March book.

Jalima available from 1st March according to this page.

Great book, am half-way through it, thank you. Really enjoying getting to know the characters and their friendships. It would frighten me living out in such remote places, especially in times of emergency.

Ive read my copy that I was lucky enough to be sent through Gransnet.
Did anyone else notice the "creative" punctuation.

This is my first time , what is the next step for giving my opinion/review?
Hope you are all enjoying it.

Oh, I just clicked on that link Pittcity and it says:
The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club Paperback – 27 Dec 2018
There doesn't seem to be a hardback copy.

I have downloaded it on to my Kindle now, thank you everyone.
However, there's nothing like a 'real' book !

Thanks for my copy of The inaugural meeting of the fairvale ladies book club, it is a great read and such an eye-opener to life in Australia, I wonder if certain parts of this vast country are still as isolated as they were then; with some places in almost total lockdown during the wets.

I didn't notice that it was just for Kindle, sorry Jalima.
We received paperbacks with a "pre release copy" note. Didn't know it would be that long to wait though.

It is an unusually long time - perhaps they're waiting for the GN reviews before publishing more

I wonder if certain parts of this vast country are still as isolated as they were then; with some places in almost total lockdown during the wets.
Yes!
And it has been very wet in the past couple of weeks.

I’ve just finished my freebie Gransnet copy. Australia’s not a country I really know anything about so it was an interesting read on that score. My question to the author would be about relationships with Aboriginal people, are they still frowned on these days?

A story of five woman in Australia each living in a different part of the northern territories who come together to talk about books. The book club is really an instrument in bringing these women together. They begin to trust each other and share their problems and loneliness. I really enjoy this book. I loved the women and the friendship they found in each other. Any unsavoury male characters in the story were dispensed with quickly which made me smile. The descriptions of the Australian outback, the weather,the soil, and the whole vastness of it added to the atmosphere of the book. This book gave me a nice warm feeling and I shed a few tears at the end.
My question to the author is...I found it strange that mixed relationships were a no go in the eighties. Would it have been different if the couple had lived in a big city like Sydney? Were the big ranches in the Northern Territories backward in their thinking or was it the same in the whole of Australia?

This sounds a really good book it was in Australia when we had to apply for it so missed out. Would really like to get hold of a copy and wondered if some kind person who received one and has read it would care to pass it on. Would be happy to send stamped padded envelope for posting. Please PM me if you have a copy that you no longer need. I have passed on several books that I have been lucky enough to receive - a great way to recycle!

Meant to read 'I was in Australia.....' !

I felt I wanted the book to "sink in" before I reviewd (& I haven't read others) as I was left feeling a little short-changed.

There is no doubt that the storyline was complete & there was resolution for all concerned. There was light & shade in the writing but I felt a certain lack of depth & colour in the characters individually, their relationships & the settings.
I was not convinced by some of the societal attitudes displayed which seemed to be more reminiscent of the 50s rather than late 70s/early 80s; I think I would have been overall more comfortable if the storyline had actually been set in the earlier time period.

My question to Sophie Green would be about writing in third or first person - what are the challenges for an author in making the choice for a story such as this?

This was a fascinating read.
I enjoyed the vivid descriptions both of the landscape and the hardships encountered in the outback.
The characters were all strong women coping with the challenges and the isolation in their own way.
I would like to have heard more about Sybil’s elder son as I think that would have made some aspects of the plot more plausible.
I would like to ask Sophie why she chose the title as the story was so much more than ‘The inaugural meeting ‘

I finished reading this book last night. Coincidentally, I also read an article in the Guardian about a new genre called Up Lit www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/16/up-lit-eleanor-oliphant-gone-girl-fiction-kindness?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other and I think this book fits that very well.

I've never been to Australia so the physical descriptions fascinated me. I'd never heard of black cockatoos so had to look those up, and they're beautiful. I also thought the communication difficulties were well-described, especially in light of how the UK almost ground to a halt with just a bit of snow recently!

The book isn't really about a book club, it was a device for holding together the plot. My copy has a list at the back of the books studied and why the author chose them, which was interesting.

Rita's story was the one which most gripped me and seemed most probable. Kate seemed a bit dappy and dim, to me, and with the least believable story.

I was expecting a revelation about Lachlan but it never came, there was no explanation for him at all and the scenario in Sydney was so improbable that I laughed when it occurred!

Della & Stan's difficulty surprised me as I'd have thought even in such a remote area things might have changed by the 80's. Also, if Stan was aware of adverse reactions to 'mixed' couples, I don't understand why he allowed his relationship with Della to go so far. It feels like he chickened out when he could have fought back.

Overall, I enjoyed the book for its description of women being supportive of each other. It's not highbrow literature but it's entertaining.

I have just finished the book and really loved it. The short chapters made it easily readable and allowed the facility to pass from one set of characters to another. The description of the scenery was evocative and the experience of living in such a remote area was presented in a way that made me want to taste the life in the Northern Territory temporarily. Living there permanently would be a nightmare and I would have thought Kate might have been more homesick than she was.
On a personal note ,the mention of the children's book Snugglepot and Cuddlepie brought back vivid memories for me.I spent my early childhood in Australia and actually owned a copy of this book .My parents must have liked it as it was one of the few possessions I was able to bring back to UK. I was the envy of all because no-one else had a copy here .I wish I had kept it.
My question to Sophie is to ask which was her favourite female character to write about .I guess it might have been Sybil as she was mine .Was she based on anyone you knew ?

