The Resurrectionist

This is the first book group book for some time that I might have chosen for myself.  Matthew said that he had picked it with a particular member in mind who likes a good horror story and this immediately provoked a discussion on horror stories, horror films.  Opinions were quite divided with some members of the group being quite convinced that they would struggle to read this book.

The blurb describes the book as being a gothic horror story.  Well it is certainly gothic in it's tone and in it's setting amongst the dissectionists and the body snatchers of early nineteenth century London.  However I wasn't at all sure how well it deserved the horror tag.  I certainly doubt that it will have caused any sleepless nights for even the most sqeamish of the book groups members.  There are very few scenes that depict violence of any kind and even these are described in terms that seem to minimise their impact.

That said, the story does raise some interesting questions.  The protaganist becomes drawn into a series of murders begging the question - 'Is he some kind of monster or could a reasonable person find themself in a similar situation?'  An episode from his younger life hints at a a sadistic and voyeuristic streak but personally I was left undecided on this issue.

* * *

The discussion at the book group didn't really go quite as I had expected. First of all a couple of the members weren't there.  One of them, who had often said she liked horror books, and for whom this one had been chosen, had left a note to say that she had quite liked it until it got to describing the murders which she found too gruesome.  The general consensus was that they weren't gruesome at all and we awere all left wondering what kind of horror books she actually likes. 

Of the five of us who were there two, including me, had enjoyed the story, two really hadn't liked it and one was on the fence.  Those not keen felt that the story wandered rather aimlessly and hadn't been at a ll gripped by it.  To me it seemed that this had been deliberate as the central point seemed to be about the way that we re-invent ourselves, or find ourselves re-invented, over time.  Perhaps that is me reading my own issues into the book. 

There was remarkably little discussion about whether the central character was good, bad, or a victim of circumstance;  despite the fact that I tried to start said discussion at least twice.  It seemed that some of the other readers wanted to be told by the author rather than to have the discussion themselves.

March

This was book of the month for July, discussed at the beginning of August, so I'm punctual as usual.  Once again it is a book that I very much doubt I would have picked for myself but I throrughly enjoyed it.

Brooks has taken the character of Mr March, absent from pretty much the whole of 'Little Women' I understand, and writen the story of what he was up to while he was away from home.  Not having read 'Little Women' this did nothing to draw me in.  In fact, had I been nrowsing the bookshelves, it might well have put me off.  However I was drawn into the story of Mr March almost as soon as I opened the book.  From the outset he was an intriguing and likeable character leading an interesting life.  Starting out as an itinerant peddlar he becomes, over time, quite a wealthy young man.  His progressive ideals lead him into the anti-slavery movement and, eventually, into service during the American Civil War.

In the latter stages of the story some of his weaknesses start to become apparent.  At one stage I began to wonder if Brooks wasn't trying to make him into quite a pathetic man and this feeling was shared by several other members of the group.  However towards the very end he was shown again in a rather more positive light.  The book provoked quite a lot of discussion about attitudes to race and gender, in particularly some of the apparent inconsistencies in March's own attitudes.

I Write Like

I saw this on another blog that I follow and thought I would give it a try.  Having done so I then wondered whether I wanted to post the result.  I decided that, firstly, honestly is the best policy and , secondly, that I should maybe try to change my writing style.  I wonder if I would get the same result with a different piece of writing.

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

So I tried another piece of writing and got -

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

which I have to say I prefer!

Reading Group - The Jane Austen Book Club

 If this wasn't our book of the month I would certainly not have picked it up - and I would have been right!  The best thing that I can say about this is that it is short and the pages flick past quite quickly.  The story is less about Jane Austen than it is about the members of the club.  Each chapter is ostensibly about one months meeting and the book that they discuss.  However there is relatively little discussion of Austen's books and the focus is really upon whoever is hosting that month's meeting.

So far I can't say that I really care about any of the characters.  I think that in part that is because despite being halfway through the book I don't feel I really know that much about them.  It feels that there is the merest glimpse at one character in each chapter before he or she becomes peripheral again in the next.

I am also extremely irritated by the shifting viewpoint of the narrator.  Sometimes the story is narrated by a thrid person.  Then at other times the narrator says 'We' when talking about the book club members although it is far from clear which one of them is narrating.

I wonder what the other members of my book group will make of it.

