First meeting of the year.

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn.

21/01/14

Hello and a Happy new year to you all.

First things first, welcome to our two new members, Jeff and Michelle.

A good turn out of 11 people this month.

We discussed Marita and Elinors selection, Gone Girl. In general it recieved good reviews, with only one low score. We all seem agreed that the two main characters were both incredibly hard to like, in fact most of the characters had few redeeming features, maybe Margo or Andie just about saved the day. The composition of the novel was praised, using the diary and moving from present to past and vice versa from chapter to chapter, but we had mixed feelings about the ending. I wont say too much about that to avoid spoilers!

The pitches for this months book were as follows:

• Val - One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf
• Helen - I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
• Ivan - A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
• Ivan - The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin

The winning novel was Jeans choice Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murikami.

As soon as Quinns have stock I will let you know, hopefully it will be by the weekend.

Heres an outline, without spoilers this time!

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before.  Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable.  As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.
A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age,Norwegian Wood brillantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love

And a profile of the author.

Haruki Murakami
bornin Kyoto, Japan
January 12, 1949
website
http://www.harukimurakami.com
twitter username
harukimurakami_

influences
Raymond Carver, Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Brautigan, Raymond Chandler

About this author

Haruki Murakami (村上 春樹) is a popular contemporary Japanese writer and translator. His work has been described as 'easily accessible, yet profoundly complex'.

Since childhood, Murakami has been heavily influenced by Western culture, particularly Western music and literature. He grew up reading a range of works by American writers, such as Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan, and he is often distinguished from other Japanese writers by his Western influences.

Murakami studied drama at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he met his wife, Yoko. His first job was at a record store, which is where one of his main characters, Toru Watanabe in Norwegian Wood, works. Shortly before finishing his studies, Murakami opened the coffeehouse 'Peter Cat' which was a jazz bar in the evening in Kokubunji, Tokyo with his wife.

Many of his novels have themes and titles that invoke classical music, such as the three books making up The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: The Thieving Magpie (after Rossini's opera), Bird as Prophet (after a piano piece by Robert Schumann usually known in English as The Prophet Bird), and The Bird-Catcher (a character in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute). Some of his novels take their titles from songs: Dance, Dance, Dance (after The Dells' song, although it is widely thought it was titled after the Beach Boystune), Norwegian Wood (after The Beatles' song) and South of the Border, West of the Sun (the first part being the title of a song by Nat King Cole).

We also discussed the selection process for further books.

I think we all agreed that we would do away with the genre format and introduce a more free for all idea. We will alternate between contemporary and classic novels. Where contemporary is defined as anything from the last two years, and classic is everything else. 

Next Meeting 

We will meet on the 25th of February, usual place usual time.

If you would like to pitch a Novel we will be in the contemporary section..So anything from the last two years.

Jon.