Bibliofemme Bookclub An Irish Bookclub

Synopsis Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets of Paris as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human’s. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in all the city. Yet, there is one

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The author re-imagines her own childhood in this witty, often troubling autobiographical novel that follows the lives of members of the Aubrey family from the perspective of Rose, one of four siblings. Original.

After a lot of research including scouring the recommendations in the Sunday papers and reviewing the ‘top’ lists in the Guardian

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Every once in a while I am lucky enough to read a book that is amazing. Earlier this year I read We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, and it was one of ‘those’ books. While simultaneously loving every minute of reading it and kicking myself for not picking it for bookclub the idea to pick a Shriver book for the club to read

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Meeting: 22nd August 2007

I didn’t realise it was my turn to pick the book this month until the Connoisseur sent out a reminder email the week of bookclub. So in a panic I asked a girl in work for a recommendation, knowing that she is a complete ‘bookhead’.

Her first suggestion she described as a book that

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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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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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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 protagonists of this tale are billed as an aged homosexual composer, his dog and a “mysterious Bosnian”.

Cockroft, a retired composer and socialite, moves in Umbria, rural Italy following ostracism in his native England. Surviving on royalties he lives lonely and secluded life filled with flings, affairs and his dogs. Tomoleon Vieta

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Two best friends grow up together in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the early 1900s. As young boys, they were inseparable in the military academy. The boy from the privileged background was destined to become Army General and the other, well, he was always destined to be different, and never did quite fit the military mould. The rich lad pleasured

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