Hello everyone,
Well I'm sort of back and slowly picking up the reins again. I think Closer to Stone by Simon Cleary was the CBC book for October?
Looking forward to hearing what you thought of it. Unfortunately it seems to be a bit topical at present.
We'll meet this Thursday at Mackay City Library at 6 pm.
Until then, keep the pages turning!
Monday, 3 November 2014
Thursday, 14 August 2014
'Foal's Bread' provides much food for thought
Gillian Mears' ability to authentically capture the spirit and nature of Australia's show jumping heyday really inspired enthusiam in one of our book clubbers. Her life experience had so mirrored some of the experiences described in the book that she lent her copy to her father who was a horseman of old. He also was impressed by the book's feeling of authenticity.
Some readers were concerned that the book's 'horsiness' would isolate non-horse inclined readers but this did not seem to be the case, rather Gillian Mears' passion for horses converted readers rather than turned them off. Her characters seemed true to their time and there was much discussion about how attitudes to social issues, in particular the treatment of animals, as well as human beings, had changed over time. Noah's 'cruelty' towards the horses made many of our readers cringe yet many of the group related personal experiences and stories of how in earlier times animals had been kicked and hit to 'discipline' them.
There was discussion of how the author's own illness might have informed and coloured the descriptions of Roley's increasing loss of mobility. Today's concept of counselling was not even a notion in those times and Roley's increasing withdrawal as he tried to cope with his increasing disability was particularly heart-breaking. Noah's resilience in the face of such persistent emotional isolation was cause for admiration from many of our readers.
Some of our readers had not finished the book but following the book club discussion they were keen to finish reading it.
Our next book club selection has quite a different flavour. It is a contemporary novel which takes us to a small town in the United States mid-west. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is quite a dark psychological thriller and it will be interesting to hear our book clubbers' reaction to it.
Oliver Burkeman, writing for 'The Guardian' had this to say about Gone Girl.
Next month's book club should certainly be interesting!
Some readers were concerned that the book's 'horsiness' would isolate non-horse inclined readers but this did not seem to be the case, rather Gillian Mears' passion for horses converted readers rather than turned them off. Her characters seemed true to their time and there was much discussion about how attitudes to social issues, in particular the treatment of animals, as well as human beings, had changed over time. Noah's 'cruelty' towards the horses made many of our readers cringe yet many of the group related personal experiences and stories of how in earlier times animals had been kicked and hit to 'discipline' them.
There was discussion of how the author's own illness might have informed and coloured the descriptions of Roley's increasing loss of mobility. Today's concept of counselling was not even a notion in those times and Roley's increasing withdrawal as he tried to cope with his increasing disability was particularly heart-breaking. Noah's resilience in the face of such persistent emotional isolation was cause for admiration from many of our readers.
Some of our readers had not finished the book but following the book club discussion they were keen to finish reading it.
Our next book club selection has quite a different flavour. It is a contemporary novel which takes us to a small town in the United States mid-west. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is quite a dark psychological thriller and it will be interesting to hear our book clubbers' reaction to it.
Oliver Burkeman, writing for 'The Guardian' had this to say about Gone Girl.
Next month's book club should certainly be interesting!
Monday, 11 August 2014
Cityside Book Club meets this Thursday at Mackay City Library at 6.00 pm!
Hello folks,
Just a reminder that we are meeting the second Thursday this month, just to keep you on your toes.
We'll be discussing Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears. If you haven't read it or finished it, that's not a problem, come along anyway. It's a while since I've read it, so I'll have to try to get a quick skim in over the next couple of days to try to jog my memory.
See you all on Thursday, at City, at 6 pm!
Just a reminder that we are meeting the second Thursday this month, just to keep you on your toes.
We'll be discussing Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears. If you haven't read it or finished it, that's not a problem, come along anyway. It's a while since I've read it, so I'll have to try to get a quick skim in over the next couple of days to try to jog my memory.
See you all on Thursday, at City, at 6 pm!
