Tag: Bookies

This past Tuesday the Bookies gathered to discuss Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.  This is a book that will be hard to discuss here without spoilers so I will keep this light.  To see a review with more detail and a spoiler page, see my review of Me Before You here, and for another great review by our Queen (front and center in picture), see it at her blog By Book Or by Crook.

A brief synopsis of Me Before You: (Setting – London village)  Louisa Clark has recently lost her day job and at 27, still living at home but trying to get moving on life – this is not cool.  She applies for a temporary position at a nearby castle for a rich boy who is not wheelchair bound due to an accident.  Extremely unqualified, Louisa is shocked when she is given the job.  Will Trainer (ie. “Rich boy”) is a bitter 30 something.  He once had the world at his finger tips; skiing with friends, trips to beaches and around the world… now confined to the limitations of movement and a chair.

Louisa (probably due to her lack of professional training for this type of work) will have none of Will’s attitude.  At first she is careful and shy but soon finds she is dealing with a sort of spoiled whiny baby who’s toys have been taken away.  By Louisa calling Will out on this, Will develops a respect for Louisa and a friendship slowly grows.

Louisa soon discovers why her job taking care of Will is temporary and this knowledge changes everything.  Now Louisa’s drive is to show Will that this new world of wheelchairs and limited movements is worth living in – and she only has so much time to convince him.

The Bookies rated this one fairly high.  We seen “5” ratings out of people who rarely if ever give 5’s.  (We rate on a scale of 1 – 5, 5 being the best).  A book such as this brought out (as I had hoped) some deep discussion.  We discussed choices and when do family and friends have a right to step in, and if they do – how much is permissible… how much is too much.

We were surprised to learn that we have a girl in our group who has a relative that has a similar story of living a full vibrant life and then an accident causing her to become a quadriplegic.  To actually hear about someone who has gone through this was interesting and brought the book even more fully in focus.

Of course… we had food and wine with our discussion 🙂

Why is this a great book for book clubs? 

There is great discussion points within this book.  Hard questions come to the surface that will make for a lively and passionate discussion on both sides.  If you like books that can get a rise of emotion out of your group let me say this is a book that will do just that. 

In past years I posted my book club book review along with my book club thoughts in one post.  Starting this year I will be posting my personal review of the book club books and my book clubs thoughts separately.  Click here for my review of Reconstructing Amelia.

This past Tuesday the Bookies Book Club gathered to review our January book, Reconstructing Amelia.  As anticipated, the book made for a wonderful discussion.

Reconstructing Amelia is about a 15-year-old girl who joins a coveted undercover group at her Private School called the Maggie’s.  If you are tapped to be a Maggie, you do not say no.  The book centers around coming of age issues such as; parent/child relationships, trust, friendships, sexuality, fitting in, bullying, social media and oddly… adults in high position roles who act in the most inappropriate ways.  When Amelia dies early on in the book (not a spoiler, this is part of the books synopsis on the back cover), her mother is left to figure out the pieces as to what happened.  Through a series of emails, texts, and Facebook posts, things start to come together to a shocking conclusion.

Reconstructing Amelia is a tangled weave of dishonesty and rabbit trails that cause you to think things one way… only to wonder (even in the end) if it was not something completely different.  This sort of writing can be both exciting and frustrating as our book club discussed. 

What discussion topics can Book Clubs pull from this read?

There is so much that makes for good group discussion here. 

1. Peer pressure…. how hard is it at 15 to say no?  How important at this age is it to fit in?
2. Social media… how much worse can social media make it for teens?  Now when friends disagree it can be posted for everyone’s eyes. 
3. In a world where we know everyone’s business… how much is too much?  Where do we as parents draw the line when it comes to internet, social media, texting, emails, dating….
4. Bullying is such a  huge topic right now.  How can we protect our children – especially when they are at the age where they do not necessarily come to us with problems.
5. Single parenting is common.  How does a single parent juggle maintaining a job, a home, the bills, and relationships with their children?
6. What about these clubs in schools like college?  The ones that include hazing.  Is it a right of passage?  Is there reason for concern?
7. How important is it to keep communication with your teen child?  Do you have a limit to what you want to know?  If you do not, do you give off the impression that you do?

The Bookies had a vibrant discussion over these topics, occasionally even talking over one another.  Many of us had stories of our own kids being bullied.  Social media is another fire conversation.  For a group of women who grew up for the most part without Facebook and cell phones and instant pictures; we are concerned as to the “where does it go from here.”  So little is considered taboo now, what does the next generation have going on?

Reconstructing Amelia scored well with the Bookies overall.  On a scale of 1 -5 (5 the best), Amelia landed at a solid 4 rating out of the 17 of us who rated the book.  Over all the bookies found the book to be hard to put down, it kept you guessing as to what actually happened all the way to the end. 

Book clubs looking for a fairly quick read (the pages of texting and Facebook posts make for some quick chapters) with great discussion topics are encouraged to choose this book.  Reconstructing Amelia will leave you with some questions, and either intentional by the author or not, most of the Bookies were not bothered by this unknowing.