For a change I'm updating this on the day of the book group meeting.  There wer just five of us today, and for the first time more men than women.  Most of the group were generally positive about the book but nobody was really mad keen on it.  There was a general feeling that it was more of a collection of character sketches than a novel as such.  There was also something of a feeling that this was very definitely a women's book.  The one significant male character was thought by most of us to be quite a weak character.  However I tended to disagree.  For me he was the only charcater who voluntarily moved beyond his own comfort zone and therefore I felt that he was a stronger and more confident character than the women.

As usual there was quite a lot of general discussion not related to the book itself.  In particular ther was some talk about how different book groups work and what kind of discussions they have. 

Bookcrossing Celebrity

Yesterday was the monthly Ipswich Bookcrossing Meet, second Saturday of the month 11 o'clock at Coffee Link.  I don't get along as often as I would like because of football commitments but yesterday I was there, and what's more I was the first to arrive. 

One of the regulars had invited a couple of new people along so I wasn't surprised when a woman asked if I was part of the Bookcrossing group.  Completely failing to notice the Kiwi accent or the cuddly Ballycumber I asked if she was one of the people Izzy had invited along.  No, she wasn't.  She was already a bookcrosser who happened to be in the area and had noticed we had a meet up this weekend.  Oh, well nice to meet you I said, and what's your screen name?  I'm Lytteltonwitch she answered.

Well that probably doesn't mean anything to you.  But Lytteltonwitch is something of a Bookcrossing celebrity.  We chatted a little, other people arrived and chatted.  I picked up four books depsite having far too many to read and only intending to pick up the two that I knew Izzy was taking for me.  The the Junior Uncruliars started to get bored and it was time to leave so I could go to work.  And I didn't manage to pick up one of Lytteltonwitch's books.  I suppose it's rather sad that I think it would have been cool to have had one of her books pass through my hands.  Oh well...

Reading Group - What Was Lost

This is quite a slim first novel by Catherine O'Flynn.  It was obviously critically quite acclaimed on release.  There was some discussion of the quoted book reviews when the books were handed out.  Obviously they were all intended to be positive but they elicited quite a mixed response from the group.  It almost seemed that they were reviews of different books.

I found it quite easy to read at first.  It seemed quite a straightforward story of Kate, a young girl struggling to cope with the fact that her mother had abandoned the family and then her father had died.  I had slightly mixed feelings as it seemed that the reader was invited to adopt a slightly smug superiority over the naive central character.

Then the book moved into a second section nineteen years after the events of the first section.  At first it wasn't clear that there was any connection between the two sections other than the geographical setting, or to be more precise the Green Oaks shopping centre.  Gradually it became clear that one of the new characters was the sister of Kate's friend from the first section.  Later it became apparent that Kate had mysteriously disappeared shortly after the events of the first section of the book.

The narrative of this second section was interspersed with italicised monologues from various users of the shopping centre.  For the most part these seems unconnected with the main story line and I found them rather irritating.

The mystery of Kate's disappearance is eventually resolved.  Without wishing to give anything away it was quite unexpected but nevertheless made sense.  I felt that the quotes plastered all over the book were rather over-hyped; perhaps not surprisingly.  As a first novel it wasn't bad, I'd read her again but I wouldn't say I'm a fan.

There were only five of us at the group this morning but nevertheless we had quite an interesting discussion.  One of the readers was thoroughly unimpressed.  The rest of us all found bits and pieces that we had enjoyed but also many things that were dissatisfying.  The general consesnus was 'not bad for a first novel'.

Geocaching

I have heard about geocaching a few time sin the past but never really looked into it.  I kind of knew that you needed a GPS system and I didn't have one so I thought no more.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I read an article about it in a magazine and was motivated to check out the website - geocaching.com .

I was surprised to see that there were several caches quite close to home and it looked as if I might be able to find them even without a GPS.  So the following weekend the Uncruliar family set out to look for two local caches.  We didn't find either but we did find out that our SatNav has a facility to enter co-ordinates.

A week later I went out again with Uncruliar Junior Number 3 and the SatNav.  I left the other Uncruliars at home as I had the impression that they hadn't been impressed withour previous attempt.  This time we found the cache that we were looking for and UJN 3 was thrilled by the little items of treasure (actually little novelty nicknacks) in the cache.

On our return we told the rest of the family and they couldn't wait to try again.  We have been out again since then and found another cache.  Again there was much excitement about the treasure, especially when we discovered that we had found a geocoin.  Returning to the website we discovered that the geocoin had started its journey in Germany.  Despite being on a mission to Croatia it had actually been to Luxembourg, France and a very rural part of England.  Next week we're going to London so we'll be taking the geocoin with us in the hope that it can get from there back towards it's destination.