Christmas BookClub

The last bookclub of 2006 was held last night with mulled wine and mince pies for the season thats in it. We discussed all three books.

The Girl in Times Square received mixed reviews. I think it is a grower - slow to start but captures and holds your interest throughout - What has happened to Amy? Is Andrew involved? Will Lily get better? Will Spencer and Lily's love last? Will Lily's family cop themselves on? There is a lot going on in the book. Kathryn felt that Amy was forgotten about for a large part of the book but we felt that this was true to life. She was always in the background but life does go on regardless. Lily's illness was dealt with very well and in great detail. Paullina Simons is a great writer, especially with building characters who like real life are ultimately flawed people. Having said this I did prefer her other books - Tully, Red Leaves and Eleven Hours.

We all found Cradle & All to be an easy read but it left a bad taste in the mouth after finishing it. The premise seems to be better than the reality. It's a shame that James Patterson sunk into outdated stereotypical images of an Ireland from years past. Everyone who read it flew through it and it did hold your interest from start to finish but it was badly tied up with a weak ending. A central flaw I found with the book was the idea that Kathleen was supposed to be one of the virgins and in the end it was proven she wasn't yet throughout the book she was speaking to the devil, seeing the devil, had been exorcised and nearly killed several times by the sea and her mad nanny! I just couldn't get my head around that! The ending was very cliched and left it wide open for a sequel. All in all a very disappointing read. Although it did lead into a very long conversation about religion and belief in the Devil and God so it is a conversation starter!

Also there is a link between the two books - both refer to the crying room. A room in the Vatican where the newly elected pope goes and usually ends up crying due to the pressure of the world on his shoulders. In the Girl in Times Square this was mentioned also as the room in a church where mothers take their crying babies. The priest inferred that Lily's mother has never left that room referring to her manic depression.

Lastly A Man's Search for Meaning was only briefly touched on as Debbie was the only one to have started it. She would recommend it - look for it in the psychology section of the bookshop.

As it was Christmas we had a kris kingle so for the next bookclub we have decided to read our pressies and if there's time also the Scottish book suggestions for the next meeting so we'll have plenty to discuss at the next meeting. Sure what's Christmas about if only to stuff yourselves silly and curl up with a good book. Here are the kris kingle books:

History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Leo Gursky is a man who fell in love at the age of ten and has been in love ever since. These days he is just about surviving life in America, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbour know he's still alive, drawing attention to himself at the milk counter of Starbucks. But life wasn't always like this: sixty years ago in the Polish village where he was born Leo fell in love with a young girl called Alma and wrote a book in honour of his love. These days he assumes that the book, and his dreams, are irretrievably lost, until one day they return to him in the form of a brown envelope. Meanwhile, a young girl, hoping to find a cure for her mother's loneliness, stumbles across a book that changed her mother's life and she goes in search of the author. Soon these and other worlds collide in The History of Love, a captivating story of the power of love, of loneliness and of survival.
[Image taken from Amazon.co.uk and synopsis taken from http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780141019970,00.html]


All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve
A man escaping from a hotel fire sees a woman standing beneath a tree. He approaches her and sets in motion a series of events that will change his life forever. Years later, traveling from New England to Florida by train, he reflects back on his obsession with this unknown and ultimately unknowable woman-his courtship of her, his marriage to her, and the unforgivable act that ripped their family apart. Spanning three decades from 1899 to 1933, ALL HE EVER WANTED gives us a tale of marriage, betrayal, and the search for redemption. It has the unmatched attention to details of character, place, and emotion that have made Anita Shreve one of America's best-loved and bestselling novelists.
[Image taken from Amazon.co.uk and synopsis taken from http://www.ebookmall.com/ebook/99132-ebook.htm]

The Lightworker's Way by Doreen Virtue
In the Lightworkers Way Doreen tells her own story of awakening her healing and clairvoyant powers, and her words will be an inspiration to the thousands of you who are on the journey of remembering your divine mission and discovering the natural spiritual skills that you were born with. This book will help you to reawaken gifts such as the ability to heal on a spiritual and energetic level and to give readings about the past, present and future. Doreen Virtue directs you in conducting healing sessions, heightening your psychic receptivity, calling upon the angels that are always by your side and opening your third eye.

