Book Club June 25th

Last night was our first real meeting for book club in that we actually had a book to talk about.  When it was through my husband, who had been in the next room over and could hear us, asked me what we had discussed.  I told him, "the book we've been reading" and he responded that it sounded like we discussed a lot of other things.  Yes, we were off topic a lot.

The book we discussed was Tomorrow, When the War Began (which I had already blogged about) and the book ended up getting a 4.9 rating out of ten.  The general consensus was that while OK for a teen novel, the book wasn't much.  Most people felt that it lacked depth and detail and that too much time was spent on the teenage girl feelings about boys.

We also talked a lot about the fact that the author is an adult male but that the narrator was a teenage girl.  We wondered if he had chosen that route as a way to make more money, or if he really felt like he was in tune with the thoughts and feelings of a 17 year old female.  I figure that a lot of the book was probably written with the thought in mind that it was for a teenage audience.  Some of the members were surprised when others reported that the book has won awards, been taught in schools, and has been made into a movie.

As I said before in my Words for Wednesday entry I didn't think the book was that bad as I have read some really bad stuff in my day.  I also felt that it was just as good as The Hunger Games.  The book is actually a seven part series and one of our members went ahead and read the other 6 (he is a smart guy and has a lot of free time- plus I think he found them free to download on the internet).  He said that sadly a lot is left unanswered and undeveloped despite the many sequels.  Still, as I said we did give it a 4.9 with two people awarding it a 7.   It was a good book to start with and I hope the person who picked it doesn't feel bad.