Season to Taste by Natalie Young

Our last meeting at Kate's old house (hopefully), we were served bucks fizz and chocolatey things, I approve of both of these things.

I'm afraid we didn't enjoy this one, it had redeeming features which I will go into later but the big minus was the content of the story.  Trying to make killing and eating your husband amusing and readable must be difficult and I admire Natalie for attempting it, but sorry, it didn't do it for us.

We were slightly confused about why Lizzie killed her husband, the book goes into years of snide comments and belittling but there didn't seem to be a trigger - or we missed it if there was.  And why did she feel the need to eat him?  Why not burn him or cook the whole lots, blitz it into soup and then pour it away?  Apart from the killing, cooking and eating, not much else happened.  The side plot of Lizzie finding a younger man (well, that didn't go well) or moving to Scotland didn't really pan out.

On to the positives!  We did enjoy the thought that must have gone into how to dismember, store, cook and eat a whole human including organs, brains and willy.  Susie called it a 'thought experiment' which I thought summed it up nicely.  I imagine this book could be a theoretical conversation in pub, getting more and more extreme as the pints are downed (the people discussing this in a pub are so obviously men, hence the pints).

Concept: 8/10
Plot: 2/10
Ending: 2/10
Cover: 5/10
Page Turner: 6/10
Who would we slap? Lizzie for being weak and generally a bit dull
Where's the cheese? No cheese, just meat
Would we recommend? 0/4 (a resounding NO)
Better as a ... documentary (with no real killing obviously)
Add a twist: Either her husband is having an affair and isn't really dead (she's making it all up) or Lizzie should kill her toy-boy in making after telling him the truth.

Total: 4/10

Our next book will be 'The Girl With All The Gifts' by M R Carey and the July meeting will be at Jen's new cake shop!

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

It was light when we got to Lisa's so we could actually see her garden and everything!  I like it when it starts getting lighter in the evenings.  Anyways, back to the review ...

We all really enjoyed this book, it's set on a small island in-between America and Canada which has a surprising number of Japanese immigrants (it does tell you why in the book but I forget).  The story starts when a local is found dead and a Japanese-American is accused, the trial calls lots of different witnesses and you find out their own story when they take the stand.  The book flicks between present day (1954) and before the 2nd world war.  It's a real, did he/didn't he book filled with stereotypes and prejudices.

We liked the characters, the story, how it was told but the ending was a bit disappointing (I forget why, this'll teach me to wait 2 weeks before writing the blog post).

Concept: 8/10
Plot: 9/10
Ending: 6/10
Cover: 7/10
Page Turner: 7/10
Who would we slap? Ishmael and Carl's Mum
Where's the cheese: Sex scenes, did we really need to know all that shower business?
Would we recommend? 4/4
Better as a ... film
Add a twist: Spoiler!!!!  Someone else murdered him.

Total: 8/10

Our next book will be 'The Falcons of Fire and Ice' by Karen Maitland and the June meeting will be at Kate's house (we won't ask which one).

Half Bad by Sally Green + 5 Year Book Awards

This meeting marks our 5 year anniversary so as well as discussing our usual monthly book was also spent some time giving book awards.  Anyway, back to the book.

We all enjoyed this book, some more than others.  Although the half bad, half good thing has been done before in fantasy novels, we felt the story was dealt with well and was ideal for younger audiences.  It was an easy read and we all wanted to know what happened next, so it was a quick read too.  We knew that this book was aimed at Young Adults and this might explain why some of the characters were a bit two-dimensional (e.g. the sister Jessica).  I was annoyed at the ending, it ended quite abruptly and didn't conclude much but everyone else liked it and felt it was fine for the first novel in a series.

Concept: 8/10
Plot: 7/10
Ending: 6/10
Cover: 9/10
Page Turner: 9/10
Who would we slap: Jessica
Where's the cheese: Gabriel fancying Nathan
Would we recommend: 5/5
Better as a: film

New category, where we come up with a twist that wasn't in the book:
Lets add a twist: Annalise is Jessica in disguise.

Total: 8/10

Our next book will be 'Season to Taste' by Natalie Young.  Our next meeting will be at Lisa's house and the June meeting will be at Kate's.

The Book Awards
We all nominated a book for each category, there was no overall winner.

Best Book:
Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Room by Emma Donohue
Girl with a Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Best Character:
Peter Grant - Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Stuart Gilmore - Stonemouth by Iain Banks
Major Pettigrew - Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Most Like To Live In:
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Worst Book:
Empire by Jeremy Paxman
Wishing on Venus by Mark Holmes
The Shack by Wm Paul Young

Most Slap-able Character:
God - The Shack by Wm Paul Young
Everyone - The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
Sonya - Tideline by Penny Hancock
Gem - After The Party by Lisa Jewell
Thomas (all of them) - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel