The Book Club Blog

by Paige Nick.

I don’t know.

I really don’t.

I was looking forward to reading this book for a couple of reasons.

1. I won it
2. It’s had lots of critical acclaim and loads of people have been talking about it
3. I like the title
4. I like the cover
5. It’s a New York Times Bestseller.

So I started out with high hopes.

At first I really didn’t like it at all. And then I liked bits of it and not other bits. And then by page 200 I was hooked and I raced on down to the last page, thoroughly enjoying the ride.

I was completely charmed by the story of the French concierge and the other characters living at number 7, rue de Grenelle, but the problem was that as soon as I got stuck into their lives I was pulled rudely away from them to go into pages and pages of philosophy, that if I’m honest, went right over my head.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I feel like perhaps I’m just not smart enough for this book. I’ve never read any Tolstoy, Marx or Freud, so a lot of that stuff about ‘the meaning of life, etc.’ just came across as a little pretentious and boring to me.

I suppose a philosopher would say they liked the philosophical ideas in the book, but that the author kept interrupting it with all those pesky characters.

I often felt like the author only created these characters because she needed a framework within which to spout her philosophical ideas and show how smart she is.

Overall though I ended up really thoroughly enjoying it. (I know, sorry, it’s a bit of a schizophrenic review) and I’m so glad I read it. Curious to hear how others have felt about it.

I will now continue to ‘pass on the love’ by handing it over to A Million Miles from Normal reader, Chryssa, who won it by default, by being the only person who showed any interest in getting it after me. (http://amillionmilesfromnormal.blogspot.com/2010/02/im-winna.html) Maybe she’ll write us a review too, and we can compare them.

Thanks so much book club blog. I’m so glad I got to read it.

Paige.

Thank you so much, Paige. I have to be honest here, and tell you that I would not have been able to write a review for this book, pretty much for all the reasons that you stated. Saying that, I did enjoy the book,the characters were quite vivid but the ending had me just  a little stumped.

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Apologies for lack of posting here, I had decided I needed a little ‘time out’ from the computer. You know when it drains your energy rather than compliments it? Well, that was how it was this past week.  But, here we are, back in the land of the living with lots of reading going on.

I am currently reading my Jasper Fforde book – Shades of Grey but before that I had a spate of other books including:

* finishing the Northern Lights series by Phillip Pullman – I will be putting up a review, but have to honest and say it may take some time as it had a fair amount of stuff in it, which needs to perculate before penning

* We be reading – Sue Gee, a lovely book about two life long friends and their ups and downs in life.  Simple, easy reading.

* Rumour has it – Jill Mansell, another light hearted chick lit book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

* The Elegance of the hedgehog – Beautiful beautiful book, keep your eyes peeled for the review from a million miles from normal who won the ‘feel the love‘ book for valentines day.

* And the usual  5 books read to my daughter before bed!

We are always looking for reviews, so if you have read something so good or so bad that you want to shout it from the window tops, please send them in! and go on, spill the beans, what are you reading this week?

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Thank you, Cathy for this book review, I know there are many John Grisham fans out there, so if you haven’t yet read this one, best get to your nearest book shop. It sounds great!

John Grisham is famous for his lawyer books… but this one is not one of those.  It’s a jolly good mystery book…. keeps you in suspense as to “who’s going to do it” all along.

The broker is a political guy who ended up in jail then mysteriously got pardoned by the president and shipped to Italy with a whole new identity… now the powers that be sit back and wait to see who will kill him.

John Grisham describes Italy and the tourist scene beautifully… I could so imagine walking the streets and experiencing it all for myself.  I was sad to finish the book and almost wish there was at least another chapter or two as you really get to know the characters so well.

This was a brilliant read.

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This review was  sent in by Jaclyn, thank you.

I’m not a big fan of light reading. I’ll take a complex read over a page-turner any day, but every so often a little gem comes along that is clever, yet light enough, to captivate you while still making you feel as if you are getting a quality reading experience. Mr Rosenblum’s List (Hodder & Stoughton) by Natasha Solomons is a prime example.

Set in the early 20th century the story describes the lives of Jack and Sadie Rosenblum and their daughter Elizabeth who leave Germany to settle as refugees in England. Unsettled in this unfamiliar territory, Sadie feels lost and traumatised by the loss of her family bonds back in Germany but Jack, oblivious to his wife’s growing despondency, has only one goal – to become an English gentleman.

Following a list of guidelines on the British, given to him as a refugee, and adding to it religiously, Jack embarks on a long and quirky life-mission to accomplish these goals. But when he reaches his final goal, to become a member of a golf club, he comes to the cold realisation that no German Jew is going to be allowed to join in anywhere. Determined to complete his list, Jack has but one choice – to build his own golf course, and not just any golf course, the best golf course in the whole of England!

