Savage Lands - Questions

Hello,

Here are some questions on this months book which we'll be discussing on Thursday 31st March.

- Elisabeth carries her copies of Montaigne with her across the ocean – and names her baby Michel. Do his books turn out to be a useful thing to carry across, despite Elizabeth’s mothers frustration? Consider how the French re-learn how to live in the swamps of Louisiana.

- ‘Who knew what kind of a savage he himself might become among the savages?’ (page 298) – the fear of intermarriage, friendship and bastard children between the French and the natives is found throughout the novel. Is it exposure to the natives that ruins the settlement, or the Europeans inability to react to their new situation and surroundings?

- The misuse of power is demonstrated repeatedly throughout the novel – is anyone innocent of this type of manipulation? Consider the governor and soldiers’ misuse of power, the power of fear, the power of love and marriage and the power of omission.

See you all next week!

Questions are from Readers Place.

You Are Next

This months book came from Random House as part of their sponsorship for the first four months of 2011.

Our cake this month was produced by Gaynor and was enjoyed by everyone!

This novel was the second thriller we've read in a row and everyone agreed that this was something we should avoid for next time as it may have jaded our view. We all felt that we've had enough of thrillers for a little while!

This month we had a selection of questions to use which came in very handy for focusing our discussions. Question sets are an invaluable resource for bookclubs.

Many of the bookclub members do not as a rule read crime, whereas some of the bookclub are more hardened crime readers. This caused a bit of a divide in the group with some people really enjoying the novel and others finding it a bit too basic for them. We all agreed that this would be an excellent starting point for someone new to the crime genre. However, we all felt that thrillers in general are not built for the kind of scrutiny that our bookclub gives its books.

It was a fairly formulaic novel, as crime novels go, which aggravated some readers but others felt this was almost comforting in its certainty of what would be coming next. We felt that it was very linear in its movement from one scene to the next, this might make it a better film than it was a book. There are certain scenes, for example the party, that we really could see as a film.

We all felt very sorry for Karin and the things she had to go through both before and during this book. However, there was a little too much focus on her depression and suicidal tendencies for us not to feel a bit annoyed with her at times. The changes in the relationship between Karin and Mac was interesting to follow, although it was a little odd at times, eg. during the ComiCon scenes.

Overall this was a book that we mostly enjoyed, but not as a bookclub selection. We gave this book an average of 6 out of 10. Many of the bookclub copies have been lent to others, meaning this was a book people had enjoyed!

Book Club Questions - You Are Next

Hello everyone,

Here are some questions to get you thinking in time for this weeks meeting:

- How effective is the use of the dominoes in the story?
- How well do you think You Are Next could be transferred to the silver screen?
- The character of Christa is introduced to the novel quite late on. How well rounded is her character as a result? Is she as threatening/scary/intense as the reader requires? If not, why not?
- Do you like the character of Karin Schaeffer as a character? How rounded is she?
- Is it a satisfying ending?

See you all on Thursday!

Questions are from Readers Place.

Random House - ReadersPlace

Hello everyone,

We're been put onto the readersplace website!

http://readersplace.co.uk/book-of-the-month/2011-02/250944/

Final chance to fill in the survey

Hello everyone,

I'm going to take a report of the book club survey on 11th February so if you'd like to fill it in before then i'd be very grateful. Please don't fill it in again if you have already filled it in once.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2VR53GG

The Devil's Star

This months book came from Random House as part of their sponsorship for the first four months of 2011.

The one message we would give about this book is that it does not hold its own as a stand-alone novel. However, as part of the series of books it does seem to be quite good. Most of the book club did read it as a single novel and didn’t get on with it very well. The one member of the club that did read the previous two novels got a lot more enjoyment from “The Devil’s Star”. In order for more people to enjoy this novel it should be made more clear that this is part of a series and that the series does run together.

We mostly found the book very hard to get into at first, but enjoyed it more as the story went on. The section when Harry started to figure out the pattern of the murders was particularly enjoyed, in fact we felt that the very last part of the story was largely unnecessary. It seemed to go on for a long time after we thought it should have actually finished.

We felt that a great deal of the problems we had with getting into the book and understanding the characters may stem from the fact that this is a book in translation. Also, much of the back story of the characters wasn’t restated at the beginning of the book leaving us with story lines in this novel that we couldn’t really follow. Many of the club members said that they found it hard to picture the peoples faces as they read about them, there wasn’t much physical description to help us. Not sure if this was to do with it being part of a series or to do with the translation.

Certain sections of the book were really enjoyable, for example, the historical background to Sven’s humble beginnings. This is probably because it did stand alone as a section of great detail so we could enjoy it because it was understandable to us. However, other sections were very confusing, for example we were not sure what relevance the plaster story at the beginning had to do with the rest of the book.

Overall we gave this book 4 out of 10, with the only member of the club giving the book an 8 being the member who had read the previous books. This gives a clear indication that the books should be read as part of a series. We did all finish this book, this was mostly because it is after all a crime novel so we wanted to know what happened in the end.

The Devil's Star - Questions

Hello everyone,

I hope you're all ready for the January meeting! Here are some generic questions to start us all off:

- How did you experience the book? It's not always helpful to talk about whether or not you liked the book, but rather how you felt as you were reading it? Were you pulled effortlessly into the book...or did you have difficulty getting into it? Why? Did you find yourself amused, intrigued, enthralled, disturbed, fearful, irritated, angered, or impatient?

- Are the characters convincing-do they come across as believable human beings with underlying motivations? Are they fully developed as emotionally complex individuals? Or are they one-dimensional, with little emphasis on their inner lives?

- Is the plot well-developed? Is it believable...or is it forced? Is it suspenseful or more contemplative? Does it unfold naturally, or do you feel manipulated along the way by coincidences, odd plot twists, or cliffhangers?

- Is the ending satisfying? Predictable or not? Does is wrap up the ends neatly? Is it too neat, too pat? Does it leave some issues unresolved, questions unanswered? If you could change the ending, would you...if so, how would you change it?