The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell

Almost the entire book group managed to finish this book and they almost all enjoyed it too!

We found that having no chapters made this book a little tricky in terms of finding places to stop, but that the different voices within the book were very clear meaning we didn't get confused even with the lack of chapters.

We had a long discussion about how women were treated in this paternalistic version of the world, and sometimes they still are in this day and age. We felt that we needed a little bit more about how Esme lived in the institution, what was her life like etc. We did get a little of this but we wanted more just so we could understand things a little better. We were also interested in finding out a little more about how places like these closed down, it all just seemed so sudden and with so little thought for the people living there.

We liked the ending of the book but we do worry for Esme, what exactly will happen to her. Given how long she has been institutionalised it could be difficult for her to get used to living out in the real world.

Overall we gave this book 8 out of 10.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Questions

Hello,

Don’t forget that the next book club meeting is on 15th December, not the last Thursday of the month! Also, we’re having our pot luck that night so please let me know what you would like to bring if you haven’t already.

Here are some questions for this months book so you might want to look away now if you haven’t finished the book:

•    When Iris gets the call from the psychiatric hospital, she is put in a very difficult position. What does she stand to gain and lose from the decision she eventually makes? What would you do in her shoes?
•    Why do you think Esme was sent to Cauldstone, and never released to go home? Do you think she is mentally unbalanced? Give examples from the book to support your opinion.
•    As Iris discovers more about Cauldstone, she discovers some of the more outrageous reasons that women were sent to "mad houses" like it. According to the novel's descriptions of that time period, what do you think drove this trend? Do you think changes have occurred in our view and treatment of women who don't "behave"? Why or why not?
•    How did you find the end of the book? Can you think of any alternative endings that might have worked? What do you imagine will happen to these characters after the last page is turned? Has the author satisfied your interest in these characters?

Moriarty - Anthony Horowitz

Everyone in the book group had finished this book but not everyone had read the short story. It doesn't honestly matter if you've not read the short story it's just an interesting additional element. We were left wondering why there was a short story in the first place.

As this is a Sherlock Holmes type of book we were all reading it looking for any red herrings or twists that had been put in to put us off the scent. We were all wondering for example who the coughing man was, was he relevant to the story etc. Having done this throughout the reading of the book when it came to the end we were left wondering if this did actually need to be a Sherlock book at all. It was a good book but it doesn't really need to be a Sherlock book. We felt that there were a lot of elements that were missing and just didn't feel quite like a Conan Doyle Sherlock book, but what was Horowitz trying to achieve with this book? Just to slightly emulate the style or to truly add another book to the Sherlock canon?

We all felt that the ending of the story was very much telling and not doing. There wasn't as much action as we were expecting especially given that some of the group had previously read some Sherlock stories and there is a certain amount of action in some of them.

Overall we gave this book 6 out of 10.

Moriarty - Questions

Hello everyone!

I hope you’re all enjoying this months book club book Moriarty. Here are some questions you might like to look at while you’re reading the book:

•    Have you read any of the Sherlock stories mentioned in the book, or indeed any Sherlock stories at all? Did you decide to read some prior to getting into this book? Did you find that this new book was faithful to the original Sherlock stories?
•    Were you upset that this story is narrated by people other than Sherlock and Watson? Or did you find that this was a positive thing?
•    Would you consider this a good crime novel, did it keep you guessing or had you figured everything out way in advance? Did the pacing suit the story, did it grab you and carry you along or did you feel that it dragged a little?
•    The most important question, did the ending catch you completely by surprise? Be honest!

All The Birds In The Sky - Charlie Jane Anders

Almost all the book group finished this book even though many in the group felt that the book meandered around a lot. Many of those who got to the end felt that it fell a little flat and weren't impressed with it. We are wondering if there will be another book and this will become a series given the openness of the ending.

We all felt that this book was a lot of different genres all mixed together making it tricky to decide what kind of book you were reading. This made it difficult to decide how to read it because we weren't sure what was going to happen next. We felt that maybe the author needed the courage to pick just one genre and stick to it rather than stuff all her ideas into the one book.

We weren't entirely sure when this book was set, we felt it might be in our very near future but in a slightly different time line to ours as they were going through the beginnings of an apocalypse and we don't think that's what we're going through at the moment. They had some technology which felt similar to ours such as the caddy, but it wasn't quite the same as things we have.

There were a lot of interesting characters within this book but they were unfortunately not looked at very closely, we all wanted to hear more from a lot of the background characters. Maybe this would have fleshed out one of the story lines a little more.

Overall we gave this book 6 out of 10.

