Great Blogging!!!

Hi Ya Rachelle, No need for apols, your comments about the book are excellent and much more specific than my brief summary. You were definitely not alone with your feelings about Beau... Jen thought if he rolled one more cigarettes she was just as ready to close the book! Bec, Ruthie and Cheryl all cringed at the the first kiss, thinking of the cigarette breath and yellow finger nails! Clearly never ones to have dated a smoker :)  I don't know why, I just seemed to let that one fly right by my senses.
The blog I started for the very reason of our mums with bubs... This gives an opportunity for connection and participation. So make it if you can. Read if you can. Or blog about whatever is being read or eventful in your world!
Congrats on the christening event. I think it is awesome to be able to parent and plan a significant event. I would be lucky to get out of my PJs if I had 3 young children! I guess that is why I am childless and you are the brave one. Anyways, nice to hear from you and pls don't stop blogging or making it along if you can!  V xo

Apologies

An interesting email.  I was just in the shower composing in my head an email to send to the group, apologizing for my lack of attendance and my thoughts on the book thus far.  I was relieved I guess you could say of the reaction of the rest of the group to this novel.  I must say I hadn't read much about the book and reading the book has been a bit of a struggle and I didn't enjoy it anywhere near where I thought I may.  I haven't quite finished it yet (Bo and Annabellebeck - I did like the way he called her that - are just on their way to Verbana) so maybe it's too early to comment, but I too felt that the exploration of the themes was underdone...to me so much so that I found myself frustrated with the book and the characters and have not felt a great desire to persist with the book (although I have).  I thought the relationship with Bo was all a little too soon (realistically) and although Annabelle had been cheated on by her husband, doubted it possible that she could have the emotional capacity to engage in a relationship/romantic interests so soon.  I don't know what everyone thought of Bo.  I kept feeling that maybe I was supposed to be attracted or drawn to his character, but the more frustrated I became with the book the more his idiosyncracies grated on me.  I mean...he smoked so much...surely that's got to be a turn off.  Smoker's breath, tarnished, yellow fingers, dropping lit matches... I mean really uhhh!  And spitting out car windows?  Surely wouldn't Annabelle find that a little unsettling.  And I don't know why, but every time he called her my love, after just one night of love making made my stomach turn.  I'm not sure why I felt so harshly towards his character, I guess because he seemed to be someone with such presence and clarity of mind, that these just seemed like short comings.  And Arner - any discussion on him?  Come to think of it, Trace and Matthew sure did hit it off well....mmm...need I say anymore...does this sort of thing really happen?

I have to also agree with the first point below.  Although I haven't travelled much through the country in this story, I felt that his description of the landscape in many parts fell short.  However at times I did find the writing to be quite satisfying, "...the glittering bush beyond the dusty perimeter of the clearing the Hearns had made with their bulldozer, heat waves rising from the strewn rocks and dessiccated tussocks.  Now that the bulldozer had passed, a stillness among the trees again that might never have been broken, a persistent virgin quality in the bush that had not yielded to their presence and would close over once again after their departure and retain no trace of t hem."


I did intend to send this email and politely pull out of book club for the year as I'm finding it difficult to find the time to attend...but now that I'm at the computer maybe I'll try once again this month to (a) complete the book and (b) attend the meeting.  I'm hesitant to pull out as I've always enjoyed book club so much.  So I'm apologizing for my lack of effort thus far and promise to try a little harder this month.

Life here is good and things are starting to settle down and routine is once again almost happening.  We celebrated Charlie's 5th birthday on the weekend with a kindy party of McDonalds and had Patrick's baptism on Sunday - so it was quite a weekend.  Patrick was a good little boy and everyone was impressed, particularly the priest!  He'll be 5 months next week - where does the time go?  It certainly has taken some kind of adjusting balancing a third child and I'm just now starting to feel a little more confident about managing the household, although whenever I say that things usually change and go to poo.  So fingers crossed.  Charlie and Milla (Charlie in particular) have been quite sick this winter and I'm hoping that it is all behind us now as it is so exhausting.