[Image and synopsis taken from Amazon.co.uk]

Graham Greene

Graham Greene (1904 - 1991) is one of the most widely read novelist of the 20th century. His novels treat moral issues in the context of political settings. This collection includes three of his well-known books including The Tenth Man; Our Man in Havana and The Third Man. The Tenth Man begins in a prison in Occupied France during World War II. It is deemed that one in every ten prisoners is to be executed; lots are drawn to decide who will die. One of the men chosen is a rich lawyer. He offers all his money to anyone who will take his place. One man agrees. Upon his release from prison the lawyer must face the consequences of his actions. In Our Man in Havana, Wormold, a vacuum-cleaner salesman, was short of money, so he accepted an offer of $300-plus a month and became M16's man in Havana. To keep his job, he files bogus reports and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start becoming disturbingly true. The Third Man is Graham Greene's brilliant recreation of post-war Vienna, a 'smashed dreary city' occupied by the four Allied powers. Rollo Martins, a second-rate novelist, arrives penniless to visit his friend and hero, Harry Lime. But Harry has died in suspicious circumstances, and the police are closing in on his associates--a stylish thriller that hooks readers from the first to the last page.
[Image and synopsis of Our Man in Havana and The Third Man taken from http://www.ulib.niu.edu/rbsc/grahamgreene.htm ; Synopsis of The Tenth Man taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tenth_Man]

Easy Food

Ireland's number one food magazine. Every issue contains a delicious mix of cooking tips, budget recipes, easy meal ideas and nutrition information.
[Image and synopsis taken from http://www.easyfood.ie/]

In honour of the Easy Food magazine, for the next bookclub we have decided to attempt a dish each to enjoy along with the book discussion.

Happy Christmas everyone and Happy Reading.

See you in 2007!

Launch of the Scottish BookClub

Ciara McGrath Wrote:
We really enjoyed our first bookclub meeting. It didnt really have much of a structure because there was so few of us, more of a chat really, but it was really interesting to hear other peoples opinions and it helped to see the characters in a different light than we maybe had before.

We spoke mostly about The Girl in Times Square because that was the one we had all read. We all really enjoyed this book and were kept interested by the complex relationships between the characters as well as the mystery central to the book. The illness of the main character was handled really well and I liked that she was not turned into an angelic character just because she was ill - her reactions and thoughts were very human. Although she was in a way the 'hero' of the novel, she didnt always make the right decisions or react appropriately. This made her seem a lot more real and I found it easier to sympathise with her as a result. We felt that the book
provided just about everything - mystery, romance, tragedy, scares - we laughed and cried.

The other book we talked about was Cradle and All. There was much less enthusiasm for this one. Louise found it readable but pretty mediocre. I personally really disliked it. I thought the characterisation was really cliched - particularly the Irish characters - at some points I actually gasped in disbelief at what I was reading! We also found the narrating character really difficult to identify with. She seemed smug and self-absorbed and not at all likeable. I also thought that the relationship between her and the priest from her past was totally unnecessary to the story -it didnt go into enough detail about their growing feelings for each other to add anything to the novel and gave me the impression that it had been tacked on to the edges as an afterthought to add a bit of sensationalism to the already ropey premise. (sorry, rant over...) - it has really put me off reading any more of his books.

My suggestion for next months read is "The Vesuvius Club" by Mark Gatiss.
I haven't read any of his novels but I went to see him speak about his new novel, the follow-up to this one, last month at Aberdeen University and he was really brilliant. He is one of the minds behind the League of Gentlemen, and has written for Doctor Who as well. Hopefully it should be pretty good :)

Lucifer Box, the hero of the Vesuvius Club, is a portraitist, gentleman and secret agent, a kind of Edwardian James Bond with a generous helping of Sherlock Holmes thrown in for good measure. It’s a cracking romp presented in true Strand magazine style with an appropriately evocative cover and illustrations throughout. Though a self-declared “bit of fluff” the novel has all the necessary elements that fans of such fiction will be hoping for: a suitably convoluted plot involving volcanoes and kidnapped scientists and lashings of pleasing period references. The Vesuvius Club is the first part of a planned trilogy taking the character through different periods, into the 1920s and the 1930s and onwards through the 20th century.
[Image taken from Amazon.co.uk and Review taken from http://www.readysteadybook.com/BookReview.aspx?isbn=0743257057]


Louise's suggestion is "The Secret Life of Trees" by Colin Tudge. It's a 'celebration of trees" apparently. Sounds pretty interesting.

The central theme of Colin Tudge’s The Secret Life of Trees is variety and the evolution of variety: variety in form, in adaptation, in kinds of dependence – most trees need to cohabit with soil fungi, some need insects, birds or fruit bats to pollinate them and spread their seed, some are parasitic on other trees. Tudge makes the British experience seem truly insular. He writes, for example, about ‘the wondrous Reserva Florestal Adolfo Ducke’, which covers a hundred square kilometres of Amazon rainforest. Two thousand times smaller than Britain, it has forty times as many native trees – 1300 species.
[Image taken from Amazon.co.uk and Review taken from http://www.lrbshop.co.uk/product.php?productid=2296&cat=39&page=1]

Ennis Book Club Festival Update

Hi girls,

Just to let you know that the Ennis Book Club Festival have launched a website: http://www.ennisbookclubfestival.com. It is worth checking out. The event will be held in Ennis, County Clare from March 2nd - 4th 2007. An impressive line-up of speakers have already confirmed.

