This is a story

Well our latest title was the subject of a very fiery debate at the group last night, which means we obviously picked an interesting title.  "The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ" by Phillip Pullman was the subject of our discussion last night.

The synopsis of the book from Amazon UK "This is a story. In this ingenious and spell-binding retelling of the life of Jesus, Philip Pullman revisits the most influential story ever told. Charged with mystery, compassion and enormous power, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ throws fresh light on who Jesus was and asks the reader questions that will continue to resonate long after the final page is turned. For, above all, this book is about how stories become stories."

You can find out more about the author from his website however a short introduction "I was born in Norwich in 1946, and educated in England, Zimbabwe, and Australia, before my family settled in North Wales. I received my secondary education at the excellent Ysgol Ardudwy, Harlech, and then went to Exeter College, Oxford, to read English, though I never learned to read it very well...My views on education are eccentric and unimportant, however. My only real claim to anyone's attention lies in my writing. I've published nearly twenty books, mostly of the sort that are read by children, though I'm happy to say that the natural audience for my work seems to be a mixed one - mixed in age, that is, though the more mixed in every other way as well, the better."

The debate last night wasn't exactly on the topic of religion but how you approach the book, the story, and with what pre-conceived ideas.  The back cover tells us to approach it with no previous knowledge of the gospels however without that the story itself is lost with no plot, no description and you care little for the characters.  However those that did have an understanding of the gospels took a great deal away from it and said it made them think about the whole aspect of Christianity.  It seemed to be to the group a softly softly approach from the author to make us think about organised religion, specifically Christianity, and our beliefs and where they come from.  So for some in the group it worked well and for others it fell apart but definitely made for an interesting debate.  Their was a great debate as to who was the "angle" that came to Christ, was it indeed an angel, a Roman spy, the devil...what are your thoughts?

Our next read is from a competition won through The Reading Agency: Reading Groups for Everyone called 'The Gravity of Birds' by Tracy Guzeman 

I have to say I'm already half way through and although I don't feel its a page turner I'm enjoying it like I enjoy a box of chocolates and currently scoffing the toffee one :)

This will be discussed at our next meeting Wednesday 4th September at 7pm at Builth Wells Library, High St, Builth Wells.

See you then!

Life's a beach

Better late than never we got around to discussing the Sea Sisters by Lucy Clarke at our last meeting.  I say that as we won a set of copies through a competition on The Reading Agency book group site and were due to post reviews way back at the beginning of June.

For those who haven't read it here's an introduction and excerpt from the book from The Reading Agency, Reading Groups for Everyone site;  There are some currents in the relationship between sisters that run so dark and so deep, it's better for the people swimming on the surface never to know what's beneath...

Katie's carefully structured world is shattered by the news that her headstrong younger sister, Mia, has been found dead in Bali - and the police claim it was suicide. With only the entries of Mia's travel journal as her guide, Katie retraces the last few months of her sister's life, and - page by page, country by country - begins to uncover the mystery surrounding her death.What she discovers changes everything. But will her search for the truth push their sisterly bond - and Katie - to breaking point?

‘Mia, you seemed so happy. What changed? You were experiencing all those incredible things with 

Finn, yet ended up in Bali alone. Why were you on that cliff top in the dead of night? Were you 

thinking about what I’d said? Did you do it, Mia? Did you jump? God, Mia, what happened to you?’

First things first, the cover and title.  We weren't overly impressed by either and we felt we wouldn't have picked up a copy based on either of them.  The title could refer to anything, mermaids anyone? And we felt as the title was the sea sisterS (plural) it should have had two (better) images on the front cover.  On the subject of formatting Jenny noticed that the type set throughout the book didn't leave enough room for apostrophes so a lot of the shortened words read wrong, for example she'd read as shed.  Which as soon as you notice it is very frustrating! 

