Warwick Books Reading Group
May 28th, 2011
The group met on Wednesday 18th May at the Old Punchbowl in Warwick. Thanks again to Angie and her team for making the group so welcome.
Frances was away in Cornwall, so this review of “An Equal Music” does not reflect absolutely all of the comments made at the meeting.
Many of the group found this a difficult read and not everyone finished it. Seth’s earlier novel, “A Suitable Boy” was set in post partition India, and although very long, was extremely readable, very atmospheric and historically accurate. “An Equal Music” by contrast is set in the UK with European chamber music as its central theme. Frances’ father came from this world, sharing the single mindedness of musicians searching for perfection and their love of their rare and often priceless instruments (My father 
never let his violin out of his sight – it came on holiday or in the car with us if we went away for the weekend. We went to complete strangers’ houses to play music wherever we were and total strangers came to us for musical evenings in the living room.) For outsiders (ie the vast majority of people) this world must seem bemusing to say the least. To spend so much time and effort searching for a lost recording – equally important to Michael as his search for his lost love, Julia, probably seems bizarre. Music aficionados have lauded Seth for his descriptions and knowledge of European music and the writing is skilful and often poetic and beautiful. The chapters are short, which means it is an easy book to pick up and put down. It has had great reviews, so perhaps we didn’t do it justice.
We are due to meet again on Wenesday 15th June at 6.00 in the Punchbowl. The next book on our list is “One Day” by David Nicholls. This is a very popular book group choice. It has received rave reviews, particularly from well known authors such as Tony Parsons, Nick Hornby and Marian Keyes who all say they wish they had written it! Something to look forward to.
Warwick Books Reading Group
April 30th, 2011
We met at the Punchbowl in Warwick on Wednesday 2nd March to discuss to books - “Room” by Emma Donoghue and “A Room Swept White” by Sophie Hannah. We chose these two books because Keith from Warwick Books had recently arranged events with each of these auhors.
Most people thought “Room” well worth reading – several of the group had expressed doubts about wanting to read it because of the material around which the book is based. It is the story of a young girl who is abducted and held prisoner for years in a sealed room only a few feet square (we learn the exact dimensions of the room in the book as measuring it is part of maths lessons!) The girl (we only know her as “Ma” for most of the book) bears a child to her abductor and the story is told from the point of view of the child, Jack, as he approaches his fifth birthday. Maureen was one of the people unsure if she wanted to read it, but found it gripping & not what she was expecting. Eleanor like the first half, but found the second half rather disappointing. Several people commented that the mother stood to loose everything & put her child in jeopardy by using him to make their escape, but having accepted that books can’t always be too realistic if the plot is to work, the book on the whole got a thumbs up. It has always been a controversial book and has outsold all the other Booker shortlisted titles many times over. It is an ideal book for a book club because it does engender so much discussion.
Sophie Hannah’s book had a more mixed reaction. Several people were disappointed in the plot, with too many characters and the end was confusing. Frances loved it & has gone on to read more of Sophie’s books. There was a criticism of the police characters as being not very well drawn, but these characters develop over the series of stories, so reading just one book which is not the first one, does make it difficult to appreciate the characterisatrion that has been put into previous books. Interestingly, there is to be a television series based on Sophie’s books and they are not starting with the first book either. Something to look out for, though.
Our next two meetings are in the diary. On Wednesday 13th April we will be discussing “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens. We have chosen this book because it seems to have influenced so many other, later authors and it was certainly an influence of two of our previous reads, most obviously “Mr Pip” which we all enjoyed and remember.
Then on Wednesday 18th May we will be discussing Vikram Seth’s “An Equal Music” Both meetings will be held from 6.00pm at the Old Punchbowl on the corner of the Butts in Warwick – thanks to Angie and her staff who always make us very welcome. We usually finish our discussions soon after 7.0pm and there is still room for a couple more people to join our discussions
Meg’s Childrens Book Group
April 30th, 2011
‘HIVE’ by Mark Walden and ‘Shiver’ by Maggie Stiefvater
You might think that the children’s (now more teenage!) book group has died but in fact it is merely that Meg forgot to send in her report on HIVE last time. Briefly, that was a book that we all enjoyed and some of us enjoyed very much indeed. Meg was her usual sneery self, pointing out the illogical premise – how can you have a school for villainy in which villainy is the thing to be attained – and yet you get punished for being difficult in class? And how is it possible to have friendships? If you’re all villains, how can you also be friends? However – if one ignores all that, this is a very entertaining read, with clearly defined and interesting characters and an exciting climax – even if the finale does seem to owe rather too much to Hagrid and Nigel from ‘Harry Potter’!
This is the first book in what is clearly a fairly substantial series and we were rather irritated by the very obvious hook into the next book. It was a good read – but not so good that any of us were gagging to read the next one – not like ‘The Hunger Games’.
Much the same could be said of ‘Shiver’. We all enjoyed this. Everyone gave it 8/10 apart from skinflint Meg who could only rise to 7. There was comment on its patchiness. The opening and the ending were especially well handled and we enjoyed the complexity of some of the characters. We felt, however, that Grace’s character was inconsistent. We could argue that she becomes a different, more confident, more sexually alive character, only when she meets Sam – but we weren’t quite convinced. The transformation from the rather geeky, reclusive and highly responsible girl seems a bit too extreme. We also had some issues in this book with the ‘What do you do with the interfering parents?’ question, always a bit of a stumbling block for children’s writers. In this book, we felt that the parents were that bit too dysfunctional to credit – but they were certainly different! We liked the premise of the book, which is a twist on the werewolf theme and were intrigued to know how it would resolve in the end. The author effectively kept us guessing. Jamie’s killer review line ‘Like ‘Twilight’ without the Vampires’ turned out to be a bit harsh. It’s a better written and more interesting read than ‘Twilight’ and we’d recommend it, especially to those who enjoy supernatural romance. Even so, we were satisfied by just one book with these characters and this theme. We weren’t convinced by the idea of it stretching to a trilogy – but that is what publishers seem to be interested in just now, if they’re going to give anything any serious promotion. It’s a shame. It’s a good stand alone book.
Our next meeting is Tues May 10th (tbc) and our chosen book is ‘Skulduggery Pleasant’ by Derek Landy.
Meg Harper
(Meg’s next children’s book ‘Elizabeth 1st – The Story of the Last Tudor Queen’ will be published beginning of May)
Kenilworth Book Club
April 30th, 2011
Kenilworth Books
Book Club
Meets at the Virgin and Castle Pub, High Street, Kenilworth,
4th Tuesday of every month 7.30 p.m. till about 9.30 p.m.
19th April: The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift
(NB: date change) Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
24th May: South Riding by Winifred Holtby
One Day by David Nicholls
28th June: The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
26th July: Kenilworth by Walter Scott
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale
We are an informal and friendly group. Do come along and join us! Ring Victoria Lee on 0790 8899250, Kenilworth Books on 01926 855784 or see www.warwickbooks.net
for more information.
