Jan. Book Reads & the Fabulous Book Club

This was the plan:

* Sex and Stravinsky by Barbara Trapido (bookclub)

* The new Finula Dowling (bookclub)

 

* Jane Bussman on Uganda

This is the review:

All 3 were fantastic with a special thumbs up for Bussman. She summarizes  SO WELL American and European students who want to save Africa but only for a year or 2 while it fits in with their getting a big UN. EU atc job (I know they are not ALL like that) yet somehow despite being British herself manages a sense of irony. She moves from interviewing Ashton Kutcher in Hollywood to debriefing captured child soldiers and makes one laugh and cry at different points.

No one writes Kalk Bay as well as Dowling who actually lives there plus captures English teacher/ student / acting world SO well.

I have the best book club in the Southern Hemisphere.

We have "celeb" author Henrietta Rose-Innes; The witty and insightful Adam Cooper; The clever bibliophile Dr. Potgieter; The Kindest Psychologist; Yoga teacher, film writer and raw foody Carey McKenzie; Actor Adam Neil; Rhodes and Oxford and Harvard scholar and now mum, Karen Alexander; Genius climate change specialist and author Jessica Wilson  and Fablefairy. Needless to say, they are all deep and smart and stretch me to read facinating books.

Last month I read Ronnie Kasrils's :The Reluctant Terrorist - brilliant- and Nourishment- about a WW2 wife who is asked to write saucy letters to her hubby and complies. Nice.

Best bookclub reads ever?

The Winter Vault - Ann Michaels

Something to Tell You - Hanif Kureishi

Short Stories - Jhumpa Lahiri