sametimenextmonth: June 2017

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

June Book Club 2017

We have officially hit the halfway point of 2017. The REALLY BIG NEWS this month is that Arnora and Stan are engaged! I can’t believe she waited through dinner before she told us. The official wedding will be sometime in September and intended to be a private, family affair. However, I vote that we give her one really big bachelorette party!

This month, Lis hosted and we were greeted by her beautiful pink roses at the door. She went full blown Presidential Election on the décor. If it didn’t move, it was covered in red, white and blue! She themed the menu to the earlier days of the White House when the Roosevelt’s took office and America was going into WWII and still in a great depression. Lis made a ham and scalloped potato main dish along with summer sausage. Janie made a delicious cornbread salad, Tammy brought watermelon salad, Diana brought greens, and Laura brought a red, white and blue dessert Trifle made with lemon pound cake, Mascarpone cheese, blueberries and strawberries and Arnora brought the floral centerpiece. We were well represented on the wine and coffee front, as well. We really missed Denise and Leslie who were derailed at the last minute. Pam, Barb, Carla G and Terry were also unable to make it.

Our book this month was a biography, Eleanor and Hick. Eleanor Roosevelt had played a minor character in our May book, The Muralist and we were intrigued about aspects of her personal life and longtime relationship with journalist, Lorena Hickox. The book was well-received and rated a 4.4.

Franklin Roosevelt was elected to four terms as President and, in fact, died in office during his last term. The Franklin and Eleanor were married for 40 years and had six children, one of whom died not long after his birth. Eleanor had a sad childhood having lost both parents by the time she was 10. She was raised in a chaotic and dysfunctional household by extended family. She was the favorite niece of her uncle and then President, Theodore Roosevelt. Franklin was a cousin to Teddy and a 5^th cousin to Eleanor. They fell in love and married, much to the dismay of his mother. Things started to go wrong early in the relationship. Franklin had been hoping for a wife who adored him but, wouldn't direct him and FDR’s mother was a constant presence in their lives. Eleanor was practical and constantly tried to direct him. In NYC, their town houses had adjoining rooms on three floors with Sara. Eleanor hired a social secretary, Lucy Mercer only to discover later that FDR and she were having an affair. This broke her heart. Sara doted on her son and Eleanor always lived in homes bought and decorated by her and/or in the Governor’s mansion or White House.

Though FDR promised to end the affair with Lucy, they continued to see each other intermittently over the years, their meetings sometimes arranged by FDR’s daughter. In fact, Lucy was with him the night he died. FDR had at least 4 other documented affairs during their marriage including a 20 year relationship with his own secretary, Missy Lehand.

Lorena Hickox was a journalist. She and Eleanor began their relationship after the Lucy Mercer affair. Hick lived in the White House and traveled extensively with Eleanor. Eleanor and Hick moved about in a rather large circle of lesbian women. The relationship with Hick lasted over three decades. Eleanor also had important relationships with at least two men. What I took from this book was that I would not classify her as simply lesbian. I think she loved FDR deeply but in one of her quotes she stated “sometimes you just know that you can’t be all things to one person. And, you have to be ok with letting them get their needs met elsewhere.” Eleanor seemed to me to be a person who loved the person and it was irrespective of sexual persuasion.

We all agreed that we were happy that she also could get her needs met in the best way she could at a time when her life style would have been deeply disapproved. We also agreed that FDR’s affair with Lucy Mercer, even though she was deeply hurt, empowered her to find her own source of fulfillment. She did that in her personal relationships and as she championed the cause for women and the underprivileged. It was a fascinating time in political history and politics absolutely shapred the personal lives of Franklin and Eleanor. This is a fascinating family and, if you haven’t seen it, the Ken Burns documentary on the Roosevelt family is on Netflix.

July book club will be held on June 30 due to the July 4 holiday. Terry will host and our book is The Book of Speculation.

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2015 Hosts and Books

Jan 9 - Pam Boeck - All the Light We Cannot See
Feb 6 - Lou Christian - Alif the Unseen
March 6 - Terry Cummings - Kind of Kin
April 3 - Janie Tisdale - The Girl on the Train
May 1 - Arnora Parish - The Stolen Child
Jun 5 - Barb Barrow - The Elephant Whisperer
July 10 - Diana Beal - Lone Wolf
Aug 7 - Denise McGough - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Sept 11 - Sherrie Phillips - H is for Hawk
Oct 2 - Arnora Parish - The Boy Who Drew Monsters
Nov 6 - Sherrie Phillips
Dec - Laura Madden - A Child's Christmas in Wales & Christmas Day in the Morning

The Honey Tree - Mary Oliver

And so at last I climbed

the honey tree, ate

chunks of pure light, ate

the bodies of bees that could not

get out of my way, ate

the dark hair of the leaves,

the rippling bark,

the heartwood. Such

frenzy! But joy does that,

I'm told, in the beginning.

