Book Club!

So I took a week off to travel to Saskatoon for two days and then to Calgary for five and during my stay in Saskatoon I not only got to go to a friends family wedding but also I got to join some of my old classmates for a book club meeting. Since I've moved back to Regina it's been pretty hard to stay in contact with most of my Saskatoon friends but occasions like these give me chances to re-connect with some of my dearest friends!

At book club we have taken up the tradition of all reading books we want to read, not forcing each other to read genres or authors we don't like. It's a pretty good way of doing it because we all have such vastly different reading habits that we would never agree on only one book to read.

Some of the books read included: This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Beauty Queens by Libba Ray, and Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich which I now have!

For my book club selection I read an old favorite of mine, Pride and Prejudice. The thing that makes it different is that I read an electronic version on my new Kobo that I got for my graduation! I've read the book a few times before and it always keeps me entertained with the humour, good writing and wit. Although it is one of my favorite novels I always end up disappointed by the situations these fictional women are in. Make's me very glad to be born in my time!

So just a short post but as I am currently writing this from the Saskatoon airport it will have to be. Have a great day!

What I've just finished reading

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

A book I picked up from one of my fathers bookshelves when I was about 13 or 14, when I was just really getting into science-fiction / fantasy. My father is the most well-read person I know, he can read an 900 page book in less than two days, and really he's the person I have to thank for my continued interest in reading.

40 Women have been living in a cage guarded by men for over ten years. They do not remember what caused them to be captured, only that they used to have lives before the cage. The main character of this novel is referred to as "The Child" because when they were placed in the cage she was only a child who could not remember her name or her family.

The first half of this novel deals with their daily lives in the cage: how they have an unknown fear of the guards and their whips, how they strive to remember their past lives and how they long for eventual freedom or an explanation.

One morning, the guards are bringing in food and an alarm sounds making them leave as quickly as possible, but leaving the door to the cage open accidentally. The women finally have freedom, and escape from their cage as swiftly as possible. What they discover is a land that is not familiar to any and as they start their search for answers or civilization they realize that they have just entered into a different kind of prison.

Very good book and a fast read, only 206 pages. What is so interesting about this book is that it is largely a description based book, sure there is dialogue but most of the action happens in the main characters mind and how she describes things. No chapters, just a steady stream of words. 

The science-fiction part of the novel is just a suggestion that is not weaved into the story line, so could be enjoyed by lovers of general fiction.

I give this book 4 stars and highly recommend reading it.

Book Club

I, like a lot of others in this world, belong to a Book Club. My Book Club is made up of my past classmates from the Library and Information Technology Program.  We may have similar interests, but we almost all differ in our reading interests, so our book club is quite unique. 

It's unique in the sense that we don't all force each other to read things we know others have no interest in, and so what we're really participating in is a form of "Book Talk" group. We all individually pick a book, read it for the designated day and then come together and share all of our different reads. It's quite an interesting thing to participate in, because I may not have thought I had interest in a specific genre or author, but after hearing one of my friends gush about it maybe I'll go and pick it up.

It's also an opportunity to come together as a group and just sit down and have fun and not worry about our hectic lives or our families. We may not see each other very often, but when we do that time is special and so much more appreciated than if we saw each other every day.

Our next Book Club is tonight and I had not thought I would have had a book read for it, but I sat down for a few hours Thursday night and actually read a book!

Tomorrow I’ll post my summary of the book and my thoughts on it. The novel is called I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman.