About Book Club

I had no idea belonging to a book club was going to be so tricky.  When we started, nearly 2 years ago, it was a group made up of neighbours and the friends (and friends of friends) of one of them.  That's me, I'm a friend, and we've known eachother since starting school 50 years ago.  One of the other members started school with us too.

Anyway the routine of this book group is that we meet mostly in the same home, and that person keeps a record of what we've read and who suggested the book.  We take it in turns to suggest a book to read, and mostly we are a couple of months ahead so people can read on if they feel that way inclined, or maybe reserve the book at their library.  I generally buy a copy.

I wonder why other people joined the group?  Did they want to read new books?  Did they want to be challenged by questioning their reading, their understandings?  Did they want to read books they would never have picked up without the prompting of someone else?  Did they want to share their sort of books with like-minded readers?  Did they want the discipline of reading a book each month to give them permission to take time for themselves?

Why did I join?  First I think because I like the people, and also because I'm confident to comment on books I've read.  I also wanted to be pushed to read genres I dont usually choose.  I think I'm just a bit disgruntled because some nights the best conversation is not about the book, but around the supper table afterwards.  Perhaps I expected too much.

Friday Fill-ins #178

1. Chocolate mud-cake cupcakes -- the best food to take on a picnic.

2. Summer seems like a long way off now.

3. Somebody took my socks and boots and left me with nothing to wear but my flip flops.

4. To love someone is a good way to pass the time (for years...).

5. Why on earth would anyone want to go on a long hike?

6. When I crave food, it's usually because I forgot to eat sometime a l-o-n-g time ago.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to bed (yawn), tomorrow my plans include buying some thermal underwear and Sunday, I want to stay dry while I'm paddling the boat!

Friday Fill-ins #171

1. In 1992, I was lots younger and sillier.
2. All I want as a present for any occasion for the rest of my life is laughter and smiles.
3. Do what you can, with what you have, where you will have the most impact.
4. At the beginning of my holidays instead of at the end is where I'd like to be.
5. The trees and flowers are telling me things I cant quite believe, and why am I listening???
6. I want the next book I open to be one that just keeps going on (provided its a good one).
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to staying home on a very rare Friday, tomorrow my plans include finding the things I should have spent the holidays doing, and doing them! and Sunday, I want to find a way of keeping the rain off while I'm on the river.

Cats on the shelves #1

I can't resist a book about cats, so long as it resists the temptation to be too cute, and has something interesting to say as well.  After a trip to visit friends lucky enough to spend part of every year on the beautiful island of Naxos, and after finding cats here and there on the island......... this book was hard to pass.  So many of the photographs included slender black cats, just like one of mine, so I chose one of my favourites to share.

"The Mediterranean Cat" by Hans Silvester, translated in 1996 and published that year by Chronicle Books.

One day I went shopping on Naxos to buy the cotton blanket.  The shop was narrow and filled with linen for every occasion.  The owner spoke very little English so my friend translated for me and we went upstairs to look on the many shelves.  Success!  Its light, cool, soft to touch, and reminds me of my holiday with some of my dearest friends.

....off to hunt for the photographs of Naxos felines...

From my childhood

I was reading a post on a friend's blog last week... she likes vintage things and had found a beautiful old Christmas book that she shared. I knew this old favourite was on my shelves, mainly because I almost never throw anything out, and I would NEVER throw out a book (though I do give them new good homes sometimes....)(different story).

So Rosemary, this one's to share with you. This is a book to teach you how to tie your shoe-laces, and it has a nursery rhyme on each page, including a "squeaker". The outer case has seen better days, and I don't think the white shoe-lace is an original, but there you are. The book was published in 1957.

Friday Fill-in - January 15th, 2010

1. The lesson I learned yesterday was the importance of rituals in the life of a family.
2. I want my home to be where friends and family meet.
3. All these years I could have been keeping lists of books I've read and then I could have cross-referenced them and sorted them by author and by title and by genre (and then I'd have had no more time to read)(so its a good thing I didn't).
4. The table was already set for dinner today when I arrived.
5. The truth is sometimes a changing set of circumstances.
6. The soaring temperature and how I didn't want to look hot and bothered at my wedding is what I remember most from that day.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to dinner with friends and family, tomorrow my plans include going to Sorrento to see Gaye and Sunday, I want to make lots of cards!

The book list of 2009

Look me in the eye - JE Robison
Ishq & Mushq - Priya Basil
Midnight champagne - A Manette Ansay
Anybody out there? - Marian Keyes
The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway ****
All that happened at No.26 - Denise Scott
Surfacing - Margaret Attwood
People of the book - Geraldine Brook ****
In a fishbone church - Catherine Chidgey
Tales of Beedle the Bard - JK Rowling
Bambert's book of missing stories - Reinhardt Jung ****
Saving fish from drowning - Amy Tan
Pelagia and the black monk - Boris Akunin ****

.....then there was a break for Easter.

The ninth life of Louis Drax - Liz Jensen ****
The lace reader - Brunonia Barry
The hero's walk - Anita Rau Badanni
Valley of grace - Marion Halligan
Breath - Tim Winton ****

.....and in term 2:

The voice of the violin - Andrea Camilleri
The reader - Bernard Schlink
The good thief - Hannah Tinti ****
Year of wonders - Geraldine Brook
Dewey - Vicki Myron
Burning Sunday - Michael McCoy
Sign & reels - Joanne Harris

.....and some of these early ones I dont recall because that was July:

The women in black - Madeleine StJohn
The girl who played with fire - Steig Larsson ****
T is for trespass - Sue Grafton
Salvation Creek - Susan Duncan
The elegance of the hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
Book of the dead - Patricia Cornwall
A cup of light - Nicole Mores
The janissary tree - Jason Goodwin
The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society - Mary Ann Shaffer
The last lecture - Randy Pausch
The master butchers singing club - Louise Erdritch
The testament - John Grisham
Belong to me - Marisa de los Santos
Zorro - Isabel Allende
The private patient - PD James
The messenger - Markus Zusack
Ya yas in bloom - Rebecca Wells
Excursion to Tindari - Andrea Camilleri
Watching out - Anne Granger
The last place you look - Norma Curtis
Extremely loud and incredibly close - Jonathon Safran Foer
Maisie Dobbs - Jacqueline Winspear
Until its over - Nicci French
Persuasion - Jane Austen
Doctored evidence - Donna Leon
The seamstress - Frances de Pontes Peebles
Wesley, remarkable owl - Stacey O'Brien
Journey to the stone country - Alex Miller
Before the frost - Henning Mantell
The cruellest month - Louise Penny
Kill for me - Karen Rose
Dinner at the homesickness restaurant - Anne Tyler
The little girl who was too fond of matches - Gaetan Soucy
The cat who played post office - Lillian Jackson Braun
One good turn - Kate Atkinson
The cat who talked to ghosts - Lillian Jackson Braun
Point of origin - Patricia Cornwall

**** loved it!