It was lovely to see so many people at our first meeting back after our summer break. A warm welcome to Claire, who was joining us for the first time, and a fond farewell to Rachel who is deserting us for a new life in the Big Smoke of London – we wish her well.
Our book, The Guardian Angel’s Journal, provoked mixed reactions. Many of us had been intrigued by the concept of guardian angels, especially the idea of coming back as our own guardian angel and then watching our life unfold. Much of our discussion centred on the role of guardian angels and how much they were (or weren’t) actually able to alter the course of their Protected Beings’ lives. Rachel raised the intriguing point that she thought Margot, first time around, had committed suicide, but that after Ruth’s actions and interventions, although she could not ultimately prevent Margot’s death, it was accidental the “second” time.
Most of us found it quite easy to read, and whilst some members really did enjoy the book as it was, some of us had trouble understanding the logic behind the role of the Guardian Angels (why, for example, did demons seem to have a greater ability to alter humans’ actions, and who had been Margot’s guardian angel first time round?). Some members were very uncomfortable with the descriptions of the abuse that Margot suffered, and felt it to be almost gratuitous; others did not like the religious element, particularly towards the end of the book.
We moved on to talk about what else we’d been reading over the summer, and the following books were all recommended: Oryx & Crake, and The Handmaid’s Tale (both by Margaret Atwood), The Book of Human Skin (Michelle Lovric), We Need to Talk about Kevin (Lionel Shriver), How to be a Woman (Caitlin Moran), Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (Rhoda Janzen), Morning in Jenin (Susan Abulhawa), A Game of Thrones (George R R Martin) and Sacred Hearts (Sarah Dunant) – what a varied selection, it’s no wonder we rarely all like the same book! We also talked about two films, The Human Centipede, and The Skin I Live In, but I’m not sure we’ll be rushing out to watch either…
Our next book is The Possessions of Dr Forrest by Richard Kelly, and I’ll email everyone in a week or so about the author event in Durham on 18th October – if anyone would like to go I’ll do a group booking so we can all sit together – we can talk about travel arrangements at our meeting on 12th October.
Happy reading!
Cathy