This book is an extremely quick read which you cannot put down once you have begun. Even if books don’t make you laugh out loud, it will definitely leave you smiling with satisfaction.

After reading this review, I have to say I was intruiged to read it, and then I saw the cover and well, that just tickled my fancy even more. So, guess what is now on my TBR list? Thanks Jaclyn!

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Thank you, Cathy for your book review.

This is book 2 in the Daughters of Jacob Kane series… and wow it blew me away.

I loved book 1 (Hannah Grace) but this one… what can I say… it was great…. funny, endearing and heart-tugging beautiful.

You dive straight in a journey along with Maggie Rose as she leaves home in Sandy Shores for the big city of New York and the Sheltering Arms Refuge (orphanage) where she will be working.  Along the way you also meet the children, the others who work in the orphanage and a reporter who has had a tragedy in his life and needs healing.

This was one book I couldn’t put down.

Now comes the long wait for book 3 which only comes out around September 2010.

( We look forward to hearing about the next one in September!)

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Valentines Day has come and gone, I hope that those of you who celebrate it were spoilt to your hearts content. And for those of you who don’t, I hope you felt the love anyway.

As for me, I am  not a great fan of Valentines Day, it seems a bit silly to only celebrate love on one day of the year, when there are 365 days in a year to celebrate it. But saying that, I am not averse to receiving gifts, at any time of the year, never mind on only one day of the year!

So, for Valentines Day, I bought myself a book and The Man bought me chocolate – Lindt pistachio and the book I indulged in was ‘Shades of Grey’ by Jasper Fforde. I couldn’t bear the thought of waiting until my birthday, I mean that is still a whole week away!

But, that is not the point of this post, the point is that, because I dont normally celebrate V day, I decided this year, to give away one book to a lucky commenter on the ‘Feel the love, but do it anyway’ post. I so wanted to fulfill all of your imaginary book wishes but alas only one could be fulfilled and that lucky person, chosen via random.org  is Paige from a million miles from normal with her book wish of ‘The Elegance of the hedgehog’ – Muriel Barbery.

Yes, a book from us  to you, free, gratis and the only thing that we ask of you in return, is to write a book review for The Book Club Blog.

We hope you enjoy the book, Paige and even though its a couple of days late, Happy Valentines Day!

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So, you walk into a bookstore, your favourite book store. You know, the one you go to and the sales person knows your first name? The one you go to when you are feeling somewhat blue, or happy or just needing some alone time where you can wander slowly around the shelves,  picking up a book, reading the back cover, the blurb, putting it down because you haven’t felt ‘it’ and trying another. Where you can softly run your fingers down the spines and get that tingle of  ‘what and who will I discover today?’

Well, imagine going into this bookstore and after pleasantries from the sales person, and maybe a little discussion on the weather, said salesperson, says these words to you ‘

‘Today is free book day, you can choose any book you like, to meet and take home with you completely free of charge. Gratis. For today only.’

Imagine your surprise and delight in this unexpected gift. No birthday wishes required, no need to return the favour, just this unexpected gift, imagine the feel of this book weighted in your hands, then popped into a carrier, making its way home to your home.

Now, imagine what book this would be.

And leave a comment telling me what it would be.

You never know, your wish could come true…(and if it does, it will by Valentines day)…

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Truth time here on The Book Club Blog.

I found this book at the library and picked it up because I needed some light- hearted entertainment, and where better, than chick lit?

I haven’t read any of her books before, but decided to give her a go. For some reason, I just haven’t ever ‘felt’  it when picking up her books. And I’m sure you know what I mean by it. That feeling of knowing you’re going to enjoy a particular book, or not even enjoy it, but its going to nab your attention. That magical feeling when you know you have found something that appeals to that secret reading part of you. But, I ignored the fact I hadn’t felt anything and checked it out of the library anyway, I was desperate for a ‘non thinking’ book!

Well, a non thinking book it is indeed. I read it in one sitting. Or should I be more clear in that when I say read, I mean skim read. This book is written in the format of emails and text messages, which I don’t mind at all, in fact a story can be told extremely well in this way, remember this review? But I found this one to be very long winded. I don’t suppose it helps that the story line was fairly long winded too.

********************** Spoiler alert************************

In a nutshell:

Rosie and Alex are childhood friends, thick as two thieves and do everything together.  They grow up from naughty children to rebellious teenagers until Alex’s family moves from Dublin to America. Rosie stays behind and on the eve of her departure from Dublin to meet up with Alex and go to college, she falls pregnant.

