BOOK CLUB - Galway

Martty81

I won't be able to make this visit to the cinema but enjoy!

MagicM83

Hello!

I can't go to the cinema this saturday I'm afraid - have friends staying until sunday morning.

Film sounds good though

geekychick

OK, hyperbaby, seems it's Ms. Ka, you and myself for The Ghost tomorrow. We'll go with 20:40 hrs so.

Will give you a shout tomorrow.

Anyone else wants to come with, you have the time now!

Otherwise, have a great weekend, everyone.

germanSandra

I am back home. Many thanks to all of you for this lovely evening.
Unfortunately I didn't check my mails during my stay in Galway. So I could not come the cinema. Sorry. Maybe it works the next time.

geekychick

Hi germanSandra,

it was great having you at our last meeting, I really hope you enjoyed Galway.

Sorry you missed the cinema, but as you said, we will have to remember to co-ordinate ourselves better next time!

I got your nomination of Robert Harris's "Pompeii" in the library today, looking forward to reading it.

germanSandra

Hi geekychick,
Hi all members,

A thousand times: Yes. I really enjoyed Galway. What a beautiful, lovely town. And my day trip to Connemara was wonderful too.
(And the ash cloud had make a brake for me.);)

TristanPeter

Hi everyone,

Hope to see you at the book club tomorrow night. The book being discussed is The House of Stairs I think

MagicM83

Hi everyone,

I don't think I'm going to be able to make tonights meeting. I will see you all at the next one though, if not for a cinema visit before that if anyones up for it sometime?

Have a good night:D

Ms. Ka

I wont make it tonight either as am swamped at work.

I am really enjoying the book though but I have only a few pages read. I also need to nominate a book soon I know.

Cheers

TristanPeter

I just wanted to say thanks to GermanSandra for the gift that she left for us when she visited the book club. It was a very nice surprise last night

germanSandra

I just wanted to say: My pleasure!

carol123

Hi everybody

My nomination for the BC is 'Seeing' by Jose Saramago. It's available from Book Depository and should be easy to order from the book shops. Enjoy!:)

deedana

Got that ordered from book depos , looking forward to reading it- looks interesting! Never heard of him before . Reading let the great world spin at the moment and enjoying it so far

hyperbaby

What pressie did ye get? *am very nosey, sorry*

also can someone post and updated list of forthcoming books in their correct sequence?
Thanks...

germanSandra

Hi hyperbaby,

I hope I have the correct sequence for you:

25.05. Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann
08.06. Pompeii by Robert Harris
22.06. Seeing by Jose Saramago

hyperbaby

Thanks Sandra

good to have in case anyone is thinking about coming to upcoming meetings.

Bea.

i have jsut moved out west, I'm wondering if the bok club still meets?

geekychick

Hi Bea,

yes, Book Club going strong, we meet every other Tuesday at The Cottage bar in Salthill around 20:30 hrs or thereabouts.

Our next few meetings and the books to be discussed are as noted down in the first post at the top of this page.

You are very welcome to join us!

RyanAsh

hi there - i was wondering do any of you know where would be a good place to sell some second hand books in galway, ive a large collection and would consider but not sure how much they'd be worth to me....maybe im better to buy a nice bookshelf and display them!

gandroid

Charlie Byrne's would be your best bet I reckon...

http://www.charliebyrne.com/map_shop.php

TristanPeter

RyanAsh wrote: »

hi there - i was wondering do any of you know where would be a good place to sell some second hand books in galway, ive a large collection and would consider but not sure how much they'd be worth to me....maybe im better to buy a nice bookshelf and display them!

