LETSBuzz Book Club 8th February 1998
General discussion at this inaugural meeting of the LETSBuzz Book Group about how the group should function. It was decided that members should each bring along and talk about whatever they've been reading then, if a book arises that we all feel we'd like to read, it can be circulated around the whole group and discussed amongst us when all have finished. By nominating a "set" book at every meeting we should be able to have a general discussion at each meeting.
A crime/travel book. This is supposedly a true story but if so then Doreen says it's fairly unbelievable. The author describes the various characters that he encounters in the town of Savannah in Georgia, USA. At the time of the meeting Doreen was only a third of the way through the book and a definite plot had yet to really reveal itself but the characters and writing were entertaining enough that she wouldn't be terribly disappointed if no story arose at all.
Doreen
Set in Judea 2000 years ago, it's a plausible alternative to the biblical account of Christ's 40 days and nights in the wilderness. Seán liked the book a lot and would like to read more by the same author (which is good because Andrew & Gill have 3 other books by Crace on their shelf). This book was the one that we all decided we'd like to read to discuss en masse at a later meeting.
Seán
A good page-turning story about a convict back in Victorian London from Australia. Seán didn't want to give away too much of the plot so he left his comments there, but recommended that we all read it.
Seán
Everyone else had read (or at least tried to) read this book. The book is an account of a boys own adventure style journey to this remote region, undertaken with extreme amateurishness but without any thought that the author and his companion could possibly fail. Gill liked the 1950s social history aspect of the book and was amazed by the author's careless attitude to his family and money. All felt that there were some parallels to be drawn with the current spate of round the world balloonists.
Gill
An everyday tale of disillusioned and romantically wounded media folk turned famine relief workers by the author of Bridget Jones' Diary. Although it was a fairly enjoyable and easy read Andrew felt that some of the characters didn't really ring true.
Andrew
Andrew and Doreen had also read this and all 3 agreed that although the first third of the book is really involving, with its depiction of a Greenlander in Copenhagen and the in-depth descriptions of the ever-present snow, the thriller aspect of the book is extremely confusing and very difficult to follow. None of the three had been able to work out the conclusion of the mystery at all.
Caroline
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.