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.

First post

Very proud of inviting myself to the blog as an author and eventually getting in here. I did this via the microwavejenny login (thanks Anna). It was easy enough...or email me and I can do it for you. (if that is ok with you Anna?)

This blog looks great Microwavejenny. Love notjennyjenny

The hearing trumpet - great cover picture

Yes I do choose books by their covers all the time. This one grabbed me straight away and so does the author and story. I thought some of you may be interested if you are let me know I have my own copy.

Marian Leatherby 92, is given a hearing trumpet by her loyal friend Carmela to listen in on her family who are planning to send her off the old ladies home that is ran in an almost sect type way where everyone (the old ladies only) live in story book cottages shaped like cakes or castles. She wonders why the couple who run the place are so fat while her food is rationed, her wicked friend has a great plan for her escape, I haven't finished the book so I don't know if she gets her wish to go to Lapland.

Leonora Carrington the author is fascinating, a surrealist painter and writer. British born and posh enough to be presented "at Court" she wanted to become an artist became interested in Surrealism, ran off with Max Ernst and had a wild time according to biographers and is still living, in Mexico, and also 92.

Anna