April’s Meet on World Book Night

Due to difficulty sourcing  copies of  ‘Secret Diary of a Call Girl’ by Belle De Jour our book for May will now be ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ by Tracy Chevalier. At least three book club members have already read it, but I for one will be re-reading. It was my chosen book for World Book Night 2013 and I gave away most of my 40 copies yesterday. Great turn out for World Book Night Book Club meeting, seven members attended.

 

We gave away copies of Girl with a Pearl Earring to the hotel receptionist, and some hotel guests, and fellow lobby loungers. They were mostly well received. One girl said she hadn’t read a book for more than two years, so she was a perfect target audience. A man grumbled that there was no horse racing in it and his wife grumbled the print was too small, but they went off with a copy anyway. It was lovely to give away a book I had enjoyed so much when I read myself. I will be finding my own copy and re-reading it for May.

We discussed Gone Girl, everyone gave it 3, 4 or 5 stars, and the girls who hadn’t ready went home with borrowed copies, wanting to read it after our good reviews.

Sinéad chose our June book which will be The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. Merle is up next to choose the book for July.

Happy reading folks.

May’s Book – Girl With A Pearl Earring

Tracy Chevalier’s second novel Girl with a Pearl Earring centers on Vermeer’s prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel’s quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant–and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model. Chevalier vividly evokes the complex domestic tensions of the household, ruled over by the painter’s jealous, eternally pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between servant and master seems a little anachronistic. Still, Girl with a Pearl Earring does contain a final delicious twist.

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.