Member Profile
| Name : | Anjula A. |
My Reviews
Hi All,
Ed, Marisa, Billy and I enjoyed the first ever Kepler Book Club! We enjoyed sharing our thoughts around “The Overstory”. Following an interesting discussion and debate, we awarded the book 6/10. Although a beautifully written and poetic book, we all felt it had too many characters to really get drawn into all the stories which was disappointing, but overall an enjoyable read!
Some highlights below:
Billy “It was depressing”
Anjula “Although previously I wasn’t aware I had one, it really made me consider my relationship with trees”
Ed “ Don’t kill off the protagonist in the first half of the book, it could have had so much potential”
Marisa “ The most difficult book I’ve had to motivate myself to read. I found it incredibly boring with too many uninteresting characters. I had to re-read paragraphs when I caught my mind going elsewhere. The environmental message is obvious though…”
We had a great time discussing the book and I really hope you’ll join us for the next one! We have agreed that the next book will be decided at the end of each book club and excited to announce the next book will be “ The Leopard” by Tomasi di Lampedusa” Please do reach out to Courtney if you would like a copy.
Best Regards,
Anjula
This book was Lampedusa’s only novel and was rejected by the first two publishers, it was subsequently published posthumously. The book follows Don Fabrizio who is an old-fashioned conservative prince. He rules his family firmly and generally gets his own way. But things are changing. It is 1860 and Garibaldi has landed in Sicily and is pushing inland. He is gaining support not only from the people but also from Don Fabrizio’s workers and from his nephew.
Ahead of the meeting, Billy shared some old holiday snaps from Sicily (one below) which really gave us a sense of the beauty of the island. So what were our thoughts on the novel?
“ The descriptive parts, holy smoke that’s quite an imagination” Hugh
“For me it was about Melancholy and things changing” Billy
“Why was there was no mention of how Garibaldi biscuits were made” Callum
We rated the Leopard 7/10
Our discussion yesterday was about “Where the Crawdad’s Sing” which was a Hello Sunshine Top pick and overall the group review was positive. The book was about Kya an intelligent, born naturalist with no formal education who lived in the North Carolina Marsh isolated from society and who suffered great loss and many hardships. She was a strong, smart, likable character who was relatable to quite a few who joined. The book certainly had something for everyone, the focus on nature caught the attention of many and made the book a real delight and the trial made the novel quite thrilling however, we were all in agreement that the ending was slightly predictable and we awarded the book 7/10. I have attached a pdf which has a Q&A from the author Delia Owen and also some good ol’ southern recipes, I might have a stab at Kya’s favourite “ Old Fashioned Chicken Pie” Yum! For those of you who would prefer not to read the book, the movie with Daisy Edgar-Jones is coming out in 2022!
We read “Golden Hill” by Francis Spufford, the book follows a mysterious Mr Smith who comes to a New York Counting House with a £1000 bill. We agreed that the book fit the category of a page turner being rich in language and compulsively readable, the second half in particular was full of twists and turns. Set in the eighteenth century the level of detail was exquisite, being only 20 pages from the end, our discussion has definitely inspired me to finish it! We awarded it 8/10 the highest score yet!
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