I agree with poshgran that there was a lack of depth to the characters. The story trotted along at pace and, at times, was quite predictable. I was glad it wasn't happily ever after for everyone or it would have been completely unbelievable.
I enjoyed this book as an easy read and could see it as one of those untaxing early evening mini series.

When i reached the halfway stage of the book I was hoping that the storyline would start to go somewhere. Anywhere.
It didn't.
Looks like a seriously good read but is just more of the endless pap verging on chick lit.

I found this insulting the intelligence of the reader. Real life is challenging and sometimes futile, answers do not come out of the blue.
Yet in this book problems were neatly tied up. Unbelievably so. Especially the struggle to bear a child.

Too simplistic by far.
I was bored by this book.
Disappointed too. The description is promising far too much.

Question for the author? Do you think women are airheads who fall for a happy/convenient ending. Are you cashing in on romantic notions of life.

The publicity for this book describes it as “perfect for lovers of The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Little Paris Bookshop.” Having read and enjoyed all three, I looked forward to reading this. And yes, it was pleasant enough, an easy read, if not one to linger long in the memory. As PoshGran and Pittcity have commented, there is light and shade but a lack of depth that leaves you feeling vaguely dissatisfied. All the while I thought that there could be more.
The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club takes place on Sunday June 25th, 1978. The five women are brought together through their love of reading and the book covers the three years between 1978 and 1981. At its best, it is a story of female friendship; of how women support and help each other through the toughest and most emotional of times that life presents: love and marriage, birth and death, friendship and loyalty, pregnancy and miscarriage, happiness and heartache.
Having visited Australia's Northern Territory in both the wet and the dry, I did enjoy the author’s evocative descriptions of the landscapes and the challenges of living and working there and would cheerfully have welcomed even more. Despite the title however, it felt like the book club was more of a device or hook which had been bolted on rather than intrinsic to the story. The books themselves are scarcely mentioned at all until the author's summary at the end of why she chose them.
Each year’s events are prefaced with a list of key news events of the year. While this does help to locate the story firmly in its period, the way that some of the events are referenced in the narrative did seem a tad contrived.
As the book draws to a close, some of the plot lines also start to be resolved, rather too neatly at times. SueDonim has already commented that the scenario in Sydney with Lachlan made her laugh. I did an eye roll
Finally, thanks to SueDonim for the link to the Guardian article on UpLit. I hadn’t come across the description before as a new genre, but this book does seem a perfect fit. Hence my question for the author: I imagine that incorporating more challenging themes would have taken away the feel good and upbeat atmosphere of the book. Was this a conscious decision, taken with a view to increasing sales?

Glad you enjoyed the Guardian article, GeminiJen.

I wonder if the book is a better 'fit' for the Australian market, given that readers there would be more aware of how life was lived in Australia?

I’ve just read the article you mentioned SueDonim , thanks for that. I’ve read a couple of the books mentioned and can see why they would fit that genre, one I too hadn’t heard of before. But the adoption scenario really was taking escapism to its very limits!

I can't say that I am not enjoying this book all I can say it is not grabbing me.
It is not a book I can't put down.
I have nearly finished it and I have enjoyed reading it in short bursts. I am fascinated by the seasons and how extreme the conditions are, I hope this is true ( for the story not the people) in this country we have really no idea.
I will post again when I have finished Ang ask any questions I may have.

I did not enjoy ‘The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club’. Until SueDonim posted the link to a Guardian article on Up Lit, I had not heard of this genre, even though I have read, and enjoyed, two of the books featured.

The book graphically portrayed the vastness of the Northern Territories and the many difficulties and challenges of everyday life there. These insights into life in the Northern Territories were interesting, but beyond that my interest stalled.

For me, the characters were not engaging, I felt they were somewhat vacuous. Yes, insights into the lives of the five main characters were offered and the importance of the friendships between them was emphasised, but, frankly, in the end I did not identify with any of them. I felt they were purely fictional characters and the events of their lives were not wholly believable.

I somewhat disagree with the implication in Geminijen’s question to the Author that the themes of this book might have been ‘more challenging’. I believe these are very challenging themes (isolation, bereavement, estrangement, childlessness, etc) but they are not explored in depth in the course of the book. I felt their treatment lacked substance and was somewhat simplistic and superficial. I, like others, had a few moments of disbelief at how neatly the various threads of the storyline were woven together and resolved.

The concept of writing a book about a bookclub is not new and I did not think this book brought anything essentially new to the reader’s attention. I would be interested to know what inspired Sophie Green to write this novel. Where did she get the idea of using the vehicle of a bookclub as the framework for her book?

I agree with GrannyBear. I too liked the descriptions of the Northern territory particularly as my DH's late brother lived in Darwin in the late 1960s-1970s. I thought the sense of vastness and wilderness was well portrayed.

For me, the characters let down this book. I never felt any real interest in them or concern for them. Just could not relate to them and I think this was the fault with this book. The characters did not engage attention.

This book has been my late bed-time reading and I have just finished it. It has been good at sending me off to sleep!

GrannyBear....No disagreement....Simply didn't spell out that it was the treatment of the themes I was referring to...Thought that was clear from my first two paras. Put it down to an overdose of on holiday