July 2012- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

We've bumped Catch 22 up to July as the other books we had chosen are in short supply. Great I say, I love the book and am loving reading it again.
Not so for some of the readers I checked out on 'goodreads': http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/168668.Catch_22. To one reviewer it "was lower on the evolution scale than a wet turd". 

Joseph Heller

Too harsh, they're missing too much of Heller's portrayal of the insanity of war. And who in the adult English speaking Western world hasn't heard the term Catch 22, whether they've read the book or not? High credentials for any author.

Catch 22 in it's absurdity and truth is laugh out loud hilarious and heartbreakingly sad. Set on the Italian island of Pianosa during Word War 2, the central character Yossarian wants anything but to die up in the B25 bomber, he wants his orders to go home. He doesn't have to fly anymore missions if he is mad, if he wants to fly more missions he must be mad, but if he asks not to fly any more missions he mustn't be mad so he must fly more missions. That's the catch. "That's some catch" observes Yossarian, "It's the best there is" agrees Doc Daneeka.
Read on.

June 2012- Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson

‘Before I go to sleep' scored pretty well, most of us liked the suspense, it was quick, not a difficult read and was something different to read. Phil, Cheryl, Deb, Annette and myself (Anna) met for dinner along with Deb's young friend from Queensland, Lexie and Annette's two gorgeous little boys. Megan was absent but sent her dislike for the book and Kristy wasn't there either but passed on the message that she loved it. For Deb it reminded her of visits to a friend's boyfriend in a brain injury unit and seeing first hand the devastating affects on people’s lives. I found I couldn't put it down, it wasn't they best book I've ever read but the story urged me to read on. At some stage we all began to suspect Dr Nash’s motives in arranging the secret meetings. It was also perfectly understandable for her husband to keep their son a secret, reliving his death (although at the time we didn’t know it wasn’t true) would be pain you would want to avoid. Anyway scores were:

Phil, an easy read: 6

Cheryl, nice and quick: 6

Deb, different: 7.5

Annette: 5

Anna: 7
Average: 6.3