January & February Book Club 2013

Our first book for 2013 is Barbara Kingsolver's "Flight Behavior". Due to the length of the book it was decided we would spread out the discussion over two months. Therefore, I decided to combine the first two book clubs into one review.

In January, Diana hosted our Annual Pajama-nannagins Party with scrump-dillicious brunch foods. There were Quiches, Tea and Scones, Fruit, Chocolate Croissants and a variety of beverages, including the best Mayan Hot Chocolate, and floral centerpiece by Arnora.

In February, Arnora hosted. Arnora is always excited to have book club at her home. She gets to take down the portrait of John Wayne so that she can replace it with our version of the Book Club "Calendar Girl" portrait. That photo always makes me smile! Arnora provided the main dish of Sweet and Spicy Meatballs. They were wonderful. I brought a Caesar Salad and garlic bread. Denise brought Cole Slaw, Lis brought Apricot pastries, Janie brought brownies. Diana brought chicken tenders with biscuits and gravy and Darby brought chip and dip. The only thing missing was the flowers, as Arnora normally brings them. A few of us had good intentions but just couldn't make it happen.

Barbara Kingsolver is a favorite author of many in our group and we have read at least three of her novels as book club offerings. Ms. Kingsolver is a former scientist and her novels are always socially relevant.  Flight Behavior is no exception with its theme of climate change. Set in the Appalachian Mountains a local woman, Dellarobia Turnbow, inadvertently comes upon a swarm of Monarch butterflies so profuse that she initially thinks the mountain is on fire. As the community hears about her discovery they assume that she has been the recipient of some heavenly miracle. Soon the media and scientists arrive and it is revealed that a change in the migration of the Monarchs is due to recent climate changes. They normally migrate from their locations in the US to Mexico and/or Southern California because they cannot survive the colder climates of the US.

What happens next is a "perfect storm" of events. The arrival of these misdirected Monarchs coincides with two other events: The decision of the Turnbow family to sell off one of their mountains to a logging company and Dellarobia's own instinctual "Flight Behavior" as she comes to the decision that she can no longer remain in her marriage.

Janie kicked off our discussion by saying that she felt cheated by the ending. To her it was too quick and Dellarobia's "flight" given too short a shrift. Dellarobia's discontent in her small mountain town struck a real nerve with Janie who compared it to her own growing up in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. She felt a little let down that Dellarobia's flight only took her to the Junior College in the next town and not further away. However, she loved the scientific jargon throughout the book.

I also thought the ending was a bit abrupt and anti-climatic. Darby set us straight on that account - and I am grateful for her explanation. Darby explained this was a different narrative style. Dellarobia is walking the mountain to meet a potential lover in hopes of finding an escape from her "fine" but boring marriage. Seeing the mountain on fire with the Monarch's, while not the miracle of the burning bush, is the height of the narrative tension and the remainder of the book is the slow conclusion and not the abrupt ending we had perceived. Diana likes the captivating style of the story. The novel is not simple but reads easily.

There were many layers to this story. A family has secrets that are foreshadowed and revealed. The Monarchs are studied . Subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, conflict is allowed to develop as we see the different viewpoints of climate change through the various "class" systems. We see how social media now plays a huge part in the spreading of news and phenomena.

As the story unfolds we find that Dellarobia is essentially orphaned as an older teenager, just about the time she becomes pregnant and marries her husband, Cub Turnbow. This baby does not come to term but they remain married and have two more children and live in a home built by her in-laws on land that they own. Though Dellarobia is not an orphaned young child as in most fairy tales or young adult novels this, for me, was still very much a coming of age story for her.

The true turning point for Dellarobia was her English lit class in high school. It widened her horizons in a way that didn't happen for most of the people in her area. Things she learned then could not be forgotten or buried forever and when Dr. Ovid Byron shows up to track the butterflies he recognizes and encourages her intellect and there is nothing to do then but take flight.

There is much symbolism in the book beginning the with "fire" on the mountain and ending with the flood that washes it all away in the end.

The book rated a 4.2 by those who read it.

Next month's book club will be hosted by Lou and our selection will be "In the Time of Butterflies".

