SE1 Book Club 2011
jackie rokotnitz Friday 9 December 2011 6.51am
Oh good. Will get reading. Well into Per Petterson at the moment.
jackie rokotnitz Monday 19 December 2011 10.01am
Furthermore want to say that I was dazzled by Per Petterson!
Lanky Friday 30 December 2011 8.06am
I have just moved to this area and I am very interested in joing the book club. I see you guys in Febuarary.
jackie rokotnitz Thursday 12 January 2012 9.31am
Hi Everyone. It's my turn to choose books for April:"
So:
1.THE MILKMAN IN THE NIGHT by Andrey Kurkov
This is an absolutely charming book, wry and funny, a whodunnit and a social commentary. THINGs are going bump in the night in Kiev. A strange cat with nine lives keeps reappearing. Semyon has started to sleepwalk and is so disturbed he has to get a friend to watch him and find out where his sleepwalking is taking him. Meantime a young single mother is donating her milk to a mysterious customer, and a couple of widows are living with their deceased husbands in ..er..unusual circumstances. A hoot.
2.THE CAT'S TABLE by Michael Ondaatje. This is certainly partly autobiographical, but is a magical tale of a young Sri Lankan boy from a rich family going to England to school, on an ocean going liner in the 1950s. He and two other boys live in this cut off microcosm of the world with all sorts of interesting and unusual people, many with secrets which are gradually revealed. Told years later by the grown up Michael remembering his child's eye view and the wonder of discovery and excitement while sailing half way round the world...this is a beautiful and exciting book.
3.CALEB'S CROSSING by Geraldine Brooks. An extraordinarily vivid picture of early 17th Century New England, and the relationships between the Puritan settlers and the local Indian tribes..this is a truly beautifully realised story of love and loss - written in a very carefully transposed vernacular of the times, so that it rings incredibly true. The "crossing" is that of a Native American who became the first student at the newly founded Harvard, having "crossed" from his own culture to that of the English settlers through his friendship with a daughter of a minister on what was to become the island of Martha's Vinyard. Gorgeous.
So:
1.THE MILKMAN IN THE NIGHT by Andrey Kurkov
This is an absolutely charming book, wry and funny, a whodunnit and a social commentary. THINGs are going bump in the night in Kiev. A strange cat with nine lives keeps reappearing. Semyon has started to sleepwalk and is so disturbed he has to get a friend to watch him and find out where his sleepwalking is taking him. Meantime a young single mother is donating her milk to a mysterious customer, and a couple of widows are living with their deceased husbands in ..er..unusual circumstances. A hoot.
2.THE CAT'S TABLE by Michael Ondaatje. This is certainly partly autobiographical, but is a magical tale of a young Sri Lankan boy from a rich family going to England to school, on an ocean going liner in the 1950s. He and two other boys live in this cut off microcosm of the world with all sorts of interesting and unusual people, many with secrets which are gradually revealed. Told years later by the grown up Michael remembering his child's eye view and the wonder of discovery and excitement while sailing half way round the world...this is a beautiful and exciting book.
3.CALEB'S CROSSING by Geraldine Brooks. An extraordinarily vivid picture of early 17th Century New England, and the relationships between the Puritan settlers and the local Indian tribes..this is a truly beautifully realised story of love and loss - written in a very carefully transposed vernacular of the times, so that it rings incredibly true. The "crossing" is that of a Native American who became the first student at the newly founded Harvard, having "crossed" from his own culture to that of the English settlers through his friendship with a daughter of a minister on what was to become the island of Martha's Vinyard. Gorgeous.
connie Wednesday 18 January 2012 11.51am
Did you notice that one of the books we read a couple of years ago, "Call the Midwife", has been adapted into a TV series and was on BBC1 last Sunday.
jackie rokotnitz Wednesday 18 January 2012 12.41pm
Yes indeed, saw that and we should watch!!
jackie rokotnitz Wednesday 18 January 2012 12.42pm
Yes indeed, saw that and we should watch!!Oh damn, have I missed it?
juanita Thursday 19 January 2012 10.48am
No you have not missed the series Jackie. There have only been 2 episodes on TV so far. I am sure that they will be on BBC iPlayer.
chavender Monday 23 January 2012 8.44am
jackie rokotnitz Monday 23 January 2012 9.05am
INdeed...
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