Katoomba Library Book Club

What are you reading now? Once in a while we have a show-and-tell of our current reading.

Here’s a summary from our June meeting.

Laurel has been enjoying Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson. It’s set on San Piedro Island, located off the coast of mainland Washington in the Pacific Northwest of USA; a Japanese-American fisherman named Kabuo Miyamoto goes on trial for the murder of Carl Heine, a well-liked local fisherman and respected war veteran. Laurel was interested in the stark difference between the Japanese and the white American response to this crisis situation. The Japanese culture insists on respect for an authority greater than the individual, the white Americans by contrast were individualist, not group-oriented. The issue of race prejudice, and how it plays out, was also there in this story.

Pam has been reading Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking, by Susan Cain: a reflection on how the dominant culture conditions whether we become introverts or extraverts. There’s a quiz in the book to do too: are you introvert or extravert?

Anne has been reading The Secret River by Kate Grenville; and That Eye the Sky, an early novel of Tim Winton’s. She enjoyed Winton’s vivid language, and his ability to show us the heart of a person, a landscape, a situation.

Shirley has been reading David Malouf’s Ransom. Priam, aged King of Troy, goes to his enemy, Achilles, to ask for the body of his son, Hector. The book is based on a story from Homer’s The Iliad, 8th century BC. Shirley’s also enjoying Bring up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel.

Di has been reading a first novel, Past the Shallows by Australian writer Favel Parrett. There’s strong characterisation here, and an ability to conjure landscape. This title will turn up in our reading list for 2014.

Alan has been reading Voltaire’s Candide, for the fourth time. Candide attacks the passivity inspired by Leibniz’s philosophy of optimism. First published in 1759, it satirises the view that “this is the best of all possible worlds”. Voltaire’s fearless satire got him into some political hot water.

Alex read Leo Tolstoy’s The Cossacks on her Kindle. It’s set in The Caucasus; its main character decided he wanted to go and live amongst the Cossacks for a time. Alex enjoyed his observations of nature, and his bouts of introspection.

Barbara has been reading Willa Cather: a life saved up by Hermione Lee, an Oxford academic: and Sarah Dunant’s Blood and Beauty, about the Borgia family in Renaissance Italy.

Nick has been reading Love and Vertigo by Hsu-Ming Teo. It’s Teo’s first novel, published in 2000; it’s about Grace Teh and her family growing up in Malaysia. He’s also very much enjoyed reading The Great Gatsby, that seminal American novel by F Scott Fitzgerald, recently made into a movie.

Alison has been reading Shaun Micallef’s Preincarnate: a novella (wryly funny); and Giulia Giuffre’s A Writing Life: Interviews with Australian Women Writers, in which she records conversations with the older writing generation, eg. Kylie Tennant, Christina Stead, Eleanor Dark. She has also read Mary-Rose MacColl’s In Falling Snow. This absorbing story took her to a Cistercian abbey north of Paris, converted to a hospital (Royaumont) to treat soldiers wounded in the terrible trenches of the Somme, in the later years of World War I. Alison scurried to an atlas to check how close Royaumont was to the battlefronts on the Somme and further east, and was horrified anew at the torments suffered by front-line soldiers in that war.

Read Watch Play Twitter Reading Group – May : Indigiread

So, have you tried a new Indigenous author? We Librarians were very lucky last year with the smart, funny, interesting Dr Anita Heiss attending  at least two Library conferences. And Kim Scott has become a favourite of mine.

This is a reminder for the live twitter discussion next Tuesday 28 May starting at 8pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. Use the tags #indigiread and #rwpchat as you discuss the reading, watching, playing that is your experience of indigenous reading, so others can join in the conversation too.

The Twitter book group meets on the last Tuesday of every month so pop that in your diary, smartphone, MS Outlook, or tattoo it on your arm. Just remember and join in!

Read Watch Play Twitter Group – April : Crime Read

So how did you go with the crime reads? Have you worked out how to commit the perfect crime?  Did I hear somewhere that Sue Grafton’s alphabetical Kinsey Millhone series began as she dreamed about doing away with her husband? Maybe you tried some true crime?

This is a reminder for the live twitter discussion next Tuesday30 April starting at 8pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. Use the tags #crimeread and #rwpchat as you discuss the reading, watching playing that is your experience of crime, so others can join in the conversation too.

