The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (Rowena 179)

“To immigrants and exiles everywhere, the uprooted, the re-rooted, the rootless, And to the trees we left behind, rooted in our memories…" 

William Shakespeare

An intriguing book, where on of the protagonists is an fig tree, a cutting transplanted to London. Through various plot lines, a Romeo and Juliet love story, the fig tree at a taverna, the daughter of a Turkish Cypriot (Defne) and Greek Cypriot (Kostas) in London - the effects of war, division and religion intolerance, political opposition and prohibited sexual partnerships. The narrative flits back and forth between 1974 when Kostas and Defne were secretly dating, knowing their families would not approve of their relationship and 2010 a year after Defne's death, her daughter Ada, and the fig tree, and Kostas, who has retreated from life immersing himself in his academic life - ecology and biology. The fig tree serves as a metaphor and a narrative conceit weaving it's leaves, roots and story to link the two eras. 

The writing is lyrical and profound in places, but it takes time to get into the story. The book generated a good discussion about war, place and displacement from your roots.

 

Words used to describe it:  tangential, intriguing, contentious, evocative

Marks out of 10:  between 6 - 7

Next Meeting

Thursday 23 November at Emma's 67 Mendora St

Next Book

A Sting in the Tail by David Goulson

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Mandy)

Lessons in Chemistry (2022) is a bestselling novel by Bonnie Garmus about women's lives, careers, and struggle for empowerment in the late 50s and early 60s. It follows the story of Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist who is forced to become a television chef when she finds herself a young, single mother. It's clear, though never confirmed, that Elizabeth is on the autism spectrum, candid and artless, she's frustrated by the social conventions that attempt to constrain her both personally and professionally.

This book generated a good discussion about uncomfortable characters, with awkward social abilities, the relevance of home economics/cooking and how in a way nothing has changed. The chemistry behind cooking was interesting. Most agreed that the ending felt to neat, too many loose ends tide up when an element of untidiness would have been better.

Words used to describe it:  captivating, unputdownable, multi-faceted, feminine centered, trite/chick lit, frustrating.  

Marks out of 10:  between 6 & 8 so quite highly marked. 

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The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (Rowena)

Next Meeting

Wednesday 18th October at Olivia's

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Orlando flits between incarnations of either sex over 600 years of different lives. Orlando, a young man living in the Elizabethan age who is about to be transformed. The story also ends with Orlando, a woman writer living in the 20th century. The entire novel is a fictionalised history of Vita Sackville-West, of an imagined past life she lived under the guise of Orlando several centuries before she met Woolf. The prose is beautiful but the story disjointed. The exploration of self, identity within the framework of history is interesting. 

 “Different though the sexes are, they intermix. In every human being a vacillation from one sex to the other takes place, and often it is only the clothes that keep the male or female likeness.”

Marks out of 10:  between 5 - 9

Words used to describe it:  fabulous, lonely, romp, raphsody, ahead of its time, bonkers, roller coaster/Alice in Wonderland feel

Next Book

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonny Garmus

Next Meeting

Monday 11th September at 126 Harbord St

How the World Really Work: A Scientists Guide to our Past, Present and Future by Vaclav Smil

A departure for this book club, a factual book which was extremely dense with information. Most of us have taken more than the month to read it, finding it easier to read in small digestible chunks rather than all in one go. Vaclav Smil, has written a book distilling so much information your head reels.  The book opens 'with the centrality of (fossil-based) energy to modern civilisation, turning to the production of food, plastics, steel, ammonia and cement as the drivers of globalisation and to a broad landscape of risks (viruses, diets, global warming and the ‘singularity’ of artificial intelligence).'  He outlines how intertwined our current lifestyle and economy are with fossil fuels and the difficulty we will have uncoupling ourselves. There are criticisms that some reviewers have made that Mr Smil does not give the new net zero push enough credence.  But if you would like to read an interesting book dense with information about the push towards a fossil fuel future this should be added to your book stand. 

Next Book  

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland (Emma 172)

 Taking the book A Fortunate Man (The Story of Country Doctor) by John Berger, written in 1966 about the English country GP, John Sassall.  This book is an update, like the previous book the stories and characters are an amalgam although the Doctor is real.  This doctor knows her patients, she lives in their valley and understands their lives.  It would be interesting to see how much country life has changed to compare this with the earlier book, even now the closeness of the doctor's relationship with her patience was difficult for some to appreciate living here in London, where since COVID appointments are often by phone not in person. However, it was interesting to see the NHS in action, to read how early interventions make such a difference in outcomes. How important it is for someone to understand the person and or the life they come from when making assessments on their health.

This book generated a discussion about the NHS, the slow decline in services, how it is changing and it became a little political.  Many thought the writing dull but worthy - not making the stories as interesting as they could be.

Words used to describe it:  inciteful, empathetic, dull, pleasant, worthy, interesting, useful

Marks out of 10:  between 6 - 8

Next Book

How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil

Next Meeting

w/e 20/21 May

Brighton at Carolyn's

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

 A small book, a novella, a delight. Set in 1986 in Ireland, Bill Furlong a kind compassionate man with four daughters. The crux of the story is how different his life could have been had his unwed mother not been taken in by the lady at the big house when pregnant - how his and his mothers life would have been blighted by the way that society, church and small town attitude when a child is born out of wedlock. While working a shift near Christmas - delivering coal, Bill comes across a young and pregnant girl,hiding in the outhouse of the local convent. A lot is implied, and some is explained: the difficulty in going against what is expected and accepted is beautifully written.

This book generated a great discussion about the Magdalene Laundries, Ireland and small town attitudes.  Realistically written, and so well drawn in time. The tension in the writing is carefully crafted.

Words used to describe it:   lyrical, too short, punchy, gut wrenching, hypnotic, finely etched, heart breaking

Marks out of 10:  all gave this book either 8 or 9 so highly marked!

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A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland (Emma)

Next Meeting

26th April - 36 Lysia St

East West Street by Phillip Sands

As many of us didn't read this over Christmas, not enough brain space, I will precis what one of us thought about the book.  A dry academic read, interesting once you get into it, but the legal mind behind the writing comes through with the details. Interesting to read about the two men, Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafael Lemkin and their involvement in the Nuremburg trials, Lauterpacht who came up with the term 'Crimes against Humanity', focusing on protecting the individual and Lemkin, 'Genocide' - protecting the group.  The academic snobbery against Lemkin, and how the Americans and British (and French) saw how the implementation of genocide could retrospectively implicate these countries in their vicious colonization of so many countries. 

Although many of us didn't complete reading the book, it did generate a good discussion.  

Next Book

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Next Meeting

Moved to 8th March at Emma's