LETSBuzz Book Club 7th February 1999
Written by a Labour supporter about the last 25 years. Quite fun, a jolly little book , enjoyed it. Andrew had also read it. Written in the post “Fever Pitch” style-conversational and chummy. Descibed the sheer awfulness of local politics. Gill and Andrew both recommended it.
Gill
Gill really enjoyed this and found it quite gripping. The story is about a French magician and his wife who are sent to Algeria at the turn of the century. Andrew had also read it .He thought it cleverly plotted and that it described the heat, noise and general craziness of North Africa very well
Gill
A very big and a very good book. Dickens was not a man to whom you could say “get a life”. He managed to pack a lot in. He was a very public man. He travelled phenomally to give public readings and attend functions. He was tireless and managed to get singed by getting too close to the crater on Vesuvius. He was probably as well known as Princess Diana. Everything was known about him. He treated his wife badly. She had 10 children and suffered post natal depression. Eventually he separated from her. He was a self made man and became very wealthy but he had enormous entourage to support.
Gill
Andrew thought this was fab, really really good. Excellent writing in the first person about a guy who has committed a crime. Although he has done a terrible thing,you can’t help but like him. Andrew read a finely written extract.
Andrew
This is the diary of a father of 2 small children set in Sussex in the 1980s. Caroline quite enjoyed it. It was reasonably well written and an honest account recounting the frustrations as well as the good bits. It needed
a heavier editorial hand as he tends to repeat himself.
Caroline
A collection of short stories, the title story being the least interesting . The last is novella length and is the best. The author is a lesbian woman who lives in France. Overall recommended.
Caroline
The author is a member of the Bloomsbury group (a revelation which evoked a shudder of dislike in more than one member of the group) and was a compulsive journal keeper . She writes very vividly and is able to describe a spring morning without using a cliche. She writes about her marriage which was a very happy one and her husband’s illness and death.
Caroline
Jean thought this was a waste of time, self indulgent, and rambling. Not very impressed.
Jean
Brilliant, couldn’t wait to get to the end. Wonderful, absolutely loved it. The character Rivers (a real person), such an appealing character, so humane. Can’t wait to read the first two books in the trilogy.
Jean
Really enjoyed it.It’s about three women and there is a dragon which is very mysterious and a nice little extra. A woman’s book as men don’t really figure.
Jean
A first novel. Surprising, really strange and bizarre. It’s about a race of dogs created by a mad scientist. They are highly educated and can speak and have hands. They move to New York, but people don’t relate to them. It’s sci fi, but is about people not belonging. The writing is not particularly inspiring but the ideas are good.
Jean
Jean really liked this (having liked the author’s The Joy Luck Club). It’s about a Chinese/American girl whose half sister arrives from China. She can see ghosts. She is an embarassment and nuisance.The story takes us through their lives and the past is revealed. Fascinating reading
Jean
This is quite personal to Rory. His mother was reading this in hospital when expecting him and he is named after one of the characters. It’s fairly superficial but by no means without merit. It’s about two families in Manchester. Oliver, a goodlooking but unpleasant character, becomes friends with Rory, whose father is an Irish Nationalist. Rory was only part way through this so couldn’t give much of the plot.
Rory
Rory has always been interested in the Etruscans. The Romans borrowed most of the alphabet from them but there isn’t much research. This book group is all about writing and this is where it started. The book is a
collection of essays about deciphering ancient writing (a skill only re-discovered last century).
Rory
Seán found this book engaging but irritating. One of the characters slips backward and forwards in time but there seems no particular reason for this. The central mystery is no mystery but blindingly obvious.
Seán
This made Seán laugh. The writer and Katz set off with little preparation on a long distance walk. He tells you all about Americans (on average they walk 300 yards a day) and the National Parks Service, which he calls the National Road Service (because it’s only interested in building roads).
Seán
Seán recommends this book.It’s about a soldier on the Confederate side who decides he’s had enough and to walk home. His story is paralleled with the story of a woman he is interested in and how she survives the war. Seán said it educated him about the war which was one of the wealthy and priveleged which conscripted the poor. It was very atmospheric and had a starring role for a chicken (a recommendation as Seán keeps chickens).
Seán
This is not worth reading. It’s prosaic and flat. A story of an unwanted Chinese daughter. It did tell him about foot binding and the Cultural Revolution but it was very poorly written.
Seán
A similar setting to The God of Small Things. It’s about an upper class Indian and set partly in India and partly in Oxford. Raag is the basic tenet of Indian music and the bbok itself is a kind of Raag. It’s
poetic but confused and messy. 1½ out of 5.
Gavin
This is an archeology book. Quite authorative and interesting. Arthur did exist but we know nothing about him. He may have been a Romano Celt general.
Gavin
This story is 700 years old and has stood up remarkably well. It’s a block buster of the medieval era, full of blood and gore. Bruce Willis would be ideal as Lancelot.
Gavin
This is about Genetically Modified food. The author is not in favour of it, saying it’s way too early to be eating it and what’s the point anyway. He is good at the science but not at the economics. Worth reading because it’s topical and the subject has been badly done by the broadsheets.
Gavin
A book of short stories well written with beautiful descriptions of colours and places. Some are written like fairy tales. Each story is based around a picture which is illustrated. The best is Christ in the House of Mary and Martha from a painting by Velazquez in the National Gallery.
Doreen
A gorgeous art book of selfportraits by female artists. It has a feminist text describing female artists difficulties in finding training, markets and recognition. Doreen liked the earlier works but disliked the more modern stuff(photographs of the artist carrying a large dead fish over her shoulder,disfiguring plastic surgery performed on the artist under local anaesthetic).
Doreen
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.