To read more, click on their press release:
http://www.ennisbookclubfestival.com/press-images/ebcf-press-release.pdf

Or alternatively visit the website above.

Looking forward to Christmas Book Club.

Trish.

December Recommended Reads

Hi Everybody,

It was decided at last nights meeting that we would just recommend the three books suggested and everyone reads whatever takes their fancy! That way we'll have loads to discuss at the next meeting which will also be our Christmas bash (mulled wine and pressies). So happy choosing and get reading.....

1) Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. The book begins with a lengthy, austere and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl's imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live.

The second part of the book, called "Logotherapy in a Nutshell" describes the psychotherapeutic method that Frankl pioneered as a result of his experiences in the concentration camps. Freud believed that sexual instincts and urges were the driving force of humanity's life; Frankl, by contrast, believes that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Therefore, Frankl's logotherapy is much more compatible with western religions than Freudian psychotherapy. This is a fascinating, sophisticated and very human book.

At times, Frankl's personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power. "Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is", Frankl writes. "After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips." --Christine Buttery

[Image and words taken from Amazon.co.uk]

2. Cradle & All by James Patterson

[Image taken from amazon.com]

CRADLE AND ALL takes the incidents at Fatima, just after the beginning of the last century, makes a couple of twists, and runs and runs for daylight. Mary, the Mother of Christ, appeared on at least three occasions to some shepherd children at Fatima. She gave one of the children a message to pass on to the Pope. The contents of this message have never been revealed, but supposedly it has been passed on to each Pope since that time. The message, or at least one version of it, is revealed in CRADLE AND ALL. There will be two virgin births; one will witness the birth of the Savior, the other the birth of the spawn of Satan. And, as events kick into gear, the Catholic Church finds two girls who are both virgins, yet pregnant.

One is a 14 year old Irish girl living in poverty; the other is a 16 year old girl living in Boston. There is one problem: there is no way to determine who is giving birth to whom. Naturally, the Church wants to protect the birth of the Savior. Satan, naturally, wants to thwart the birth of the Savior and preserve his (or her) own offspring. The Church is accordingly attempting to watch over both girls. Someone --- or something --- is after both of them. Anne Fitzgerald, ex-nun turned private investigator is initially retained by the Church to investigate the virgin pregnancies, but soon finds herself guarding one of them as well as her own virtue. But is she guarding the Savior, or protecting the Satan-spawn? Don't think for a minute that you'll be able to guess. Even if you're right, you'll be wrong. Patterson has demonstrated before that he is an absolute master of pacing and diversion, and he demonstrates it yet again with CRADLE AND ALL.

It begins with a bit of mystery, lets a little intrigue in along the way, throws in some unrequited romance, and mixes it all with an undercurrent of creeped-out thriller. The ending --- make that endings, enough for three or four books --- has more twists and turns to it than an 80 m.p.h. trip down the flower section of San Francisco's Lombard Street. You'll wish you could read with your eyes closed. And, if all of this were not enough, Patterson leaves the door of the possibility of a sequel open a crack or two. Whether he chooses to follow-up on CRADLE AND ALL or not, Patterson has given us a story that will have everyone reading and talking for some time to come. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 1996-2006, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

3. The Girl in Times Square by Paullina Simons

The Girl in Times Square is set in a time and a place of affluence and peace, New York City, 2001, and it begins with people who are unhappy and lonely despite everything. People who are afraid to care and so never do. Who carry secrets that contaminate their dreams. Who think they have a right to misery as well as to prosperity and opportunity.

Lily Quinn is 24. She enjoys life. She has friends. She has a beautiful relationship with her older brother, Andrew, a congressman, if not with the rest of her family. She’s just won the New York Lottery, $18 million. But she loves her quiet life and she will not collect the money; in fact, the idea scares her half to death. And when her best friend and roommate, Amy, goes missing she is even more determined not to cash in the ticket.

New York 2000: The city is thriving but Amy may be dead, Andrew faces ruin, or worse, and love and loyalty are at war. Then something really bad happens to Lily, so bad she does at last collect her money: $11 million after tax. Whether her new fortune can save her or protect the people she loves is a big question in this heart-wrenching story of a young girl’s fight for life, when past suffering and future dreams play havoc with the present.

[Image and words taken from www.harpercollins.com.au]

Other Book Suggestions at September Meeting

Tales from Rainwater Pond by Billy Roche [Suggested by K]

The first collection of short stories by playwright, Billy Roche. Each of these twelve stories, has, at its heart, the strange, beautiful and eerie place known as Rainwater Pond, which acts as a silent witness to the passage of years and interactions of characters.

