Hi everyone,
Our last book club meeting was a catch-up meeting before the school holidays.
We had a further discussion about the Australian novel, Catching Teller Crow. If you do plan to read this novel, it is recommended that you read it consistently. Otherwise, you might get a little lost with the storyline. You will definitely enjoy the story more if you read it consistently.
This discussion was followed by a chat about what everyone has been reading. It highlighted our diverse reading tastes and included the following books:
- Rachel has been reading Monster Blood Tattoo series (a series loved by Mrs Hanratty too). Rachel also highly recommends The Blackthorn Key series.
- Nitika has several books on the go at once (don’t we all!) – including Fangirl, The Forgotten Book, The Wicked King (sequel to The Cruel Prince).
- Mrs Hanratty shared the Gentleman’s guide to vice and virtue by Mackenzi Lee. She loved it plus all the characters! Highly recommended (Year 10+).
- Ms McNamara shared news from a recent author talk she attended at Sutherland Public library. The book is called My name is revenge: A novella and collected essays by Ashley Kalagian Blunt. It is an historical fiction book about the Armenian community and genocide. Ms McNamara has donated this book to the library. It will be available for borrowing soon. If you would like to find out more about this book, you can listen to the audio recording from our book club meeting and you may also be interested in this review.
To read the ending, or not to read the ending … that is the question
We also had a very interesting conversation about whether or not you should read the ending of a book before you actually get to the end! We all had quite different opinions about this. What do you think? Why?
Next book club meeting: Steampunk
Our next book club meeting will be held towards the end of the HSC exam period in a few weeks time. For this meeting we will be discussing steampunk fiction novels. What is steampunk? Novelist states:
“Gears, goggles, and airships await! Often inspired by Victorian-era culture, these steampunk adventures mix of fantasy and alt-history “science” powered by throwback technologies (real or imaginary).”
So, if you like fantasy, history, science and adventure, then this may be the genre for you or something different for you to try from what you normally read. They often have strong, well-developed characters and some novels or series may also include romance as characters develop and face struggles and challenges.
We have a book box set aside with a selection of books from the steampunk genre. You can check out eLibrary for a few suggestions here.
OverDrive also has eBooks and audiobooks available. View a list here.
If you’re interested in exploring further, you might like to take a look at Novelist’s steampunk teen list available here.
Finally, this list from YALSA is also worth checking out. We have some of the books shown here (but not all of them). You may be able to check OverDrive or your local public library for books that we don’t have in print in the library.
If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to ask!
Enjoy discovering steampunk and we look forward to our next meeting,
Mrs Sylaprany, Mrs Hanratty & Mrs Ryan
