Toronto Girly Book Club discussion
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This Is How It Always Is
June book - Erin's new plan
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Erin
(last edited Jun 11, 2018 01:28PM)
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Jun 11, 2018 01:27PM
So, ladies, I have a plan for June. Instead of boring you all with my myriad style and substance complaints, I will read the book I voted for rather than the book that won. I will do this in months where the winner makes my left eye twitch. So for June, I will read Kamila Shamsie's beautiful "Home Fire" instead of the Frankel book. I will be useless for the book discussion but I will eat and drink heartily, socialize, and based on "Dark Matter" and "The Dry", I may attempt predictions based on basic plot summaries that could prove true. ("You are clearly supposed to believe it's Gretchen. But Gretchen is the red herring.")
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I love this! The list often includes titles that I would much prefer over the selected book. I can't wait to hear what you think about your June pick!
Blast! Miriam just pointed out that the last Tuesday of June is her Grade Six graduation. :( So, I won't be able to come to this month's club. But I'll let you know about "Home Fire" -- and you can borrow my copy if you want -- and I will read Lisa Ko's "The Leavers" for July -- determined to get there July 31. Here's hoping "The Bedlam Stacks" wins for August!
I love this plan, Erin! Will miss you at the June meeting (although I may also not be able to attend as my partner's family will be in town) but hope to see you in July!!
Erin, how were the books you read? How was The Leavers?
They were both quite good, I'd recommend both. I certainly don't feel I missed out, as most of the girls I spoke to did NOT think I would be won over on "This is how it always is" or "The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper". (I did read the first 25 pages of the latter. Oy.) Oddly, I thought "Home Fire" started out brilliantly and ended a bit abruptly and not particularly believably -- it maybe stuck to the Antigone plot too closely -- while "The Leavers" almost lost me during the Deming/Daniel sections that make up more than a third of the book, at the beginning, but the mother character, Peilan/Polly, is great, really complex and human. Both books are great examples of how to do a *proper* current issue novel, a story that immerses the reader enough that the moral dilemmas of a situation become real.