While all of these stories stand alone the whole collection artfully connects to paint a vivid portrait of Rainwater Pond and a multitute of its inhabitants;
Maggie Angre who lost a brother in a swimming accident and visits the scene of his drowning, Tommy Day, the singer who dreams of better days, Kevin Troy, the hurling 'star' who, at 17, has too much responsibility.

Two stories in the collection, Haberdashery and Sussex Gardens, have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 while, Table Manners, is to be filmed and directed by award winning playwright Conor McPherson.

[Image taken from http://www.tcd.ie/Library/Shop/product.php?productID=1461]

Death of a River Guide by Richard Flanagan [Suggested by Shinners]

"He feels himself tumbled by water, then suddenly slammed to a halt, feels rocks grip round his hips and his chest like tightening vices. Feels the water that was for a few seconds benign change its character immediately to that of a mad, rushing sadist, forcing his head and body forward and down and under. And he knows this moment has been a long time coming. "

Beneath a waterfall on the Franklin, Aljaz Cosini, river guide, lies drowning. Beset by visions at once horrible and fabulous, he relives not just his own life but that of his family and forebears. In the rainforest waters that rush over him he sees those lives stripped of their surface realities, and finds a world where dreaming reasserts its power over thinking. As the river rises his visions grow more turbulent, and in the flood of the past Aljaz discovers the soul history of his country.

Widely acclaimed, Death of a River Guide is an inspired novel; a lyrical torrent of love and redemption, of rage and pain and laughter tempered by the inevitability of loss.

[Image and synopsis taken from http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/flanaganr/riverguide.html]

BookClub Read for Octobers Meeting

The read for next month's Meeting is The Good German by Joseph Kanon.

[Image and Synopsis courtesy of Picador]

The Good German, set in Berlin during the summer of 1945, is an equally fast-moving and thought-provoking novel of suspense, and of history, that concerns the end of one war and the beginning of another. Jake Geismar, the former Berlin correspondent for CBS, has been sent back to his old beat to write magazine pieces about the Potsdam Conference, at which America, Britain, and Russia will divide the spoils and determine the future of a recently conquered Germany, a nation of dark secrets and unfathomable atrocities. But as World War II draws to a close, has the Cold War already begun? Moreover, what Jake sees floating in a lake right outside the Potsdam Conference turns out to be (for his purposes, at least) a far more interesting story-and a more personal and more dangerous one, as well. A murder mystery, a love story, and a panoramic depiction of a wholly ravished European metropolis at a unique moment in history, Joseph Kanon's novel is, as Neil Gordon observed in The New York Times Book Review, a "provocative, fully realized [work of] fiction that explores, as only fiction can, the reality of history as it is lived by individual men and women."

The Movie starring Cate Blanchett, George Clooney and Tobey Maguire is currently in production.

Im finally on

Heya fellow bloggers,
Trish just just showed me how to blog!!!
Am excited...but slighly apprehensive at the same time!
Till the 25th
x

Finsceal 2006 - A Writers Trail of Fingal

Fingal County Council are holding a festival of readers and writers events in venues across Fingal for the month of September. Now in its fifth year, the event will include author talks, writing workshops, poetry jams and even a special murder-mystery day. All events are free but tickets are limited.

More details available from:
http://www.fingalarts.ie/documents/FINSCEAL2006_000.pdf

The Year in Review

Looking back over the last year, here is what we have read so far:

1. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

2. The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

3. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

4. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell by Susanna Clarke

5. While I was Gone by Sue Miller

6. The Undomesticated Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

7. One of the Ross O'Carroll-Kelly's Series - The Mis-education Years; The Teenage Dirtbag Years; The Orange Mocha-Chip Frappucino Years; PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress

8. A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve

9. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice

10. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse OR Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thompson

11. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

12. The Mermaids Chair by Sue Monk Kidd OR Marley & Me by John Grogan OR Theft by Peter Carey

I think I've covered them all. Please vote for your favorite book and here's to many more years of reading!!

Anniversary Bookclub Meeting

Hi girls,

Well it's official - our bookclub is one year old. The anniversary meeting took place on Monday 28th August and was kindly hosted by Lisa.

The books for this month were The Mermaids Chair, Theft and Marley & Me so lots of choice for everyone. I found the Mermaids Chair to be a bit disappointing after reading and loving Sue Monk Kidds first book, The Secret Life of Bees. This book was very different. I guess I found the story a little morbid. It reminded me a little of While I Was Gone by Sue Miller with similar stories of marriage difficulties during the empty nest phase. Unusual in the way both novels focused on the woman's dissatisfaction with their lives. I did like the fact that at the back of the book was useful notes about the book, Reading group questions and an interview with the Author.

Debs read Marley & Me and really enjoyed it. It is one for the animal lovers among you.

For those of you who couldn't attend on Monday, please feel free to add your thoughts on the books.

August Recommended Reads

Hi All!