But in saying that the story was good and makes for an enjoyable, easy read. Perfect for your holidays.  We discussed our initial thoughts as to what may have happened to Mia and it was interesting as we all had a different opinion to what could have happened from the very start and enjoyed the tale unraveling.  We discussed the role of the sisters in the book and although it was felt we didn't learn anything new about a sister sister relationship we did agree it wouldn't have worked as sister brother or even as brother brother which was reflected by other characters. 

 

You can read the reviews Jan and I posted to the Reading Agency here  and on Amazon here.

As usual feel free to post comments or thoughts below or onto our Facebook page here, or tweet using #BuilthBooks.

Next months meeting take place on Wednesday 7th August at 7pm, Builth Wells library and we'll be discussing Phillip Pullman 'The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ.' 

We also won a another set of books from The Reading Agency, The Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzeman, which will be discussed in September's meeting.

Its a (nursery) crime

A small number of us met last week but we had 2 new members which is great so we welcome them to the group. There was almost a consensus on the Jasper Fforde book: that we found it impossible to read, partly under the circumstances during May of losing our group member Jenny.

Next meeting: 

July 3rd: The Sea Sisters by Lucy Clarke   

August 7th: The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman

We will also have a few ideas for the coming months and after a discussion on past reads (for the benefit of our new members on the range of material we read) we got talking about Kate Atkinson and one of her books the group read called "Started early took my dog." This reminded one of the group of the Emily Dickinson poem of the same title and we were treated to a brief rendition.  Its that poem I leave you with today, until next time...

I STARTED early, took my dog,
And visited the sea;
The mermaids in the basement
Came out to look at me,
And frigates in the upper floor
Extended hempen hands,
Presuming me to be a mouse
Aground, upon the sands.
But no man moved me till the tide
Went past my simple shoe,
And past my apron and my belt,
And past my bodice too,
And made as he would eat me up
As wholly as a dew
Upon a dandelion’s sleeve—
And then I started too.
And he—he followed close behind;
I felt his silver heel
Upon my ankle,—then my shoes
Would overflow with pearl.
Until we met the solid town,
No man he seemed to know;
And bowing with a mighty look
At me, the sea withdrew.

We won!

Firstly, we won, we won!  I entered the book group into a competition to win a set of The Sea Sisters by Lucy Clarke and we won!

I have dropped the books off at Builth Wells Library and have asked Jan to contact the group to pick up a copy and get reviewing.  

Reviews are due by Tuesday 4th June so just before our next meeting but I'll happily take postings here and forward them on or you can post your review to the Groups for Everyone review blog here. The publisher is also quite keen for groups to put up their reviews on Amazon.co.uk as well, so please do add them to the book’s page.

It's sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew

We deeply regret to announce the death of a long time Builth Wells Reading Group member Jenny Holland.  Jenny was a highly valued member of the group and will be deeply missed.  Our thoughts are with her husband David.

The group will meet again on Wednesday 5^th June at 7pm; there will be no meeting this week.

When the spinning disc toy was created, it was a top secret

*I apologise for today's blog title*

Sadly I had to miss the last Reading Group meeting (blooming wisdom teeth grumble grumble) however I have been reliably informed that it was another lively meeting with a lot of discussion around the book "The Secret Keeper" by Kate Morton.

The general feeling was that it was a bit weak in the middle and could have been a shorter story.  Although I wonder if this was influenced by it being similar to the previous read ("A Time for Silence") in terms of structure; covering three different time scales.  Several members found it too wordy and a bit drawn out. 

If you've read it we would love to hear your thoughts, either post a comment below or in our Facebook group or by tweeting using #builthbooks
Our next read is Jasper Fforde - "The Big Over Easy"...

Image from www.diesel-ebooks.com

Image from www.kobobooks.com

As you can see I have found two covers for this book, would love to hear your thoughts about which cover suits the story best.

Interview with Thorne Moore, author of ‘A Time for Silence’

An interview with Thorne Moore, the groups previous read, on behalf of Honno Press is available here.