Bibliofemme Bookclub An Irish Bookclub

January 10, 2012

Fillums by Hugh Leonard

Filed under: Bookclub Books,Irish — The DJ @ 3:07 pm
fillums
Title: Fillums Author: Hugh Leonard Genre: General Fiction, Irish Publisher: Methuen Pub Limited Release Date: 2005 Pages: 240  Meeting: Wednesday 23rd June 2004

His newspaper columns and literary output hint that Hugh Leonard, real and imaginary, is an avuncular raconteur. His stories of people and places, of secrets and rites of passage happen in small Irish towns or anonymous Dublin suburbs. ‘Fillums’ begins, handily enough, with a trailer. In it, an aging playwright worried about his literary

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The Vagina Monologues – Eve Ensler

Filed under: Bookclub Books,Biography — The Techie @ 3:07 pm
vaginamonologues
Title: The Vagina Monologues Author: Eve Ensler Genre: Biography Publisher: Villard Books Release Date: 2007 Pages: 222 Meeting: Thursday 7th August 2003

I chose this book because I had heard so much about the play from various different friends, I was disappointed that I missed it and thought; well I’ll buy the book. The feedback I’d got in relation to the play included, “it made me laugh, and it made my cry”. I also thought that Ensler had done something incredibly brave

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For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

Filed under: Bookclub Books,Classics — Femmes @ 3:07 pm
belltolls
Title: For Whom the Bell Tolls Author: Ernest Hemingway Genre: Classics Publisher: Scribner Release Date: 1995-07-01 Pages: 480 Meeting: 20th March 2006

Hemmingway left a stunning impression on me as a child with his simple and breathtaking novel The Old Man and the Sea. In fact, coming a sharp second to The Red Pony by Steinbeck, I fondly remember The Old Man and the Sea as the next novel to turn my head forever towards a life and love of reading. Revisiting Steinbeck years later turned out to be

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The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve

Filed under: Bookclub Books,General Fiction — Femmes @ 3:07 pm
weightofwater
Title: The Weight of Water Author: Anita Shreve Genre: Fiction Publisher: Back Bay Books Release Date: 2004 Pages: 288 Meeting: Friday 1st November 2002

The Weight of Water is beautifully written but leaves many frustrating questions unanswered. A contemporary story about two couples and a child in a sailboat off the coast of New Hampshire is intertwined with the tale of a 19th century double murder which took place on a nearby island.

Told from two perspectives – a photographer investigating

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Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

Filed under: Bookclub Books,General Fiction — Femmes @ 3:07 pm
yay
Title: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Author: Rebecca Wells Genre: Fiction Publisher: Harper Perennial Release Date: 2004-12-07 Pages: 400 Meeting: Friday 19th July 2002

When Siddalee Walker, eldest daughter of Vivi Abbott Walker (Ya-Ya extraordinaire – part Scarlett, part Katharine Hepburn, part Tallulah) is interviewed about a hit play she has directed, her mother is described as a ‘tap-dancing child abuser’. Enraged, Vivi disowns Sidda – devastating her daughter who postpones her wedding

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The Shadow of the Sun: My African Life by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Filed under: Bookclub Books,General Fiction — The Techie @ 3:07 pm
shadowofsun
Title: The Shadow of the Sun Author: Ryszard Kapuscinski, Klara Glowczewska, Genre: Biography & Autobiography Publisher: Penguin UK Release Date: 2002-03-28 Pages: 336 Meeting: Friday 19th November 2004

I chose this book for two particular reasons. I liked the idea of reading a Polish author (the majority of our authors being, Irish, English or American) and the book itself was recommended to me.

The Shadow of the Sun is a hard book to categorise. It’s not quite a biography and it isn’t really a travel book, so the only way I can describe

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Tatty by Christine Dwyer Hickey

Filed under: Bookclub Books,Irish — The Techie @ 3:07 pm
tatty
Title: Tatty Author: Christine Dwyer Hickey Genre: Fiction, Irish Publisher: Vintage Books Release Date: 2006 Pages: 205 Meeting: Friday 26th March 2004

When I read the press release for Tatty I was intrigued. I had heard of Dwyer-Hickey before but had never read anything by her, so the following lines written by Colum McCann really grabbed me:

‘A bare, lyrical story of a Dublin childhood that will rank among the very best of Irish books this year. It’s not easy to make writing seem this simple. Like all good stories, it never judges itself, and so it remains open, charming, dignified, even when the subject matter drifts towards the harrowing. A really fine book, evocative of a not-so-distant past.’

Of course the fact that she’s Irish and female was just an added bonus.

This is a very hard review to write as it is difficult to put in words exactly

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The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

Filed under: Bookclub Books,Historical Fiction — The Historian @ 3:07 pm
pursuitoflove
Title: The Pursuit of Love Author: Nancy Mitford Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Vintage Books USA Release Date: 1945 Pages: 214 Meeting: Thursday 26th February 2004

I’ve long been interested in the Mitford sisters, although have been known to mix them up with the Langhorne sisters on occasion (James Fox’s book on that quintet of Virginians who cut a swathe through pre-WWI Anglo-American society is also worth checking out). Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Decca and Debo Mitford came of age in England

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Tell No One by Harlan Coben

Filed under: Bookclub Books,Thriller — Femmes @ 3:07 pm
tellnoone
Title: Tell No One Author: Harlan Coben Genre: Thriller Publisher: Dell Publishing Company Release Date: 2009 Pages: 370 Meeting: Monday 17th March 2003

A riveting, fast-paced, suspense thriller.

A couple, two childhood sweethearts, revisit a childhood location, Lake Charmaine, for their thirteenth anniversary, with a tragic outcome. Elizabeth Beck is brutally murdered, while her husband, David, is left for dead. Eight years later, when Dr. David Beck has still not come to terms with his wife’s

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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Filed under: Bookclub Books,Classics — The DJ @ 3:07 pm
thingsfallapart
Title: Things Fall Apart Author: Chinua Achebe Genre: Igbo (African people) Publisher: Penguin Classics Release Date: 2006-01-01 Pages: 196 Meeting: Friday 16th January 2004

My reasons for picking ‘Things Fall Apart’ are many. As with my other bookclub choices, I wanted to go for a different nationality (and in this case continent) to get us discussing literature from all over the globe. This book was recommended to me more than once and I’ve wanted to read it for a long time. I also wanted to look

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