'Would you not like to try all sorts of lives - one is so very small...

- but that is the satisfaction of writing - one can impersonate so many people.'
- Letter from Katherine Mansfield to Sylvia Payne, April 1906

Quick fly-by post, much like a one night stand, only slightly more classy because it involves Katherine Mansfield. A couple of weeks or so ago I flew home to Wellington to catch the last part of the International Arts Festival and one of the things I was able to do was visit 25 Tinakori Road. Any ardent Mansfield fan will know that this house is historically significant - and if you haven't yet got it, the pic (check left) should be a dead giveaway as to why. And cheers to the guy tooting his horn while I was trying to take the shot - almost scared the life outta me!

My parents left Wellington when I was about 8 or 9, and I hadn't then discovered Mansfield's writing (even though her birthplace was 5 minutes walk down the road). I can't say I love her work, but I did enjoy it quite a bit when I finally did get around to reading her stories in intermediate/high school. I think I admired her more for having lived such a wonderfully full life. Each time I come back to Thorndon I tell myself I'll visit her birthplace but I never do. Finally, I was able to. And it was such a beautiful day for it - such a huge difference from the freak storm of the day before. When Wellington turns it on it really turns it on.

25 Tinakori Road is almost miss-able, if you're not looking. And I wasn't. I was plugged into the iPod and almost walked straight past on the opposite side of the road (in spite of the ornate signage and huge OPEN sign eek). Took some snapshots of the outside (we're not allowed to take pics of the inside) and spent ages mooching around inside, generally haunting the residence, and thinking how very much I would like to have lived there (although from some of her writing it wasn't a place that she liked all that much). Take away the dainty furniture and the chamberpots and I'd like it fine.

What a fascinating woman, and what a life she lived. One of the upstairs rooms is filled with photos of her with various people (family, husband, friends) and they're accompanied by text from her stories and her letters (such as the post title). One particular piece of text caught my eye, if only because it seemed to have an echo of so much of everything else I'd seen in the house. It was in reference to her very English husband who was so proper and how she lamented that he would never be a quick and carefree kind of person, and she loved him anyway. It seemed...sad. And quite poignant, and I ended up leaving not long after in a very reflective mood. Am I going to read her stuff again? Very probably not, although I greatly enjoyed my time in her childhood home. I think, perhaps, she was a woman ahead of her time. I also think she did try to live all sorts of lives in the one she was given. I will be extremely happy if I am capable of saying the same thing many years from now.

Nat has asked if I'd like to write a few posts about what I managed to see while in Wellington for the festival so in a few days or so I'll blog again. Cheers - tosca.

March meeting : notes

March meeting and discussion notes

Title: The life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid
Author: Bill Bryson

Synopsis: Bill Bryson on his most personal journey yet: into his own childhood in America's Mid-West. In his deeply funny new memoir, he travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was, and the curious world of 1950s America. It was a happy time, when almost everything was good for you, including DDT, cigarettes and nuclear fallout. This is a book about growing up in a specific time and place. But in Bryson's hands, it becomes everyone's story, one that will speak volumes - especially to anyone who has ever been young.

Present: Merrin, Leslie, Vanessa, Nola, Joy, Megan, Diane, Gail, Pauline, Adele, Jan, Tosca

1. Why do we find Bryson’s writing so funny – his descriptions of e.g. poor Milton Milton, the toity jar! And the descriptions of the inhibitions towards eating anything slightly unusual at that time?

He writes so humorously; he’s just a good writer; e.g. Milton Milton – some of that laughter was cruel but I still laughed; the delivery of it was so funny; it was so true of kids (the cruelty that was also funny); like when somebody trips up and you know it’s awful and you all sort of titter; some of his descriptions were quite unkind and wondered if the people would be able to recognise themselves; it makes you think about your own childhood and how there was somebody I’m embarrassed at how we treated at the time; the toity jar (much laughter); the descriptions can make you picture the actual event; we’ve all seen people like that; the way he writes is so descriptive

2. Had anyone heard of, or used any of, the words that Bill described as being delightful Fifties words? E.g. mimeograph, rotisserie, ice box, bobby sox, etc.