Hope you enjoyed last night, and as promised the list for August, just choose whichever takes your fancy and we'll have loads to discuss at Anniversary meeting! So enjoy .....

1) The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

Inside the abbey of a Benedictine monastery on Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint, who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion.When Jessie is summoned home to the island to cope with her eccentric mother’s seemingly inexplicable act of violence, she is living a conventional life with her husband, Hugh, a life “molded to the smallest space possible.” Jessie loves Hugh, but once on the island, she finds herself drawn to Brother Thomas, a monk who is soon to take his final vows. Amid a rich community of unforgettable island women and the exotic beauty of marshlands, tidal creeks and majestic egrets, Jessie grapples with the tension of desire and the struggle to deny it, with a freedom that feels overwhelmingly right and the immutable force of home and marriage. Is the power of the mermaid chair only a myth? Or will it alter the course of Jessie’s life? What transpires will unlock the roots of her mother’s tormented past, but most of all, allow Jessie to make a marriage unto herself.Where does the yearning for soul-mated love come from? When it comes to love, what are the pulls inside a woman between the ordinary and the sublime? The Mermaid Chair is a vividly imagined novel about mermaids and saints, about the passions of the spirit and the ecstasies of the body, brilliantly illuminating the awakening of a woman to her own deepest self.

2) Theft by Peter Carey

I don't know if my story is grand enough to be a tragedy, although a lot of shitty stuff did happen. It is certainly a love story but that did not begin until midway through the shitty stuff, by which time I had not only lost my eight-year-old son, but also my house and studio in Sydney where I had once been as famous as a painter could expect in his own backyard ...'So begins Peter Carey's highly charged and lewdly funny new novel. Told by the twin voices of the artist Butcher Bones and his 'damaged 220-pound brother' Hugh, it recounts their adventures and troubles after Butcher's plummeting prices and spiralling drink problem force them to retreat to northern New South Wales. Here the formerly famous artist is reduced to being a caretaker for his biggest collector, and the nurse for his erratic brother. Then the mysterious Marlene turns up one stormy night, clad in a pair of Manolo Blahniks. Claiming that the brothers' friend and neighbour owns an original Jacques Liebovitz, she soon sets in motion a chain of events that could be the making or ruin of them all. Once again displaying Peter Carey's extraordinary flair for language, "Theft" is a love poem of a very different kind. Ranging from the rural wilds of Australia to Manhattan via Tokyo - and exploring themes of art, fraud, responsibility and redemption - this is a great novel which will also make you laugh out loud.


3) Marley & Me by John Grogan

John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they bought home Marley, a wiggly yellow fur ball of a puppy. Life would never be the same. Marley quickly grew into a barrelling, ninety-seven pound steamroller of a Labrador retriever, a dog like no other. He crashed through screen doors, gouged through drywall, flung drool on guests, stole women's undergarments, and ate nearly everything he could get his mouth around, including couches and fine jewellery. Obedience school did no good - Marley was expelled. Neither did the tranquilisers the veterinarian prescribed for him with the admonishment, 'Don't hesitate to use these.' And yet Marley's heart was pure. Just as he joyfully refused any limits on his behaviour, his love and loyalty were boundless, too. Marley shared the couple's joy at their first pregnancy, and their heartbreak over the miscarriage. He was there when babies finally arrived and when the screams of a seventeen-year-old stabbing victim pierced the night. Unconditional love, they would learn, comes in many forms. This is the heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life.

Bookclub Next Meeting July 31st

Hi All!
Just to remind you next meeting is this Monday and am forwarding details, venues, times etc to your e-mail as I type...hope to see you all there!

Luv
Shinners

Other books suggested for the July Read

my best friend’s girl by Dorothy Koomson (Image copyright Time Warner Paperbacks , Published by Time Warner Paperbacks . Further details available at http://tinyurl.com/mlj25, meet the author at http://tinyurl.com/efme4.

What would you do for the friend who broke your heart?Best friends Kamryn Matika and Adele Brannon thought nothing could come between them - until Adele did the unthinkable and slept with Kamryn's fiancé, Nate. Worse still, she got pregnant and had his child. When Kamryn discovered the truth about their betrayal she vowed never to see any of them again. Two years later, Kamryn receives a letter from Adele asking her to visit her in hospital. Adele is dying and begs Kamryn to adopt her daughter, Tegan. With a great job and a hectic social life, the last thing Kamryn needs is a five year old to disrupt things. Especially not one who reminds her of Nate. But with no one else to take care of Tegan and Adele fading fast, does she have any other choice? So begins a difficult journey that leads Kamryn towards forgiveness, love, responsibility and, ultimately, a better understanding of herself.