December Book Club 2012

Christmas Book Club has come and gone - 2012 is behind us. Twelve years of The Same Time Next Month Book Club and Literary Society in the bag. And we're still here to talk about it. No Mayan apocalypse - though the world did see some rather apocalyptic like events. Book Club members are all safe and sound, thankfully.

Laura hosted this month at her beautiful new dream home. Congratulations, Madden family on the completion of your long held dream. Laura's barn-like home is nestled on a heavily wooded lot. Walking up the front drive we were greeted by a beautiful evergreen wreath and beyond the door by the new, very tall, Christmas tree and a blazing fire.

We definitely missed Lou, Denise and Darby as we like having all our members at the holiday meetings to celebrate with but also understand the demands of the season. Congratulations, also to Lou, who recently discovered her son and his wife are expecting twins in the coming year.

December's book was The House on Mango Street. This book had come up several times and we mostly decided on it for two reasons. 1. Terry and Darby highly recommended it and have both taught it in their classes and 2. It was 110 pages. This makes it perfect for the busy holiday time.  The book is written by Sandra Cisneros and is a series of short chapters that she describes as "lazy poems", vignettes that are not quite poems and not quite full stories. Terry brought a chapter of the book in play form with copies for us all and we read aloud. This little exercise, which at first seemed a simple reading, actually deepened our understanding the material, made it more real somehow. 

The book is set in a Puerto Rican "barrio" near Chicago and focuses on Esperanza's coming of age. After living in a series of apartments the family moves to The House on Mango Street and though it is a house, it is not the home that Esperanza dreams about. The short chapters are like reading excerpts from a young girl's diary. It is full of the day-to-day details of friends, family, and school. But also of deeper issues, her budding sexuality and the drama of sexual assault. She tries to rectify her fairy tales with reality and to make sense of the world around her. Girls that long for nothing except to marry out of their families only to find themselves in similar or worse circumstances.  Out of the frying pan, into the fire. She observes this as she sees woman after woman trapped in her home staring helplessly out the window. Esperanza longs for something more and finds her way out through her writing.

The book rated a 4.4. The food was wonderful as always.

January 2013 - our first book club of the year will be held at Diana's.  Our first book will be Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver.  This book is not 110 pages, however, and we've decided to check the pulse on our progress. We might need two months for discussion on this one.

Diana has decided to keep with our "pajama party" tradition with breakfast foods for dinner.

Happy New Year Everyone - he is hoping for a Happy, Healthy and Blessed 2013.

November Book Club 2012

Does this time of year really go by faster than the rest of the year? Or, is it just my imagination that the holidays seem to sneak up on me even though I know they come the same time every year. It is hard to get my head around the fact we have just celebrated our 2012 Thanksgiving book club. This year, Lou hosted us at her home/bed and breakfast. It was warm and cozy and beautifully decorated for the fall holiday. Gene dutifully parked cars for us and Jennie enthusiastically greeted everyone at the door.

Even with our best attempts to accommodate everyone by changing the date - we had a few who couldn't make it and we missed Darby, Carla A and Laura.

This was our Thanksgiving event but we decided to forgo the traditional T-day fare and instead opted for food with a French flair in honor of our book Madame Tussaud. Quiche, French Onion soup with the trimmings, salad, a Black Truffle Brie, Cherry Dump Cake, Pear Tart, and Chocolate Croissants were all delicious!

Arnora recommended this months book and we were all glad she did. Of those who read it, everyone liked it without exception. I'll just say up front it rated a 4.7 with two "I really, really liked it."

Madama Tussaud's is the famous Wax Museum that's been around for a long time but none of us knew the history of it. Certainly not that it was started in the 1700's a few years prior to the French Revolution. The book opens with Marie Grosholtz working along side a Swiss doctor she calls her "uncle" to whom she has been apprenticed for many years learning his craft of making the wax figures.

Today we view Madame Tussaud's as a tourist attraction where we see the famous people of our day sculpted in wax. And, today it hadn't seemed as relevant to me because we have so much media and so many repetitive images of our actors, politicians and sports figures. When Diana and I were in London, we passed by MadameTussaud's on Marlybone half a dozen times but we had no interest in standing in line to see images that we are inundated with daily. Had I known the history behind it I would've been first in line to buy a ticket!

