By Lucy, B&R Secretary and Book Club Leader
When I joined Buns & Roses in 2010 I hadn't realised that they have their own Book Club and
I was really pleased that they did - it would give me the impetuous to
make sure that I finished a book by a deadline as well as giving me
suggestions of books to read that I might not normally encounter (at the
first meeting that I went to we discussed Jam and Jeopardy by Doris Davidson which was certainly a different read) and have a chance to chat through them with friendly ladies eating cake.
We meet at the Tiled Hall Cafe which is next to the Art Gallery and the Leeds Central Library.
It's a really pretty venue and they serve gorgeous cakes - Earl Grey tea loaf, scones with clotted cream and jam, Caramac cake
and neapolitan sake. They also serve a great selection of drinks
including wine and beer and my favourite - Suki tea - I love the Russian Caravan which is like a milder slightly less smoky lapsang souchong.
Our last book club was really fun - we had all finished reading the book that we were discussing - The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky which we all enjoyed.
The
Buns & Roses Book Club is really friendly, we don't worry if
someone hasn't finished the book, or indeed if they hate it that's fine
too! Everyone is fine to voice their opinion and most importantly it's
fun - we talk about what we think of the cover of the book and who might
play certain characters in a film version as well as discussing more
technical things like characterisation and plot.
We
all agreed that we liked how the book reminded us very much of being
teenagers and in particular Susan who is from America said that it
really reminded her and felt very well written and representative of her
time in high school much better in comparison to some other books that
she has read in the past.
Sam
who was new to Book Club mentioned that she had read the book slightly
differently as she'd seen the film first, but really enjoyed the book
and actually hadn't expected the form of the book to be the series of
letters that are presented.
In
terms of characters we felt that they were all very "real" and had a lot of sympathy with the main character - Charlie - and
genuinely felt as though we were taken on a bit of a journey with him
and saw how he developed.
Lianne
had been worried about how the ending of the book would transpire and
how some of the fairly serious issues would be handled, but actually
felt that it was effectively written.
We
all enjoyed the book and I found that I really enjoyed the references
to different music of the time and how his teacher recommended different
books for Charlie to read to help him develop both intellectually and
emotionally. I loved how one of these books was A Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger as the feel of this book was very similar to that, but the characters were much more likeable.
We tried to think of some Christmas-themed books for our December Book Club meeting, but went for Life of Pi by Yann Martel instead and will be meeting at 2pm on the 16th December at the same place - you are welcome to come and join us.