The Twitter book group meets on the last Tuesday of every month so pop that in your diary, smartphone, MS Outlook, or tattoo it on your arm. Just remember and join in!

Katoomba library book group goes travelling

Our book group meets once a month at the new Katoomba Library. Every second meeting we discuss one of the books on our reading list; the intervening months are for whatever we decide to talk about.

Travel was our theme this time. Our brief was to take the group to a foreign country, via actual experience or books or wish fulfilment!

Nick talked about going to Cyprus on holidays as a kid, the swimming in summer and skiing in winter, the smell of orange blossom as they drove past orchards, nicking grapes from vineyards they passed; and he read a little from Lawrence Durrell’s Bitter Lemons.

Barbara went to Antarctica. She flew first to Ushuaia on the southern tip of Patagonia, boarding a boat there for Antarctica. Scientists aboard the boat, all specialists in their fields, gave talks on the way down. Barbara was amazed to see some people choosing to swim in the freezing waters. She loved the landscape and the animal life. The Antarctic: an anthology edited by Francis Spufford , and Just Tell Them I Survived: women in Antarctica, by Robin Burns were two books she referred us to.

Laurel had an eventful time in New York, arriving just before Hurricane Sandy blew through, and a massive crane fell amongst high-rise buildings, causing mass evacuations, delayed flights out and so on. But she experienced NY as fascinating, the locals friendly and polite.

Anne went to Egypt via a writer she listened to at the Adelaide Writers Festival. Ahdaf Soveif was there to talk about her books, and about the revolution in 2011, the gatherings in Tahrir Square, how Egyptian people are processing the changes. Anne referred us to The Map of Love by this author.

Alex decided to have an adventure in 1982. She wanted to see those ‘wild men of Borneo’, the Iban tribe, at Kuching in southern Borneo. She went first to Brunei, then travelled south for a jungle tour through dense rainforest. She remembers living in longhouses for 5 days, and scary encounters, and terrifying bridges. She referred us to The Isles of Spice, by Frank Clune.

Alan decided to go to Death Valley last year. From Las Vegas he drove the 150 miles west, to what is in summer the hottest place in the USA. Highlights were Zabriski Point, Badwater Basin 282 feet below sea level, and the Devil’s Golf Course.

Nicole has since childhood been fascinated by Greek mythology, and would love specifically to go to the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, built at Delphi in 480 BC. This became the site of the famous Oracle of Delphi, and this is where Nicole would most like to go. She referred us to The Oracle, by William J Broad.

Di went to the volcanic Lord Howe Island, as part of a weeding group. She talked of the beauty of the island, Mt Gower, the coral reefs, the bird life, and also the multitude of pests: rats, pigs, etc. The industry most are involved with there is the production and sale of Kentia Palms.

Alison went to Spain in 2011, to climb the mountains of the Alpujarra and Sierra Nevada in south-eastern Spain; flying then to Barcelona, with its buildings by Gaudi, and its Merce festival full of drumming and fireworks.Books to read: Homage to Barcelona, by Colm Toibin; Spain, by Jan Morris; A Parrot in the Pepper Tree, by Chris Stewart.

Read Watch Play Twitter Book Group – March : Eco Read

So have you read any Eco Reads? Perhaps it has inspired you do become active in your community by joining a bushwalking group, Landcare group or similar? Perhaps you are starting at home by looking into recycling and reuse a bit more. There are recycling Facebook groups where you can offer items up for a swap with someone else.

This is a reminder for the live twitter discussion next Tuesday26 March starting at 8pm Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time.  Use the tags #ecoread and #rwpchat as you discuss the reading, watching playing that is your experience of ecoread, so others can join in the conversation too.

The Twitter book group meets on the last Tuesday of every month so pop that in your diary, smartphone, MS Outlook, or tattoo it on your arm. Just remember and join in!

Read Watch Play Twitter Book Group – February : Heart Read

If you can stop swooning for a while why not join in the regular live discussion next Tuesday 26 February at 8pm Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

Use the hashtags #rwpchat and #heartreads to discuss what heart-popping romance you have read, watched or played at this month so you can join in the discussion too.

The Twitter book group will meet the last Tuesday of every month so pop that in your diary, smartphone, MS Outlook, or tattoo it on your arm. Just remember and join in!