The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Image copyright: Hodder Headline. Published by Hodder Headline. Further information, reviews, excerpts & readers guide are available at http://tinyurl.com/mdhtk)

Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens has shaped her entire life around one devastating, blurred memory--the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four. Since then, her only real companion has been the fierce-hearted, and sometimes just fierce, black woman Rosaleen, who acts as her “stand-in mother.” When Rosaleen insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily knows it's time to spring them both free. They take off in the only direction Lily can think of, toward a town called Tiburon, South Carolina--a name she found on the back of a picture amid the few possessions left by her mother. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters named May, June, and August. Lily thinks of them as the calendar sisters and enters their mesmerizing secret world of bees and honey, and of the Black Madonna who presides over this household of strong, wise women. Maternal loss and betrayal, guilt and forgiveness entwine in a story that leads Lily to the single thing her heart longs for most. The Secret Life of Bees has a rare wisdom about life--about mothers and daughters and the women in our lives who become our true mothers. A remarkable story about the divine power of women and the transforming power of love, this is a stunning debut whose rich, assured, irresistible voice gathers us up and doesn't let go, not for a moment. It is the kind of novel that women share with each other and that mothers will hand down to their daughters for years to come.

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd (Image copyright: Hodder Headline. Published by Hodder Headline. Further information, reviews, excerpts & readers guide are available at http://tinyurl.com/zxzje

Inside the abbey of a Benedictine monastery on Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint, who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion.When Jessie is summoned home to the island to cope with her eccentric mother’s seemingly inexplicable act of violence, she is living a conventional life with her husband, Hugh, a life “molded to the smallest space possible.” Jessie loves Hugh, but once on the island, she finds herself drawn to Brother Thomas, a monk who is soon to take his final vows. Amid a rich community of unforgettable island women and the exotic beauty of marshlands, tidal creeks and majestic egrets, Jessie grapples with the tension of desire and the struggle to deny it, with a freedom that feels overwhelmingly right and the immutable force of home and marriage. Is the power of the mermaid chair only a myth? Or will it alter the course of Jessie’s life? What transpires will unlock the roots of her mother’s tormented past, but most of all, allow Jessie to make a marriage unto herself.Where does the yearning for soul-mated love come from? When it comes to love, what are the pulls inside a woman between the ordinary and the sublime? The Mermaid Chair is a vividly imagined novel about mermaids and saints, about the passions of the spirit and the ecstasies of the body, brilliantly illuminating the awakening of a woman to her own deepest self.


The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
(Image copyright Orion Publising Group. Published by Orion Publising Group. Further details available at http://tinyurl.com/kxkf3

Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the 'cemetery of lost books', a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out 'La Sombra del Viento' by Julian Carax. But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in his find. Then, one night, as he is wandering the old streets once more, Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a character from La Sombra del Viento, a character who turns out to be the devil. This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax's work in order to burn them. What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julian Carax and to save those he left behind. A page-turning exploration of obsession in literature and love, and the places that obsession can lead.

Pigsback Books

Hi girls,

Hope you are all enjoying this month's book by Nick Hornby. Nearly time for our next meeting.

Just wanted to let you all know that Pigsback have launched a Books Zone which you might want to check out -http://www.pigsback.com/offers/692908883/default.asp.

They have their own book club going. There are competitions and you can join Barrys Tea Book Club and receive a free Starter Pack.

BookClub Festival

As mentioned at the last meeting, Clare County Library and Ennis Book Club Festival Committee announced a new Literary Festival. It will take place in Ennis from March 2nd to March 4th, 2007. The Ennis Book Club Festival will be a social and literary gathering to bring together the many Book Clubs that exist nationwide. The programme will include author visits, readings, lectures, music, workshops, exhibitions and more. I'll keep you posted on any updates.

Book Club Read for July....our 11th read!!

Hi Girls!

Managed to get into post to the Blog... thanks to Trish and her Bloggy knowledge!!

Anyhoo just wanted to say hi to all and that after reading no less than two books last time for June, we've picked something a little different for July. Nick Honrby's 'A Long Way Down' was picked out of the hat thanks to Mandy and my dextrous hand. I got the new book yesterday in Hughes & Hughes its only €8.95, if anyone wants to get it. Otherwise can pass my copy on to others as its short n sweet read.

Here's a bit about the book to get the reading juices flowing:

"At the beginning of A Long Way Down, four people gather on a tower block roof nicknamed Toppers House. They've each come to jump to their death, but find that without being alone, none of them are able to complete the act of suicide. The novel is told from the perpective of each of the four. Jess is the daughter of a government minister mourning a sibling's death and rebelling against a boring bourgeois life. Martin is a former TV star disgraced by an affair with an underage girl. Maureen is a middle-aged single mother with a severely disabled son. J. J. is an American musician whose recently split with both his band and his girlfriend. Their common despair provides themselves an instant support group, but each of them must still deal with the underlying causes of their suicidal tendencies. Nick Hornby's book has received mixed reviews with the Sunday Times saying, "Although A Long Way Down is not an evenly successful novel, it justifies Hornby’s decision to write about that misery which we have no need to beg or borrow, and which makes such strong, strange connections between one desperate soul and the next."

