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Tag Archives: book club

Housekeeping

Last month’s book-club pick was Marilynne Robinson’s HOUSEKEEPING, and it has taken me weeks to decide how I feel about it. Actually, I knew how I felt right away but discounted it because it doesn’t seem to match the tide of accolades the book has received. But I just didn’t enjoy it. It seems to [...]

Posted 30 April 2010 † nickyp § Books § Playing ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged:

How the reading is going

So, book club started the year with FIFTH BUSINESS, by Robertson Davies, this first of his Deptford trilogy. I read it in two days, enjoying the flawed narrator and the epistolary structure. This reads like a mature writer’s work, with hard-edged wisdom amid the old-fashioned storytelling. But I have never thought that traits that are [...]

Posted 06 February 2010 † nickyp § Books § Reading § Writing ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , ,

Adult in UK, Children’s in US

I just finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. One of my friends in book club raved about it so much we decided it would be our book of the month this month (next month is Rabbit Run, in eerie timing). I was all for it, but others took a bit longer to be convinced, [...]

Posted 28 January 2009 † nickyp § Marketing § Reading ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , ,

Styron races the writerly engines

One of the many great things about book club is I can never predict who will hate (or love) the book. One of our sweetest members has raved about and read and re-read the bleakness that is The Road, one story I thought she’d give up on. And this time, two people just absolutey hated [...]

Posted 12 January 2009 † nickyp § Reading ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , ,

Old romantics

Reading Lord Jim this week for book club, I was reminded again of the many readings of the word “romantic.” Jim’s trouble (boiling way down) is that he wants to see himself as the hero in some adventure story but does not (always/ever) act the hero. Another character describes Jim repeatedly as romantic. The word [...]

Posted 20 October 2008 † nickyp § Reading ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , ,