August 2012- The Camel bookmobile by Masha Hamilton

The book for August was The Camel bookmobile 

A summary from a bookish blog called Book Chase:

The camel bookmobile was inspired by the real Camel Library that is headquartered in Garissa, Kenya, and which uses camels to carry books to and from readers who live in the remote areas of that country.

The story looks at the potentially destructive effects that books, and what they contain, can have on tribal customs and the very way of life that has sustained the tribes for thousands of years.

Fiona an American librarian, is hired to help run the camel bookmobile in northeastern Kenya. As a westerner she cannot understand the people she is trying to help or the problems her efforts are causing. Blinded by her good intentions, Fiona is never fully aware of the hostility among the village elders who see her influence as a threat to their way of life. 

The book was enjoyed by most.  

Cheryl - 8.5

Genevieve - 6

Kristy - 7

Megan - 6

Annette - 8

Average 7.1

Okay it has taken me an age to get back here.

Catch 22 was loved by most except Phil who thought it was sexist. (Phil I didn’t get a score it skews our ratings!) Pretty much everyone else loved it. The ending was fantastic, it  wrapped up the whole saga of all Yossarian’s friends and his last chance at finally escaping the war he never wanted to be part of. I admit I am biased here, it is one of my favourite books, I had scored by the first page. 
The scores are:

Megan 10
Anna 10
Deb 10
Genevieve 9
Annette 8
Cheryl 7.5

Average 9.08

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

Before I go to sleep - S.J. Watson

We haven't done a thriller for awhile so this is our attempt for 2012. Christine has amnesia; every time she goes to sleep she loses her memory. Each day she wakes up not recognising where she is or who she is with. This is the debut novel for author S.J. Watson (picture left). As I read this I wondered if the author was male or female, I thought that women don’t tend to use initials as their title but this felt like a woman’s writing. I waited until the end to Google the details. Anyway he is an English man, as you can see by the photo, born in 1971, who was accepted into a writing course in 2009. He has worked in hospitals as an audiologist and wrote fiction in his spare time.

May 2012- The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This was liked by most except Kristy, and Phil didn't say she didn't like it but had only read half so her rating has skewed our stats slightly. Annette's chocolate pie was delicious, even though I had a moment where I had to not look at it to eat it, thinking about Minnie's pie was too much. Which made us wonder did Minnie really put the poo in the pie?

Help! The Help

Well we've changed the book for this month as Middlesex is quite long so we are now doing 'The help" by Kathryn Stockett.
Set in Jackson, Mississippi, 1962, with the Civil rights movement exploding, three women start a movement of their own, changing a town and the way women, black and white, mothers and daughters, view one another.

Recommendation

Stella recommends "Let the great world spin" by Colum McCann. Might be worth adding to our to do list??

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Our book for May 2012:

Middlesex tells the story of Cal, a hermaphrodite raised as a girl by her Greek-American parents. When Cal reaches puberty she begins to recognise a difference between herself and her classmates.


Here is link to the First Tuesday Bookclub page. It has a bit of interesting info including some very mixed reviews.


http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/s2615796.htm

April 2012- Dracula by Bram Stoker

The general consensus was that it was well enjoyed. Genevieve, Kristy and I thought that despite some very confusing elements in the story it was a good read.
Phil found it to be not "horror" enough. Annette thought it started off creepy and then switched to the Young Adult version. Cheryl also read the Y/A, which turned out to be different to what the rest of us had read. So they got a slightly different interpretation. Cathy started to read it but thought it might just get too scary. I thought that too at the beginning, it was creepy but after talking to Megan who had the Bram Stoker experience at her conference urged me push on. She had just come back from a conference on emerging technologies and education. The presenter used references to Dracula, and the use of technology in the story, phonograph and shorthand  (I think there was another, I just can't remember at the moment). Megan's Bram Stoker experience even included a fellow participant with the name Jonathon Harker. Very eerie.....

What do you rate it?
Anna           8
Annette       8
Cheryl         7
Genevieve   8
Kristy          7
Megan         8
Phil              2

So the average is..... 6.85  not bad!

Dracula - Bram Stoker

Well I'm loving reading this book. Surprisingly. It was never anything I had contemplated reading, not after a lifetime of seeing the movie world's and media's so many different takes on Dracula. I've found a few questions to contemplate before we meet:

From Pocket Penguin Classics

1. Discuss the roles of male and female sexuality in the novel. How do the actions of the characters compare to the moral code of Victorian England?

2. The character of Renfield is often presented in popular culture as a madman or a slave to his 'Master'? To what extent is this true to the author's portrayal of Renfield.

3. Does Quincey P. Morris represent the 'New World' of the United States of America? Discuss.

4. Compare the words used to describe Mina and Lucy throughout the novel. What are the differences?

5. Why and how does the idea of vampirism notion have meaning for contemporary readers?

6. From the middle of the novel onwards the writers of the story are also readers of each other's words. How did this affect your reading?

7. Through each of the characters Stoker plays with different forms of writing, for example: personal journals and diaries, newspapers, letters, telegrams and medical reports. Discuss how this device impacts upon the narrative of the novel.

8. Gothic tales typically make use of supernatural themes. How many supernatural themes can you identify in Dracula?

9. The notion of 'Christian salvation' runs high throughout the novel. Discuss.

10. Does Count Dracula have any redeeming qualities?

From LitLovers © 2012

1. Dracula relies on journal fragments, letters, and newspaper clippings to tell its story. Why might Stoker have chosen to narrate the story in this way? Do letters and journal entries make the story seem more authentic or believable to you? Likewise, discuss the significance that many of the male protagonists are doctors (Dr. Seward) or men of science (Dr. Van Helsing). Why is this important to the story?

2. How does the novel invert Christian mythology in its description of Count Dracula's reign of terror? For instance, what specific elements of Stoker's story parallel scenes or images from the New Testament? Why might this subversion of Christian myth be significant?

3. Discuss the roles of Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker in the novel. How are the two women similar? Different? What accounts for their differences? To what extent does the novel depend on both of these women to propel the narrative forward?

4. Discuss the role of sexuality in Dracula. Would you say that Dracula attempts to reproduce himself sexually or by some other means? In what ways does the figure of Dracula subvert conventional notions of heterosexuality? Consider, for instance, his predilection for drinking blood and his habit of making his victims feed from his chest.

5. What are the elements of vampire folklore? For example, what, according to the novel, attracts or repels a vampire? How do you kill a vampire for good? Although Stoker did not invent the mythology of the vampire, his novel firmly established the conventions of vampire fiction. Choose another novel that deals with vampires and compare it with Dracula. (Consider, for example, one of Anne Rice's vampirebooks or Stepanie Meyer's Twilight series.) In what ways are the novels similar? Different?

Sense of an ending - Julian Barnes

Phil sent me an email which I've cut and pasted here (Hope you don't mind Phil but this way maybe we can start our blog moving):I did enjoy that book. Would like to read it again. What did everyone think of the title?

There wasn’t too much a discussion about the title. I said that i felt it could mean a feeling that an ending is imminent or alternatively making sense of the ending of an event or instance. Does that make sense? What did you think?

Second post

Oh come on Anna this has taken forever. I know, I know she cries. How many books have we read since the last post? Help me out notjennyjenny. I have tried to create different blogs not attached to me but I have not been able to do it. Blogger has changed and is harder to use so I thought we'd go back to this old template and start from here (again). If anyone knows someone who is good at this please feel free to start a new modern and more tech savvy blog.