Anyhoo, love to all.  I'll get on to the next book and I promise to try to be there next month.

Love Rachelle x

August Book : Charles Dickens : A Life by Claire Tomalin

Our next book thanks to Ruthie, is a biography.  It is the 200th year since the birth of Dickens.  A man who aside from his own strengths as a story writer, the biography written by Claire Tomalin, shows him as a man with foibles, weakness of character and positive qualities just like all of us.  The Gaurdian UK write, "Admiring but clear-sighted, illuminating but never so freighted with detail that it loses its pacey narrative thrust, this is a truly exemplary biography".
You can find out more about the celebrations of Dicken's life at the attached link.http://www.dickens2012.org/

Next Bookclub is Sunday 26th August 10am - Venue TBA (however a suggestion is, The Crosstown Eating House http://www.thecrosstown.com.au/ )

July Meeting - A brief Summary

Well Ladies, our most recent review of, Alex Miller's, "Journey to the Stone Country", was a mixed bag.  Overall it seems as though, the book didn't hit the mark for all of us.  As the 2003 Miles Franklin Winner, it probably wouldn't have recieved a gold star vote from all of us had we been asked to provide a comment.

The story of Annabel and Beau was an interesting way to explore the cultural and racial issues of colonisation and the persistence of racial disadvantage and oppression of our indigenous brothers and sisters.  The writing of Miller about these sensitive issues of our past and present, seemed under developed. It was a general view given the complexity and delicate hidden intricacies of the connections being explored, Miller left too many issues under suggestion without taking time to unpack the depth of the themes. Given the views of all present at our breakfast meeting, I think I will just jot down, some of the comments made by individuals, to provide a bit of the diversity of perspective.

• "enjoyed the landscape descriptions, but it didn't hit hte mark for all", "having travelled through some of the country, i could feel and see the imagery of what was being described", "the landscape descriptions really, I couldn't picture the beauty of our country as i know it"
• The relationship between Beau and Annable, seemed a clash of such difference; A couple of our group said, "couldn't see the sustainability of their love and that confounded believability of the quickness of the conneciton forming"
• resoundingly, a joint perspective.... "resolution of themes, unsatisfying.  The unspoken issues, not seeded into the depth of the characters. Their was a view writing failed to deepen the understanding of the less informed reader about the complexity of the issues.....", "if a reader was not Australian, i wonder how well they would have understood the nuances of the indigenous characters' unspoken gestures referred to by the author"
• The cross generation mending-healing process, as a core storyline was appreciated and in reality is the only way reconciliation and healing for a better future will happen.  There was important message expressed through the story of the novel.
• Writing style of Miller, was a little unsatisfying compared to the writing style of Australian authors such as Tim Winton and Geraldine Brooks.... The exploration of themes was underdone, left too late into the book and as a consequence there were too many unresolved issues which left most of us feeling unsatisfied about the exploration of the themes

So all in all, unfortunately i guess, it could be said, it was a reasonable book which we all enjoyed because it addressed themes related to our own history.  However in comparison to authors such as Winton and Brooks, as readers we were left wanting....... 

I am left with a last comment.... Maybe Miller achieved exactly what he intended, the feelings and issues we were left with from the read may not be s not such a strange place to be given the themes of our current time and the continue lack of resolution of equality of health and continued disadvantage generally for our indigenous Australians in relation to current time!

Sorry if i didn't do our discussion justice ladies, it ws such a diverse discussion!

V

Apologies

Morning all, Apologies but I won't be able to make book club on Sunday. We are in NSW at Scott's Head enjoying a long weekend. I have read Journey to the Stone Country and truly loved the depictions of the Qld country. I did however struggle to get my head around how quickly Bo and Annabelle ended up in a relationship. Hard to explain in a few short words why I felt this. Would be interesting to hear what the rest of you think. The frequency of Bo lighting up cigarettes became a real annoyance to me and I began to think this was a convenient way for the author to not write anything meaningful and just default to "Bo smoked a cigarette" "Bo rolled a cigarette".......am I just being picky???? Hope you enjoy the breakfast spot and a good chat. Cheers Jen