Pollyanna!

Tonight we are discussing Pollyanna, by Eleanor H Porter.

Our discussion is ranging between comparisons with Anne of Green Gables... There are quite a few similarities, and perhaps Pollyanna is winning? (not with me though. I think I'm an Anne fan.) ok I just took a poll, and it's pretty equal!

We are also reminiscing about what we read as kids (trixie Belden, Enid blyton stories, charlottes web...)
As well as current middle grade and YA fiction such as Percy Jackson and of course Harry Potter.

Emma has just made the point that 11 is a key age... Both Pollyanna and Anne, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, maybe Lyra from northern lights too?

On eternal optimism... The 'glad game' ceased being a game...? She taught others to reframe, but didn't realise how it was for others sometimes. Nonetheless the novel does show the power of positive thinking.

Currently Reading: The Hunger Games

It's a 'YA' kind of year, as Page Turners this month is currently reading the Young Adult hit, The Hunger Games. Meeting is on Thursday 2 August.

Currently reading: War by Sebastian Junger

Book Description (from HarperCollins Canada)

They were collectively known as “The Rock.” For one year, in 2007–2008, Sebastian Junger accompanied 30 men—a single platoon—from the storied 2nd battalion of the U.S. Army as they fought their way through a remote valley in eastern Afghanistan.Over the course of five trips, Junger was in more firefights than he could count, as men he knew were killed or wounded and he himself was almost killed. His relationship with these soldiers grew so close that they considered him part of the platoon, and he enjoyed an access and a candidness that few, if any, journalists ever attain.
      War is a narrative about combat: the fear of dying, the trauma of killing and the love between platoon-mates who would rather perish than let each other down. Gripping, honest and intense, War explores the neurological, psychological and social elements of combat, as well as the incredible bonds that form between these small groups of men. This is not a book about Afghanistan or the “War on Terror”; it is a book about all men, in all wars. Junger set out to answer what he thought of as the “hand-grenade question”: why would a man throw himself on a hand grenade to save other men he has known for probably only a few months? The answer is elusive but profound, going to the heart of what it means not just to be a soldier, but to be human.

May - For whom the bell tolls

We're currently reading this Hemingway classic...

April: The Disappeared

This is what we're currently reading...

From the Amazon review:
After more than 30 years Anne Greves feels compelled to break her silence about her first lover, and a treacherous pursuit across Cambodia's killing fields... There are wounds that love cannot heal, and some mysteries too dangerous to know. Haunting, vivid, elegiac, The Disappeared is a tour de force; at once a battle cry and a piercing lamentation, for truth, for love.

Meeting and discussion will be on Thursday 5 April .

Atlantic!

The story of the Atlantic Ocean ... to be discussed at Emma's place on Thursday 1 March from 7.45pm ... hope to see you there, email Emma or call her on 0411 708 073 if you need the address.

October

From Wikipedia

Pollyanna is a best-selling 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter that is now considered a classic of children's literature, with the title character's name becoming a popular term for someone with the same optimistic outlook.

The title character is named Pollyanna Whittier, a young orphan who goes to live in Beldingsville, Vermont, with her wealthy but stern Aunt Polly. Pollyanna's philosophy of life centers on what she calls "The Glad Game", an optimistic attitude she learned from her father. The game consists of finding something to be glad about in every situation. It originated in an incident one Christmas when Pollyanna, who was hoping for a doll in the missionary barrel, found only a pair of crutches inside. Making the game up on the spot, Pollyanna's father taught her to look at the good side of things—in this case, to be glad about the crutches because "we didn't need to use them!"

The book was such a success, that Porter soon produced a sequel, Pollyanna Grows Up (1915). Eleven more Pollyanna sequels, known as "Glad Books", were later published, most of them written by Elizabeth Borton or Harriet Lummis Smith. Further sequels followed, including Pollyanna Plays the Game by Colleen L. Reece, published in 1997.

Pollyanna has been adapted for film several times. Some of the best-known include Disney's 1960 version starring child actress Hayley Mills, who won a special Oscar for the role, and the 1920 version starring Mary Pickford.

Welcome to 2012

The blog is back!
UPDATED: 26 January.
Here are the first few books we're reading this year.

March

From the Amazon review

Atlantic is a biography of a tremendous space that has been central to the ambitions of explorers, scientists, and warriors, and continues profoundly to affect our character, attitudes, and dreams. Simon Winchester makes the Atlantic come vividly alive. Spanning the ocean’s story from its geological origins to the age of exploration—covering the Vikings, the Irish, the Basques, John Cabot, and Christopher Columbus in the north, and the Portuguese and the Spanish in the south—and from World War II battles to today’s struggles with pollution and overfishing, his narrative is epic, intimate, and awe inspiring. More than a mere history, this is an unforgettable journey of unprecedented scope by one of the most gifted writers in the English language.

April

From the Amazon review
After more than 30 years Anne Greves feels compelled to break her silence about her first lover, and a treacherous pursuit across Cambodia's killing fields... There are wounds that love cannot heal, and some mysteries too dangerous to know. Haunting, vivid, elegiac, The Disappeared is a tour de force; at once a battle cry and a piercing lamentation, for truth, for love.

May

From the Amazon review
In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal.

June --> War, by Sebastian Junger


July

From the Amazon review
When Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of Green Gables, Prince Edward Island, send for a boy orphan to help them out at the farm, they are in no way prepared for the error that will change their lives. The mistake takes the shape of Anne Shirley, a redheaded 11-year-old girl who can talk anyone under the table. Fortunately, her sunny nature and quirky imagination quickly win over her reluctant foster parents. Lucy Maud Montgomery's series of books about Anne have remained classics since the early 20th century. Her portrayal of this feminine yet independent spirit has given generations of girls a strong female role model, while offering a taste of another, milder time in history.