All The Birds In The Sky - Questions

Hello,
Here are some questions about this months book that you might want to look at once you’ve finished the book in time for the meeting:

•    Which side did you feel more drawn to, the magical or the SciFi (nature versus science)?
•    This book is compared to The Magicians by Lev Grossman a lot, has anyone read that book, or watched the TV series? Would you say the two books do compare?
•    How did you feel about the two very distinct parts to the book, the first being the two protagonists childhood, and the second being 10 years later?
•    Did you enjoy the mishmash of different genres? We see elements of magical realism, fantasy, SciFi, apocalyptic, and a bit of romance. Or did you find it confusing?

The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton

Almost everyone finished the book apart from one who felt she really could not finish it as she did not enjoy it at all.

Everyone had a real problem with the end of the book, we felt that it was very hurried but at the same time it had too many lose ends and not enough clarity to it.

We all enjoyed the fact that we were reading about women becoming stronger through the book, while the men in story became weaker and weaker. We were essentially watching the unravelling of this family group as the various rules outside the house were gradually seen to be being broken within the house. This was an interesting discussion point within the group. We all decided we enjoyed watching Petronella becoming such a strong woman who really tried her best given the circumstances to protect her family.

We also discussed the whole aspect of the miniaturist and why she was in the book at all. Some people felt that she was somewhat pointless and just confusing, while others felt she was an interesting gothic element along the lines of Daphne Du Maurier.

We felt that the ending of the book means that there is hope, even though such tragic things happened during the rest of the book. We kind of want to know what happened next, but understand that we'll just never know. We also wanted some kind of short story about the miniaturist to explain where she came from and where she went.

Overall we gave this book 6 out of 10.

The Miniaturist - Questions

Hello everyone!

Please find below some questions about this months book club pick, The Miniaturist! There may be spoilers so please be aware of that. If you’re unable to come along please let me know asap as it helps with organising the baking.

•    The Brandt household is full of secrets. Which made the biggest impression on you and why?
•    Did your attitude to the characters remain consistent throughout the novel, or did your loyalties shift as you kept reading? Which character provoked the strongest reaction from you?
•    If you were Nella and had to take up her role at the end of the book, what would you do next?
•    "Words are water in this city. One drop of rumour could drown us." says Marin. Discuss the irony of this statement.
•    The novel has an amazing sense of time and place. How does the author create such an immersive world for the reader?
•    Could more have been done with the character of the miniaturist? Did Burton give enough of an explanation?
•    How would the household have survived after the novel had ended?

Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng

Unfortunately only a very few people turned up for this book club meeting so the discussion was a little shorter than usual.

We discussed the issue that we might be missing certain elements of the book because we're all white, maybe we would have got more from it if we were of the same ethnic group as the author? Also, we're all a lot older than the protagonists so again we might be missing some elements of the story.

We felt really sorry for all the children in the book and their family situation. Lydia had so much pressure put on her by her mother whereas the two other siblings (Nathan and Hannah) were really just ignored as the parents put so much of their effort into the one child they felt was going to achieve the most.

It was so sad that everyone in the book was keeping a secret and if they had just spoken to each other about these things maybe some of the tragedy would not have happened. Everything just spiralled completely out of control so quickly and easily when they just didn't talk to each other.

Overall we gave this book 6 out of 10.

Everything I Never Told You - Questions

Hello everyone,

I’m doing something a little different this month with the questions. This time i’m sending out a document that the author has created and made freely available on her website. There are some questions we need to look at, and a little bit about the book and the author. The web address for this is:

http://www.celesteng.com/book-club-kit

The Improbability of Love - Hannah Rothschild

Almost all the book group members finished this book but many felt that it was a tough one to get through with so many different characters and some confusion as to the actual story at the heart of the book. We felt that the beginning of the book was quite slow and there were a lot of unnecessary characters that caused confusion.

Many of the book group members enjoyed the bits in the book that were written from the point of view of the painting. We felt that these sections added a lot of interest to the book. We also really enjoyed the bits about painting restoration and how just five little dabs of paint can produce a whole person. We wanted more about this!

We enjoyed comparing the characters to see which was the most unlikeable amongst the "baddies" we felt that some of them were simply impassively, they just went along with things rather than tried to make things better. Whereas some of the characters were very actively bad and went about things very forcefully doing particularly bad things.

We wondered about some of the other characters like Barty. Do people like him really exist? He felt kind of like a caricature rather than a real person. We felt that although Delia and Morris were likeable they were also a little caricature like as well.

We also had a bit of a discussion about art and what it means and why it's sometimes so expensive.

Overall we gave this book 6 out of 10.

The Improbability of Love - Questions

Hello, everyone,

I hope you’ve all been enjoying the book this month and you’re looking forward to our meeting on 28th July. Here are some questions about “The Improbability Of Love”, and as usual i’ll warn you not to look at these questions until you’ve finished most of the book as there might be spoilers.

