This month Pocket Bookclub ventured into memoir revisiting the first book by Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs. It's an old book now, first published in 1981. I am not sure if its age is a good reason to forgive Clive James. Reading this book, you will hear James voice in your head. The rhythm of his speech … Continue reading Like the book, not the man
Category: Pocket Book Club
Bookclub sets a dangerous precedent
A dangerous precedent has been set at a local book club with the serving of vodka and pizza. This inappropriate supper was the result of protagonist Eleanor Oliphant's preferred Friday dinner. While the dinner did not come from Tesco, as the character Eleanor Oliphant would have insisted, it did lead to the question: What book … Continue reading Bookclub sets a dangerous precedent
I am not disorganised…
Don't dare say I am disorganised. It will rile me. I am a juggler. A juggler of many fragile glass balls. Sometimes I have to put a couple down in order to cope with what is struggling in the air. To an outsider, this may appear disorganised. The truth is this a futile attempt to … Continue reading I am not disorganised…
Hungry and lost: Terra Nullius
The Pocket Bookclub does not have many rules. It is however customary for the month's chooser of the book to bring supper. Of late these suppers have in part been inspired by the book. Some members have been quite imaginative and set a high bar. Notably, our civil war inspired supper when discussing Lincoln in … Continue reading Hungry and lost: Terra Nullius
Lincoln on Acid
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders is like an acid trip. You just have to go with it. This is the advice of the PocketBook Club. The book divided us. Some of us who loved it and a couple are ready to put it on the worst book of the year reading pile (it … Continue reading Lincoln on Acid
Pocket Bookclub 2017 round-up
It is with bated breath that the Pocket Bookclub await the counting of the votes...actually we are mostly just drinking our wine and talking while we admire Wivenhoe Dam but I like a bit of drama. First an overall update: Every book read since 2010 The books read in 2017 certainly sway toward the Australian … Continue reading Pocket Bookclub 2017 round-up
Angela Carter and Lascivious Scissors
The Pocket Book Club embarked on the strange journey that is The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter. The Passion of New Eve sets up a dystopian world where civil war has broken out in the United States. Evelyn, a male English professor travels from England to take up a position in New York, but … Continue reading Angela Carter and Lascivious Scissors
Pocket Bookclub gets bloody and goes to hell
This month the Pocket Bookclub dove into a vat of bloody organs and the genre of crime fiction with Hades by Candice Fox. Homicide detective Frank Bennett has an intriguing new partner. Dark, beautiful, coldly efficient, Eden Archer is one of the most enigmatic colleagues Frank has ever worked with—that includes her brother Eric, who’s … Continue reading Pocket Bookclub gets bloody and goes to hell
Pocket Bookclub Unlearning
This month the Pocket Bookclub read Dark Emu Black Seeds: agriculture or accident by Bruce Pascoe. Bruce Pascoe was at the Byron Writers Festival and I heard him speak about his sense of obligation to write this book about Aboriginal agriculture because even did not initially believe the stories people told him. It seems we … Continue reading Pocket Bookclub Unlearning
Pocket Book Club gets Dreamy
Have you ever dreamt you find a 'new' room in your house? Or perhaps you are in a new house discovering new rooms. I have this dream all the time. Well, at least a couple of times a year. If Kirsten Tranter hasn't had a similar dream I will eat my hat. Early on in … Continue reading Pocket Book Club gets Dreamy