet

Cathy - 4 Ho Hum

Anne Maree  6/7 but not finished

Mel - 7 Bitter lonliness of old age

Georgia - 6.5 Great last page

Tilby - 6 Enjoyable Ona lovely written character

Avis - 3.5 One, waiting for something, Two, to happen, Three,in this story, Four, nearly killed me.

Megan - 7 Slow to start, devastating and exhausting middle, unexpectedly satisfying penultimate end, Disney like, but exultant finale

Kaye - 7 Not a world record breaker, but still enjoyable.

Next Month's Book
Home Going, Yaa Gyasi at Tahnee's

Hi All,

book club at my house tomorrow night.  Here are the questions for discussion:

1. In the opening pages, we discover that the boy of the title has died. And yet, he is a catalyst for everything that happens afterward. How did you perceive the boy's role in the story--as an absence? A presence? A sort of invisible stage manager? Did you sometimes forget that he was no longer alive?  

2. Did you notice that the boy was not given a name in the novel. Why do you think the author did this and do you think it mattered?

3.Why do you think it was important to Belle, that Quinn finished the boy’s time helping Ona?

4. For the first time in her life, Ona gives away her secrets—to a child. What is it about the boy that Ona instinctively trusts?  

5."You reveal a character in two ways," the author has said. "One, how the character views the world. Two, how the world views the character." Does this insight apply to the characters here? Quinn, for example, is rightly regretful for his fatherly failings, and yet the boys in Resurrection Lane trust and rely on him completely. How do varying perceptions combine to make fictional characters feel real?  

 6. "I have deficiencies," the boy tells Ona. Does he? The author has said that she created the boy before the word "autism" or "Asperger's" entered the American lexicon. "He's just who he is," Belle says, bristling against labels.  Is Belle right? Does it matter?

7.The author has said, "If a writer can't make you like a character, she must at least make you understand him." Despite Quinn's flaws, do you like him? If not, did you understand why he behaves the way he does?  

8.When Ona explains the Guinness World Records to Belle and Quinn, she observes: "How tranquilizing it was to arm yourself with information, how consoling to unpack the facts and then plant them like fence pickets, building a sturdy pen in which you stood alone, cosseted against human fallibility." Is this why the boy made lists? Is there a calming aspect to list-making that appeals to a certain type of person?

9. At 104, Ona is young compared to the world's oldest citizens. This is a surprise to both her and the boy. Was it a surprise to you? Did meeting Ona change your assumptions about extreme old age?  

10.The Guinness World Records plays a role in the book. If you were to set a record, what would it be?  

Kaye

Houskeeping July

Hello all,

Just a reminder to post your questions up on the blog the week before.

In addition - when the questions post comes up, please comment if you are attending or not on the post. This will allow people to cater to the numbers.

Tamara, Georgia, Avis and Mel - you should now receive email updates and also have been sent an invitation to access the blog as an author (if you haven't already.)

Happy Reading

Trilby

July Bookclub rounding it up!

Trilby
Score: 5/10
Comment: An enjoyable page turner.

Mel
Score: 7/10
Comment: Eastern Mothers and and Western daughters.

Tahnee
Score: 6/10
Comment: Enjoyable read after some heavy going novels.

Avis
Score: 6/10
Comment: Fortune cookie say 'enjoyable read.'

Georgia
Score: 7.5/10
Comment: Good to read it older.

Tamara
Score: 6/10
Comment: A story of enduring female bonds...




 

august's book

Hi All

I won't be at tonight's book club meeting as I will be on my way to Darwin.
Book Club is at my place next month and the book I have chosen is The One in a Million Boy by Monica Woods.

Have a great meeting.

Kaye

July Discussion 'The Joyluck Club'

Afternoon ladies, 

I will be hosting bookclub at my house this week, I'll have the fire going and a lovely spread to share.. Look forward to seeing you all. (Give me a call if you need directions 0407 341 651, I'll leave the gate open.) 

Tamara x

Discussion questions are below. 

1.What are your thoughts on the structure of The Joy Luck Club? It is not a traditional novel told by one narrator, but the stories are very intricately connected. How did that affect your reading experience? What were some of the differences you noticed in the way that you read this book as opposed to other novels or collections of stories? 

2. Was there a particular story that has stayed with you the most? Why?

3. To what extent do these women experience acculturative stress? Does the initial stress endured by the first generation immigrant mothers create more or less conflict and challenge than that experienced by the second generation daughters? 

(Prompts for discussion: 

While Waverly was a prodigy and grew up to be successful in her career, Jing-mei (or “June” as she is called in America) has had more difficulty. Her parents also wished for her to be a “genius,” as if hard work alone could will it. 

Jing-mei Woo’s chapter “Best Quality” (p. 221) highlights the difference between Waverly and June’s expression of familial culture.) 

4. The goal of the mothers was to provide a better life for their children. Agree/Disagree. Is this singular to immigrant parents or universal to all parents? 

5. To what extent do the second generation daughters experience gratitude for their circumstance, comparative to their mother’s experience. 

