Adjectives that come to mind when I think of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart: devastating, heartbreaking, ruthless, brutal, distressing. And yet, in the last sentence of the book, I glimpsed hope. The last sentence made me cry, the only time I shed tears despite all the shocking events of the previous 430 pages. All those … Continue reading This book could break you
Tag: Bookclubs
Fiction & non-fiction in harmony
When Pocket book-club read The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman I knew how it would end and I knew which book I had to re-read next. A few years ago I read Zealot: The Life an Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan. Aslan describes himself as having come from a family of lukewarm Muslims … Continue reading Fiction & non-fiction in harmony
Two Books, One Story
There have been tears at my desk. The apparently easy migration from wordpress.com to self hosted wordpress.org has been fraught. Every step has been a drama. I don't know why. As the result, I have two Pocket Bookclub events to write about. Tim Winton's, The Shepherd's Hut and Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton. Lucky … Continue reading Two Books, One Story
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
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 get clucky and talk polio
The Golden Age by Joan London is a novel set 1950's Perth. The Golden Age was an old pub repurposed to care for children with polio. Frank Gold, the oldest resident is the child of Hungarian refugees and the book is in part about his parents' trauma and sense of being different in the big … Continue reading Pocket Bookclub get clucky and talk polio
Bookclub cold on The Snow Kimono
When you Google The Snow Kimono, Mark Henshaw's 2014 book, Google will offer you 'The Snow Kimono explained' as a predicted search option. You can't go into this book with expectations of neat tidy bows. Omura's father, in the Japanese section of the book, buys and European jigsaw puzzle. He loves puzzles and he is … Continue reading Bookclub cold on The Snow Kimono
Pocket Book club is either depressed or feeling thankful
Ruth Park's book The Harp in the South has never been out of print. Yep, that is 68 years of being in bookstores. The Harp in the South is the second book, or the first book, in Park's trilogy. She wrote it first but 40 years later she wrote a prequel, Missus. She was a … Continue reading Pocket Book club is either depressed or feeling thankful