The Paris Wife

It has been a little while since the last update, a busy life is the excuse. So to have a quick recap, the last few reads have been:

March -> April : A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
April -> June : The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
June -> July : The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
July -> August : The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

I won't attempt to go though them in any detail, although I will say that we took on The Hunger Games with some speculation that it may be a bit of a kids book, and not something we'd normally necessarily be drawn to. However, upon reading it, we all came away giving it good reviews, all 4 or 4.5 out of 5 I believe! Lizzie even went on to read the sequels, all within a month!

This month we read The Paris Wife, which follows the life of the first wife of Ernest Hemingway. It is based on real people and real event, and the Paula does go onto list her many references and research done to give the book an air of authenticity. I feel we all had relatively similar feelings about the book, we didn't necessarily fall in love with the book itself, we were annoyed that the protagonist didn't make more of a stand against Hemingway and instead allowed herself to be walked over, however there was something almost magical reading about these real people, about where Hemingway went, his friends, life in Paris and so on.

Being somewhat of a philistine, I have not read any Hemingway, or in fact the majority of the author friends of Hemingway, but reading The Paris Wife has made me want to give one of his books a shot at some point in the future!

In terms of restaurant, we tried to go to Gorilla (where the Green Rooms used to be) however it was completely packed (no chance of getting a table) so we instead got the last table in the Cornerhouse and had an all round pleasant meal. Hopefully we'll have more luck with Gorilla next month!

Bad Book Club

Personally I did not find Bad Book Club to be an enthralling read; in fact I only managed to force myself through about a quarter of it before giving up. Based on this I am not going to actually give it a star rating, as it feels a little wrong to rate without fully reading the book, but certainly from what I've read so far it would be quite a low rating.

The low point for me was when Robin Ince was talking about an autobiography he had read where the author only talks about mundane things that have happened in this life rather than talking about all the exciting people he has met. Robin is asking what could be more boring to read than someone arguing with their neighbour about the garden fence. Well my answer to this question is reading his book, in which he writes about a book, which writes about mundane events!

The overall group consensus (summed up by Lizzie) is as follows, "Mixed feelings about Robin Ince's book. We all wanted to like it but had trouble getting going with it and it felt like we were just reading a transcript from his stand up show (which in effect I guess we were). It's very much a dip in, dip out book".

Lets hope next months read is a little better!

Pigeon English

This months book group was spent inside Rozafa, a Greek restaurant, discussing Pigeon English. Before moving onto the (arguably more important) book itself, I'd like to point out that the food from Rozafa was delicious, and decently priced (I thought so at least!).

As for the book itself, I believe everyone enjoyed it, no one had any strong complaints or found themselves cursing having to read it. It's a pleasant story of a school kid and his family, who have moved to England from Ghana and the trials and tribulations that face them integrating into English society. There are moments that make you laugh out loud, and also lots of food for thought with regards to the society we live in and how knife/gun culture has an impact on even young children.

For me personally, I found the book very enjoyable, I would recommend it to others, but didn't feel it topped The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, so I'll give it 4 stars on the Manchester Book Group scale.

Details of our next meeting are on the left, please note the venue hasn't been confirmed yet, but it'll be somewhere in the City Center, we are just waiting to see what offers are available for next month.

The Sense of an Ending

I hope everyone had a marvelous Christmas and is looking forward to a prosperous New Year? It was nice to have a break but also to be back in Manchester last night for the first book group meeting of 2012!

We gave ourselves a relatively easy read to enjoy over the Christmas break, with Sense of an Ending weighing in at 150 pages. I am hesitant to say only 150 pages, as I think the general consensus from last night was the book felt a nice length. We appreciate the fact Julian Barnes didn't feel compelled to make the book 250 pages with a good amount of waffle thrown in for the sake of it.

The book is essentially about someone in later life looking back over their life, the decisions they made, what they said and how that has had a knock on effect to bring them where they are. The book starts back at school and shows the comradeship between a group of adolescent males; full of hopes and dreams, with that feeling that somehow they already know the worth of life. Naturally a few tragic events are thrown in, leaving the protagonist looking back and realising he was more than a bystander in other peoples lives, he is somehow woven in.

