January Bookclub 2010: Extreme Bookclub

So the first bookclub of a new year and a new decade didn't exactly go to plan due to adverse weather conditions. Only those close enough made the short trek across snow and ice like mini Bear Gryll Explorers to Lisa's house. We were welcomed with pizza, salads, wine, tea and lots of christmas cheer. Among other things we discussed the last book, So what if I'm Broken. It was agreed that it was a light read but most found the additions of Jack L a little overbearing and forced.



For the first book of 2010, we decided on Audrey Niffeneggers second book, Her Fearful Symmetry. Amazon Best of the Month, September 2009: Following her breakout bestseller, The Time Traveller's Wife, Audrey returns with Her Fearful Symmetry, a haunting tale about the complications of love, identity, and sibling rivalry. The novel opens with the death of Elspeth Noblin, who bequeaths her London flat and its contents to the twin daughters of her estranged twin sister back in Chicago. These 20-year-old dilettantes, Julia and Valentina, move to London, eager to try on a new experience like one of their obsessively matched outfits. Historic Highgate Cemetary, which borders Elspeth's home, serves as an inspired setting as the twins become entwined in the lives of their neighbours: Elspeth's former lover, Robert; Martin, an agoraphobic crossword-puzzle creator; and the ethereal Elspeth herself, struggling to adjust to the afterlife. Niffenegger brings these quirky, troubled characters to marvellous life, but readers may need their own supernatural suspension of disbelief as the story winds to its twisty conclusion. -- Brad Thomas Parsons [Amazon.com Review]


For the next bookclub, it has been decided to have a bookclub outing in February 2010. Some ideas proposed were a play either Little Gem in The Peacock or The Faithhealer in The Gate; a film, The Lovely Bones or lunch/dinner in town.

In other news we didn't win the Ennis Book Club Festival's "Bookclub of the Year", that particular honour went to the NCBI Audio Book Club from Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.