I'm so sorry I haven't mentioned April's book club pick until now. It's the Easter hols and I'm all upskittled, as my mother-in-law would say.
Anyhoo, this month's book is a modern classic: The Group by Mary McCarthy.
I don't know anything about this book, except that I've read it described as a precursor to Sex and the City and way ahead of its time (it was originally published in 1962).
I hope you'll join us in reading it. We'll discuss it at the end of the month.
I can report that I actually FINISHED this book (more or less) on time, so that was a good start. It was my first foray into Vampire culture (books, films, or TV) but (dun dun dun) would it be my last?
Well... possibly. The Vampire Diaries didn't convert me to the vampire cause or convince me it's an exciting sub-genre, that's for sure. If I hadn't been reading this for book club I would have put this down after a couple of chapters, and never picked it up again. Which is ironic, as it definitely gets more exciting towards the end.
My main beefs with it were that I found it unconvincing (not to mention worrying) that a 17 year old girl would fall deeply in love with a boy she barely knew. I felt it romanticised unhealthy relationships. The teen/vampire crossover has always made me a bit uncomfortable, the use of blood-sucking as a metaphor for sex, and here it was stomach-churning at times. I would rather them have had a normal sexual relationship than this well, perversity doesn't seem too strong a word. [Also, given the risk of hepatitis and HIV, I'm surprised this new edition didn't edit out a scene where a group of girls become "blood sisters". Irresponsible, or what?] If it hadn't been a teen novel, it might not have bothered me so much. But when there are so many great YA novels which promote a healthy attitude to female sexuality, why anyone would read outdated stuff like this is beyond me. (It was written in the early '90s, which explains a lot.)
Worst of all, however, I found the prose rather... purple. I probably would have thought it was well-written when I was a teenager. Now I found it overwritten in the extreme, like the worst kind of romantic fiction ("Elena felt passion surge through them like summer lightning, and she could sense the answering passion in Stefan. But infusing everything was a gentleness almost frightening in its intensity." Blah blah etc.)
Plus, it had one of those endings that goes straight into the start of the next book, which always annoys me - I think each book in a series should be complete in its own right. AND there were hardly any diary entries in it at all. Pah.
Book club questions:
Did you read the book (or have you seen the TV series)? What did you think?
Have you read/watched other vampiric culture? (True Blood, Stephanie Meyer's books, Charlaine Harris's books, Anne Rice's books or the film adaptation of Interview with a Vampire, etc.)? Did you enjoy it/them?
How do you feel about the vampire/sex metaphor? Is there any way in which it empowers women? Do you feel uncomfortable about younger teenagers reading about bloodsucking?
Are you willing to put up with not-so-great writing if the plot of a book is great, or is great writing at the heart of fun reading?
Is there anything else you'd like to add? I'd love to know, even if you totally disagree with me! :)
March's book club pick is Vampire Diaries.
Vampires are everywhere these days, but this book was the original vampire series for teenagers and has recently been made into a very popular American TV programme (shown here on ITV2). The first two books of the series come in this volume, but we're just focusing on book 1 for our March read (although obviously feel free to read as many as you want if you want to keep going).
Those of you who have read Charlaine Harris, Anne Rice and of course Stephanie Meyer will have lots of room for comparison and I'd love to hear your thoughts but this is my first dip into vampiric fiction so I'm very curious to find out how accessible it is for non-fantasy fans like me.
I'm sorry to say February's book club has been postponed - I got very ill (so much so I couldn't concentrate to read - nightmare!) and didn't finish The White Tiger in time. Expect our thoughts about that book after we've discussed The Vampire Diaries at the end of March. Sorry for the delay (and for any confusion you may now be experiencing...).
As February is a short month I thought we shouldn't dilly-dally, so I'm jumping in with the introduction of the book club pick for this month.
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga isn't my usual sort of book and it's not the usual sort of book we review (just two of the reasons I chose it!) - it's written by a man, it won the Booker Prize in 2008 and it's set in India. But I thought it would do me good to get out of my reading "comfort zone" (I almost always read books by British or American women) and I would love for you to join me so I have someone to discuss the book with when I've finished...
I hope you won't be put off by this choice - yes, it won a major literary prize, but I hear it's more accessible than most Booker winning novels. It's also less than £4 in paperback almost everywhere, so it's no big loss if you hate it (though I really hope you don't).
As usual, we'll discuss the book at the end of month - see you then, I hope!
So have you read it? Did you love it? Hate it?
This year, we're going to kick off discussions with a few book club-style questions. Obviously you don't have to answer them - we'd love to know what you think about any aspect of the book.
1. Volk uses a non-linear structure in Stuffed, i.e. the narrative hops all over the place. Did you like this or did you struggle with it? Why do you think she wrote it that way? (Inspired by Helen's comment on an earlier post)
2. What did you think of the descriptions of food? I know this has put some readers off, but it was one of the things I loved. I want to try everything she described (and did actually once go to Fortnum & Mason's to try the Welsh Rarebit, but couldn't get a table. I will try again).
And two questions I've pinched from here (because they're just what I wanted to ask, but worded better than I could have managed):
3. To what degree does Stuffed express a sense of nostalgia for childhood, for a sheltered existence, and for an earlier time? How realistically does Volk recall the atmosphere of middle-class family life in the middle decades of the twentieth century?
4. Why has Volk chosen "Stuffed" as her title? What does it mean to be stuffed? What is the relationship between being satiated and being stuffed? Is there a fine line between being comfortably satisfied and feeling dangerously overindulged?
Stuffed is my choice for January's book club and so, as per the new rules, I'm supposed to introduce it and say why I picked it.
'We were a restaurant family, four generations in a six-block radius. When you opened our fridge, food fell on your feet.'
That would be enough for me, but okay... Well first, it's a memoir. Patricia Volk comes from a New York restaurant family and it's a memoir of New York, the restaurant and family. And of food. Volk writes about food brilliantly and I've read this book with my mouth watering and vowed to hunt down some of the places she mentions and try the meals she eats.
It's also a very nostalgic book. It makes me want to live in New York, but in the 1950s and '60s. It's warm and charming and completely wonderful. I actually didn't read it at first, I listened to it on audiobook, which I would HIGHLY recommend. After I'd listened to it, I bought it in book form, primarily because I wanted to see the photographs of Volk's family. And now I'm re-reading it and it's just as wonderful the third time. I envy those of you who are getting to read it for the first.
Another year, another book club! But we've made some changes. Last year, I (Keris) chose all of the books. This year, Diane, Helen and I have chosen four books each: one non-fiction, one fiction, one young adult and one modern classic. And following heated negotiations, we've also got a schedule. But we're keeping it to ourselves just for the moment and only revealing the first three choices.
There will be another couple of changes too. The person who chose the book will introduce it and reveal their reasons for choosing it and then, at the end of the month, will kick off the discussion with a few book club-type questions (let me warn you now, I am rubbish at this, but I'll do my best).
We'd love for you to join us. Check out the first three choices over the cut.