I personally found the book more interesting towards the start than the end, that said I read the entire book over one evening and the next morning, so it was gripping enough to want to get through. I'm not sure it is going to be a life changer for me, however I would certainly recommend it to other people, especially those pushed for time who don't fancy taking on a 500+ page novel. All in all I would be happy to award this book 4 stars

"I liked the style of writing and found it easy to read" explained Jenny, "Like Steve, I enjoyed the beginning of the book more than the later parts. However, I found the overall tone of the book slightly depressing I'm afraid! I've not quite finished it (but will do!)" I would rate it 3 stars overall so far...

On Green Dolphin Street

At this months meeting we dined at Sakura in Deansgate Locks and discussed On Green Dolphin Street. First of all I believe the general consensus is that the food at Sakura is rather decent. Three of us tried the Bento Boxes which were quite fun! You might note that I am keener to talk about the restaurant and food over the book, this is for two reasons... Firstly I didn't make it to the end of the book, secondly, on the whole, none of us were big fans of the book as a whole.

Given I didn't make it to the end of the book I don't really feel that I can give the book much of a review, nor a star rating, but given the consensus of the meeting I've going to award it 2 stars for now, subject to change should anyone come forwards and decide they feel it is worthy of more!

Finally I'd like to wish everyone a peaceful and happy christmas and an enjoyable new year! Our next meeting will be in 2012, details can be found to the left of this site.

The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex

Unfortunately, for the first time in as long as I have been a member of the Manchester Book Group (a few years now), we were not able to hold our November meeting to discuss the latest offering to the literary world by Mark Kemode. Not due to protests, rioting in the steets, terrorist threats, but simply due to everyone being so busy in the run up to Christmas! So rather than keep rescheduling we have decided to skip this months meeting, collate any feedback of the book here and look forward to our next meeting, in December (details can found at the top left of this page).

So, my quick couple of sentences about what I thought about The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex follow. I was quite impressed at the relentless pace that Mark takes throughout the book. I could almost imagine him thinking out loud about what he likes and doesn't like, and with so many years of experience as a film critic, he has many interesting stories to call on. There are certainly parts of his opinion that I agree with, but also quite a few that I do not. A simple example, he feels that digital films (the standard at cinema's these days) have detracted from the old experience of watching a flickery old film, being shown from a real film reel. For me I do not agree with this, if I go to the cinema I typically want to see the film in the best quality possible, I want it digital, looking exactly hot it did when it left the studio. I appreciate the nostalgia of cinemas in the past, and would be happy to relive this on occasion, but as a general way forwards, I'm all for digital! Parts of the book made me laugh (mainly to myself, not out loud) and on the whole it was an entertaining read. In terms of score, I think I'd give it a (possibly slightly harsh) 3 stars.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

For our most recent meeting, we had four attendees, all of which had just about finished this months book. It certainly isn't the first book we have read which has a film based on it, but it quite possibly the first book I've read with book group after seeing the film, so a slightly unique experience for me!

The overall consensus of the book was good. July and I had our worries that it might be quite graphic/gruesome (as the film has some slightly disturbing scenes) however the book actually handled these scenarios well (and they seemed a lot smaller, and a lot less 'over the top' than the film).

Lizzie has already moved onto the next book in the series, The Girl Who Played with Fire, so needles to say she enjoyed the first a lot!

Jenny's two sentence summary of the book is 'A great story which kept me gripped and questioning "who done it" all the way to the end...! Well written with some interesting and likeable characters.' 4.5 stars

Lizzie's summary is 'I liked the pace and style of the writing plus I loved the idea of the story all set on that weird snowy island. I think I probably would have fancied Mikael Blomkvist - clearly an essential point to make. And yes I went straight on to read the second book so I must have liked it (on the thrid now).' 4 stars

Despite having previously seen the film, I was also gripped right to the end. I feel Jenny's rating is spot on, so I will follow suit. 4.5 stars