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Warrawong Book Talk
T he book that the group will be discussing at their meeting on June 4th at 2pm in the library is The earth hums in B flat by Mari Strachan. Little Gwenni Morgan is able to see what is going on in the little Welsh village that she lives in because she can fly in her sleep. As she flies she tries to make sense of what is happening to her family and her village, but her mother does not like it that she can fly. She thinks that people will see her as odd. But when Ifan Evans goes missing her talent is put to good use. She feels that it is her job to find him and as she searches for the truth a terrible secret is revealed. This is a book set in Wales in the 1950′s filled with wonderful characters. If you would like to join us for the discussion come to the library and ask for a copy or ring us on phone 42278133 .
Friends like these by Wendy Harmer, our May read, did not score well. Its rating was only 5. One person really liked it. They found it to be lively, beleivable and well written, but the others found it to be tedious and too long with too many coincidences.
Dapto Tuesday Book Club
John Batman, ruthless, singleminded; four convicts, the youngest still only a stripling; Gould, a downtrodden farmhand; two free black trackers; and powerful, educated Black Bill, brought up from childhood as a white man, this is the roving party and their purpose is massacre.
With promises of freedom, land grants and money, each is willing to risk his life for the prize.
Passing over many miles of tortured country, the roving party searches for Aborigines, taking few prisoners and killing freely, Batman never abandoning the visceral intensity of his hunt. And all the while, Black Bill pursues his personal quarry, the much-feared warrior, Manalargena.
This month’s book divided our group in a clear ‘loved it/hated it’ form. A handful of us, although admitting the horror of the storyline, nevertheless found the writing, characterisation and realistic setting a pleasure to read. And where some found the lack of punctuation difficult, others found the narrative flowing and well fitted to the character style. To read more of this review visit Over the Fence for the full picture.
Dapto Monday Night Book Club
This is the story of three special children - Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, being brought up in the protected world of Hailsham, an idyllic home in the English countryside. They are well cared for, educated and tenderly sheltered from the outside world. Their welfare was crucial. But why?
Years later Kathy will relive those years with new insight and as she looses her friends one by one she must come to face the truth about her seemingly happy childhood …and about her future.
The enjoyment of a novel can be a tenuous thing; where one finds total fulfillment, another finds frustration; where some hang on every word, another is bored beyond compare. There in lies the extent in which this month’s book shaped our group’s opinion. Ishiguro’s writing style was not to everyone liking. Some found it disjointed and tedious, others found it clever and purposeful, guiding the reader gently to the story’s predictably depressive conclusion.
But beyond these conflicting opinions was a unanimous agreement that the storyline and plot was a compelling one … as Vanessa profoundly put it “A springboard to thought”. For it opened up a variety of questions and discussions on genetic engineering, nurture vs nature, DNA testing and cloning … how far are we away from cloning and harvesting for body parts and what are the repercussions of such advanced science.
The emotional turmoil that Kathy, Ruth and Tommy’s circumstances generated in some of our group was a good indication of the writer’s prowess, and the morality of harvesting humans gave us all food for thought. Some first hand experience with genetic counseling from a few members helped to round off a successful and informative conversation.
Even if Never Let Me Go did not rank high on the ‘enjoyment scale’, it did score high as a worthwhile book, as everyone was glad they had attempted the read.
Warrawong Book Talk
Our April book Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville scored a reting of 6.5. The group did not like it nearly as much as The Secret River which we had read earlier. It was described by the group as a more simple story with not as much depth as The ssecret river.
The book for our meeting on May 7th is Friends like these by Wendy Harmer. The group expressed a desire to read a chick lit novel this year and as Wendy Harmer was the author to open The National Year of Reading at Wollongong I chose one of her novels. Friends like these is a story set in a wealthy Sydney girl’s school. Recently single Jo was the deputy headmistress of this school but she has abandoned her post because of a scandal caused by her power hungry, money hungry husband that has everybody talking. Jo retrains as a marriage celebrant and tries to move on. This book is the story of her and her friends and it poses the question – with friends like these, is she better off without them? New members are always welcome to join our group. If you need a copy of the book ring us on Phone 4227 8133 or call into the library at 67-71 King St Warrawong ablove Plush sofas.
itsamysterytome
At Leighford High, the ever resourceful Peter ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell is temporarily promoted to Head of History when colleague Paul Moss heads off toLos Angeles. Paul’s counterpart is Hector Gold who is accompanied to 
Leighford by his family, including in-laws Jeff and Alan O’Malley.
Clearly Jeff O’Malley is quite a character – with money to burn he has been gate-crashing the local poker school, much to the dismay of its members. When events take a sinister turn and one of the school’s members is found murdered, newly-promoted Inspector Jacquie Carpenter Maxwell and Henry Hall investigate, with the assistance of Maxwell.
In the latest witty installment of the ‘Mad Max’ series, the teacher and part-time sleuth must contend with outlandish Americans, a son who is acting strangely, a missing cub-scout mistress and the usual Leighford High School mayhem whilst trying to catch a murderer before more lives are lost.
