Childhood Reading

Hi All,

As a little extra....have a think about a book from childhood that you really enjoyed...and why. Let us all know on Tuesday night, see you then. Tahnee

February Meeting

Hi Ladies,

February Meeting is coming up - 1st Feb!
I will be unlikely to be there, as I'm having my wisdom teeth out that morning - urgh!

Leslie - could you post some questions for the book before the date? Wold be fab.

See you in March then!

Trilby

I wrote about you

Hi Ladies,

Coz I'm a narcissitic Gen Y/X-er I assume people want to hear what I have to say - on that note, I write a blog.  I think you are all pretty awesome, so I wrote about you on it.  Here!

Now, feel free to look at the rest of the blog but, WARNING.  It contains swearing and stuff about rape culture and more SWEARING and stuff about feminism and ranting and SWEARING.  If you suspect this stuff will offend or upset you, don't read it.

So, go read the post.  It talks about how wonderful you are.

The Race of a Lifetime

Meeting held at Colleen's present were, Colleen, Tahnee, Trilby, Kerry, Meg and Leslie.
Apologies from Elizabeth (too tired) and kay (getting hair done)

It was a warm evening with lots of rain and lots of Christmas goodies including silly hats.

TRILBY: 6
This author is a word wanker. Enjoying it but struggling with some aspects.
Intriguing but a little dense.

MEG:
Didn't read. Her excuse is she has a wedding to plan for.

TAHNEE: 6
Not into reading it. Became good and enjoyed it. Blown away about the amount of money spent on the run up to the election. Interested and informative the authors seems to enjoy their topic.

KERRY: 6

Found beginning didn't interest enough to want more. Never been interested in American politics. Too much backstabbing involved.

LESLIE:

Didn't read it, because she couldn't get hold of a copy anywhere in the world. She says she will read it. Leslie's joke is not going on the blog.

COLLEEN: 6

Also blown away by the amount of money spent or should I say squandered. Unbelievable amount. The amount of hours all the workers did was amazing. They just seemed to work abound the clock. A slow read but feel it was a bit of an education for me. I feel it was a well written book but not particularly enjoyable one.

FEBRUARY MEETING

Leslie's in Mt. Evelyn. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

MARCH MEETING

Kerry's in Woori. Stones from River by Ursula Hegi

SUMMER READING

Tahnee suggests: Lamarck's evolution by Ross Honeywill
Meltdown by Ben Elton
Opening skinners box by ?

Trilby suggests: Spoken Here by Mark Abley
Any of the Phryne Fisher series.

Meg Sugests: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher

We could do with a few more members to make up for the absentees each month so try to round some up over the holidays.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

Better late than never

Firstly let me say that yes I am EXTREMELY slack for this taking so long and that given I am Gen Y should be far more tech saxy but I am going to continue to use the Bridezillaesque response of I am organising a wedding so back off!

So November book club was at my place at the book was Shiver by Nikki Gemmell. For once, I think that everyone agreed that the book was very lacklustre and while an "easy" read not a very enjoyable one. The general consensus was that Nikki could have done a lot more with the book and that she didn't capture a number of key elements. In particular:

Leslie - uninteresting and bland - 5/10

Tahnee - Annoyingly staccato, hated it - 2/10

Kay - lots of potential but fails to deliver - 4/10

Colleen - stolen from my shopping cart (if you weren't there trust me don't ask!) - 2/10

Kerry - completely uninspiring tale - 2/10

Trilby - disaffected series of events, not even a story - 4/10

Meg - Ummmm blerrrrr blahhh - easy to read but disappointingly underwhelming

The next book club is at Colleen's and the book is Race of Lifetime - oh thats right I am so slack we have already had that meeting!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

BOOK CLUB BREAK UP Novembers reading/December Meeting

BOOK CLUB|Tuesday 7th December|Colleen's House

Race of a Lifetime

Mark Halperin /John Heilemann

Mum, because this was your book choice do you have any questions/suggestions for people to think about prior to the meeting?
 
Because this is our last meeting for the year, it would be great to see you all.
 
As an additional little task please bring along a book or the name of a book that you have really liked, to share with the group. Perhaps it's one that you have really enjoyed but wouldn't necessarily choose for book club, because of length, or not conducive to discussion etc etc, but you'd still recommend it. Hopefully this will provide the group with a few ideas for our summer break reading. 'Eat Pray Love' is quite a quick read so you'll all have time to enjoy some 'extra curricular' reading!
 