Monday, 4 August 2014
Just a reminder - we will be meeting NEXT week NOT THIS week!
Just a reminder that we will meeting to discuss Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears on Thursday 14 August, that is next week not this week.
Hope you are enjoying the extra reading time!
See you next week!
Hope you are enjoying the extra reading time!
See you next week!
Wednesday, 30 July 2014
In August we will be meeting the SECOND Thursday, not the first!
Well are you making it over the jumps? I know the title is 'Foal's Bread' but if our wonderful new member would like to bring along some more chocolate brownies we won't get on our high horse at all!
This way we get a bit longer on this month's book but a bit less on next month's - swings and roundabouts - to continue the show theme.
It's rather appropriate we'll be discussing horses in August as 1 August is the birthday for all racehorses!
Looking forward to chatting about 'Foal's Bread' on Thursday 14 August at Mackay City Library at 6.00 pm!
This way we get a bit longer on this month's book but a bit less on next month's - swings and roundabouts - to continue the show theme.
It's rather appropriate we'll be discussing horses in August as 1 August is the birthday for all racehorses!
Looking forward to chatting about 'Foal's Bread' on Thursday 14 August at Mackay City Library at 6.00 pm!
Thursday, 24 July 2014
What's better than book club?
Well we found out at our last meeting! It's book club and home made brownies! Yum! Despite one's best intentions, their delicious aroma would waft across and another one's down the hatch! Many thanks to our new avid reader for providing such delicious treats!
SJ Watson's Before I go to Sleep certainly generated a lot of animated discussion! Maybe the brownies added to the energy? Most of us related to a degree of memory loss but trying to conceive of the persistent recurring loss experienced by our main character was difficult. A lack of memory would certainly increase one's vulnerability to predators. We spent a lot of our time reminding each of what happened or what we thought had occurred. A book like this certainly makes one grateful for what memory one has no matter how unreliable it is!
Our reading for this month returns us to Australia and the show jumping circuit in rural New South Wales in the 1930s prior to the Second World War. The novel Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears made the 2012 Shortlist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
Here is what Alfred Hickling from The Guardian had to say about Foal's Bread.
Phillip Adams from ABC's Radio National interviewed Gillian Mears about aspects of her life including her great passion for horses.
Our next meeting is going to be a week later than usual! This will give us a bit more time to fit reading this novel into our busy schedules! So if you haven't collected your copy yet there is still time!
We will meet at Mackay City Library at 6 pm on Thursday 14 August!
This cold weather certainly encourages curling up with a great book! Happy reading!
SJ Watson's Before I go to Sleep certainly generated a lot of animated discussion! Maybe the brownies added to the energy? Most of us related to a degree of memory loss but trying to conceive of the persistent recurring loss experienced by our main character was difficult. A lack of memory would certainly increase one's vulnerability to predators. We spent a lot of our time reminding each of what happened or what we thought had occurred. A book like this certainly makes one grateful for what memory one has no matter how unreliable it is!
Our reading for this month returns us to Australia and the show jumping circuit in rural New South Wales in the 1930s prior to the Second World War. The novel Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears made the 2012 Shortlist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
Here is what Alfred Hickling from The Guardian had to say about Foal's Bread.
Phillip Adams from ABC's Radio National interviewed Gillian Mears about aspects of her life including her great passion for horses.
Our next meeting is going to be a week later than usual! This will give us a bit more time to fit reading this novel into our busy schedules! So if you haven't collected your copy yet there is still time!
We will meet at Mackay City Library at 6 pm on Thursday 14 August!
This cold weather certainly encourages curling up with a great book! Happy reading!
Monday, 30 June 2014
Just a couple of sleeps before we discuss 'Before I go to sleep'
It's Cityside Book Club Week! Hope you are enjoying this month's read and looking forward to joining the discussion this Thursday at 6pm at Mackay City Library!
Great weather for curling up with a good book! Happy reading!
Great weather for curling up with a good book! Happy reading!
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