October 20, 2010 Meeting

Tonight we met at the home of one of our new members, Vicki. The book we discussed was The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow. This was an interesting choice and somewhat different from anything we have read to date. The book was written by a Journalist rather than an Author and the style reflected that. It followed the lives of 11 women who had maintained a friendship for over 40 years. I would have to say that the majority of us were not overly taken with the book. Some found it repetitive and others just boring. However, it did bring on lots of interesting discussion. We talked about our own experiences in High School. Seems most of us did not belong to the "In Crowd" and so could not enjoy the story of "the shit sisters" as was intended. They reminded us of people we hadn't liked. It's amazing how many scars can be left from our youth. We did acknowledge that this lasting friendship was very unique. We also talked about how the strength of our women friends can really sustain us at bad times. So, as often is the case, a book that wasn't a favorite enlisted more discussion than some of the more popular choices. That's the beauty of a Book Club. We are introduced to books we may not select on our own but it is always a learning experience. Till next month.......

September 22nd. 2010, Meeting

Tonight we met at Janet's home to discuss her choice of Books Princess. Happily all seven of our members, including our two newest members Vicki and Bev were in attendance. This book is allegedly a Biography of the life of a Saudi Princess as told anonymously to a friend from the West. We have visited this area of the world several times in our books although this was the first time in Saudi Arabia. The story was shocking of course when seen through our Western eyes. If we have learned nothing else through these books we have learned how lucky we are to be born in a country that affords us such freedom.
As I said it is allegedly a true story. Several of us noticed a few discrepancies that made us doubt the books validity although all were sure it reflected the truth. We tried to separate what is truly abuse and what is just culturally different from our way of life. We noted that although we would never want the kind of repression seen in so many Islamic countries we admit that in some instances our "freedom" has caused a real lessening of our moral fabric. These are very interesting but tough questions. All in all a good meeting.
Our next book, The Girls of Ames should be a perfect fit for a woman's Book Club. I look forward to reading it. Till next month.....

August 25th. Meeting

Tonight was a special night for our club. We have undergone some changes in the past few months. Tonight we welcomed two new members Vicki and Bev. It is great to have them join us.
The book for this month was The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. The consensus was that this was a very enjoyable book. It was well written and had a very compelling story line. The story line crosses back and forth over three generations of women. Some of our members reported that they usually don't enjoy that style of writing but in this case did. We were able to talk about what it would be like to be a woman in Victorian times and how restricted the morals were. Some of the discussion centered on choices people make and how they impact their own lives and the lives of others, sometimes for generations. We discussed how it isn't always easy to judge the decisions people make. Sometimes they do the wrong thing for the right reason. Life is complicated. We also enjoyed the many layers to this book. It was in part, a story worthy of Dickens, a Fairy Tale and a love story. We enjoyed the fact that the characters were well developed, multi faceted and interesting. In all a good read for everyone.
Next month we take a completely different path when we read Janet's choice of Princess. Till then......

July 21st Meeting and so much more!

This is the first posting to the Blog I have made in sometime so I will try to catch up. We have had an eventful few months. In May we had our usual meeting, at Fran's home where we discussed the current book choice An American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. Again the book received mixed reviews. Some liked it quite a lot while some not as much, although no one thoroughly dismissed it. There was one interesting criticism of the book that a couple of the members had. This book was obviously inspired by George Bush's family. It was not very complimentary in many ways and fairly sexually graphic. We felt that the author was cowardly to make it so obvious without having the integrity to say up front that he was using them as his template. Perhaps he feared a lawsuit? Again, a good discussion. Unfortunately a couple of weeks after that meeting one of our original members Catherine, decided to quit. We are not entirely sure of her reasons although she was very candid that she was not a "big reader" and hoped the club would inspire her. She often had trouble with our selections and possibly felt that it wasn't something she enjoyed after all. We were all sad to lose her but respected her decision.
In June we were to meet at Linda's cottage to discuss the Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. That month we lost a very dear friend of all of us. He died just before our scheduled get away. Needless to say the trip was cancelled. We were all extremely upset and we did not have a meeting that month.
This past month we rescheduled our meeting at the cottage. All plans were made and we all looked forward to our trip up north. The night before we were to leave another Member, Verna, e-mailed us to say she was not well and would not be joining us. She has been going through some difficult times and we suspected this was the cause. We carried on with our plans and had a wonderful time in spite of her absence. I am afraid what with all the other discussions about some community issues and our concerns over Verna we did not spend too much time on the book. I can only speak for myself when I say that it was a book I would recommend. When we returned we found that Verna had decided to quit the club altogether. This was a blow to all of us. As mentioned we know she is having some personal issues and it is effecting alot of her choices. We can do nothing but respect her decision.
On a much happier note we have a new member to our club, Bev. She had expressed an interest in joining previously, and with the loss of two members, it seemed the perfect time for a fresh face with new ideas. She will be joining us for our next meeting on Aug. 25th to discuss The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I believe she will be a wonderful addition and hope she enjoys the club. We would love to get back to our simple love of books with no drama for awhile. Till next month.....