For catering purposes, please let Colleen know if you can't make it...see you all there. Tahnee

See you on Tuesday

At Meg's house for Shiver...
Meg - as Leslie said, do you have any ideas for questions/thoughts?

Cheers,

Trilby

Are there any thoughts/questions to be thought about for discussion at the November meeting?

September's Reading - October's Meeting - Breath - Tim Winton

Thanks Ladies,once again, for reading and contributing.
I'm always glad to hear what everyone has to say about our reads and someone always manages to have something to say that makes me think about things in a different way or interpret what we have read in a different way, I like that, it's good for me...

Tim Winton, unfortunately, left us all a bit unfulfilled.
Most of us enjoyed his ability to evoke a place so vividly, whilst others found him tediously overly descriptive and just wanted him to 'get on with it'. All were in agreeance that the ending left us a bit flat and no-ones rushing out to read more of his work. That said, we may've criticised, but we rated quite highly...for us! 6/10


Kerry    6 Initially intriguing, ultimately unfullfilling
Kaye     7 Hard to get into, over descriptive, liked it.
Debbie 6 Simplistic but enjoyable, easily forgettable.

Tahnee   6 Great quick read, ending unsatisifying.
Colleen  6 Felt planned, story line good, writing not, Miles Franklin committee flawed!
Trilby     6 Can see technical brilliance & interwoven themes, not engaged with characters.
Meg       7 Juxtaposition combobulated me, had potential but didn't deliver.
Elizabeth ? Continues to impress with her presence even if she hasn't read the book.
Leslie      ? Where where you?
Sandra    ? We really do expect you to commute from Mt. Martha.
 

November Book/December Meeting

The book for November is "The Race of a lifetime" by Barack Obama.  Colleen's pick, and the meeting is at her house in Seville.   

The date for the December meeting is 2nd December.

I guess it's up to Mum because it's her house and her book, but maybe we could go out for dinner or something for this meeting, given it will be the last for the year and we can have a book club 'break up' until we recommence in February?  Either that or bring something special to eat?  Thoughts?
Please post your responses to the blog so we can have a conversation about it (as opposed to emailing me direct!).
 
February's book is Leslie's choice so get your thinking hat on Leslie so we can know nice and early for our christmas reading :) (Well last Feb was your choice, I guess someone else can jump in if they wish)

Sorry for the double email you may have recieved!

October book/November Meeting

Hi All,

The next book, chosen by Meg,  is Shiver, by Nikki Gemmell and the November meeting will be at Meg's house in Wonga Park.

Due to Cup Day, the November meeting will be the 9th November, the second tuesday.

See you all tomorrow.

The Monkey's Mask meeting and discussion

Hi all,

I meant to take photos tonight and forgot - bugger.
Oh well.  The discussion around 'The Monkey's Mask' was no where near as hotly debated as last month's effort but some good chatting was still had! 

Everyone seemed to be pleasantly surprised by a 'Poetry Novel'.  Most of us seemed to have been a bit daunted or put off by the idea of a poetry novel, but found the reality to be actually quite pleasant.  There seemed to be a general consensus on a few things:-
We were all amazed at the authors ability to create such vivid characters with so few words;
Whilst the writing itself was wonderful, the plot wound up leaving us a little underwhelmed; and
The short, rapid style of the writing, whilst making it a quick read, sometimes made it hard to focus and take in the story.

From the questions posted on the last blog post, I think most people felt the poetry style added to the book, and some people knew quite early on that Nick was the killer.

I think most people agreed that they would try a poetry novel again, based on their experience with the Monkey's Mask.

Scores are as follows:
Colleen - Really enjoyable, liked the format - 7/10
Toot - Vividly descriptive - 7/10
Kay - Liked the style, disliked the content  6/10
Kerry - Very fast pace.  Challenging, confronting, compelling, 7/10
Trilby - Instantly characterised, disappointing ending 8/10
Sandra - (Last book club before she moved, but don't worry, she'll be back)Raunchy! 7/10
Leslie - just came along for the choccy bickies!

Tonight's book club meet

Better late then never!

Some questions to help tonight's discussion:
Do you think that the verse style added or detracted to the story?
Did you pick the guilty party early on?
SPOILER
Do you think that Nick or Jill killed Mickey?

Feel free to bring slippers!

Trilby

September meeting date is now TUESDAY 14th SEPTEMBER.