(Prompt - Can a parent go too far with providing for their children, is this the case for any of the mothers with their daughters? Is this again singular to the immigrant parent or all parents?) 

(Prompt - It is a common conception that young Asian children are more driven than their peers and more likely to excel because their parents demand more of them. However, it is Waverly’s mother who influences Waverly to quit chess, due to a hurtful argument.)

6. To what extent does The Joy Luck Club perpetuate or challenge stereotypes of Chinese culture.

7.How are men portrayed in the novel? Discuss. 

8.How is marriage represented in the novel? 

(Prompt - Each of the women faces difficult choices when it comes to marrying—whether it be Lindo Jong being forced into an early union with a man she loathes, Ying-Ying St. Clair starting life over with an American man after being abandoned by her first husband, or Rose Hsu Jordan, who is facing divorce from a man whose family never understood her.)

9. When Jing-mei’s aunties tell her about her sisters, they insist that she travel to China to see them, to tell them about their mother. They are taken aback when Jing-mei responds. “What will I say? What can I tell them about my mother? I don’t know anything. She was my mother” (p. 36). How well do any of the mothers and daughters know each other in this book? Kind Regards, 

Good Evening Ladies,

I am going to buck the trend and confess upfront that I have not finished the book. Might have been a bit ambitious trying to host book club a week before heading away.

Anyhow, questions for up to 52% (!)

Do you now understand 'The Troubles;. How would you explain it concisely to the uninformed?
What are your basic perceptions of the history of the troubles in NI.?

Non fiction can be a stifling and tedious read. How did you find the style of writing?

Were you shocked by the scale and extent of violence in such a small land mass

Were the tit-for-tat paramilitary actions childish & immature or a defiant act of revenge?

Discuss the validity internment. Would it be legal these days? As a policy to curb sectarianism, could it have succeeded if loyalists had been interned as well as nationalists.

Did you feel any bias from the authors?

Did Bloody Sunday in Derry shock. Does U2's song make more sense?

Anything worthy of discussion from the remaining 48%?

Hope to see you all tomorrow

That's all folks!!

The Dry by Jane Harper

I chose the book as after reading a review in The Age, also the author was Australian.

Huge attendance this book club, 11 in total.  Welcome to Mel, hope we weren't to boisterous for you.

Everyone except Tahnee (and Colleen who didn't read it) seemed to enjoy read.

Here are the scores and comments

Tahnee - 4/10 - Half baked crime read.

Kaye - 9/10 - Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Georgia - 8/10 - Whodunnit???

Colleen - Still recovering from cleaners blisters

Trilby - 6/10 -- Page turner with some unreality.

Irene - 8/10 - Anchored me for 12 hours.

Megan 6/10 - Page turnability belied the holes in the plot.

Mel - 7/10 - It's no romance.

Kathy - 9/10 - Light fluff that evoked many a town memory.

Tamara - 9/10 - The drought of human nature

Anne-Maree - 9/10 - Finally I picked a winner.


The next book club (June) is at Irene's and the book is Making Sense of the Troubles:..... by David McKittrick and David McVeagh,

July's Book Club is at Tamara's and book is Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club.

Happy Reading!!!

Sorry about the lateness;

My address is 36 Railway Rd Seville. There is a for sale sign out the front of the corrugated fence.

1. How important is grammar, usage, and punctuation?  Do you believe grammar is lost with the tech age?

2. How long has it been since you have thought about grammar and did you learn any thing new from the book?

3.Can you relate to the Author's obsession with stationary?

4. Do yo know of an example where grammar has been poorly used? (please don't pull apart my questions!)

5. Have you taken more notice to grammar since reading this book?

see you at 7:30

Hannah

And for those who like to be super organised in book purchasing....
My book, for discussion in June is Making Sense of the Troubles by David McKittrick & David McVea.
Happy Reading.

Anne-Maree's Book selection for May

Hi All

My selection for May book club is "The Dry" by Jane Harper and a reminder for anyone not at the last book club April book club is "Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen" by Mary Norris.

Happy Reading!

Anne-Maree

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami

Hello all,

Welcome to the new invigorated blog.
I have added a list on the right hand side that says who is hosting in what month.  Please update your book choice for your month as you pick em!

Everybody found my book awkward, dense, confusing or nonsensical.  Except for Hannah, who is obviously superior in looks and intellect to the rest of you ;).

Here are the scores and pithy comments -

Tamara - 1/10 An awkward 'noise'

Kaye - 2/10 Couldn't keep my eyes opne!

Tahnee - 3/10 Soft boiled

Mum - a generous 2/10. Didn't finish it,  Started nowhere and went nowhere.  Very uncomfortable read.

Anne-Marie - Didn't even try to fake it!

Irene - 2/10 Nonsensical attempt to analyse the human nature, under the guise of science fiction

Trilby- 6/10 - Worth wading through the beginning.  Amazing use of language

Hannah - 8/10. Highly imaginative, enjoyed the journey.

Next month is at Georgia's house - Victoria Road, first driveway past Chandler Road (Colleen's road).
The book is The Good People by Hannah Kent.

