sametimenextmonth: July Book Club 2020

Saturday, July 11, 2020

July Book Club 2020

We are now seven months into 2020. We moved out of full quarantine into a "soft" reopening. Some businesses and shops are open again but with restrictions on distancing and cautions to wear masks. In some places, the numbers infected seem to be going down. In others, they are spiking. Many countries have restricted US citizens from entering. And, some cities have started mandating masks rather than making them "optional."

All things considered, we have decided to continue book club in the Zoom format. Thank you, Lis, for hosting the group on your account.

Last night we missed, Carla A, Pam, Darby and Lou.

We had a good time chatting and catching up. Tammy is back from completing her parents estate sale in Sweetwater but, looks like they are making a move soon back to that area. We've enjoyed having her closer these last few years but, with Zoom, no one is out of our reach now!

Carla G, Arnora, Barb and Lis are continuing to work from home and adjusting to the changes. The Fred Jones Museum of Art is planning to open to the public August 6. However, it's unlikely we'll be doing tours in the fall. We may be doing something along the virtual lines. The future of fall football seems undecided as a number of players are testing positive.

The good news is that though the virus is spreading, as we knew it would. it seems more people are recovering and for many that test positive, they are asymptomatic. There is nothing to do but what we can to err on the side of personal safety as it rides out its cycle. As we know from history, it will end at some point.

That said, we all enjoyed Trevor Noah's "Born a Crime." Trevor was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1984 to a black mother and a white father. At the time, interracial marriages were prohibited by law, making his birth a crime. This book came out in 2016 but it is appropriate that we are reading it now in light of recent events.

In Trevor's memoir he treats the topics of apartheid, racism, poverty, domestic abuse, crime and danger with a wry sense of humor. Some of the events are laugh out loud funny, in retrospect. The opening scene is particularly harrowing as he, his mother and baby brother hurl themselves from a mini bus to escape and run to safety. Trevor was asleep when his other surmised they were in danger from the driver. Trevor didn't understand in the moment, why they were running. Along the way, there are many close calls and Trevor never fits in to whatever community they are living in. South Africa is highly segregated. When they live in the white neighborhood, he is considered the only Black kid. When they live in the Black neighborhood, he is considered white. Even though he is of mixed race, he doesn't fit into the "colored" neighborhood. This is because most of the mixed races are Black and Middle Eastern or Black and Asian, not Black and white.

Throughout the book, it becomes obvious that the hero of the book is not Trevor but, the heroine, his mother, Patricia. Patricia has a strong sense of self. She was determined to have Trevor. She planned the pregnancy and picked the man, though they never married. She was a person who looked for and grabbed what opportunity she could to better herself and her children's lives. And, she always impressed upon Trevor how much he was wanted and loved. With all that said, she still ended up with a man who abused her and even shot her long after they'd been divorced. But, it should be no surprise that she miraculously survived. She was a woman of strong faith and superstition but, she believed in miracles and she got them.

This book made me laugh and cry. I had sketchy knowledge about apartheid. I knew about it generally through the stories of Nelson Mandela. Trevor weaves the story of apartheid and racism through his story as a matter of fact. He is not preachy about it nor, is he reacting out of anger. Trevor, like his mother before him, took opportunity where he could find it. He started out pirating CD's and turned that into a stint as a DJ. This eventually lead him into standup comedy and then as host of his own nightly talk show in America. He took over the Daily Show from John Stewart in 2014. At only 36 years old, he has far exceeded the hopes his other had for him. Or, maybe not. Maybe this is exactly what she had in mind!

The book rated a 4.75.

Our book for August will be The Henna Artist and for September we have chosen The Hamilton Affair.

See you next time. Same Zoom Time - Same Zoom Station!

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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

Saturday, July 11, 2020

July Book Club 2020

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