As the title says, September meeting is now on the second tuesday of the month, 14th September, 7:30pm - at my (Trilby) house.  I haven't heard from Liz, could someone let her know please (Toot? Deb?).

See you all then. 

x

Email setup

Hellooo laydeez  *lear, wink*,

Sorry, couldn't help myself after last book! :).

Just letting you know that when someone makes a post on the blog (not a comment to a post), you will now (hopefully) be automatically updated to your email inbox.

Let me know if there are any issues.

Cheers,

Trilby

July's Reading - The First Stone - August 3rd Meeting

Firstly, I love that everyone sinks their teeth into the discussion, no holds barred. I really appreciate everyones ability to do so, because that is what makes this book club what it is, not just an excuse to eat chocolate, but to have some great discussions even if we don't manage to solve the world's problems in one night.
One might think that a book about the sexual harassment of two woman would unify us, but not surprisingly, this wasn't the case and much spirited conversation was had. By the way, who ever bought the 'Crunchie Rocks' that I'm now eating....good!

Some discussion points of note included;

• what one woman considers harassment another might not.
• initial opinion re cases like this - tend to side with the man then as more information becomes available support for the woman grows.
• lots of discussion on who's responsibility it is to change behaviour i.e predominantly the onus is on woman to say "no, don't do that" as opposed to men asking "is this behaviour acceptable to you?"
• we all tended to sit on the fence regarding the question as to whether we felt the incidents actually occurred, however, if we changed the scenario slightly and talked about the girls kneeing the man in the balls and telling him to back off, we all found that scenario much more believable, what that means, I don't know.
• No-one present would've gone to the police had they been put in that situation and as to who we felt some level of empathy for, it twisted and turned as much as the story did.

So how did we rate it? Average rating = 6/10

Tahnee - 8 - discussion provoking
Debbie - 5 - laborious, disjointed
Colleen - 4- laborious, didn't like writing style, liked the issues
Kerry   - 7- what is empowerment?
Sandra - 7- liked it
Meg     - 4- blah, bland, grey
Trilby -8- there is no answer, it is ambiguous

Augusts Reading - The Monkey's Mask - Dorothy Porter - Meeting at Trilby's

September's Reading - Breath - Tim Winton - Meeting at Sandra's

Happy Reading : ) Tahnee

Get blog posts on email

Hi All,

In order to lessen Toot's workload in updating people on Bookclub, I would like to suggest that I sign you all up for email posting.  What will happen is when someone posts to the blog (not comments, just the posts themselves) you will be emailed the new post.

This means that Toot doesn't have to send an email to remind you to look at the blog, the blog will email you itself!  Your email will only be available to people with Admin privileges on the blog, currently Toot, myself and Sandra, and can't be accessed by anyone else or outside parties.  I have most of your emails, but in case you want to use a separate email or something, I will collect and confirm emails at the next book club!

See you all then.

Trilby

Next Months Book - The Monkeys Mask

Hi All,

The book for August(reading)/September(meeting) is The Monkey's Mask by Dorothy Porter.  It is readily available online, not sure about IRL though.  I would assume Borders would have it.
I have found it online at Dymocks and Fishpond.

It's a thriller in verse, so should be quite interesting, but so far seems an 'easy' read.

See you all soon.

The First Stone - thoughts for discussion...

(1) If  'the incidents' occurred as described, would you have gone   to the police? Why/Why Not?

(2) Which parties if any do you empathise with and why?

Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

A brave few took on the dark, cold winter night and the drive to Healesville last night, for a - shall we say - spirited discussion about the merits or lack thereof of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.


All were in agreement that the main character, Catherine, was indeed a bit of a ninny. It was also felt that the book, which was one of Austen's earliest works, certainly showed evidence that the author was young and inexperienced when she wrote it, and was maybe lacking some of the more complex relationships and wit of Austen's later novels. There was some discussion as to whether the author was thumbing her nose at novel readers in general, but on the whole Northanger Abbey was not well liked by the bookclubbers (aside from Elise, who having studied it recently as part of a literature course found more to get her teeth into, and is also a dyed in the wool Janeite), and was thought to be lacking in action, frivolous and, to quote Colleen, 'drivel'.

Tahnee - juvenile. 3/10

Colleen - bland and boring. 3/10

Trilby - a simplistic plot, but did inspire her to try more Austen. 5/10

Elise - fresh and naive. 7/10