For July's meeting looks like I can use Liam's flat to host... so will be able to make some grub and relax n chat like old times. Will send details etc nearer the time to everyone's e-mail and just to remind you its our Fullmoon Bookclub year annisversary in August....

See yiz soon,

Shinners

Other Books Suggested for the June Read

Pack up the Moon by Anna McPartlin (Image copyright Poolbeg. Published by Poolbeg. Further details available at http://tinyurl.com/zzj7c)

For Emma and her friends the future is alive with possibilities and life is for the taking. When Richard comes into money they gather to celebrate as only they know how. But the night ends in tragedy and their lives are thrown into disarray. Emma plunges into despair, her world bereft of all light and hope. Her loyal friends rally round – her best mate, the sexy and streetwise Clodagh, Seán of the thousand one-night stands, the newly married newly moneyed Anne and Richard, and her brother Noel the priest. But though they are there for Emma, they too must struggle to come to terms with that fateful night. Can Emma overcome her guilt and anger? Or will she continue to be blind to the wonderful possibilities right in front of her? There is a big life ahead of her. But she must find the courage to live it.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
(Image copyright Orion Publising Group. Published by Orion Publising Group. Further details available at http://tinyurl.com/kxkf3)

Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the 'cemetery of lost books', a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out 'La Sombra del Viento' by Julian Carax. But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in his find. Then, one night, as he is wandering the old streets once more, Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a character from La Sombra del Viento, a character who turns out to be the devil. This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax's work in order to burn them. What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julian Carax and to save those he left behind. A page-turning exploration of obsession in literature and love, and the places that obsession can lead.

Ursula Under by Ingrid Hill
(Image copyright Penguin Group. Published by Penguin. Further details available at http://tinyurl.com/g6qy9)

In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a dangerous rescue effort draws the ears and eyes of the entire country. A two-and-a-half-year-old girl has fallen down a mine shaft—"the only sound is an astonished tiny intake of breath from Ursula as she goes down, like a penny into the slot of a bank, disappeared, gone." It is as if all hope for life on the planet is bound up in the rescue of this little girl, the first and only child of a young woman of Finnish extraction and her Chinese-American husband. One TV viewer following the action notes that the Wong family lives in a decrepit mobile home and wonders why all this time and money is being "wasted on that half-breed trailer-trash kid."

In response, the novel takes a breathtaking leap back in time to visit Ursula's most remarkable ancestors: a third-century-B.C. Chinese alchemist; an orphaned playmate of a seventeenth-century Swedish queen; Professor Alabaster Wong, a Chautauqua troupe lecturer (on exotic Chinese topics) traveling the Midwest at the end of the nineteenth century; her great-great-grandfather Jake Maki, who died at twenty-nine in a Michigan iron mine cave-in; and others whose richness and history are contained in the induplicable DNA of just one person—little Ursula Wong.

Ursula's story echoes those of her ancestors, many of whom so narrowly escaped not being born that her very existence—like ours—comes to seem a miracle. Ambitious and accomplished, Ursula, Under is, most of all, wonderfully entertaining—a daring saga of culture, history, and heredity.

Carry me Down by MJ Hyland
(Image copyright Canongate Books. Published by Canongate Books. Further details available at http://tinyurl.com/jpdlc)

John Egan is a misfit, 'a twelve-year old in the body of a grown man with the voice of a giant who insists on the ridiculous truth'. With an obsession for the Guinness Book of Records and faith in his ability to detect when adults are lying, John remains hopeful despite the unfortunate cards life deals him. During one year in John's life, from his voice breaking, through the breaking-up of his home life, to the near collapse of his sanity, we witness the gradual unsticking of John's mind, and the trouble that creates for him and his family.

Set in early seventies Ireland, Carry Me Down is a deeply sympathetic take on one sad boyhood, told in gripping, and at times unsettling, prose. It plays out its tragic plot against a disarmingly familiar background and refuses to portray any of its lovingly drawn characters as easy heroes or villains.

The Sea by John Banville
(Image copyright Picador. Published by Picador. Further details available at http://tinyurl.com/zkqec)

WINNER OF THE 2005 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
When art historian Max Morden returns to the seaside village where he once spent a childhood holiday, he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma.

The Grace family had appeared that long-ago summer as if from another world. Mr and Mrs Grace, with their worldly ease and candour, were unlike any adults he had met before. But it was his contemporaries, the Grace twins Myles and Chloe, who most fascinated Max. He grew to know them intricately, even intimately, and what ensued would haunt him for the rest of his years and shape everything that was to follow.