Have heard nearly all of them; there are a lot that aren’t used nowadays; such as mimeograph; we didn’t use the term mimeograph in New Zealand but the idea of it is familiar; some of the words he uses are ones I would only recognise from watching American films or tv series; an ice box used to be a hole in the ground where the ice man would place the ice

3. How did he get to be so successful when he missed so much school?
He knuckled down in high school – only just; was obviously very smart; parents were very clever; so much of what he wrote was very exaggerated in the typical way we exaggerate things in childhood (remembering how things were so enormous when little and yet so small when big) so it’s possible he didn’t miss as much school as he thought he did; his mother says her cooking was nothing like that (but of course she would say that wouldn’t she?); he was just good at what he did; he must have had the most enriched childhood for the time – the way his parents were always sharing things and taking him places; his father only wanted to take him to places that were educational and cheap; there weren’t so many places to go to either so perhaps that made it easier

4. How do you pronounce Des Moines? I’ll bet it’s not like the original French?
Da Moine; if you don’t know how to pronounce a place or a character name it can sometimes interrupt the flow of the story

5. How’s your memory? Could you remember so much of your childhood?
No; reading this reminded me of bits of my childhood – some of his reminiscences would jog my memory; reminded me of a time when my father made my sidecar and the three of us squashed into it and we went all over the place, mum would sit on the back with no helmet; that’d be highly illegal now; he split this up into different chapters recalling different parts of his life; he probably talked to his family about things to refresh his memory; in his acknowledgements and preface he says a lot about who helped him; also he’s probably a very observant person which is possibly something within you when you’re quite young and so you may remember things maybe others ordinarily wouldn’t; I found it fascinating that he could detail so much and thought that perhaps my own childhood wasn’t quite exciting – growing up in smalltown New Zealand; having other siblings can help flesh out the details; he probably exaggerated things a bit – took something little and made it big; each chapter would end with the comment that the Thunderbolt Kid got them in the end; if you see Boy it will remind you of this book

6. Chaise longue – I’ve always thought it was spelt lounge and, even when reading it in the book, saw it as lounge, and took a while to realise the point the father was making. Anyone else like that?
Pronounced shayce long although now it is spelt chaise lounge and pronounced shayce lounge

7. What aspects of Bill’s childhood can you relate to?
The food – what types of food we didn’t eat (pasta, cornbeef etc.) – in our household the only pasta we had was macaroni cheese, the only spices we used were salt and pepper, the only takeaways we had were if we were lucky and even then it was once a month and it was fish and chips; universally food has become more international; they wouldn’t have been exposed to so much in the cosmopolitan way like New York would have been as they were in the middle of the country; such a good story with the father off the diving board; as a kid he thought it was terribly high but maybe it wasn’t; I remember reading it and going ‘Oohh’; it would have been like hitting a brick wall; the descriptions were so awfully funny

8. Was there more freedom for kids in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s than there is now? And if so, what has changed?
Nothing was dangerous, everything was inviting; nowadays everybody is so afraid that people would get hurt; sugar gave us anything; we’re a lot more pc and cautious now; common sense went out the doors in the 1980s; some places, like the US for example, are slightly more litigious than say New Zealand; we’re overcautious and we believe germs etc. will hurt our children; my mother worked when I was a child and we grew up very community-minded and knowing our neighbours, nowadays we’re too busy with extra-curricular activities for kids that we don’t just let them play with each other and get to know each other; television has taken away that option to learn to play with each other; perhaps kids have too many options to just want to be kids and enjoy the freedom of it; when we were younger we lived in state houses everyone had a garden and we all swapped vegetables with each other and knew each other – there’s not so much of that now

9. Is the past always seen as being better? And, if so, why do we look back and think about the ‘good old days’?
This book made me nostalgic and it made me reflect on the good times I’d had as a child; kids still play jump rope today and elastics if they’re given a chance

10. What toys do you remember from your childhood?
Elastics, knucklebones, skipping, marbles, rubik’s cube, gutterboard, roller skates, handball, foursquare, lego, Tupperware toy (round ball with shapes), jack-in-the-box, monopoly, cards (snap, last card, fish, old maid, crib, 500, canasta); I’ve always enjoyed reading but what I think is better now is that children’s books are so much more enjoyable – they’re in colour, they’re exciting and full of adventure and they’re just fantastic; now there’s graphic novels