April 21st. Meeting

Last night was our first meeting since our "March Break". Everyone was present and it was lovely to be back together. We took another stab at a Classic with Nathanial Hawthorn's most famous book, The Scarlett Letter. Happily everyone had read it. The opinions were, as usual ,varied. A couple of our members reported that although they did enjoy the story and appreciated the talent of the author,they still find they don't enjoy novels written pre -twentieth century. This is a perfectly legitimate opinion. For the most part we enjoyed the novel though and everyone participated in a lively discussion of the story, the characters and the social morals of the time. One of the things I found most interesting was the discussion of how important it was to address novels written in or about the past from the perspective of the people of that time. There is the temptation to apply our morals or standards on everyone and it can cloud our opinions. This also applies to novels written about different cultures. Not everyone thinks like we do. We discussed whether to continue selecting Classics, but did not come to a resolution. It will come up again I'm sure. Pat had an interesting idea about including some poetry in our meetings. We decided that if someone had a poem they would like to share, they could bring it along when they present their book. I look forward to that.
Next month we will discuss Fran's choice, American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. Apparently it is a loosely veiled account of the life of Laura Bush. I'm excited to read it. Till next month.....

February 17, 2010 Meeting

Tonight we met at Catherine's home to discuss her choice for the month. We read a Mystery, The Private Patient by P.D. Lawrence. This was the second book we have read by this author. Again this month we were a smaller group due to the fact that two of our members Fran and Verna, were still away spending their winter in the south. However they both sent along an e-mail with their comments on the book. It's not as good as having them with us to participate in the discussion of course, but it does enable them to be at least a part of the meeting. Hats off to technology!
The discussion itself was fairly low key. Most agreed that it was an entertaining read but not a story that would elicit much discussion. The general conclusion was that perhaps we should avoid choosing the same author in any category for our monthly selection.
We will be taking the month of March off as even more of our members will be heading south. Hope they have packed lots of good books! We will meet again in April to discuss Pat's choice in the Classic category, Nathanial Hawthorne's "The Scarlett Letter". Until Then........

January 13th, 2010 Meeting

Tonight we met at Deb's house to discuss this months selection, Eat Pray Love. We were missing two members Verna and Fran, who are currently down south, however we did have e-mails from both of them with their comments and Verna was able to join us for a short time via Skype. I think this was one of the best meetings we have had. First off, everyone had read the book! For the most part everyone seemed to enjoy the book to various degrees. We each had some criticisms but for the most part everyone found a degree of inspiration from it. We had a very lively, moving and at times humorous discussion. There were some very tender stories exchanged and we had a lot of good laughs. It is interesting how each meeting is so different depending on that months selection. Some books are about the story, some about the literature and some teach lessons. The really good ones combine all of these things! Next month we move onto our Mystery. Till then.....

December 9, 2009 Meeting

Tonight's meeting was a little different from our regular meetings. Due to a death in the family Janet was unable to host the meeting in November. It was decided that as it was Janet's choice of books we did not want to go on without her so the meeting was deferred to the next month. We decided to combine two meetings in one and discuss both November's book The Shack as well as Verna's choice for December Victor Hugo's, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The meeting was held at Janet's home. This would be the last meeting of this year that we would all be together as some of our members will be heading south.
There was a variety of opinions regarding The Shack but all in all in was probably not one of the more popular books we read. Some of us liked the book to a point and felt it had some positive messages while others felt it was both poorly written and of little value. It is always risky when books of a religious nature are discussed. People are a little more guarded with their opinions for fear of offending someone.
The second book we discussed was Verna's choice of the classic Hunchback of Notre Dame. Again opinions were varied. A few of us loved the book both for it's story and the skill of the author Victor Hugo. A couple of us just couldn't get past the language or felt the story was dragging at points and abandoned it and a couple just didn't bother reading it. Reasons such as lack of interest and lack of time were cited for this. On a personal note I find it disappointing when our members do not make at least a noble attempt to read the novel of the month. It is after all the reason we have a "Book Club". We discussed dropping classics from our list as they seem to cause problems for some of us. It was decided to give it one more try with Pat's upcoming choice of The Scarlett Letter. I hope everyone will enjoy it and appreciate it.
Now it is onto next months selection of Eat, Pray, Love. Quite a departure from Mr. Hugo!