September's Book - Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Paris, July 1942. Sarah, a 10 year old girl, is taken with her parents by the French police as they go door to door arresting Jewish families in the middle of the night. Desperate to protect her younger brother, Sarah locks him in a bedroom cupboard - their secret hiding place - and promises to come back for him.

Sixty years later, Sarah's story intertwines with that of Julie Jarmond, a journalist investigating the round-up. Sarah's Key is an emotionally gripping story of two families, forever linked to and haunted by one of the darkest days in France's past.

Although this book rated high with our members, there was plenty of criticism on the author's writing style and story structure. On the positive side, many of us found the history compelling and some new knowledge gained around the Jewish arrests in France and particularly of the Vel-d-Hiv round-up by the French police. The sad treatment of Jewish children was a little too much for some, while others found it contrived and soapy.

But overall we had to agree that this was a very readable book and should certainly be suggested reading for anyone who normally finds historical reading not to their liking. It does impart specific knowledge of that time in a 'page turner' format.

Our numbers exceeded the usual complement this month, with 12 attending, so the opinions and ideas were varied to say the least. But it did create a good discussion, particularly about human nature and how anyone would know how they would react given a certain situation. It would seem that we have more than adequately covered the Holocaust of World War II though, and that we will, to the delight of a few of our members, give it a rest next year!

August Book - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

In the spring of 1974, teenager Callie Stephanides finds herself drawn to a strawberry-blonde classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that develops between them - along with Callie's failure to develop - leads her to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all.

The explanation for this shocking reality is a rare genetic mutation, and a guilty secret that has followed her grandparents from the crumbling Ottoman Empire to Prohibition-era Detroit.

Thanks to this gene, Callie is part girl, part boy. And even though the gene's epic travels have ended, her own odyssey has only begun.

Well, what a great 'toss around' debate we had with this month's book! I was surprised at the huge majority of acceptance Middlesex received from the group. Pretty well everyone agreed that it was a great read, with the history, description and compelling family dynamics being the common points of praise.

Nancy and Jeanette were a little more moderate in their views. Nancy found the subject matter of incest discomforting and the writing style laborious. She gave it 150 pages and then said goodbye to Jeffrey Eugenides! Jeanette who listened to it on audio book commented that it was repetitious and a little confusing. Someone else agreed that it was slightly lecture-like in style when it got into its genetic explanations.

But the majority found this book to be fascinating, especially the historic references of the time and the portrayal of an old world family adjusting to settlement in the new world of America. Viti thought there were many wise observations in the story and many of agreed. It covered more than incest and genetic accidents ... and we all found something that struck us enough to rate this book quite high.

Joan mentioned that she had read it took Eugenides nine years to write Middlesex. There was a brief discussion about whether this book was worth nine years of anyone's life, but the continuing discussion on genetics, personality traits and human make-up, in my opinion, made the book more than worthwhile of 0ur time.

If you've read Middlesex, leave a comment and let us know what you think, we'd love to hear from you.

Book for July - A Room With a View by E.M. Forster

When Lucy Honeychurch visits Italy with her prim

and proper cousin Charlotte, she is on the verge of an experience

that will throw her neatly ordered life quite off balance.

She is torn between lingering Victorian proprieties, social and sexual,

and the spontaneous promptings of her heart.

In this brilliant piece of social comedy, Forster is concerned with

one of his favourite themes, the undeveloped heart

of the English middle-classes.

The English abroad are observed with a sharp, ironic eye ...

thus there are hidden depths of meaning

in this sunniest and most readable of Forster's novels.

This is our Club's first classic for the year and it certainly was well received. Although a little slow for some of us, overall we commented that it was well written, with great characters and an accurate portrait of the times. We discussed E.M. Forster, as most of us had read some of his other works, namely Passage to India and Howards End, but Mary recommended his biography Maurice which she says throws a little more light on the author and his world.

A Room With a View, we all agreed, did not provide a complex or original story line, but it did give us plenty of fodder for discussion; English society and propriety (one of our favourites), religion, love, life experience. It was all there! We even touched on the meaning of the title and asked, 'Was Lucy, (our heroine), searching for a "life with a view"?

Anne made the very relevant point that we all seem to have perceived the story in much the same way and that nothing in our opinions varied in extremes. We would be the first to say that this is not always a good thing, we like nothing more than a good discussion with differing views.

Then again, the 'classics' are considered as such for good reason, and it could well be this appeal that gives them ... and continues to hold them to this status.

What do other readers think?

Book for June - A Lesson Before Dying

In a small Cajun community in the late 1940s, Jefferson, a young black man is an unwitting party to a hold up in which three men are killed. The only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, the plantation school teacher is persuaded by his aunt to visit Jefferson in his cell and impart his learning and his pride to Jefferson before his death.

In the end, the two men forge a bond as they both come to understand the simple heroism of resisting, and defying, the expected.

A novel rich with sense of place and a deep understanding of the human psyche.

This short but powerful book was popular with our group last month. A few of us thought it started off a little slow, but once established the story moved along well. From the comments made, all the characters had a strong presence with the time and place clearly and honestly portrayed. This sort of story ... hard times with racial undertones and personal struggle, always leads us to interesting and stimulating discussion. This book provided us with plenty of avenues on that front and the author himself, Ernest J. Gaines, is a more than interesting enough character to research. A highly educated man, he was plantation born in Louisiana and experienced great adversity during his young life, picking cotton from the time he was nine years old.

If you like a book with plenty of depth and emotional turmoil, A Lesson Before Dying would be a good choice. Wollongong Library has two copies available for loan, so give it a go and let us know what you think. We'd love to hear your view on this thought provoking book.

Welcome to our adventure!

Well it's been a while coming, but Dapto Library is pushing the boundaries into blogging. Our Book Club is just busting to get out there, so here we are, ready to be part of your on-line life! We like nothing more than to share our reading experiences with anyone who'll listen and please comment on anything you read here ... that's what we're all about, discussion.

We read a different book each month, then meet at the library to discuss and well, pull it apart if need be, or praise it to the hilt, which ever it is to be.


And we certainly don't always agree.

Last month's book was a good example. When I picked Sean Dixon's The Last Days of Lacuna Cabal I figured we had a great little book here that would give most of us something to exclaim over. Well... this quirky little book left most of the group unimpressed. Some felt it had promise to begin with but the author soon bailed out half-way through, leaving the reader with nothing to really hold on to. Others found it hard going at first but discovered some light near the end.

The story focuses on a Montreal Book Club and the jostling of its members when the decision to read the ancient story of 'Gilgamesh' is tabled. It heralds the end of the Club and begins a journey for knowledge and companionship. If this book was meant to be an epic of 'Gilgamesh' proportions, our general opinion would have to be one of failure. But if you are looking for something a little off beat ... something with a dash of humour in a surreal form, then you may just be looking for Lacuna Cabal!