25/02/2014 Meeting

Norwegian Wood

Haruki Murakami

Excellent turn out this month, with the added bonus of an amazing chocolate cake, supplied indirectly by Kim`s son. He really doesn't know what he missed!

Cake and ale and books.

We discussed Jeans choice of Norwegian wood. Very Mixed opinions, with scores ranging from 4 up to 8, an average of 5.8. A few who have started the book intend to finish it at some point, so no spoilers... The general consensus was a very well written if a little depressing book, not a page turner but well worth persevering with.

Now, as a little experiment I would like to try to embed a tweet into the blog, as I am hoping to get book reviews from people on twitter and facebook to help things along a little. 

@hippy_jon a great book, Murakami is an incredible writer. (Not a very wordy review, apologies).
— Stuart (@the_overfed) February 25, 2014

Well that seems to work.

These were the pitches for this months reading. 

• Me - And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
• Mike - The Redbreast by Joe Nesbo
• Mike - Dominion by C J Sansom
• Ivan - Harvest by Jim Crace
• Helen - The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris
• Kim - Recipe for life by Mary Berry

The winning pitch was Peter`s Daughter, who`s name inexcusably escapes me, with 

"The Hundred year old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared" 

by

Jonas Jonasson.

Here is a rough outline stolen from Amazon:

It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people's home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not...Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan's earlier life in which - remarkably - he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century. Already a huge bestseller across Europe, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is a fun, feel-good book for all ages.

And a profile of the author stolen from Good Reads:

Jonas Jonasson

born

in Växjö, Sweden 

July 06, 1961

gender

male

website

http://www.jonasjonasson.com

About this author

After a long career as a journalist, media consultant and television producer, Jonas Jonasson decided to start a new life. He wrote a manuscript, he sold all his possessions in Sweden and moved to a small town by Lake Lugano in Switzerland, only a few meters from the Italian border.

The manuscript became a novel. The novel became a phenomenon in Sweden, and now it is about to reach the rest of the world.

Quinns reliably inform me that they will have stock of the book by the end of the week. If you mention Hippyjons Book club you will get 30% discount on the book too!.

Next meeting is scheduled for 1st April. Our official start time is now 20.00 but feel free to turn up when it suits you, as usual. If you would like to pitch a book its anything that would fit under the catch all of "classics"

See you there

Jon

PS:

If you are reading this via twitter or facebook and would like to submit a review or even just a score out of 10 then please feel free to get in touch!