The Painter From Shanghai - Jennifer Cody Epstein

The Painter From Shanghai is a book that was chosen by a new book club/group I have been invited to join by one of my best friends and her sister-in-law. It's been a while since I have been a part of a book club and I am looking forward to having an arena to discuss literature face-to-face again but I think my favourite part of belonging to a book club (just as in being a part of the book blogging community) is discovering books that otherwise might have completely passed me by.

The Painter From Shanghai is one such book. I had definitely heard of it and seen it's gorgeous cover before but nothing really jumped out to say "read me". The book is a fictional biography of the Chinese painter Pan Yuliang who came to prominence with her daring and creative work (especially her nude portraits of women) in the early twentieth century. The author's website displays some of Pan Yuliang's work and also goes into the story about how she came to write about the artist which I found set the tone for my reading of the book beautifully. The book covers Pan Yuliang's early life and childhood and the turning point in her young life when she is sold to a brothel by her uncle. The early parts of the book are painful to read but they also clearly demonstrate Yuliang's strong spirit and even the early development of her artistic talent.

The relationships Yuliang becomes connected in and with during her life are fleshed out - particularly her relationships with men - both the ones she is forced into and the ones that she chooses. The economic and political times of both China and the western world are inter weaved into the book with ease and the author always makes you feel informed without going into too much detail that would detract from the main focus of the book.

I loved the narrative flow of the book and the way that Yuliang's own voice is developed and strengthened throughout the novel in conjunction with her painting skills. A beautiful book that has made me want to seek out more of this artist's work.

Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

Our latest bookclub genre is adolescent fiction and the title that was picked out of the hat at our last meeting was Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson. I must admit I had never heard of the book or even the author but have since learnt that the book is on the required reading lists for many high schools - even in Australia. Having said that I still had to purchase the book through Amazon as I couldn't find it in any of our local bookshops which was a little frustrating.

Speak is an amazing story - for adolescents and adults.

The story is told from the point of view of Melinda - a 13 year old who is just starting high school as the story begins - don't we all remember (not always fondly) that time in out lives! A party has taken place just prior to the beginning of the school year and we learn more about the events that went on at that party as the story unfolds - it is enough to say that the events of the party lead to painful outcomes for Melinda as school begins.

The writing in this book is amazing - short, punchy, funny and lyrical at the same time. You feel Melinda's pain and you also feel her reaching out at times. The scenes with her art teacher and her lab partner are particularly beautiful.

Looking forward to sharing this book around.

Juliet Dove, Queen of Love

Juliet Dove, Queen of Love By Bruce Coville was the latest selection for our Bookclub.

Quite an unusual choice but the night the genre was chosen we were eating "dove" chocolates and someone decided to throw in a genre called "a book with the word dove in the title"! Obscure, yes!

Juliet Dove, Queen of Love is a book written for the 9 - 12 years age group and at 190 large typed pages was quite an easy one to get through.

The Juliet of the title is a self-confessed shy girl who has moments of extreme temper when she is pushed by her classmates. One day following an argument with her blonde haired nemisis Juliet wanders into a magic shop and is given an amulet to wear by the strange woman behind the counter. Juliet is drawn to the amulet and wears it but soon realises that it can not be taken off and that it's effects seem to be causing the boys of her class and neighbourhood to fall madly in love with her.

What follows is a journey of mystery involving Juliet's friends and family, gods and goddesses and two winged rats to discover the magic that will remove the amulet from Juliet's neck and hence, the love spell.

Was I excited by this book - well, no - not really. But I can imagine it would have been something I would have enjoyed as a 9 year old.

Indigenous Literacy Project

My attention has been drawn to the Indigenous Literacy Project by Abbeys Bookshop Blog.
This is a project that draws attention to the fact that Indigenous literacy rates are so low in Australia and works to raise awareness of this issue as well as raising funds to purchase books and reading resources for Indigenous children in the Northern Territory.
Our bookclub joined in this challenge last year and we each read 10 books from the lists provided on the project website - www.worldwithoutbooks.org. I think we will be joining in again this year to help raise some money for the project as well as helping to guide our reading for the year. The lists have some great ideas so check them out if you are interested.

Bookclub

As I have mentioned I do belong to a bookclub in the non-blogging world. We've been meeting for about 4 years now - a group of friends who love to catch up and have a glass of wine together as well as talking about our latest reads. The latest book we have all been reading is "Those Faraday Girls" By Monica McInerney. I'm eager to see what the rest of the group thought of this one (I must admit it was a while ago that I finished it so my memory has faded a little!). I do remember really enjoying the book when I first started and was looking at finishing it in record time but somewhere in the middle I got a bit bogged down and the second half of the book didn't move as quickly for me. Having said that I did go out and buy another book from this author so I must have been hooked in somewhere.