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.