We are entering the third year of our book group (three in April to be exact), how time flies!
This month we finally gave up on the Warwick Arms, it has turned into an eat-y pub so we skipped over the road to Copa Bar again which was nice and quiet. We discussed 'Bed' by David Whitehouse.
An easy read with short chapters which were perfect for reading in short bursts. We mostly liked this book - kind of - instead of this being a story of a man in bed it was more about the relationships around him and how his actions affected everyone. I liked the way the brother was never named, which both threw the focus back on Malcolm yet not on him (I don't think that makes sense but I don't know how else to say it), everyone was defined by their relationship to Malcolm which begs the question, what would happen when he died? We felt the characers could have been developed more, for instance, what role did the Dad have apart from building the massive winch? No-one in the book was normal, yet I suppose a book about normal people would be quite dull. Our biggest gripe was the ending, it was very sudden and didn't really conclude anything. We had a really good discussion on this one, so much so, we came up with a new scoring system:
Concept: 8/10
Plot: 6/10
Characters: 4/10
Ending: 4/10
Cover: 9/10 (due to textured buttons and collar on PJs - thanks Rachel)
Who we would most like to slap: Mother
Overall Total: 6/10
We chose our next book from the following:
- Solar by Ian McEwan
- Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
- The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh
- The Life by Malcolm Knox
Our next meeting will be at someone's house (volunteers please) on Wednesday 8th Feb and our next theme will be Easter (as we'll be choosing the book to be read over Easter), please be as inventive with this theme as possible.
