Final Bookclub post

Well Bookclub was supposed to be this week but we are all busy with clashing schedules so we have postponed for a week. I was looking forward to reading Richard Flanagan's prize winning book but will wait for Summer. In the meantime....my thoughtful 13 yr old son gave me a book for my birthday which I must read called, Lyrebird Hill by Anna Romer. It is interesting so far and traces the lives of 2 different generations of a family involving loss, death, violence and tragedy. Happy holiday reading. That's all folks!!!

Last Bookclub for the year

Well I finished The Children Act by Ian McEwan which was typical of his books. His writing is very descriptive, I enjoy his style. I liked but did not love this story about the High Court judge who presides over complicated and usually intriguing family battles. The story had a few twists which I did not expect and I wish a few plots lines had been resolved differently but overall I enjoyed the story.

 This is the latest book we are reading about the secrets buried within
 the lives of parents at a primary school. The story centres around the lives
 of 3 women and their husbands and children who all attend the same school.
 The story ends badly for someone because there is a death at the school trivia  night.
 I'm not enjoying this book, it is very lightweight and I just want to find out  which one of them dies! I think if it was me I would of killed off half of the  characters by now. Skimming through to get the end so I can read something  better.
 Next on our list is Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep  North for which he won the Man Booker Prize this year.

Divergent series done

Well  I finished the 3rd book, Allegiant, from the Divergent trilogy. It definitely was not as pacey as the first two and the story lost its way a bit. It was almost like the author didn't know what to do with the characters once they left the city. Also surprising was that the author killed off one of the main characters which I wasn't expecting. Overall the series was enjoyable and based on an interesting  concept although I found Allegiant harder to stick with, but what I start I usually finish whether I like it or not.

Next, Ian McEwans latest book, The Children Act. I'm 40 pages in and enjoying the story already, I like the way he writes.
It is the story of a High Court judge who presides over cases in the family court. She deals with amazing cases that require sensitivity and intelligence and while she is dealing with difficult cases in her   professional life she is also dealing with stress and heartache in her private life. A good mix for a riveting tale that will keep me engrossed.

Bookclub Update

So we met at the Spotty pub last night for Bookclub and the latest selection All the Birds, Singing was not well liked. The girls found it frustrating and the characters irritating with too many unanswered questions. The main story is based in England but is written in the past tense while the parts of her life that are retold are written in the present tense which makes for an interesting style but not to everybodys liking. I quite liked it although the ending was abrupt and left some aspects of the story unresolved. I read a review that said while it was well written it was a difficult story to enjoy and I agree with that wholeheartedly.



 Enjoyment of writing styles is so subjective,
 it can be difficult to find something that
 everyone enjoys!
 As to my Divergent Trilogy, 2 down 1 to go
 and struggling with the 3rd.
 The pace has gone out of the story.

Just Keep Reading

I will be attending Bookclub next week so will post again after we meet. Enjoyed the writing but it was a grim tale....In the meantime I am making my way through Veronica Roth's Divergent Series. These include Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant. One read and two to go. The first book was released as a movie earlier this year so the books were very popular with teenage readers. People may not always like the movie version of books but if it gets teenagers reading that is a good thing!

Holiday reads

I find I like to read my books for book club within a week or so of when we meet so the book is fresh in my mind. As the school holidays were coming up I wanted to have plenty of reading material so I thought I would read some teen favourites. Saying that I chose to read If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman. If I Stay has recently been made into a movie so I wanted to see what the story was about. It is the story of a girl in a happy, comfortable life whose mother, father and brother are killed in a car accident and she ends up in a coma. She has a type of out of body experience where she can see everything that is going on around her and she recalls a variety of incidents through her life. Ultimately she has to decide if she will stay and live, facing her grief or die and relieve her suffering. Interesting......In the sequel written from Adam's point of view three years later the couple have gone their separate ways, he is a rock star struggling with his life and she is an emerging cello performer. By chance they meet up, explore the city by night, revisit old memories and maybe rekindle an old romance.

I also read The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett which is a popular book being read by Yr 7 & 8 students in schools. It is a tale of three gypsy children who have escaped from the wreckage of their burnt homes with only their lives who have been travelling across a war ravaged countryside barely surviving. They come across an abandoned village where they find a zoo with live animals in it. As   night falls the children realize the animals can speak and they tell the children how they came to live in the zoo. The children and animals want to escape to a better life but they all fear what lies beyond the zoo. This is a well written story with fable like tales and explores the themes of war, freedom and loss.

New bookclub selection

We have finally selected our new read for Bookclub. It is All the Birds, Singing By Evie Wyld and has been awarded the Miles Franklin Literary Award for 2014. I read a brief excerpt online and liked the way it was written. I am looking forward to reading the rest of this novel. .  EAGER....