This month’s itsamysterytome is the latest enstallment of Trow’s ‘Mad Max’ series. If you have read this or any of the series, drop us a line and let us know what you think. Have you ever found the murderer before Maxwell, or are you too busy chuckling through the dry and humorous wit that this series is known for? Copies available in our libraries now!
Dapto Tuesday Book Club
In a little coff
ee shop in one of the most dangerous places on earth, five very different women come together. Sunny, the proud proprietor; Yasmina, a young pregnant Afghan woman; Isabel, a determined British journalist; Candace, a wealthy American and Halajan, the 60 year old den mother whose long hidden love affair breaks all the rules.
As these five discover, there’s more to one another than meets the eye, they form a unique bond that will forever change their lives and the lives of many others.
The term Chick Lit has an accepted presence in today’s list of genres, and although we know it can come under many umbrellas; mystery, fantasy etc … it came as quite a surprise to our group that this ‘Little Coffee House’ counted among them.
All was not lost on us though and we did give this book some merits. Check out our blog Over the Fence for more.
Warrawong Book Talk
Our March book Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde produced a wide variety of responses from those who really loved it to those who did not like it at all and could not even finish the book. Those who like it found it to be creative and imaginative. T
hey liked the charaacters and found it to be very clever and witty.
Our April book to be discussed at our meeting on Monday April 2nd at 2pm in the library is Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville.
This is her follow up book to The Secret River although it can be read on its own. The book is based loosely on an incident in her family history. It tells the story of Sarah (Dolly) the youngest child of William Thornhill and his first wife who died after she was born. Sarah dotes on her brother William, who goes to sea hunting seals accompanied by his friend Jack but over time it is Jack that she comes to love even more than her brother. It is a love story and a story of family secrets. Kate Grenville herself sees the book not as a historical novel, but a novel set in the past, a story told that can help us to understand the present.
Dapto Monday Night Book Club
It’s 1948 and Hanora Sparrow and her teenage daughters, Aria and Rosy, have fallen on tough times. With little more than the suitcases they carry and a few pounds between them, they must move to a housing commission camp on the outskirts of Sydney.
While the prospect of life in a ramshackle tin shed is grim, these women soon learn that they are not alone. As they befriend other camp residents such as Mr Sparkle, who’s had to leave his family behind to look for work in the city, Mr Gardiner, the war hero who never recovered, and the women of the laundry circle who are the eyes and ears of the camp, the Sparrow women discover that resilience and good humour might just be their salvation.
Acclaimed author Elizabeth Stead uses her clear eye and sharp wit to recreate a little known corner of Australian post-war history.
This month’s book, Sparrows of Edward Street by Elizabeth Stead, on the whole was enjoyed by the group. They generally agreed that is was a good read, but not exceptionally outstanding. They discovered many themes in the book, such as post war trauma, hostel life, depression, termination, suicide and personality types. These themes inspired several interesting conversations, just the thing to make book club discussion so enjoyable!
Stead’s characters were mostly found to be believable and a product of their time. However, Aria’s maturity at the age of 17 came into question within the group, although they did agree that her strength and optimism was likely to contribute to her advanced wisdom. Everyone found Mr Sparkle to be a refreshing character greatly influenced by Aria and her optimistic view of the world.
It was surprising to discover that the housing commission camps existed for the Australian community, as the group’s experience and knowledge to date had only been of hostels for new immigrants. Overall, the book’s enjoyment lay in the Australian setting and the diversity of characters and their resilience against the odds, scoring enough kudos to rate this book within the ‘recommended’ list.
Dapto Tuesday Book Club
Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister, 11 year old Harrison Opoku lives on the 9th floor of a block of flats on an inner-city housing estate. The second best runner in the whole of year 7, Harri races through his new life in his personalized trainers – the Adidas stripes drawn on with marker pen – blissfully unaware of the very real threat all around him.
With equal fascination for the local gang – the Dell Farm Crew – and for the pigeon who visits his balcony, Harri absorbs the many strange elements of life in England; watching, listening, and learning the tricks of urban survival.
Our first book for 2012 raised little in the way of enthusiasm for this debut novel. There were numerous comments of its disjointed narrative and lack of character empathy which kept our club scores down, ranging from 3 to 8 points. But as always, we found some postives too. For our full review, visit our Over The Fence blog.
Dapto Tuesday Book Club
July is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar plantation named Amity and it is her life that is the subject of this tale. She was there when the Baptist War raged in 1831, and she was also present when slavery was declared no more.
My son says I must convey how the story tells also of July’s mama Kitty, of the negroes that worked the plantation land, of Caroline Mortimer the white woman who owned the plantation and many more persons besides – far too many to list here. But what befalls them all is carefully chronicled upon these pages.
This month’s book The Long Song by Andrea Levy has started our year off in great style with a stimulating discussion, on the book itself and the many issues found within.
We could all be forgiven for our first reaction, ‘another story of slavery’. We have read plenty covering this topic over the years, but as all good book clubs do, we uncovered more than the usual heartbreak and injustice … this time humour being a major contributor to our club’s enjoyment. If you’d like to read more, visit our Over The Fence blog for the full review.
