Just before Easter Break Bookgroup

Hello !

Sorry about the late notice - but next bookers is Friday 26th March. There is some trepidation about Cafe Muse as last time we were there they had a sign on the window saying the place was for sale due to illness and then closed a Friday night ago, so hopefully we will be able to keep up the tradition.

The next book is " The elegance of the hedgehog " written be Muriel Barbery. It is translated from french and I have been told that there are a few big words so you might need a dictionary next to your bed also. Georgina ( aka Geraldine ) quite liked it although she did warn that it " is a mountain to climb until about 1/3 into it " so we are all warned ... and it is a bestseller so lets go...

Hello All

Last book club we decided to choose two books for the next book club. This is to provide an alternative to Shantaram as the length of this book may not suit all in the group. Therefore, I have chosen the other book to be 'One hundred years of solitude'.

Some info to help you choose:

(1) Shantaram by Gregory Roberts (936p)

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."

So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.

Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.

As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power.

Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas---this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart. Based on the life of the author, it is by any measure the debut of an extraordinary voice in literature.

or

(2) One hundred years of solitude ( 432p)

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel, 1928-

Summary

One of the most influential literary works of our time, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is a dazzling and original achievement by the masterful Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women -- brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul -- this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction. (Ashfield Library catalogue info)

In some editions there is a family tree in the front. If your copy does not have one there is one on Wikipedia. May be helpful as there are many Jose's and Aureliano's through the generations.

The story follows 100 years in the life of Macondo, a village founded by José Arcadio Buendía and occupied by descendants all sporting variations on their progenitor's name: his sons, José Arcadio and Aureliano, and grandsons, Aureliano José, Aureliano Segundo, and José Arcadio Segundo. Then there are the women--the two Úrsulas, a handful of Remedios, Fernanda, and Pilar--who struggle to remain grounded even as their menfolk build castles in the air. If it is possible for a novel to be highly comic and deeply tragic at the same time, then One Hundred Years of Solitude does the trick. Civil war rages throughout, hearts break, dreams shatter, and lives are lost, yet the effect is literary pentimento, with sorrow's outlines bleeding through the vibrant colors of García Márquez's magical realism. Consider, for example, the ghost of Prudencio Aguilar, whom José Arcadio Buendía has killed in a fight. So lonely is the man's shade that it haunts Buendía's house, searching anxiously for water with which to clean its wound. Buendía's wife, Úrsula, is so moved that "the next time she saw the dead man uncovering the pots on the stove she understood what he was looking for, and from then on she placed water jugs all about the house."

With One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez introduced Latin American literature to a world-wide readership. Translated into more than two dozen languages, his brilliant novel of love and loss in Macondo stands at the apex of 20th-century literature. --Alix Wilber

I hope you enjoy reading one or both(!) of these books over the summer. I hope you have a happy Christmas and holiday time and I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting on the 12 February. Lisa

How the Light Gets In

We have consensus - How the Light Gets In by M.J. Hyland is this month's book club choice.
I hope everyone enjoys it, or at least finds it interesting! I have reserved a copy at Ashfield Library and I think they might have another. I'm happy to pass mine on when I've read it. Leichhardt Library has a copy but the catalogue says its out till 29/9.

Thanks Susie for this info. I have not read either book and I would be interested in reading both. I saw that Great Expectations is long, possibly around 500pgs. I am happy to read it but I would have to get cracking! Thanks Again Susie.

September Book Choice

I've had a couple of ideas for books to read in September and so I thought I'd post them here and give everyone some input into the choice. I wanted to choose something that wasn't the usual 'book club' fare.

The first alternative is Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Its a classic that I haven't read and appears on a few of those '100 books you should read' lists.

From Wikipedia:

"Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It is regarded as one of his greatest and most sophisticated novels, and is one of his most enduringly popular novels.

Great Expectations is written in the genre of "bildungsroman" or the style of book that follows the story of a man or woman in their quest for maturity, usually starting from childhood ending in the main characters eventual adulthood. Great Expectations is the story of the orphan Pip, writing his life from his early days of childhood until adulthood and trying to be a gentleman along the way. The story can also be considered semi-autobiographical of Dickens, like much of his work, drawing on his experiences of life and people".

If people aren't keen to read another older book I've chosen a contemporary novel by Australian writer M.J. Hyland as the second option. Her first novel How the Light gets in (2003) has been translated into many languages, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and took third place in the 2005 Barnes and Noble Discover Award. In 2004 Hyland was jointly awarded the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelist Award for How the Light Gets In. (Her second novel Carry me Down was shortlisted for the Booker Prize).

M.J. Hyland's How the Light Gets In is the story of Lou Connors, a super-smart 16-year-old from the slums of Sydney who wins a scholarship to partake in a year-long student exchange program to the United States. She's thrilled at the opportunity to get away from her scummy home and even scummier relatives, predicting she'll thrive in this new environment, able to build and create a persona closer to what she believes is her authentic self.

I'm not sure that either book is an easy read but should be well written at least!

THE SLAP!

Hello

Just a reminder that this Friday will be the next IWEAD bookgroup meeting at Cafe Muse.

I think that we booked last time we were there. A few cannot make it - with flimsy excuses like moving house - but we will go on.

I think that we will have lot to talk about with this book - so bring your notes and opinions and your favourite paragraph highlighted!

See ya Friday

miles franklin

Hello Weaders

Next book is Miles Franklin My Brilliant Career - I think everyone knows but just to make sure.

I think that Cafe Muse is already booked for Friday 19th June 2009 - same time, same place and same tapas please...

Looked her up on Google and apparently she died in Drummoyne in 1954 - so she was an Inner Westie too !

Also found this great photo of her - thought it would be nice to put a face to the writer.

See ya

Jo