11. Did you learn anything from Bill’s informative narration of the 1950s American that you didn’t know before?
Polio epidemic, that America did not have to wait as long as Europe and the UK to recover after the war; parents would stand on stepladders and talk to each other over hedges; thought they were very cutthroat with their nuclear bomb blasts and atomic cafes and that the Americans were interfering in other people’s government (funding rebel movements etc.); people never understood the effects of radiation (think Christmas Island) or Agent Orange; communism scare during the McCarthy-era that was tantamount to a witch hunt

12. Did the ending satisfy you?
Can’t remember the ending; he just moved on; I didn’t want it to end; his visit back there showed that a lot of things had gone or moved, e.g. Yonkers department store no longer there reminded me of trips to Farmers Department store and the whole experience of it all; some of the pictures had been destroyed so all of that good history was all gone; made me feel sad and nostalgic for things that had gone or closed now; his visit back reminded me of things that had changed now here: Hector the Parrot was alive during Leslie’s day and stuffed during Merrin’s day; photographers would wander around and snap pics of people and you could order prints;

Rating:
5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, 3, 3, 4 and a half, 4 - average = 4

Please note: Our next meeting is Saturday 17th April 2010 here at Manurewa Library. Our next book is 'The Denniston Rose' by NZ author Jenny Pattrick. Nat/Merrin have requested copies for the group which should have arrived or is still to arrive. See you all next month :)

February meeting : notes

February book & discussion notes

Present: Vanessa, Gail, Doreen, Pauline, Shari, Denise, Natalie, Nola, , Vanessa, Maureen, Tosca
Title: The tenth circle
Author: Jodi Picoult
Image from:

Synopsis: "How far would you go to protect the ones you love? When Daniel Stone was a child, he was the only white boy in a native Eskimo village where his mother taught, and he was teased mercilessly because he was different. He fought back, the baddest of the bad kids: stealing, drinking, robbing and cheating his way out of the Alaskan bush - where he honed his artistic talent, fell in love with a girl and got her pregnant. To become part of a family, he reinvented himself - jettisoning all that anger to become a docile, devoted husband and father. Fifteen years later, when we meet Daniel again, he is a comic book artist. His wife teaches Dante's Inferno at a local college; his daughter, Trixie, is the light of his life - and a girl who only knows her father as the even-tempered, mild-mannered man he has been her whole life. Until, that is, she is date raped...and Daniel finds himself struggling, again, with a powerlessness and a rage that may not just swallow him whole, but destroy his family and his future." -- Amazon.

Relationships - were pretty complicated. Laura didnt' want to marry Daniel, he said he could change but he really couldn't. He was obsessed with his daughter. This allowed Laura to go off and have her career while he was a house husband. She knew abou this violence - she was attracted to that bad boy side. It would've been nice to get in the head of Laura. You got the impression Daniel knew the sort of guy Jason was, although he admits Jason was still never as bad as he himself was.

Comments:
* Not an enjoyable book because of the subjects, but it was a page turner. Rape, underage sex, various other social issues - too depressing. Unreliastic - for shock value?
* My innocence was shattered. The book started out with a rape scene and then you find out the woman's back history of lovers.
* I wouldn't make an effort to read any more of her books.
* I've never done this before but, with this book, I read the ending partway through, saw how it ended and went back and finished it.
* Enjoyed reading it more than The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
* Enjoyed reading The Lovely Bones more than this
* Skimmed through the story
* The cop was a good character whose daughter had been through drugs etc.
* I didn't like it but I finished it

Questions raised:
* Did Picoult know a family like this?
* Was she raised by Inuits?
* Great writing skill but didn't enjoy the book
* There was great depth to the book
* Was not conducive to sleep
* Book club is about stretching yourself and reading books you ordinarily might not
* Did Laura kill Jason or did he slip?

