2014 October Meeting - The Master Butchers Singing Club

Thanks Marlene, for filling at short notice to host the book group meeting.  First we heard about Diana's adventures in Italy and Holland, before turning our thoughts to the book group book.  The story was well appreciated, with Jan giving out 3 other titles by the same author.

The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich

When Fidelis Waldvogel, World War I veteran, returns from war, he finds and marries the pregnant lover of his best friend who was killed in action. Seeking to make a good life for Eva and her son, Fidelis journeys to the United States and settles down in Argus, North Dakota to the life of a butcher. Erdrich's novel traces Fidelis's life with Eva and their four sons as it entangles with that of the charismatic Delphine Watzka in an exploration of love, loss, sacrifice, and strength.

2014 September Meeting - Crooked Letter Crooked Letter

It was a small group that met at Freda's house - but a lovely atmosphere and some interesting discussion.  We read...

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

Set in Mississippi, this is a novel deeply rooted in its rural landscape. Larry Ott, white and middle class and Silas Jones, poor and black, were once childhood friends, their paths converging again years later when a young girl disappears in similar circumstances to events in their youth.

With its superbly developed characters, its challenges to Southern stereotypes, and a storyline alternating between the 1970s and the present, this is a murder mystery with a difference

2014 August meeting - Hand me down world

Follow the yellow balloons!  On a dark night down a long driveway, was a tree full of balloons.  Thanks Robin for a wonderful night.

Hand me down world by Lloyd Jones

A woman washes ashore in Sicily. She has come from north Africa to find her son, taken from her when he was just days old by his father and stolen away to Berlin. With nothing but her maid's uniform and a knife stashed in a plastic bag, she relies on strangers - some generous, some exploiting - to guide her passage north. These strangers tell of their encounters with a quiet, mysterious woman in a blue coat - each account a different view of the truth, a different truth. And slowly these fragments of a life piece together to create a spellbinding story of the courage of a mother and the versions of truth we create to accommodate our lives.

2014 July Meeting - Arthur and George

It has stopped raining.  After what seems likes weeks of wet weather, tonight it is dry and cold.  Dianna's home is lovely and cosy and conducive to great discussion.

Arthur and George by Julian Barnes

In 1906, Arthur Conan Doyle took on the case of George Edalji, a reserved young lawyer, half Scottish and half Indian, who was wrongly accused of mutilating animals. These two men, from very different backgrounds, are brought together by a sequence of events that made sensational headlines at the time as The Great Wyrley Outrages. It is a novel about low crime and high spirituality, guilt and innocence, identity, nationality, and race. 

Caroline has decided to step down from the group.  Thanks for all your contribution of the years, and for being the receiver and sender of the bag of books.  It has bee really appreicated.  Best wishes, Caroline.  You are always welcome to come back.

2014 June Meeting - Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken

It was proving to be a wet night, when everyone headed down the driveway to Yvonne's home.  It was a great incentive to sit around and chat about what we have been reading.  And what we read was

The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken by Tarquin Hall

Meet Vish Puri the generously proportioned Indian private detective who is on the case again, locating a moustache thief, investigating cricket match fixing with its deadly butter chicken connection, and more somberly, shedding light on the tense events that occurred at the time of Partition.
Involving a cheerful cast of characters, this light-hearted whodunnit is perfectly balanced by its exploration of historical and contemporary issues faced by the Indian sub-continent. Good food and high jinks abound. 

Novels about India teach us so much about life on the subcontinent - the Partition, the food, the simple and the sophisticated.  The discussion on cricket match fixing was very timely, and now we are know how it is done!  The mystery of the missing moustache added a little extra extra fun.
But the really mystery - the case of the deadly butter chicken - was the centre piece where the solution is not obvious.

Overall a great read, once we got into it.  

2014 May meeting - The Shag Incident

With Jackie as hostess, we had an enjoyable evening together, though neither Freda nor Robin could attend.  Hopefully all will be well for the next meeting.   The main discussion was based on the novel

The Shag Incident by Stephanie Johnson

"In my experience, it was a man completely unknown to me who shaped the entirety of my mid-late life." So speaks the ex-All Black and millionaire blockbuster novelist, Howard Shag, in his authorised biography written by Melody Argyle. A darkly satirical and wickedly funny novel that takes on a range of contemporary matters. 

