Heft by Liz Moore

Suzie hadn't finished the book, so Kate, Jen and I discussed whether or not we thought the ending was 'bad' and came to the conclusion that it was supposed to be related to the wider concept of things not being quite what they seem (I had forgotten, for instance, that Arthur doesn't turn out to be Kel's Dad because it seemed so likely throughout the book that this would turn out to be the case). Lots of things are left unresolved, and the end happens when everyone is just about to come together - it leaves the schmaltzy bit where they actually come together out entirely. We also thought it was good he didn't win the trial at the Mets, because that would have been too easy - seemed more real this way. 

Concept.

We gave the concept 5/10. The two narrators are two people you wouldn't expect to meet who turn out to be totally connected by one other person.

Plot

(not much of a plot) - just a journey? 5/10

Ending

Suzie abstained because she didn't reach the end. We thought it was good that it left loose ends, but maybe there were too many? Paths are just aligning and then the book stops - quite abrupt. 3/10

Cover

Some embossing, but no shiny. 8/10

Page Turner? 5/10

It wasn't unputdownable *shudder*

Reccommend it? 1/4

Jen was the only one who said she would recommend it, and she 'read' the audiobook, which may be why! 

Who would we slap? 

Arthur Opp's famous architect Dad because he was a meanie!

Ou est le fromage? 

Getting scouted for the mets... pretty cheesy!

*NEW CATEGORY* (possibly?)

It would be better as a....

FILM (we can see the teenage party scenes working out well, and see ourselves laughing at / crying with the big feller) 

The next book (December) is Stonemouth by Iain Banks, selected by Suzie. 

Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham

A last minute change of venue saw us (Jen, Susie, Lucy and I) at Jen's house where she treated us to yummy meringue things.  With copious amounts of tea, we settled down to discuss this month's book.

A short, easy to read book which posed interesting ethical dilemmas was the general consensus.  Jen was disappointed as she had read other novels by the same author and enjoyed them more.  We thought this was more like a concept book, a long short story rather than a full-blown novel.  We liked the different theories on what would happen if we could all live for 200 years and also how practical it would be with work and house prices etc.  We felt that the story could have been expanded and made into a normal sized novel as many aspects were introduced and then not mentioned again.  All in all, a very good read.

Concept: 9/10
Plot: 5.5/10
Ending: 5/10
Cover: n/a
Page Turner: 8/10
Who to Slap: The daughter in law
Where's the cheese: The nursery at the end
Would we recommend this: 4/4

Overall: 7/10

We chose the next book by putting our names into a 'hat' and then the person drawn could then choose a book.

Lucy chose 'Heft' by Liz Moore which we will be reading for the October meeting.

Our next meeting will be at 8pm on Wednesday 11th September, I did volunteer to host this at my new house, but I'm on a training course in the Midlands that week, so won't be able to make it.  Lucy said she would like to host, so I'll double check with her and will send an email out to confirm.

Wishing on Venus by Mark Holmes

This month we welcomed back Rachel, an honorary member as she emigrated to Australia last year, who was back for a friend's wedding.  Susie hosted the meeting in her new house and showed off her huge garden and shortly-to-be-demolished swimming pool.  With tea (maybe a little wine) and scones at the ready we discussed this month's book.  The author of this month's book approached our group via email and offered us the book for free in exchange for a review on here and on Amazon if we chose to, so here goes.

We were pretty unanimous in our opinion of the book, let me start with the good stuff...  We thought the concept was great, the author had clearly thought long and hard about the intricacies of heaven and hell and had come up with some pretty good ideas.  In places the plot was really good, the story flowed well and the characters were well rounded, but this was only in places. 

Now for the bad stuff.  Unfortunately, we thought, the book needed more work, probably just a really good editor to pick up on the poor grammar, spelling, inconsistencies and glossed over details.  It was clear that some ideas hadn't been thought through properly and although they were good ideas, they just needed more work.  For example, the idea that a solicitor would sign a contract (in blood!) without reading it first was a little odd, the way he decided on his chosen profession in heaven because the uniform looked good was not believable and the way the author glossed over how the pattern for his cloak was in his exact size was disappointing.

We didn't understand the significance of the magic show, or what actually happened to the magician in the end (we suspect this may be the focus of the sequel) and we also didn't get how the title of the book related to the story at all.  Because of the author's ingenious (and very kind) way of approaching book groups to increase his readership, we really wanted to like this book and we argued long and hard about how best to phrase our thoughts on this blog but in the end we decided that honesty was the best policy.  Sorry Mark :-(

Concept: 8/10
Plot: 3/10
Ending: 2/10
Cover: 5/10
Page turner: 5/10
Who to slap: Matt because he was a rubbish solicitor
Where's the cheese: The baby idea
Would we recommend this: 1/10

Overall: 4/10

We chose our next book from the following:

• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
• The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
• The 100 year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
• Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman

We chose 'The Secret Keeper' by Kate Morton which we will be reading for the September meeting.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 14th August, 8pm at Copa.