December’s Book

Scary to be announcing December’s book and it’s not quite Halloween! Sarah has chosen Lifesaving for beginners by Ciara Geraghty.

 

Kat Kavanagh is not in love. She has lots of friends, an ordinary job, and she never ever thinks about her past.This is Kat’s story. None of it is true.Milo McIntyre loves his mam, the peanut-butter-and-banana muffins at the Funky Banana café, and the lifesaving class he does after school. He never thinks about his future, until the day it changes forever.This is Milo’s story. All of it is true.And then there is the other story. The one with a twist of fate which somehow brings together a boy from Brighton and a woman in Dublin, and uncovers the truth once and for all. This is the story that’s just about to begin . . 

September’s Book – ‘The faster I walk, the smaller I am’ by Kjersti Skomsvold

Jennie has chosen the book for September – ‘The faster I walk, the smaller I am‘ by Kjersti Skomsvold

 

June’s Book – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Sinéad’s choice for June is The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.

 

 

Harold Fry is convinced that he must deliver a letter to an old love in order to save her, meeting various characters along the way and reminiscing about the events of his past and people he has known, as he tries to find peace and acceptance.

Recently retired, sweet, emotionally numb Harold Fry is jolted out of his passivity by a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an old friend, who he hasn’t heard from in twenty years. She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye. Leaving his tense, bitter wife Maureen to her chores, Harold intends a quick walk to the corner mailbox to post his reply but instead, inspired by a chance encounter, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie–who is 600 miles away–because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that Queenie will not die. 

So without hiking boots, rain gear, map or cell phone, one of the most endearing characters in current fiction begins his unlikely pilgrimage across the English countryside. Along the way, strangers stir up memories–flashbacks, often painful, from when his marriage was filled with promise and then not, of his inadequacy as a father, and of his shortcomings as a husband. 

Ironically, his wife Maureen, shocked by her husband’s sudden absence, begins to long for his presence. Is it possible for Harold and Maureen to bridge the distance between them? And will Queenie be alive to see Harold arrive at her door?

Poll to choose May’s book

Here is a poll to decide April’s book. Please take the time to vote, I will leave it open for a week.

‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’  is my World Book Night book for 2013. I will be receiving a box of it in the next month and anyone who wants a copy is welcome to one. I know that at least 3 of the book club have already read it though.

I would like to revert to taking turns to pick books as I think it worked well. This time we will go alphabetically by surname. So Merle, Sinead, Anne Marie, Jennie, Laura K, Claire, Laura M, Susan, Sarah and Siobhán. (Weird that three of the Ss came last again, sorry girls!). Let me know what ye think or if ye can suggest other ways to pick books.

We love ‘Toddle Waddle’

Happy world book day! Continuing in the spirit of World Book Day I wanted to write a review about the favourite book in our house currently. It’s no secret that Julia Donaldson is a big favourite in our house, but the love of this book has just pushed her popularity to a whole new level. My 18 month old absolutely adores this book. Anytime from 6.30pm if you mention bed, he’s out shaking the stair gate trying to get upstairs and as soon as he gets up he starts saying ‘tada wada’. To the uninitiated this is ‘Toddle Waddle’ by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt. His 4 1/2 year old big brother usually reads the book to him.

It starts off  with the toddler ‘toddle’ and the duck ‘waddle’ and from then on every new character introduced makes a new sound. From Mammy’s ‘flip flop’ to the apple eater’s ‘crunch munch’ there is lots of sounds for a toddler to enjoy trying to copy. There is also a page with a train ‘choo choo’ is always popular, and a page that just says ‘bye bye’. We all wave at the book and then it is time for bed.

This is an excellent addition to any toddlers library, and is providing hours of fun in this house anyway. If you’re in Gorey it is available in The Book Station, but should be easily found in any good bookshop. Read with your children today to celebrate world book day!

March’s Book – Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue

Thanks everyone for voting. The poll is now closed. The Slap got 1 vote, Secret diary of a call girl got 3 and Slammerkin got 4. So Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue will be March’s read.

 

Choose March’s Book

We chose four numbers at random and we will choose from the corresponding books from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Laura M’s random number generator was the source of much amusement.

297.  The Player of Games – Iain M Banks
1305.  Aesop’s Fables
542. The German Lesson – Siegfried Lenz
559. Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys

Please choose which one we’ll read:

1001 books you must read before you die

Last meeting we suggested picking future books by choosing a number at random and doing the corresponding book from the 1001 books you must read before you die list.  Thanks to Merle for doing the research on this.

First explaining the list is Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1001_Books_You_Must_Read_Before_You_Die

Then official website of list is: http://1001beforeyoudie.com/ it’s searchable and sortable and gives bit of information about book and author when you click on title but I thought doesn’t give an easy overview of the list, which is what you get on next link.

Seemingly there are 3 editions of the list and both times new titles have been added and some scrapped, this last link has supposedly all the books that have ever been chosen so there’s actually 1305 books on it : http://www.1morechapter.com/projects/1001-list/
Even if we don’t go with this idea it’s quite interesting to look through it.

 

We can discuss this more on Tuesday night anyway. Looking forward to the first book club of 2013.

 

January’s Book – On Chesil Beach by Ian McKewn

Siobhán has chosen January’s book ‘On Chesil Beach’ by Ian McKewn.