In it's beginning the Salon de Cire was a sort of visual "tabloid" of it's day providing visual images, before photography, of the Royal family and their consorts and the famous and infamous people who were starting a revolution. The "tableau" or scenes they created would change at a moments notice depending on who they knew were coming to see it. The family is connected to revolutionaries in high places and Marie is hired to teach the King's sister how to sculpt the wax figures. Marie and her family have to straddle both sides of the fence in order to survive and in the end Marie ends up making death masks of many of the people who are meeting their fate on the Guillotine. At first they bring the fresh heads to her and then she is required to go the Cemetery Madeleine to retrieve them herself. During the Revolution, Marie loses two of her brothers who are Swiss Guards and her true love, Henri, escapes to London when Marie refuses to go with him.

However, as she becomes familiar with the Royal family she paints a much more sympathetic picture of
King Louie and Marie Antoinette than the one with which we are familiar. She becomes very attached to the King's sister Elisabet. It is finally her head that she refuses to sculpt which brings about her own imprisonment and a narrow escape from the Guillotine.

The book changed our viewpoint of the French Revolution. I had always been taught the pheasants were angry because they were starving while the Royals were leading a live of excess. They wanted equality and were modeling their "constitution" on America's recently won freedom from England. Many of them did want a constitutional Monarchy and many wanted to abolish the Monarchy altogether. However, the men who were leading this revolt had their own agenda for power and in the end beheaded many more commoners than royals. It was a horrible genocide where more than 40,000 people lost their heads for no reason. The men who campaigned for "freedom" were greedy, power hungry tyrants who, in the end, finally lost their own heads bringing an end to this Reign of Terror.

Marie was freed from prison where she met and then married Francois Tussaud and had two sons. But the marriage did not go well. Fortunately for Marie she had the foresight to draw up what is now considered to be the very first prenuptial agreement. Ten years after the end of the Revolution she moves to London, is reunited with her true love, Henri and they travel Europe with the Salon de Cire.

Marie is a fascinating woman who had a long and dramatic life. She was centuries ahead of her time as a woman with a career she valued over marriage. She moved in a circle of powerful men who often listened and valued her opinions. She was an artist who made a good living in a day when the pheasants were starving due to lack of resources. Bu,t they would stand in line to pay see the was figures Marie and her uncle were sculpting. She was smart and observant and managed to literally "keep her head" while others were losing theirs.

Many of us were inspired to look for other information about the French Revolution while we read. I was astonished to find that France continued to use the Guillotine as their preferred method of execution until President Mitterrand abolished capital punishment in 1981! The last person actually executed by this method was in 1977. It was also employed in other countries. Germany used it during the Third Reich and it was used in the German Democratic Republic as late as 1966. Astonishing.

This book did for me what Nicolas and Alexandra and Isaac's Storm did for me. It made these historical events real, personal, and emotional. I knew going in how these stories ended but by the time I got to the end I was rung out and very, very sad for it all.  Marie's story, however gruesome, was also a very hopeful one. She persevered and overcame incredible odds in a time when women really had no rights at all. She's an inspirational person and I'm very glad to have met her.

October 2012 Book Club

First things first; an update on November and December Book Club dates. November will be hosted by Lou and will be November 16. December will be at Laura's new home on Sunday, December 9 at 6:00 p.m. We moved these dates around to accommodate everyone during the holidays.

November's book is recommended by Arnora and is "Madame Tussuad", an historical biography. December's book will be House on Mango St.  Both Darby and Terry have taught this book and should be great guides. Coming in at roughly 110 pages helped us decide on this book during the always busy Christmas time. Also, The Life of Pi has been made into a movie that will premiere in December. Plans are being made to attend for those who are interested.

