February 2017 - The Spy by Paulo Coelho

The Spy is a fictionalised account of the life and death of Mata Hari. For a famously notorious figure, most of us didn't know much about her. This was quite a short read and some club members found it an engrossing story. Others (such as myself) did not even finish, despite it's small page count!

The story is told mainly from Mata Hari's point of view, based on letters she sent to her lawyer whilst imprisoned on treason charges. Coelho attempts to just tell the facts without any judgement, but how reliable is her story? It is fiction, not an autobiography, and the lines become a bit blurred.

Ultimately, she was a woman different to others of her time. Was she really a spy? Who knows!

Scores:
Allison    5
Anna      8
Annette  7
Carmel   8
Cheryl    7
Deb        8
Glenda   6
Kirrily    8
Krristy     4
Megan    6
Phil         8

Average: 6.8

August 2016- H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Only a small group of readers met this month to discuss Helen Macdonald's critically acclaimed 'grief memoir' H is for Hawk. Annette picked this one based on its popularity at the library- it seemed to be borrowed frequently by various book club groups. She hadn't even read the blurb on the back cover.

One word seemed to sum up the book for us all- boring! Megan called it all "self indulgent twaddle". We all struggled to empathise with Helen as she pushed humankind away and locked herself into the house with Mabel (her baby Goshawk). Helen isolated herself from the world and from us, the readers. Apparently the book is based on her diary entries, and was written years later. We agreed that her diary was a suitable place to express her crippling sadness whilst she was struggling with her grief, but felt that It ultimately wasn't really for public consumption. It got in the way of us feeling any personal connection with Macdonald- her only personality trait seemed to be grief.

On the plus side, we all learned something about hawks and falconry! I didn't even know what a goshawk was prior to reading this book and found her descriptions of Mabel quite endearing. Most of us didn't understand or enjoy the constant references to TH White and his similar struggle to tame a hawk, although Anna has since emailed in her reactions and did enjoy those sections of the book. Annette didn't end up finishing, but those of us who did found the ending anticlimactic.

Scores:

Anna- 6

Annette- 2

Carmel- 3

Kristy- 3

Megan- 3

Average- 3.4

May 2016- Island Home by Tim Winton

Our May read was Tim Winton's Island Home- a landscape memoir.

This was one of Anna's suggestions and was the first book to be picked out of the hat. This is a new system we are trialling- each member suggests 2 books, which are drawn out at random. We had a bit of a chuckle because Anna's daughter did the first draw and Anna's book was the one picked out.

Phil loved the book and Megan read it in one day. Anna loves pretty much all of Winton's work, particularly his affinity with water and the landscape, and his 'non-gushy' descriptions. Carmel is quite the opposite- she isn't a Winton fan at all! Kristy started out enjoying it immensely, particularly the description of growing up in a new housing development in suburban Perth. However, she thought it tended to drag on a bit too much towards the end of the book and needed an editor to tell him when to call time.

Here are the scores:

Anna- 9
Carmel- 5

Kristy- 7
Megan- 9

Phil- 8

Average score- 7.6

October 2015- The Paris Wife and Paris Without End: the true Story of Hemingway’s First Wife

The Paris wife by Paula McLain 

Paris without end: the true Story of Hemingway’s First Wife by Gioia Diliberto

This month we read two different versions of the marriage between Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley Richardson. The first title is the fictionalized and the second an account complete with referencing (yay says Kristy) based on Diliberto’s research.

Set mainly in Paris in the 1920’s the couple were at the centre of the movers and the shakers of the expatriate American literary community. Hadley is credited as being the inspiration for Hemingway and ‘the only woman Hemingway never stopped loving’.

It was interesting to hear that most of the events and places in Diliberto’s book were also in McLain’s. So we were all able to envy their lifestyle travelling to exotic places, wining and dining on little or no money with the help of well heeled friends.  

So what did everyone think about the books? Those that read The Paris wife thought was an enjoyable enough as a record of the time period but the writing style was lacking and tedious.

However those that chose the non fiction loved it. Deb said it was all she wanted in book and didn’t want it to end. What more could you want.

Scores:

Anna              8         

Annette          5

Cheryl            5

Deb                10

Kristy             5

Megan           10

Phil                8

Average:       7.2

September 2014- Eugenia by Mark Tedeschi

Written by Mark Tedeschi QC is the story of the Eugenia Falleni and the criminal trail for the charge of murdering her wife, in Sydney 1920.

Eugenia lived her life as a man under the name of Harry Crawford, gave birth to a daughter, and married twice as a man. The story begins with the Italian migrant family in New Zealand and follows Eugenia to Australia now known as Harry, and the marriage to his first wife Annie. Harry remarries after her disappearance but the remains of her body are found two years later in bushland in Chatswood. Harry is arrested under suspicion of murder and his true sex is revealed. The trial at the time caused a sensation, with much interest as to how her true sexual identity was kept from both wives and ‘the article’ that was used to maintain the marriages. 

Mark Tedeschi traces the Falleni family, Eugenia’s contemporaries, the witnesses, the Crown prosecutors and defendants, the newspaper accounts and dissects the court proceedings with a critical view to the justice and prejudices of the time. This was a fascinating read, written for the uneducated in legal speak to understand.

Anna             8

Annette         6.5

Cheryl           8     

Genevieve    7       

Megan          7

Phil               7

Average 7.25