Book group - Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Bel Canto was our January book read. We picked it out because so many of the group had enjoyed State of Wonder which was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2012.  Bel Canto actually won the prize in 2002.

As it's a prize winner we found lots of discussion guides - very nice for a change.  A list of which can be found here:

• Ann Patchett's website
• Book Club in a Box - a PDF of suggested discussions
• Spark Notes - which is a bit more of a study guide more than anything!
• Guardian Book Club guide

We asked the following questions:

• Who was your favourite hostage and why?
• Who was our favourite terrorist and why?
• Did you agree with the ending of the book?

Mostly, we enjoyed the book, it's so beautifully written - but we were rather split with the ending. Some thought it was a really sad ending and others thought it was inevitable.

Have you read Bel Canto for yourself or for a book group? What did you talk about?   

Book Group - Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann

Tigers in Red Weather was our autumn book pick. As it's a relatively new book, still in hardback (we all read on the Kindle this time!) we didn't find any book group questions.  I've found some reviews / comments on the book (it was an Oprah pick!) and of course we came up with some questions on the day.

• Booking Mama - blog on the book 
• Guardian Interview with Liza Klausmann
• Guardian review

We asked ourselves the following questions:

• How did the narration of the book, through different viewpoints affect your reading of the book and why?
• Which was your favourite section of the book and why?
• What did you think of the characters? Were any of them more likable than others?
• What were the prevalent themes throughout the book and how did that lead to the overall feeling?
• Who was the happiest in the book, who was the saddest?
• Did Tigers in Red Weather remind you of any other books and why?

For us, the book made us think of The Great Gatsby which was our second book pick back in the day. So we talked a lot about the similarities and differences.  In addition, I had just finished Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (discussed in my last post) and so we talked about that too.

All in all, it was a popular book within the group and one we'd recommend for discussion. 

Have you read Tigers in Red Weather? Let us know what you think by commenting on the blog - we love opinions!

Orange Prize for Fiction - 2012

It started with a challenge - to read all the books in the Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly Orange Prize for Fiction) and I had no idea where it would lead me. Well, it turns out I should have known - to brilliant books!  First, a confession, until the Prize lost it's sponsorship from Orange, I had NO idea it was prize for women, I just thought it was good writing and they all happened to be women! Oops.

So, in maybe May last year, I came across the 2012 shortlist and I said to the book group, why not read the winner this year for our September book? We all agreed and when Madeline Miller was announced as the winner, our book was chosen. But it was May. And I wanted something to read. So, one day whilst away in Brighton on work, I picked a book from the short list - which I'd saved on my phone like so:

The book I chose was The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright, a book about a doomed affair - not my normal cup of tea, I loved it! I passed it quickly to Lois, then Brigid and then Rachel.  When the Edinburgh International Book Festival announced that Anne Enright would be attending, we bought our tickets and to a rather bemused Anne Enright, asked her to sign our copy as below (see, secretly we thought she might have been peeved we didn't all buy a copy!).

My second book was Half Blood Blues. I must admit, I struggled with this one. I'm really not a Second World War fan, I'm afraid I find it too depressing, but I'd decided I would finish, and so I did! Incidentally, read on the Kindle, might I have liked a book more? I don't know.

Third, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. There are no words! I LOVED this book with my whole heart and soul. Lois has blogged about it here so I won't go on so much. Except go read it!

Fourth, Song of Achilles, in time for Book Group in September (there is no reading in August for me!) which is covered here. Needless to say, another success. I felt on a roll.

Fifth was Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick. To me, very reminiscent of The Great Gatsby (our second book in group) and then a bit like Tigers in Red Weather (our to be posted book in group). But, kinda a bit more miserable. I struggled with this a bit too. But I found it easier to read than Half Blood Blues and because of comparisons to others, kept reading.

Finally, the last book of the shortlist. Wish I could say I saved the best til last but State of Wonder was such, I'm not sure I'll read a book of that calibre again! But Painter of Silence was good! I really enjoyed it, and just finished it in the nick of time at the end of December.  It was again a post Second World War book - isn't there anything else to write about?

What did I learn from this? That there are many fantastic women writers out there! And the Women's Prize for Fiction should be supported.  The long list is out Thursday 14 March, the shortlist Tuesday 16 April and the winner Wednesday 05 June. I, for one, cannot wait!