Did nobody feel one bit of sorrow for Trixie? Yes, she was a sad figure, a product of her upbringing but she was also spoilt and she was a sociopath - so totally self-obsessed. Trixie was incredibly sad, mixed-up and in pain and nobody listened to her.

Who was responsible for Jason's death? ALL of them: Daniel, Laura, Jason & Trixie.

Is redemption possible? Daniel's relationship with Trixie was his chance to atone for his past and what Jason did threatened that. Is it possible? Yes.

Did Daniel's graphics enhance or detract from the story? Can now see how comic artrists put their work together.

General feeling: Laura and Daniel were remiss in their parental duties. Who lets a 14 year old girl stay out overnight without knowing anything about where they would be or even who they would be with?

Rating: 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5,

Would you recommend the book to others?
* No
* As well-written as it was, no
* Yes but not to all
* No
* It was a good book, so yes
* Yes, e.g. class discussion type book
* No
* Yes - but I'd pick my victims well

Please note: Our next meeting is Saturday 27th March 2010 here at Manurewa Library. Our next book is 'The life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid' by Bill Bryson. Nat has requested copies for the group which I think everyone has had by now. See you all later today :)

Discussion Questions for Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Hi Bookmates,

To make it easier for everyone to find on the blog, I have copied the questions that we have received below.

1. Why do we find Bryson's writing so funny - His descriptions of eg. poor Milton Milton, the toity jar! and the descriptions of the inhibitions towards eating anything slightly unusual at that time?
   
2. Had anyone heard of or used any of the words that Bill described as being delightful Fifties words? E.g. mimeograph, rotisserie, ice box, bobby sox, etc
   
3. How did he get to be so successful, when he missed so much school?
   
4. How do you pronounce Des Moines? I'll bet it's not like the original French?
   
5. How's you memory? Could you remember so much of your childhood?
   
6. Chaise longue - I've always thought it was spelt lounge, and even when reading it in the book saw it is lounge and took a while to realise the point the father was making. Anyone else like that?
   
7. What aspects of Bill's childhood can you relate to?
   
8. Was there more freedom for kids in the 1950's, 60's, 70's, 80's. than there is now? And if so what has changed?
   
9. Is the past always seen as being better? And if so, why do we look back and think about the 'good old days'.
   
10. What toys do you remember from your childhood?
    
11. Did you learn anything from Bill's informative narration of 1950's America that you didn't know before?
    
12. Did the ending satisfy you?

Thanks to Megan, Lesley, Merrin and Vanessa for sending in their questions, we lok forward to hearing everyone else on Saturday.

Thunderbolts of laughter...

Hello bookmates :-)
How did the February chat go? Was there a newsletter? What were the thoughts/opinion's/ratings of 'Tenth Circle'? Yes this is '20 questions' hahaha. For what it's worth I enjoyed the second half of that book more then the first half, especially when Trixie is in Alaska. I gave it a 3 out of 5.
I went to see 'Mao's Last Dancer' at the movies a couple of weeks back and thought it was great. I'd read the YA edition of the book so the movie fitted in nicely with that. Although it would have been good to have seen more of his early years, it still made me cry in all the right places.
This months book was a joy to read. Bill Bryson is one of the funniest, most sarcastic and dry humoured authors I've ever read. For a few days I brought the book to work as I just couldn't put it down and my workmates were laughing at me, laughing whilst reading !! A couple of questions to ponder:-
- Did you learn anything from Bill's informative narration of 1950's America that you didn't know before?
- Did the ending satisfy you?
Happy reading, see you on the 27th :-)
Megan

Excellent News - check out our Fiction collection on your next visit

Hi bookmates,
we have some great news, today was the beginning of the floating fiction collection. I know I know you are thinking the what?
Being a good sort I won't bore you with the library lingo, but suffice to say the really good news is that you should see a whole heap of different adult fiction books on our shelves when you next visit the library. How it works is if someone has requested a book from another branch and returns it to ours it will stay in our branch unless someone else requests it etc, that is the book stays where the demand is, well that is the theory.
I know I am really looking forward to it as our science fiction collection is looking pretty sad and could do with a few different titles...Looking forward to hearing if you notice a difference in your next several visits and if it is for the better or the worse...
cheers for now, Natalie