We had our book group's annual book choosing yesterday, and it was awesome, as always.
For a start, it was only the second time this year we has got to meet in person, lock downs meaning that an online meet up was better for us all. Being honest, I like the Zoom meetings - you can hear everybody speak and the booze is cheapter.
And we had our annual lolly vote - which went well, other than being a warm afternoon, the clinkers melted a bit. Never to mind. We came, we saw, we championed our books, we stapped on a rubber glove and placed lollies on the books we wanted to read.
And what a great book list we have.
So here is what was chosen.
The also rans include the following. Meg Mason's Sorrow and Bliss - still not sure how this missed out on being chosen. Elle Baxter's New Animal intrigued me so much I went and bought a copy on the way home, even though we're not doing it for book group. Thirty pages in and I'm not disappointed, though it reminds me of Jessie Tu's A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing. And Mary Gibbons The Bermondsey Bookshop and Jock Serong's The Rules of Backyard Cricket didn't make it.
Anyway, here is our book group's booklist for next year.
January: Bird Summons by Leila Abuelela
Fee put this up and it intruiged me. Goodreads.com says it's about the following:
"In her adventurous new novel, New York Times Notable author Leila Aboulela delivers a lively portrait of three women who embark on a journey of self-discovery while grappling with the conflicting demands of family, duty, and faith.
When Salma, Moni, and Iman--friends and active members of their local Muslim Women's group--decide to take a road trip together to the Scottish Highlands, they leave behind lives often dominated by obligation, frustrated desire, and dull predictability. Each wants something more out of life, but fears the cost of taking it. Salma is successful and happily married, but tempted to risk it all when she's contacted by her first love back in Egypt; Moni gave up a career in banking to care for her disabled son without the help of her indifferent husband; and Iman, in her twenties and already on her third marriage, longs for the freedom and autonomy she's never known. When the women are visited by the Hoopoe, a sacred bird from Muslim and Celtic literature, they are compelled to question their relationships to faith and femininity, love, loyalty, and sacrifice."
It sounds great.
February: The Island of See Women by Lisa See
The book's about Korean women who dive for food - they've done it for centuries. The author also wrote The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, which I wasn't overly enamoured with, but others loved it and this one got up. Jonella will be leading the discussion on this one.
March: Scary Monsters by Michele de Kretser
I put up this one, admiring what de Kretser has done in other books, and loving the premise of this.
The book jacket says. "Michelle de Kretser's electrifying take on scary monsters turns the novel upside down - just as migration has upended her characters' lives.
Lili's family migrated to Australia from Asia when she was a teenager. Now, in the 1980s, she's teaching in the south of France. She makes friends, observes the treatment handed out to North African immigrants and is creeped out by her downstairs neighbour. All the while, Lili is striving to be A Bold, Intelligent Woman like Simone de Beauvoir.
Lyle works for a sinister government department in near-future Australia. An Asian migrant, he fears repatriation and embraces 'Australian values'. He's also preoccupied by his ambitious wife, his wayward children and his strong-minded elderly mother. Islam has been banned in the country, the air is smoky from a Permanent Fire Zone, and one pandemic has already run its course.
Three scary monsters - racism, misogyny and ageism - roam through this mesmerising novel. Its reversible format enacts the disorientation that migrants experience when changing countries changes the story of their lives. With this suspenseful, funny and profound book, Michelle de Kretser has made something thrilling and new.
'Which comes first, the future or the past?'
The book comes in two halves - and the biggest dilemma the reader faces is which side of the book to start on - the white covered side, or the red covered side.
April: Plum by Brendan Cowell
More Australian fodder, put on the list by Norty.
The Goodread's blurb reads:
"The wildly impressive, raucously funny and deeply moving second novel from award-winning writer, actor and director for television, theatre and film, Brendan Cowell, confirming the talent he showed in his bestselling debut novel from 2010, How It Feels.
Peter 'The Plum' Lum is a 49-year-old ex-star NRL player, living with his son and girlfriend in Cronulla. He's living a pretty cruisey life until one day he suffers an epileptic fit and discovers that he has a brain disorder as a result of the thousand-odd head knocks he took on the footy field in his twenty-year-career. According to his neurologist, Plum has to make some changes - right now - or it's dementia, or even death.
Reluctantly, Plum embarks on a journey of self-care and self-discovery, which is not so easy when all you've ever known is to go full tilt at everything. On top of this, he's being haunted by dead poets, and, unable to stop crying, discovers he has a special gift for the spoken word. With spectral visits from Bukowski and Plath, the friendship of local misfits, and the prospect of new love, Plum might just save his own life.
From award-winning writer, director and actor, Brendan Cowell, Plum is a powerfully moving, authentic, big-hearted, angry and joyous novel of men, their inarticulate pain and what it takes for them to save themselves - from themselves. It's got a roaring energy, a raucous humour, a heart of gold and a poetic soul.
'Exploring masculinity and the healing power of language with great humour, grace and whimsy, Plum is a bighearted, raw and joyous take on what it means to be a man in modern Australia.' Sunday Times
'The audacious inclusion of literary outlaws ... the muscular viscerality of his language ... [Plum is] a Shire pastoral that yearns for a nostalgia fantasy of The Golden Days ... I wonder whether Plath was inspired by the great Peter Lum. Or if Whitman wrote Leaves of Grass observing a spear of summer grass while sitting in Shark Park one lonely Sunday afternoon.' Sydney Morning Herald (less)."
It looks like a good yarn and I'm looking forward to reading this.
I'll provide details of the rest of the books over the next few days. It will give me something to write about.
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