Here starts the story of how Rosie and Alex keep missing each other due to marriages and missed flights and divorces and more marriages. It is a typical case of  ‘fate meddling’, ‘not taking the bull by the horns’ and ‘keeping ones feelings to oneself’.

Then at the end, they manage to get together. And the story starts again with Rosie’s daughter having a similar but not so drawn out experience with her childhood friend.

I cant say this book blew the wind up my skirt, but for an evening of not thinking, it worked very well.

If you like this type of story, you will most likely enjoy this book, if you are a fan of Cecilia Ahern, you will probably love it. But, considering I have never read any of her books before, I couldn’t honestly say.

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I discovered this challenge on Dolce Belezza and considering that I had a book in my bookshelf that needed to be read, it made perfect sense to participate.

I am a huge fan of Haruki Murakami. I was introduced to him by a friend of mine with ‘A wild sheep chase’. I enjoyed it so much, I went off and read most of his other works, not all of them, but def most of them. My favourite by far is ‘Kafka on the Shore’. But for this challenge, I chose ‘Blind Willow Sleeping Woman’.

I bought this book on my return from the UK purely because it was a Murakami book. It is a short story book and I have never really been a fan of short stories. I have always liked getting stuck into a story and the characters knowing that they are not going to be short lived. (And I liked the name of the book…) I wasn’t too impressed with his last novel ‘After Dark’, I was expecting more, but I think that was because of ‘Kafka’.

So, what did I think of this one? Read on and I shall tell you.

‘Blind Willow Sleeping Woman’ is a rich tapestry of stories. Ranging from the macabre to the downright bizarre, but would we have it any other way?

Murakami has the ability to bring an other worldly presence to his characters day to day lives.  His stories are rich, and full and if you read too many of his stories in one day, can result in an overload, not dissimilar to gorging on a decadent box of chocolates. Preferably the types that come from a chocolatier, you know the ones?  Where you promise yourself only one or two, then get a little more greedy and eat more, knowing that the delight and pure indulgence will make you feel a little ill if you ‘have just one more’. That is how I felt with reading this selection of short stories.

Slivers of oddities, with a magical resonance that echos long after you have finished reading. But isn’t that typical of Murakami?

They need to be savoured. One story at a time, to allow the senses to take part, to not rush through them. I enjoyed this book, but still have to go with my original opinion that short stories are not my cup of tea. (or type of chocolate).

26  tales, a handsome volume of prose which proves that Murakami is versed in the art of both novels and first rate short fiction. For those of you who enjoy rather odd narrating and short stories, I would recommend this book. But, if like me, you prefer novels, I recommend ‘Kafka on the shore’, ‘The wind-up bird chronicle’ or even ‘Norwegian Wood’ if you haven’t had a taste of his style of writing yet.

And if you have read him before, or even read this one,I would love to know what you thought? Just leave a comment so we can compare notes.

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This review was submitted by Angie, who is an avid reader, and was responsible for introducing me to Michael Connelly. Watch out for more from her!

I bought this book on special “3 for R99” and it was such a surprise when I finally got to read it.  Despite being on special, it has apparently featured at bookclubs and seems to have been popular.  I couldn’t put the book down and savoured every moment of the story.

This is a spell-binding saga set in Barcelona in the 1300’s and focuses on the life of Arnau Estanyol.  When Arnau was just a baby his father managed to escape the cruel Feudal system in the outlying Spanish countryside for the safety of the City of Barcelona.  At this time the Cathedral of Santa Maria had just started being built.  As a young lad Arnau becomes friends with Joanu and the two of them spend much time with the Bastaixos – the strong men who carried the stones from the quarry to the new cathedral.  A strong friendship is formed between the two boys and many long-lasting relationships are foraged with the Bastaixos during those times as the boys became part of the daily life near the cathedral.  Arnau’s love for the Virgin Mary provides him with the inner strength to survive life in medieval Barcelona.

Arnau’s life takes on many twists and turns – he lives through famine, wars and the plague.  He is denied love and despite this, his compassion and fairness prevail.  For his time, he is a very forward thinking and generous man.  King Pedro makes him a baron as a reward for an act of bravery during war, and at this point his fortunes change.  During his life he has opportunities to change laws and make life easier for the poor people, who develop a strong admiration and support for him.  On the other hand, he makes enemies of certain of the lords and noblemen of the time who would like to see his ruin.

The author blends story with fact and one learns about life in the fourteenth century.  The cathedral is still there today and it is incredible how those stones were carried on the backs of the Bastaixos and through ingenuity were lifted and positioned to build the cathedral.

I couldn’t put this book down, and hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

Thank you Angie for your review, we eagerly await your next one!

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