February's BookClub: A Trip to the Movies

Last Sunday bookclub headed to see a matinee of 'The Lovely Bones'. Starring our very own Saoirse Ronan as the lead character, Susie Salmon who was murdered when she was fourteen on her way home from school by a neighbour. The film is set in the 70's and Peter Jackson does a great job at capturing the era on screen - all innocent and dreamy. The film loses its way somewhat with the depiction of Heaven or the 'in between' with Peter seemingly taking inspiration from cartoons like the care bears and telly tubbies which jars considerably with the tension created in the search for the murderer.

The light relief is provided in the form of the eccentric granny played to perfection by Susan Sarandon who comes to help the family who is in crisis. Jack, Susie's father, is obsessed with finding her murderer and Abigail, Susie's mother, can't cope and eventually abandons the family to work on a winery. I enjoyed the film overall and thought that it did a good job of bringing the book to life. It was a little overly long and the ending could have been tied up better but they did have to condense the time period from the book to the film so this is most likely the reason for the disjointed ending.

As our last bookclub read was Her Fearful Symmetry, the theme of ghosts fit in quite well. Both books had a different version of an "in between" and also both could communicate in some way with the living.

And the book chosen for next month's bookclub is 'The Missing' by Jane Casey. It is a psychological thriller and received good reviews in Glamour this month. Jenny Shepard is twelve years old and missing. Her teacher, Sarah Finch, finds Jenny's body beaten and abandoned in the woods near her home. As a little girl, Sarah's brother Charlie had also gone missing and the strain of not knowing what happened ripped her family apart. Now in her early twenties, she is back living at home with her mother who drinks too much and keeps her brothers bedroom as a shrine to his memory. Sarah becomes drawn into the police investigation.

The author, Jane Casey, was born in Dublin and studied English at Jesus College, Oxford followed by an mPhil in Anglo-Irish Literature in Trinity College, Dublin. She now lives in London and works in publishing as a children's books editor.

It is hoped to have the next bookclub towards the end of March and Debs has kindly offered to host and show off her new house.

Happy Reading.

The Irish Times Book Club

So the Irish Times have created an online Book club at the beginning of this year and the first book they have chosen is Brooklyn by Colm Toibin.

How does it work?

You don't have to be in a book club already to join in, it's free, and you just have to sign up onlin eto contribute your comments. They'll be reading a book a month - March's book will be announced mid-February so keep an eye out on the website.

So to sign up or get involved in the conversation and read more, go to the website below:

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/thebookclub/

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.