Book Club

Mona Vale Beach, Sydney

I have sometimes wondered whether I should join a Book Club as I LOVE to talk about a book after I have finished reading it, but the feedback I have received from some that have gone does not encourage me to join one. So, for now, these posts will be my book club....

Last night I finished reading another great book (this one actually took me a week to read as life is getting hectic). My friend Megan & I have discovered that we currently have similar taste in the books we are reading. When she read my post Some Good Books she informed me that she was currently reading the Thirteenth Tale! Anyway, she leant me Salvation Creek: An Unexpected Life by Susan Duncan. This book was hard to put down, not becasue it was so gripping you just had to find out what was next. Reading it was more like you were in a conversation with the author, there on the deck, glass in hand, light and casual, listening, content to be apart of it and not wanting to go home. I did laugh, and I did blink away a bit of moisture from my eyes. There were a couple of things that really stayed with me.

1/ One of the characters is washing a lettuce and doing one leaf at a time quite tenderly. The character had learned "..that if you do a job, do it as though it is the most important job in the world....The satisfaction is immense. And there is no boredom because you are thinking about the task, and giving it your best." The other character asks "If you demean your work, you demean yourself?" and she responds "Like that. But broader."

2/ You know at the start that the main character (the author) looses her husband and brother within three days of each other, and that later she has her own battle for survival. Being faced with other people's death does not have the same impact as nearly having to face your own. Realising that we are not immortal. It has been one of those times that the same theme is presenting itself to me over again as there have been other things that I have been told or read recently that come back to this same theme. What I want to know is that without having to face death and battle for survival, how can I achieve living in each moment, not worrying about the future or past, to embrace the fact that life is a gift and that each day and each moment should be lived and not to worry. To breathe. To cherish what's important and make the most with what I've got. These are things I know but it is easy to let these thoughts slip as my life goes on........

Prior to the above book I read Conviction by Richard North Patterson. I enjoyed the read but realise that I am moving away from those types of storylines (crime/lawyers/politics). I have read all his other previous books, and what I really like about his books, is that the main character may feature in more than one book, or a minor character in one book becomes the main character in another. Weaving in and out, filling in more about the characters life or what happens after you finish a previous book! I have his latest book, Exile, beside my bed waiting to start but I'm not sure when I will as there are others I think I'll read first.

Comments

[megan pickwell]

Very insightful comments about "Salvation Creek"
To live in the moment is always a challenge - but we always have a choice. The trick is to catch ourselves when we findourselves straying from the now - how do we do it?
Another mystery.
Mx

[Kristal]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm on a goal to read 24 books this year-just finished #4-Jane Eyre. I've missed alot of the classics so I'm going to try & read a couple this year.
I've never belonged to a book club, but I'll check back with your blog for info.
Thanks!