LETSBuzz Book Club 15th August 2004
The best vegan cook book ever.
Jean
Not a memorable book - not his best. Andrew had to ask Bob for guidance because he wasn't sure he understood where it was going. The book is set in the future and is full of unrelated seedy narratives and scandal.
Andrew
The author of this autobiography was born into the Bhagwan Rajneesh Foundation. The book is a memoir of life in their communes around the world where he lived with his hippy, dippy mother, sometimes traveling to California where his father lived. A woman brought the organization to its end with dubious practices including embezzlement and poisoning. It is eloquently written, although some important aspects are not explained in enough detail, and a good read. Andrew felt that, on the whole, the young man gained from his unusual upbringing.
Andrew
This book features extraordinary but true incidents over five centuries. This is not a book to read from cover to cover - it is appallingly written. The raw material is good but it is tooth-grindingly badly presented.
Andrew
Bob found this book full of homosexual sex and cocaine and nothing much happens until the end which is a juicy climax. The book is full of detail and very analytical - a great deal of detail and lots of emotion. Finally, the protagonist gets his comeuppance. The book reminded Bob of Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Powell with its unsympathetic characters.
Bob
A book of short stores again with a homosexual theme (more men's bottoms, Bob commented) including tales of property, politics and the city.
Bob
Most people in the group have read this book but as Jean has not yet had the opportunity, this review is necessarily vague. Bob thought it a good read: a dystopian novel where the narrator looks back on his childhood - a golden age....
Bob
A taster book of 50 pages but too snippety - maybe that's Jean's short story problem.
Jean
A weird book in which the author tries too hard to be clever. George and Eloise write poems and lists and there are lots OF CAPITALISED WORDS WHICH IS IRRITATING.
Jean
Better than other books by the same author.
Jean
Recommended. This is the memoir of a young art student who "fell" into lighthouse keeping by chance. Sadly it is not well written but, nevertheless, an interesting and fascinating account of the routines and tasks, and sometimes lonely life, of a young lighthouse keeper.
Jean
A usual tale from the master.
Christine
A memoir of a bygone age where art and culture wealth and poverty coexisted.
Christine
Highly recommended.
Christine
A most wonderful book about Florence and the time of Savonarola. A wealthy Florentine merchant and his family and the times and style of life beautifully written and described. There is a secret...
Doreen had read the book and felt it was a girly book with a story she had read before.
Christine
Set in America and written by the heroine who has been murdered and is writing from heaven. She witnesses the interaction within her family and sees her murderer. Gill assured us that it is not a distressing book but is matter-of-fact, descriptive and unusual and very elegantly constructed.
Gill
A true story of growing up in Afghanistan before the Russian invasion. The author, born in 1963, grows up in a reasonably comfortable home and reasonably privileged society, and a central theme of the book is his relationship with his servant. However, on gaining political asylum in the United States in 1980, he discovers he is no longer part of that privileged society.
Gill
A different strand of Bill Bryson appears with this book, which is as the title describes. It is well-researched, entertaining and knowledgeable and explains in layman's terms science - all of it! The book also talks about the people who made the discoveries (where possible). Although there is a lot to digest, Rory recommended it and read out some excerts to illustrate how delightfully Bill Bryson writes.
Rory
His first book, which had been reviewed previously by Gill - who explained that until the elephant sat on the car the book really didn't look promising... Doreen did not understand the book, which seemed to be a modern fable about the human condition, and didn't enjoy it.
Doreen
Both a weird and funny book. An eighteen year old cleans boarding houses (and the rooms in them). He lusts after one of the boarders and cleans her shoes in a highly suggestive manner.
Doreen
Recommended by Doreen. There is a mystery at the heart of this book, which will not be revealed unless you read it! Do not read the guff at the front or back - just read the book. It is set in Devon between March and summer and is beautifully descriptive of the pastoral. It is a well-written story about goodness and morality and not at all twee.
Doreen
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.