Everyman by Philip Roth
(Image copyright Random House. Published by Random House. Further details available at http://tinyurl.com/g5le2)

Philip Roth’s twenty-seventh book takes its title from an anonymous fifteenth-century English allegorical play whose drama centres on the summoning of the living to death and whose hero, Everyman, is intended to be the personification of mankind. The fate of Roth’s Everyman is traced from his first shocking confrontation with death on the idyllic beaches of his childhood summers and during his hospitalisation as a nine-year-old surgical patient through the crises of health that come close to killing him as a vigorous adult, and into his old age, when he is undone by the death and deterioration of his contemporaries and relentlessly stalked by his own menacing physical woes. A successful commercial advertising artist with a New York ad agency, he is the father of two sons who despise him and a daughter who adores him, the beloved brother of a good man whose physical well-being comes to arouse his bitter envy, and the lonely ex-husband of three very different women with whom he’s made a mess of marriage.

Everyman is a painful human story of the regret and loss and stoicism of a man who becomes what he does not want to be. The terrain of this savagely sad short novel is the human body, and its subject is the common experience that terrifies us all.

Book Club Read for June Meeting

Thanks to all, for your suggestions for the June read. Nominated by K, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse should keep you going until the end of June.

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (ISBN: 0752877321)
(Image copyright Orion Books UK. Further info available from Orion Books http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/MP-35467/Labyrinth.htm)

When Dr Alice Tanner discovers two skeletons during an archaeological dig in southern France, she unearths a link with a horrific and brutal past. But it's not just the sight of the shattered bones that makes her uneasy; there's an overwhelming sense of evil in the tomb that Alice finds hard to shake off, even in the bright French sunshine. Puzzled by the words carved inside the chamber, Alice has an uneasy feeling that she has disturbed something which was meant to remain hidden...

Eight hundred years ago, on the night before a brutal civil war ripped apart Languedoc, a book was entrusted to Alais, a young herbalist and healer. Although she cannot understand the symbols and diagrams the book contains, Alais knows her destiny lies in protecting their secret, at all costs.

Skilfully blending the lives of two women divided by centuries but united by a common destiny, LABYRINTH is a powerful story steeped in the atmosphere and history of southern France.

Just in case any of you manage to finish it before the next meeting, we picked a second book:

Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thompson (ISBN:
(Image copyright Bloomsbury. Visit the Divided Kingdom website)

It is winter, somewhere in the United Kingdom, and an eight year-old boy is removed from his home in the middle of the night. He soon learns that he is the victim of an extraordinary experiment.

In an attempt to reform society, the government has divided the population into four groups, each group representing a different personality type. The land, too, has been divided into quarters. Borders have been established, reinforced by concrete walls, armed guards and rolls of razor wire.

Those who are most favoured are deemed SANGUINE, their dominant humour being blood. They are optimistic, even tempered and constructive, and must reside in the Red Quarter, whose capital is Pneuma.

Those who are empathetic, passive and indecisive are categorised as PHLEGMATIC.
They reside in the Blue Quarter, whose capital is Aquaville.

Aggressive, impulsive people and those prone to excess are deemed CHOLERIC, their dominant humour is yellow bile. Cholerics reside in the Yellow Quarter, whose capital is Thermopolis.

Finally, the MELANCHOLICS, dominated by black bile, are characterised by introspection, pessimism, and an inclination towards the intellectual. Melancholics reside in the Green Quarter, whose capital is Cledge. Plunged headlong into this brave new world, the boy tries to make the best of things, unaware that ahead of him lies a truly explosive moment, a revelation that will challenge everything he believes in and will, in the end, put his very life in jeopardy...

I'll contact all soon with details of the next meeting.

K

Full Mooners Blog Rules

Congrats to T for creating our Full Moon Book Club blog.

Some rules for posts to the Full Mooners blog:
1. Do not use full names of members on the blog.
2. Do not list any members contact details (phone number, email address or home address) on the blog.
3. Do not mention the meeting time or place of future meetings on the blog.
Yes - I know I'm a tad security conscious but you can never be too careful, internet stalkers do exist!!

It's hoped you full mooners will add your comments about past reads to the blog and add suggestions for future reads.

Happy blogging.

K

Full Moon Book Club

Welcome to the first blog from the Full Moon Book Club. Last night, we held our monthly meeting in The Vaults. The book this month was 'The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets' by Eva Rice. A charming coming-of-age novel about Penelope Wallace and her eccentric family and friends set in 1950's London at the beginning of the Rock'N'Roll Era. Overall the reaction to the book was positive - a light read that captures the spirit of the 50's and the eccentricies of the wealthy. We also discussed last month's book, 'A Wedding in December' by Anita Shreve. A sad tale of lost opportunities for the group of former students of Kidd Academy who reunite for the wedding of their friends, Bill and Bridget. There were mixed reviews about this novel. Please feel free to add your own comments about these novels. More information on the next meeting to follow.