Hello Everyone

Sorry about the late post but learn to live with it.

Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barns

#Do you think his childhood  destroyed the man or made the man

#For all the degradation of his childhood and all the bad influences, at the core of the man is he bad or a good person

#I think the men in his life had more influence than his mother who I think was strange, very strange or very sick.  What’s your opinion

I# can’t imagine growing up in such a violent atmosphere or area

#Not as much discussion in the book about music as I anticipated

See you Tuesday 6th Chandler Road Seville

Colleen

Good Afternoon Ladies,
A little to consider to before tonight...

1. How does this book come across to you? What does Sue Klebold say her motivation was in writing A Mother's Reckoning? Does she fulfill her goal?

2. "A mother is supposed to know," Klebold has said. To what extent is she right? How much are parents supposed to know? How much can they be expected to know? If children are aware that their parents routinely search their rooms, won't they simply find better hiding places?

3. Talk about the trajectory of Dylan Klebold from Sue's "sunshine boy" to troubled, deadly killer. Was there any point when the Klebolds might have stepped in, where they might have—or should have—recognized something was amiss with Dylan, something seriously amiss?

4. How much sympathy do you accord to Sue and Tom Klebold? Has your attitude toward them changed after reading this book? Were any myths about the Klebolds dispelled, or misunderstandings clarified?

5. Should A Mother's Reckoning have been written? Should it have come out before this time? Or never at all?

6. Can you put yourself in Sue and Tom Klebold's place? Or is that simply to hard to contemplate?

7. School bullying has always been an troublesome element of childhood and adolescence. How has Columbine changed society's attitude toward bullying? What are the ways in which we're dealing with bullying? Are they effective?

8. What were the differences, according to Klebold, between her son Dylan and Eric Harris?

See you later,
Irene

Book club tonight

Hi All, don't forget book club tonight at my house.
61 Monbulk-Seville Rd
Seville
See you then
Kaye

The Harry Quebert Affair

Overall this book was not well liked with superficial, poorly developed, unlikeable characters.  Harry wasn't forgiven for his affair with Nola, a fifteen year old girl.  The age of consent was discussed.


Tahnee:  3/10 Clumsy and unbelievable.  Who dunnit, who didn't do it.

Trilby: 2/10 Dispicable, misogynistic, men projecting their desires onto empty women

Colleen: 0/10 A Group of words repeated, repeated, repeated...10 hrs and 35 mins out of my life.

Irene: 3/10 Superficial, shallow, stereotyped.

Ann Maree: 6/10 Still trying to work out who did it.

Cathy: 5/10 has potential.

Hannah: 6/10 Dissapointing.

"The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair" by Joel Dicker

Hi everyone!

Tomorrow night it is my house, 36 Railway Rd Seville, for book club.


1. Were you conscious of the fact the book was originally written in French?

2.Were you able to forgive Harry for having an affair with a fifteen year old girl?

3.Did your sympathies for certain characters change as the story unfolds?

4."The truth will set us all free", in the context of the novel do you agree?

5. Marcus potentially exploited his friend while saving his career. Discuss.

6. This book seems to be written to create suspense and surprise.  Did you guess the ending?  Discuss another book you have read that had twists, was it successful?

See you tomorrow night!

Hannah xo

My Brilliant Friend

Hi Everyone

I chose 'My Brilliant Friend' after I read a review in 'The Age'.  Must have missed the bit where it said that it was the first of four.  In any case I've finished all of them now and had promised to post a summary of the story since it was unlikely that anyone was going to read all four.

I will do this soon but realised that unless you were at the last meeting you probably don't know what the next book is (see below).

Scores are as follows

5 - Kaye - Bit of a chore.  Brilliance lost in translation
6 - Irene - Inconclusive
5 - Tahnee - Struggled to connect with the characters and place
5 - Colleen - Still waiting.
7 - Hannah - Enjoyed it.  Good story about two young women growing.
6 - Anne-Maree - Felt compelled to read the next 3.  Needed to know how it ended


July book club is at Hannah's and we're reading The Truth about Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker.

August book club reading is The Secret History by Donna Tartt and we're meeting at Kaye's.

Happy Reading!!

Anne-Maree

Apologies Everyone.  Got a bit keen.

I'll see you all next Tuesday 7 June.

Thanks to Tahnee for letting me know I had the wrong Tuesday.  I would have been a bit disappointed tonight when no one turned up.

See you all next week.

AM

Hi All

Look forward to seeing you all at my house tonight (30 Carters lane, Seville) to review My Brilliant Friend.

Here are a couple of questions to prompt discussion tonight.

• What did you think of the girls relationship?  Could you identify something similar from your own childhood?
• Can friendships that are seemly so one sided last beyond puberty. 
• Nature or nurture?  How much are the girls a product of their environment ?  What of their adult 'role models'?  
• Did you find the style difficult?  The novel was translated from Italian to English do you think this impacted its readability?
• Do you get a sense of the violence of the neighborhood, of its inhabitants? Do you think it was a sign the times (50/60's) or a cultural thing?

See you at 7.30pm.

Anne-Maree