Happy 2nd Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday to us! It's been two years since our book group launched and we celebrated this grand occasion with a meal at the Lord Combermere in Audlem. The food was fabulous, the wine flowed, as did the great debate about Room, by Emma Donoghue, last month's book. We mostly enjoyed the book, although Chris felt it appealed more to women, and in particular mums. The consensus agreed with Jackie's point that this was a book of two parts, the second being weaker than the first and seeming to peter out somewhat towards the end, having no real direction. However Sarah said she felt it was a brilliant read from beginning to end and was gripped throughout. All in all, a moving and extremely enjoyable read which presented a unique and difficult story with insight and imagination.

With it being a Bank Holiday weekend (yet again) for our usual get together at the end of the month, we decided to make it the following Sunday (5th June) when we will discuss our current book A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. The suggestions fro future reads are now coming in thick and furious so we have already decided on our next three books - June will be The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. July will be a John Irving novel (The World according to Garp or A prayer for Owen Moody) and I need reminding of our August read...over to Chris...:)

We're back!

I'm afraid for some reason our blog has mysteriously disappeared! We've searched for a reason for this and have found out that many people have suffered the blog black hole too. I have no idea where it's gone or whether it will return...so I have had to begin our blog all over again. At some point I will post a list of all the books we have covered so far so we don't lose this vital info but I don't think we're going to miss the other stuff too much - it was mainly just a series of my ramblings about various books from what I can remember...

Anyway, I do hope everyone is enjoying Room as much as I have. I first thought it was going to be far too uncomfortable for me to read but thankfully there is some light relief towards the middle. There was only Katharine and myself who turned up to our last meeting and Katharine has suggested A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry which looks a gripping read - take a look at this review on Amazon: 

"This is a truly great book. It chronicles the story of 4 individuals from very different sectors of the Indian Caste system.  Not only does it accurately portray the political and social situation in India in the 1970s,it reflects the predudices within the upper castes and the fatalistic attitude of the lower castes, formed from their religious beliefs that suffering is their destiny and the reward will be in the afterlife. This story is overwhelmingly sad and also shocking as the reader can identify the ethical question of human suffering for a possibly laudable goal (in this case it is population control). However, the novel is also uplifting in a peculiar way; that individuals who struggle so hard to exist in appalling conditions can find joy in their lives is humbling. It also allows the reader to identify with the predudices and to see a situation from another side. Maybe at the end of the book, the reader feels that they have grown a little in spirit and have the capacity to be a 'better' person as a result. For me, the mark of a great book is one that remains with you long after the back page is read. This is such a book." 

Enjoy!