WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three questions: 

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading? 

• What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

Perhaps the question should be, what am I not currently reading. The pile of books on my bedside table is growing at an alarming rate and I have so many on the go - I just need to commit to one. However, I am looking forward to picking up the new Alexander McCall Smith one tonight.

What did you recently finish reading?

I've just finished The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul  and had a great discussion about it at bookclub last night, over cupcakes and cocktails. I've already written a review about it here.

What do you think you'll read next?

At the top of my pile is A Girl is a Half-formed Thing but a bookmark is currently sitting about a quarter of the way in to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harbold Fry so I may opt for that one. 

That Monday feeling

Don't think anything else needs to be said really!

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul

It's been years (I'm not kidding) since I last wrote a book review but what better book to get back into it than this one. What a sweet, sweet story.

I'd seen this book lying around on the shelves of bookshops, charity shops and supermarkets for a while but had never picked up it. Don't ask me why, though having a 16-month-old in the house has put a blight on reading over the last, well, 16 months!!!

However, the lure of a book club discussion, held in a venue that serves cocktails and cupcakes, was too good to refuse so The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul made it onto my reading list.

And I loved it! An easy read, a wonderful collection of characters, each with their own story to share (and a secret to reveal), a lovely tone and a fabulous setting. I'm not one to pick up non-fiction to learn about a particular area of the world - that's too much like hard work. But to be able to read stories that give you an insight into another country, another culture- like this one does - is certainly my cup of tea (I don't drink coffee!)

It's not a mind-blowing story by any means, nor is it all that gripping - I didn't get to the end of each chapter desperate to know what was going to happen to the characters in the next - but it was the perfect book to curl up with on an English summer's evening when a hot drink and a blanket are needed to keep warm!

I think for me, it was knowing a bit about the author - herself an expat having lived in Kabul - that really gave something of a compelling angle to the story. I'm now looking forward to picking up Deborah Rodriguez' bestselling memoir, The Kabul Beauty School.

I'll be interested to hear what the rest of the readers of the bookclub this week think of it - and what cocktails and cupcakes are on the menu!

Time to get back on the bike

I'm in need of a new challenge

2012 came about pretty quickly; now we're fast approaching the first quarter mark and I'm still trying to get my year sorted! With each 12 month period disappearing faster than before I think we need to introduce a "sort your sh*t out" month in between so I can at least update my diary, register everyone's birthdays for the year ahead, plan holidays and of course, suss out the reading challenges for the year ahead.

As you'll see, I'm a bit behind on that last resolution. My reading challenges are still of 2011 vintage and dare I say it most of them are sadly incomplete. The planning of holidays on the other hand has been sorted (London last month, Tokyo this month) so at least I have set aside time too read.

But I'm now on the search for 2012 challenges. And given that most of you will already have started a few I wonder if I could be so cheeky as to ask for some recommendations. Have you signed up to a fabulous challenge for 2012 that is still accepting new members? Or do you have a challenging your hosting that I could join. I'm open to anything and everything... so put your challenge forward!

Book Review: Bride of New France

It's a National Bestseller, described as the best piece of historical fiction one reviewer has read in a long time while another describes it as a moody, beautiful piece of historical fiction.

But I'm really sorry, I just didn't enjoy Bride of New France, by Suzanne Desrochers. It was painful. I felt totally removed throughout the entire 288 pages and when I read an historical novel I want to be drawn in, travelling with the characters, living and breathing the experiences along with them, crying when they're upset, struggling or heartbroken and I didn't feel a thing for this novel at all.

I tried. I really did try and I so wanted to enjoy it, but more often than not I'd find myself reading four or five pages and not taking a word in!

It was a first novel, and it was written by an academic researcher, not a writer, which the author readily admits. As such the descriptions were incredibly vivid. Obviously a result of meticulous research, which has been commented on: "A meticulously researched, lyrical tale... Bride of New France succeeds in bringing history to life" (National Post) but I just wanted more feeling. I wanted the main character Laure to really come into her own.

From the back cover
"Laure Beausejour has grown up in a dormitory in Paris surrounded by prostitutes, the insane, and other forgotten woman. Despite numerous hardships, she dreams of using her needlework skills to beome a seamstress and one day marry a nobleman. But in 1669. Laure's dreams are cruelly dashed when she is sent across the Atlantic to New France as a fill du roi. Powerful and haunting, Bride of New France, is a remarkable tale of a French girl and her struggle to survive in a brutal place and time."


Laure had spark - after all, she survives and given the hardship of the time, only those with incredible inner strength and determination would do so - but I never felt as if her character was really allowed to shine through. It was almost as if the author was too concerned about getting the historical facts correct to give her full attention to her main character.

However, on the plus side, it was a novel like none I had read before - which is always a welcome change. And it certainly opened my eyes to a period of history that I hadn't encountered before. It has also piqued my interest to find out more about this period of Canadian history which isn't a bad thing. And I genuinely admire any new author who has the ability to put pen to paper and craft a novel from such extensive research.

Unfortunately, this just wasn't the book for me. I'd still give it 3 out of 5 stars but it was certainly hard work! 

What makes a good bookclub?

I joined a bookclub this week. Despite being a book gatherer, avid reader and a regular bookshop customer, I've never once belonged to a bookclub. And to be honest I'm not actually all that familiar with "bookclub protocol".

I began looking for a bookclub to join at the beginning of the year, but that was a challenge in itself! It seems bookclub membership is very hard to come by! Why is that I wonder? One reply told me they didn't have any places available - is there a limit to the number of members a bookclub can have?

That's not to say the bookclub meeting I attended this week wasn't worth the wait. Although discussion about the book was a little on the subdued side - none of us really took a liking to it! - it was a pleasant hour spent discussing, constructively criticising and musing about the story within.

However it's got me thinking and wondering what are the elements you need to make a good bookclub? Is it the people? The number of members? The choice of literature? The venue? The coffee?

So, fellow book loving bloggers, whether you're a member of a bookclub or not, what would you say makes a good bookclub (and what doesn't!)?