There was lively discussion around the topics of the actual "Shag Incident", women's liberation in New Zealand, life on Waiheke Island during the years as set out in the book.  The inclusion of historic events and the likeness to real people brought the book closer to home for everyone.  Most felt the author had done a great job of weaving a tapestry of characters together in a fun way.

There was some comments regards the jumping around from past to present being difficult to follow, but once the story had progessed, it all seemed to fall into place better.

Being passed around the group at the moment are

• Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
• Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
• A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
• Lola Bensky by Lily Brett

2014 April meeting - Degrees of Separation

This evening we met at Denise's home, comfy and cosy against the change of daylight saving.  Thoughts of the coming winter season were appropriate as we discussed Degrees of Separation by Laurence Fearnley, set in the Antarctic.

On board an aircraft, as it makes its way from the Antarctic to New Zealand, three people sit quietly, reflecting on their past summer on the ice. Sally, a composer who has been searching for inspiration; William, a bird scientist who has been visiting Antarctica since the 1960s, and Marilyn, a young communications operator, tell their stories in alternating chapters. Contrasting the beauty and vastness of the Antarctic with the banality and discomfort of life on the ice, Degrees of Separation focuses on themes of love and memory.

It was great to hear some personal insights from the family member of someone who had spent a lot of time in the Antarctic. Discussion suggested frustration in the story and how the characters acted.  However, it is hard to know how we outselves would react in the situations presented.  The connections between the characters played on the idea of the 3 degrees of separation between New Zealander (whether revealed or not.)

Other discussion:  The Lower River by Paul Theroux

2014 March meeting - According to Queeney

Caroline was a supurb host at our meeting this month.  We discussed the book According to Queeney by  Beryl Bainbridge. 

Beryl Bainbridge investigates the darker, melancholic side to the character of Dr Samuel Johnson, the great lexicographer. There are several narrators, including Queeney, eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs Thrale, Johnson's close friends. Includes excerpts from actual letters and journal writings.

The discussion was lively, covering a lot of the period information that filled out the story more for those who found it a difficult read.

Also discussed were some book read by members during hte previous weeks.
Diana and Freda

• Anticipation by Tanya Moir

Jackie

• The invention of wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Denise

• 100 year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
• Longbourn by Jo Baker

Discussed further were

• Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan 
• The War That Ended Peace: The Road To 1914 also by Margaret MacMillan 

2014 February meeting

First meeting of the year and we welcomed two new members - Mina (who came along at the end of last year) and Robin.

There was a lot to catch up on, and a lot of books to to talk about.  Great discussion everyone!  Here is a list of the main books that were mentioned, in case you would like to follow up on them.  Happy reading.

Diana

The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton 
The Arcanum - Janet Gleeson (about porclein)
Remarkable creatures by Tracy Chevalier
The Rosie project by Graeme Simsion

Jan 

Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas - not as good as The Slap
All that I am by Anna Funder - great read
Eyrie by Tim Winton
Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope - fun story

Caroline

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Western) - great read
The great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith

Freda

Blue Skies & Black Olives by John Humphrys
Sicily, It's Not Quite Tuscany by Shamus Sillar
Divorced and Gone to Europe by Nancy Cawley

Robin

Wolf Of The Plains by Conn Iggulden (about Genghis  Khan)
Down By The River by Edna O'Brien
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro

Mina

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (and the movie as well)

Marlene

London by Edward Rutherfurd
The other hand by Chris Cleave

Yvonne

A possible life by Sebastian Faulks
a couple of books of short stories related to Japan and the tsunami

Christmas 2013

Our last meeting for the year was held at Moa's Nest.  This time we knew better how to organise things for ourselves - rearranging the furniture and ordering at the beginning of the evening.

Thanks for a great year, especially Mary, as it was her choices that we were reading all year. 

Remember to bring your summer reads to the first meeting of the year, to share with everyone else.