book clubbing (August-September)

My book club met today and I realized that things have been so crazy this summer that I'd forgotten to post about last month's book. Better late than never...

August: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Meg Murry, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a midnight snack on a dark and stormy night when an unearthly stranger appears at their door. She claims to have been blown off course, and goes on to tell them that there is such a thing as a "tesseract," which, if you didn't know, is a wrinkle in time.
Meg's father had been experimenting with time-travel when he suddenly disappeared. Will Meg, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin outwit the forces of evil as they search through space for their father?

Most of us who had read this book before hadn't read it since we were children. Personally I'd forgotten everything about the book except that it was written by Madeleine L'Engle so reading it again was really rediscovering it. We talked quite a bit about the book as it related to its time, speculating how different it would be if it had been written today.

September: 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

The true story of the 20-year correspondence between Helene Hanff, an American writer living in New York, and Frank Doel, the Manager of Messrs Marks and Co., a bookshop in London's Charing Cross Road. The story is told through the pair's letters.

This book received mixed reviews: some thought it charming, others thought it dull. It was short, but because it was told through correspondence the story itself wasn't particularly meaty. In general, we wished to know more about the books Hanff was ordering/reading and what happened to some of the other bookshop employees.