•    Discuss the various players who are vying after the painting and their intentions behind purchasing it. Whose intentions—if any—are pure? Whose motivations are capitalistic?
•    The dinner party scenes within the novel describe a world of unfettered lavishness. How do these scenes contrast with Annie’s day-to-day life? Did you find any of the meals appealing? Discuss the concepts of "consumption" and "excess" as described throughout The Improbability of Love.
•    The "voice" of the painting provides important historical and aesthetic context throughout the novel. Trace the history of ownership for The Improbability of Love. What struck you about the painting’s provenance? Why do you think the author chose to utilize this unique stylistic choice?
•    Discuss Rebecca’s role in the art world and in her father’s business. How would you characterize her professional persona versus her personal one? When is she most powerful? Describe her moral dilemma when she finds out the truth about her father. Memling’s life story is inspired by Nazi art thieves and the horrors of the Holocaust. Are there some parallels between Memling and historical figures?
•    How familiar were you with the art world before reading this novel? Did your perception of the business change or shift throughout the reading experience? Can you recall any particular works of art, exhibits, or performance pieces that elicited the same sort of frenzy described around Watteau’s work in the novel?

Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery

Everyone in the book club finished and enjoyed this book, we found the characters and the place setting to be utterly charming and not at all annoying as some people seem to have. We felt that the place of Green Gables and Prince Edward Island are so beautifully described in the book that they fell like another character. You felt as though you could step in through the pages and you would know exactly what everything looked like, and even in some cases smelt like! The way that Anne looked at things and used metaphor to describe them made it much more easy for us as readers to visualise things rather than a long list of descriptions.

We felt that Anne herself was a very capable and intelligent young girl who just happened to have grown up in a bad environment. Given her formative years weren't spent in the best place she seems very confident and self-sufficient, quite a lovely girl in fact. She does have a tendency to become distracted and may over-react to some situations but she never means anything but the best for everyone she meets. This is why we were a little confused as to why she hated Gilbert for so long. Was it because she felt a spark towards him and didn't know what to do about it? Or did she really just hate having been called carrots?

Anne really was someone who looked for the good in everyone and everything. Even when bad things happened she took a few minutes to herself and came out with a positive from it. We thought more people should be like her, but it such a difficult thing to do. Looking at the world through Anne's eyes made us all think about the world a little differently, and that's not a bad thing.

Overall we gave this book 9 out of 10.

Anne of Green Gables - Questions

Hello everyone,

I hope you’re all enjoying this months book, i certainly did! This email is coming to you a little early so please be aware that if you haven’t read the whole book you might want to stop reading this email now to avoid spoilers!

Here are some questions for you to consider about the book:
•    From the moment she arrives in Avonlea, Anne is insistent on renaming places and inanimate things. Barry’s Pond, for example, becomes “The Lake of Shining Waters” and Marilla’s geranium becomes “Bonny.” Why do you think she does this?
•    Anne is a remarkably compassionate child and is able to forgive even those who have judged her unfairly, such as Mrs. Rachel Lynde or Mrs. Barry. Why, then, do you think she holds such a grudge against Gilbert Blythe?
•    When Anne is at Queen’s College, she thinks: “All the Beyond was hers with its possibilities lurking rosily in the oncoming years—each year a rose of promise to be woven into an immortal chaplet” (p. 266). How is this message both hopeful and sad? How do you think Anne’s conceptions of the future change throughout the book?
•    At the end of the book, Rachel Lynde tells Marilla, “There’s a good deal of the child about her yet in some ways,” and Marilla responds by saying, “There’s a good deal more of the woman about her in others” (p. 285). What do you make of her comment? How has Anne changed during her time at Green Gables? How has she stayed the same?

Havisham - Ronald Frame

Only half the book group finished this book. This was mostly because people just didn't enjoy it at all and they didn't want to keep reading. Most said during the book group meeting that they had no want to carry on and finish the book.

We had a bit of a discussion about why people write these kind of books. In some cases it can add something to the story, but we felt that wasn't true in this case. We didn't feel that the story rang true as something written for this particular time period. We also felt that it didn't really stand on its own, you had to have a lot of knowledge of the book it's related to in order to get the most out of this book. It didn't really go anywhere new or introduce anything we felt added to the original story. Ultimately we were disappointed in this book, although the end 1/3 was probably better than the start of the book.

With regards the main protagonist we felt that she was a confusing and ultimately sad character. She seemed to be so very shrewd when it came to business but when it was matters of the heart she was completely naïve and useless. We weren't sure about her periods of madness, were they something she affected rather than an actual mental illness as they seemed to come and go so easily.

Overall we gave this book 2 out of 10.