Bookgroup - Song of Achilles (The Ballad of Archie)

Firstly, we picked this book as it was the winner of the 2012 Women's Prize for Fiction (previously Orange Prize for Fiction). A personal favourite source of books for me, this was probably the first book that, as a group, we all loved! It caught us unawares really as are used to disagreeing and we all seemed to love it for different reasons which added to our joy when discussing it.

There are quite a lot of websites proclaiming Discussion Questions but they all seem to be the same ones repeated so I have reverted to the questions published on Madeline Miller's website.

The questions we asked ourselves were:

• Did you like the book and why?

• Do you think that you need to know about the greek myth in order to understand/ enjoy the book?

• Did you discover a need to look up the Greek story? (I did!)

• How is love portrayed in the story? Do you ever think of Achilles and Patroclus being the same sex?

• If you had to describe the book to someone to encourage them to read it, how would you did it?

Finally, there's a great wee piece in the Guardian about it which can be found here.

Have you read Song of Achilles? What did you think? Good book group read?

Book group - Life of Pi

In July, our book group turned to Life of Pi by Yann Martel. We chose this book because nearly everyone in the group owned this book, but not one of us has read it and so felt a book group discussion was the perfect way to get us reading!

Having been a Man Book Prize Winner in 2002, we found a number of different questions online and picked and chose from them.  Our main sources were:

• Litlovers
• Read Group Guides
• About.com

The Guardian Book Group had also discussed it and you can find parts one, two and three linked.

Of course, many of us had read Jamrach's Menagerie for book group first and because of that we asked the following questions:

• What are the similarities and differences between the books?
• Has Carol Birch been influenced by Life of Pi and how?
• Do you think reading Jamrach's Menagerie first affected the reading of Life of Pi and if so, was it for the better or worse?
• Which book did you prefer and why?

Have you read either Life of Pi or Jamrach's Menagerie? Let us know what you thought by commenting below.

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Salmon Fishing In Yemen - Paul Torday

After reading What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe for book group my father in law recommended Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday.  I had heard of the book, actually had a copy on my book shelf and so hot from my success of the Coe, delved into it straight away.

I can see the similarities, mostly from the narration.  Torday, like Coe uses many different styles to narrate the story - newspapers articles, interviews, diary entries.  For me - this makes for very successful narration - and I like the fact that when reading from the first person you know you can't really trust the narrator.

Unlike What a Carve Up! There's quite a lot of book group resources for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The first I came across was from Harcourt Books which has a great set of questions which cover many different aspects of the book and the second I came across was from a website called Darmaris which has a little summary and background on the novel, before another great set of questions.  Finally, you can read a review in the Guardian which for me is always a great springboard for discussion.

So, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen has also been made recently into a film which premièred at the Glasgow Film Festival, it's out across the UK from 20 April 2012.  I'm *pretty* certain that there's a wild amount of adaption from the book to screen but I'm very much looking forward to seeing it!  The trailer is below for you to take a peek.

Have you read Salmon Fishing in the Yemen? What did you think about it? Let me know by commenting below.

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What a Carve Up! - Jonathan Coe

When we selected What a Carve Up! as a book group book, I was a little sceptical - 512 pages long is pretty long - but as we picked the book before Christmas - we thought that we would have more time that usual to read.

Lo and behold, leading up to the group, lots of people dropped out.  Some for an interesting reason - that they had started the book, weren't going to finish in time for the group and didn't want to ruin the ending! I imagine that we'll end up talking about the book at the next book group to make up for it. :-)

There aren't too many resources for the book - but the Guardian book group did discuss the book under the headings of mysteries, coincidences and  a section about the author himself.  These proved to be useful talking points.

As there were only two (!) of us at the group, we struggle to focus on the book - but we did talk about the characters (who we hated the most, what they represented), the different strands of "evil" and parallels with the politics of today in the UK.

After reading the book, I mentioned it to my father in law and it turned out that he has lots of Jonathan Coe and has since lent me a couple.  He also lent me Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday which I've since read and will write about another time.

I think it's fair to say that I LOVED the book and was a little sad I didn't get to speak about it with more people! So if anyone's read it and wants to comment, then please do below!

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