Thanks to everyone who showed up to the book club meeting chez Barbara and Deanna_ it was judged a roaring success and everyone is hanging onto their bookmarks waiting for the next one! Helped along by copious glasses of red wine and olives, feta and M&Ms_ we dissected Middlesex to a degree that none of us expected and did a pretty good job of it too.

Some of the thoughts were the age old question of nature vs nuture; the narrator's quest to 'belong'; we pondered the complexities of hermaphroditism and crocuses; we gave our views on whether the narrator was believable; we discussed the peripheral characters like Jimmy Zizmo and whether they were developed successfully and to what end; we looked at the historical episodes and we even had an expert or two who were able to shed some light on the Ottomanempire etc.

We all agreed that Middlesex was a perfect title (literally the middle sex and the similarities between the house described in the book and the narrator's own feelings of being different). At first glance the title made some of us think of somewhere in England or a county cricket team(!).Someone offered an insight into girls schools and pseudo-lesbianism _ (yes people our discussion was thorough)! We also thought the scene-setting was truthfully portrayed and we even managed to discuss cultism in American companies (hmmm). Anyway, we had a broad, interesting, funny and wide-ranging discussion and managed to have a lots of laughs along the way.Well done everyone!!!!!!! A special thank you to our hostesses Barbara and Deanna!!!!!!!!! The next book is Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre