YC Reading

The next Book Club meeting is: Tuesday 27th May 4pm UCY, Preston Road Please let me know if you can/cannot attend, we will be discussing James Frey's 'A million little pieces'. See you all there! - Carey

​Our May book choice is ‘A Million Little Pieces’ by James Frey. It is a 'semi-fictional' novel originally sold as a memoir and it tells the story of a 23-year-old alcoholic and drug abuser and how he copes with rehabilitation in a twelve steps orientated treatment centre. Kirkus reviews describes the book as “startling and ultimately breathtaking”. This will be my 5th or 6th time of reading the book (as you probably already know its one of my all time favourites) so i hope you all enjoy! As always, let me know your thoughts and i am hear if you need anything. - Carey

I have literally just finished reading One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest and after the first couple of pages really liked it. I have just started working myself in a mental hospital with some forensic patients and actually it is obvious that Kesey has spent some time in a similar environment.    I thought the initial meeting was a great way of establishing the characters and the dynamics between them esp. Nurse Ratched, McMurphy and the doctor. I thought the themes of the book about people maybe hiding behind 'madness' and feeling safer in and attached to the hospital environment interesting.  I was actually very shocked and slightly disappointed by the pacing of the book. My initial excitement at reading the book died down as Part 1 seemed so long and so little seemed to happen plot-wise that even I who is normally character-centred found this part of the book too dragged out to maintain my attention and actually found it a bit of a chore to get through this...

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Hello all, Just a quick reminder to say the book club meeting is next Tuesday (29th April) at 4pm at Yeovil College. I hope you all had a great Easter break, i certainly have come back to earth (work!) with a bang! I am busily preparing my review for our current book 'One flew over the Cuckoo's nest', which will be the topic for dicussion next week. How are you all enjoying it? Hope to see you all next week, please let me know if you require Nooks. - Carey  

After reading Atonement, I moved on to The Cuckoo's Calling. To be honest, I was curious since it has already been established that it is in fact JK Rowling writing as Galbraith but I was highly dubious for a number of reasons as to if I would genuinely enjoy this one, her crime fiction debut.  Firstly, crime fiction is a genre I don't tend to pick up unless there is one very hyped title out there. I don't want to be reading blood and gore to relax. Secondly, I have not read 'The Casual Vacancy', her first adult book but I do recall mixed reviews and have sort of concluded that the phenomenon of Harry Potter couldn't be recreated so why was Rowling risking letting herself down, writing new books in new genres when she could easily quit at the head of her game. To me, that seemed a bit foolish! However, it has to be admitted before reading Harry Potter, I'd been sceptical of that HP hype too. I was about 18, a little older then the targe...

The next book club meeting is; - Tuesday 29th April -Yeovil College ARC - 4pm Please let me know if you can/cannot attend and sign in at reception if needed. See you all there - Carey

The monthly meeting was held yesterday to discuss 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan; 4 members showed up and only one could finish the book! Nick didn't finish the book (or even get past the first chapter) because he found McEwan's writing style overly descriptive and somewhat confusing. David also didn't finish the book, but watched the film adaptation first, to which he found somewhat off-putting to read the novel. Ann found McEwan too descriptive and turgid, she has previously read McEwan's other novels and found she struggled with them too. Wendy did manage to finish the book but found she struggled through it and at some places found it tiring. She found the book slow in places although the concept was good. She also noted that she may have enjoyed the film more if she hadn't of read the book. I managed to finish the book and watch the film and i have to say i also struggled with both; i found myself tirelessly trying to get past 'Part ...

I was actually quite surprised by how hard going I found this book to begin with. I immediately found Briony endearing and loved the little character details which made the characters unique like how Briony liked the idea of having things to keep secrets in but yet she didn't have any secrets of her own to keep. However, I just felt like I was getting to know Briony and then Cecilia was introduced, just getting to know her then Robbie and so on. The book felt a bit busy with all these characters to get to know and then there was the detailing description of the setting like the garden and although, it sounded beautiful. It was almost too detailed for me and I felt a bit naughty 'cos the garden I conjured up in my mind was always missing something from McEwan's description. I think I found the move from TFIOS to Atonement almost overwhelming in the writing style. For example TFIOS was pretty much from one point of view, Hazels, but this story is told from so many and the ...