THE READER

Whilst we all agreed that we are glad that we have read this book (excellent choice thankyou Diane), we can't say that we "enjoyed" reading it. It certainly stimulated some very thoughtful discussion about love/relationships, family/relationships, guilt and forgiveness and being judgmental. Did Michael's relationship with Hanna affect his future relationship with women or had his family uprbringing contributed in some way? Hanna asks the judge "What would you have done?" .........? Before posting this today I googled "Bernhard Schlink" which led to Wikipedia, Youtube (an excellent interview) and Oprah's bookclub (scroll down to the bottom for other interesting links) and a podcast with Schlink on the BBC. I wish I had done this before voicing my opinion at bookclub as I thought Hanna had accepted imprisonment to "save face" but now feel it was because of feelings of guilt and deserved punishment. A point that was well raised by Colleen. Who is "The Reader"? Michael, many people or us? I'm going read the book again and watch the movie.

OUR AGENDA

MARCH - Sue - Liz B's "Gang of Four at Lyn's home. APRIL - Diane "The Reader" Bernard Schlink MAY - Rhonda - "The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton, at Rhonda's home. JUNE - Margaret JULY - Veronica - "Maralinga" by Judy Nunn AUGUST - Kaye - "The Shack" by William P. Young SEPTEMBER - Colleen OCTOBER - Lyn, you choose a Douglas Kennedy book, should be readily available NOVEMBER - how about we live on the edge and have a guest speaker? Groovy!

A SIMPLE LIFE

The vote is evenly divided amongst those who loved this book and those who only forced themselves to read it for group discussion.

Whilst some of us found it hard going the book raised interesting issues about family life then and now, country v city life - the similarities, the differences. How accepting his family, and most families of that era, were of quite serious medical conditions and their neighbour's unusual lifestyles and quirky characters. They just got on with it - it would be interesting to know if their lives, his dad's depression and his mum's burns, would have been improved by the use of today's drugs and counselling. Some members were able to talk to us about their own close association with epilepsy, thanks for sharing.

The point was also raised that this is Peter's (the youngest in the family) view of the family life, do all the siblings have the same reflections? I think we nearly all agreed that this is a book Peter Fitzsimmons wanted to write to put on record his love of family and most of all his mum ... another "Fortunate Life". An excellent discussion.

In some ways the book has not been a good influence on the group with talk of rubbing garlic on our feet (was this to ward away vampires/husbands?) and not washing our hair for months (definite cost benefits here) and even going barefooted- if this trend continues we may have to have an extra special general meeting on appropriate hygiene standards to be convened at the Tubulgum coffee shop.

March meeting - Sue's choice "Gang of Four" to be held at Lyn's home.

JANUARY COFFEE MORNING

An opportunity for casual mingling of the Red Cross/Quilting and Golfing "wives" of our group. Of course we couldn't help having a small discussion about the upcoming book of the month but talk was mainly about our latest reads whilst enjoying beverages and refreshments. I did like the quote of the day from Linda that she suffers from "Food Envy" when noticing what other people have ordered.

Books were swapped, recommendations given and we looked forward to our next official meeting.

Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year.

Hope you all find a few moments to read "A Simple Life" ...

Recently I read "Water for Elephants" which I really enjoyed and can recommend highly. For those of you who enjoy the Doc Martin series watch out for a 1999 movie "Saving Grace" from which the character was taken. It is set in Port Isaacs (Portwen in the series), a delightful movie with some very funny moments.

In the New Year Linda and I will arrange a Literary/Caffeine get together.

Take care.

A FORTUNATE LIFE

Some of us loved it, some of us didn't but most of us agreed that it is an excellent insight into life in not so "fortunate" times. The discussion brought forward many differing observations and unanswered questions :-

• why did his foster parents turn against him when they couldn't adopt him? Were they just disappointed or were there more pecuniary reasons?
• how did he remember details so accurately later in life? (perhaps hindsight is a wonderful thing).
• was he a real hero or was he a bit boastful about his achievements in times when it was tough for everyone?

He was certainly fortunate to find his wife and life partner who supported him and worked with him through his "Fortunate Life".

A book that should be compulsory school reading. If only AB Facey could see us now ....

Lyn brought along her copies of "The Bitter Shore" - Jac quie Everett "an Iranian family's escape to Australia and the hell they found at the border of paradise:. Eliza's Gift - Rachael Horn "a sizzling romantic comedy for women of any age". The Postmistress (as recommended by Ann) - Sarah Blake "those who carry the truth sometimes bear a terrible weight". Thanks for sharing.

Veronica has shared her copy of Peter Fitzsimmons "Nancy Wake".

During the afternoon the discussion covered books written by authors doing amazing good works around the world and "Salvation Creek" by Susan Duncan - a visit to her part of the world would be a great excursion.

My copy of "Beautiful Malice" (Margaret's highly recommend suggestion) arrived from The Book Depository ..... Linda and Di have enjoyed it.

Sadly the Thinkers (that's us) Bookstore is closing down, so pop around as many books are 75% off.

There will be no meeting in October due to literary research by members in Europe, USA and NZ. Veronica has kindly agreed to be the hostess in November when we will be talking about the works of Jodi Piccoult, select one of her novels then come and tell everyone all about it. Do look at her website. Two of her books have been made into movies - were they good representations?

Perhaps you could recommend your favourite "light reading" author, I don't really want to use the term "chic lit" :-)

FIRST MEETING

A very successful first meeting with enough recommendations to keep us reading for quite some time. Non-fiction seems to be high on the list with the odd "chick flick" thrown in to ease the stress levels before reading another deep and meaninful biography.

The Stig Larsen trilogy was discussed with equally divided opinions. Many helpful suggestions were put forward by our guest from America, Ann, a librarian who has belonged to Book Groups in the past. One interesting suggestion was to pick an author of the month and ladies could choose which book to read. This of course would solve the problem of all of us reserving the same book at Tweed.

For the time being everyone seems happy to meet at 2 pm on the first Saturday of the month .... the next meeting will be held at Judy's, the book will be A.B. Facey's "A Fortunate Life" ... hope you all enjoy it.

Some recommendations:

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, House Rules - Jodi Picouolt, My sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult, Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools - Greg Mortenson and House of Spirits - Isable Allende. All recommended by Ann.

Beautiful Malice - Rebecca James (recommended highly by Margaret).

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Judy and Lyn liked this too) and A Certain Music - Celeste Watters ..... all Diane's recommendations.

A Cork on the Waves, Halina Robinson, The Good Women of China - Zin Ran, Falling Leaves - ?, Little Daughter - Zoya Phan (available at some of the discount stores) and The Floating Brothel .... these were Linda's recommendations.

Picking Cotton (a true story of wrong identifcation and conviction) by Thompson and Cotton .... Lyn's recommendation.

and The Book Thief by Colleen.

There were many other books discussed by by brain was suffering from Literary overload by then.

Judy