Have you got anything interesting (subjective I know)? Could you post up a few titles perhaps and prices? I'm always looking for books. Other BookClub members may be interested also...but I can only speak for myself.

germanSandra

9/10
Ready or not here is my review about this book.
I think it is a great book and a special sort of crime book. But I have some points that make me think that this book isn’t perfect.
At the beginning of that book were for me too many descriptions about things, places, which I am not interested in. I mean the streets of London (It would be completely different if she wrote about Galway;)), clothes, planting of the garten behind the house, etc.
Descriptions are for a good book essential but solely in the beginng were too many of them. The middle and the end of this book was exciting.
I caught myself reading over the descriptions and in this way I read over important things. And after that I had to read this page again. Subsequently I struggled me through the rest of the descriptions. (But how I wrote it was only in the beginning of the book.)
The ralationship between Elisabeth and Bell was hard to comprehend for me. Why let Elisabeth Bell live in her house? If she hate her for the most diverse reasons – why? Was the reason the love to her? Did she love her after all what happened? And yes I have problems with the perception about love between two women.

deedana

Hi everyone,
Sean Mulcreiff show on newstalk have started a book club , trying to follow in our steps i suppose, poor imitation really. Every month ( I think) they get a bookclub from around the country to review their book for them, what do ye think , should we give it a go?

not much info on their web page but link is here

geekychick

Hey germanSandra,

thank you for that review of "The House of Stairs", some interesting points raised, and also I am glad you rated it so highly. I agree that Barbara Vine writes, as you say, "a special sort of crime book", and that's why I nominated it I guess. Barbara Vine would be one of my favourite authors, as most Galway Bookclubbers know well by now .

Yes, there are a lot of descriptions in the novel, however I find them on the whole relevant to the plot and the characterisations (as you discovered yourself), so they don't bother me. I find all the little asides and descriptions pretty intrinsic to the story and they always hold my interest.

As for the relationship between Bell and Elisabeth, yes, it is definitely a very complex one. I find Elisabeth's voice as the narrator very fresh and interesting. She describes how she fell in love with Bell years ago, but then after Bell got out of prison and the two re-established contact, her love is slowly starting to turn into fear and hatred. She now knows everything Bell is capable of and is actually in fear of her life by the end of the novel. I think that what keeps her with Bell, and Bell living in her house, is a mixture of loneliness, desperation and guilt and self-loathing. She lost the love of one person who was like a mother to her (Cosette), who used to love her like a mother (remember, Elisabeth lost her real mother early), and perhaps to an extent she does agree with Cosette that she brought the misfortune upon everyone concerned in the past. So I think she figures something in the vein of: to hell with everything, I am either going to be killed by disease very soon, or by Bell, and it doesn't matter what happens any more, as I have already lost everything that really mattered anyway, i.e. Cosette's love.

I hope you find this helpful!

I think quite a few people found it very difficult to get hold of this book, my apologies; when I nominated it, I failed to take into account that it has been out of print for some 20 years now! Will think of this in the future.

See you all tomorrow - at least I hope so, I have a bit of a cough at the moment (I had an actual night out at the weekend - yipee:D, so of course it has to be followed by a cold :rolleyes: but hoping it will get better by then).

higamos hogamos

Wont be in attendance tonight folks, but I have a copy of the book so I will read it in due course.

Martty81

So sorry but I won't be able to attend book club tonight. I'll just have to wait another two weeks to hear the comments on my book!

See you all to discuss Pompeii in two weeks.

geekychick

Hello everyone,

last night's Book Club meeting saw 5 of us attend (bethm, carol123, deedana, MagicM83 and myself), we had a nice little natter about "Let The Great World Spin" and other topics related and unrelated...

Also, a few decisions were made concerning the club's short to medium term plans; namely, deedana and MagicM83 are next in line to offer their nominations (after Ms. Ka - Ms. Ka, is the nomination for after Jose Saramago's book in the works? ). After that, it was proposed that germanSandra's generous gift would be best used to facilitate a nice little Summer BBQ for the Book Club (germanSandra, thank you again ). We hope that no one would have any objections to that!

The venue for the BBQ will be the matter of one member's generously proffered living space (hopefully it will be sunny and it will be the garden).
All other details on the location will be discussed through the means of meetings, PM's and texts.

The date that has been settled upon is Saturday, 03rd July, hopefully giving everyone enough time to plan and earmark the date in their calendar.

My report is hereby finished...

TristanPeter

Sorry for not making it on Tuesday night. BBQ sounds cool. Really hope we get the weather. Is Pompeii our next book? I have it ordered.

hyperbaby

yeah Pompeii is the next book.
Have a look at the top of this page to see the forthcoming nominations

TristanPeter

I just got an email from The Book Depository saying that they are refunding me for Pompeii because the "line has been discontinued." Feck