Later, maybe,

I'll come here only

sometimes and with a

middling hunger. But now

I climb like a snake

I clamber like a bear to

the nuzzling place, to the light

salvaged by the thighs

of bees and racked up

in the body of the tree.

Oh, anyone can see

how I love myself at last!

how I love the world! climbing

by day or night

in the wind, in the leaves, kneeling

at the secret rip, the cords

of my body stretching

and singing in the

heaven of appetite.

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Lis and Diana's Review of Isaac's Storm

Lis said: This book centers around the devastating hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas, in 1901 and is blamed for the death of over 4500 people. Although the story wasn't a page-turner for most, it was full of interesting historical and scientific data while building up to describing accounts of the devastation and aftermath that the storm created. In my opinion, it is debatable whether the book should be considered a true fiction or a non-fiction. Hand in hand with the storm description, the book tells about the creation of the National Weather Service and the struggle that the organization went through to earn the people's trust. When looking back over the disaster, the author identifies areas of misuse and false pride - in the bureaucratic sector as well as the people's personal lives - that, if it had been overcome, might have averted some of the lost lives. Building up to the storm, the author touches on many historical facts surrounding the era, such as the state of Arkansas passing legislation a few decades earlier to legalize the proper pronunciation of its name to be "Arkansaw." Into this background, the author creates the characters that he was able to find in his research that made up the early Weather Service and some of the residence of Galveston, their spouses and children, making us shiver with dread over successful and unsuccessful rescue efforts. After bringing to life the unimaginable aftermath, with whole neighborhoods destroyed and bodies at every step, the book concludes with Galveston's recovery and a large chapter of Acknowledgements for the extensive support and research that the author relied on. I for one enjoyed the book immensely and, after the first third, found it difficult to put down till the end. Elisabeth Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine. I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

Diana said: The old saying, "hind sight is 20/20" comes to mind while reading the hurricane account of Galveston, Texas in 1901. Author Eric Larson's story reminded me of his first book we read, Devil in the White City, as he combined historical facts and real people while piecing together a plausible tale of personalities and lives. I have huge respect for writing historical fiction, as the writer not only has to devise an interesting story but also works as an investigator and researcher in the process. The first third of the story was slow and at times I found myself skimming the pages waiting for action. I think this may have been purposeful by Larson. As a reader I was going about my daily business and uninvolved like the townspeople of Galveston noting the changing winds and heading off to work. I took occasional notice of Isaac's trip to the American west by stage and his appearance as a "dandy", the use of telegraph as the primary form of communication from on location to another and it was surprising to find out the American and Cuban weather men held so little regard for each other. Americans found the Cuban forecasters primitive, romantic and unreliable. But once the hurricane was upon Galveston, I was spellbound for the remainder of the book. With the exception of once when I had to put the story down due to the brutal descriptions of decaying bodies which I found overwhelming. For me the story telling mimicked the event itself. Galveston and the rest of the U.S. were going along with business as usual, and then wham! A hurricane the magnitude no one expected or had experienced before bursts forth with action and drama and left no one untouched including me.

Lis' review of A Thousand Splendid Suns

The story playing in Afghanistan made it another compelling read and a walk through a different culture, very foreign to most of us. I had the fortune to have also read the book The Kite Runner by the same author and found that the two stories make great companion books, almost a must-read duo. Our month's selection takes us into the Arabic culture through the life of two women, one of them a servant girl's bastard child - and yes, I used the old fashioned term for illegitimate child on purpose to stay with the tone of the novel. The other woman is depicted as a well-educated, emancipated young woman from a progressive, westernized family. Through the turmoils surrounding Afghanistan's recent 30-year history, their lives intertwine with the same abusive husband and their attempt to deal with the changes brought on by the Russian occupation, the takeover of the Mujahedin and, eventually, the Taliban. The companion book, The Kite Runner, deals with the same political and social upheavals in Afghanistan but is told through the life of a man and his very devoted male servant. A Thousand Splendid Suns evoked a lot of emotion for most of us, feeling comfortable as well educated American women that have rights and can expect a certain social standing that greatly exceeds the animal-like treatment of our female Afghan counterparts under Taliban rule. Needless to say, we had a lively discussion about Afghanistan's troubles, the interactions of both women's parents' influences, their different upbringing, and how it made them relate to each other. We found similarities to the book Shanturam in this author's use of the cinema, especially Bollywood movies. One thing we did not discuss though that I found enticing, was the advantages of being able to skip hair and make-up treatments through the use of a Burka! Blue was, after all, the favored color of my youth, although I always preferred much darker shades. What do you think, ladies, Burkas in our future?

sametimenextmonth

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

June Book Club 2017

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