For October, Lis was our gracious host. We really missed about half the girls this time. Laura, Lou, Denise, Pam and Barb were unable to be with us.  Those that attended enjoyed a delicious meal. I provided a Mexican Shrimp cocktail appetizer. I know, those that couldn't be there will be shocked that I actually attempted something that looked like cooking! Lis provided hummus and the main course of Pork Medallions with avocado sauce and Konig Kartoffeln (queen potatoes). Carla G brought a salad, Diana brought Chicken and Squash soup, Darby brought bread. Lis also provided a Razzleberry pie that went amazingly well with Janie's brownies. We had a beautiful assortment of wines as you can see by the photograph along with coffee and tea.

Our October book was a fitting story by Carlos Luis Zafon called "The Prisoner of Heaven". It was suitably creepy and gory for the Halloween month and continues the saga of the Sempere family and the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

We don't always use guided questions for our discussion but this time the questions were appropriate and kept us on topic, to some degree. Poor Diana was having a tough time "herding the cats" as I like to call it. Our discussion kept veering off into tangents but I wasn't ready to give up on it. Once we settled down, after second helpings of dinner, we were able to delve into the story.

Diana said that you didn't really have to read all three of the stories - she felt that any could be read on its own for the enjoyment of the language and the mystery. And, we agreed. However, I was enjoying trying to remember the characters and the story lines as it has been a while since I read the last two. It made me want to revisit them.

This is a great unraveling of the mystery as to what happened to Daniel's mother and though "in time" it takes place after Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game, chronologically it predates them. The stories are taking place in Barcelona during a time of the Fascist Regime. In the end, his theme revolves around the actions of revolution, and the various totalitarianism, Fascist, or dictatorship type governments who create wars with the intent to persecute the intellectuals, artists, writers and other free thinkers. They are the first to be killed or imprisoned and their art destroyed or hidden away in the attempt to control the masses. Daniel's family, as bookstore owners and the Cemetery of Forgotten Books protect these most precious of gifts of artistic expression and freedom of speech. Darby had a brilliant quote that I think bears remembering and repeating: War is the playground for corruption. The book also mirrored some aspects of the classic book The Count of Monte Cristo.

The book rated a 4 for those who read it.

September 2012 Book Club

First, my apologies for such a late post. September got really busy for me and I have just now had the chance to sit down and compose. That said, thanks to Pam for hosting our book club in September. We missed Denise, Janie, Laura, Terry and Arnora. Our food had a decidedly Italian Tuscan theme this month in keeping with our book Beautiful Ruins. The book opens on the shore of Porto Vergogna in Italy.

Pam made a savory pesto salad and we complimented the meal with:


Green salad: Sherrie
Tomato, basil, mozarrella salad: Diana
Tuscan chicken soup: Lou
Tuscan white been dip and pita chips: Darby
Apple dump cake: Carla G

I brought some fresh cut Zinnia's because I knew we'd be missing Arnora's floral centerpiece. Pam's dog, Arlo, tried to get in on the food!

Laura was unable to join us but loved the book and commented the "ruins" was a metaphor both for the architecture and the humans. The translation for Porto Vergogna is Port of Shame and the translation for the hotel there is "Hotel of the Adequate View."

There was a lot of duality in this book starting with the dual locations of Italy and Hollywood. Many of the characters (and there were many) lives mirrored each other across the coasts and over generations. There were static characters such as Michael Deane and those who were able to make change like Pasquale.

An Amazon review I thought was very appropriate and succinct: Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbably dreams."

The book was mostly enjoyed by those that read it and rated it 3.85.

On a personal note, I surprised one day to turn the page and find that one of the characters was writing a movie script about the Donner party and Truckee, California. In August, I vacationed with my sisters in the Lake Tahoe area and we spent three nights in Truckee. It seems that a number of our books this year have collided with my travels.

Lis hosts our group in October and our book is The Prisoner of Heaven.

August Book Club 2012

The Vanishers. Our book title for August was certainly appropriate as a title for what happened to the food! At one point I caught a glimpse down the table. I don't believe I have ever seen a meal where every single plate looked as if it had been licked clean. The heat this month dictated the menu rather than the book. Carla G. hosted and decided on a menu of cold salads and homemade ice cream. Terry brought our all-time book club favorite Pear salad and Diana brought a tomato, mozzarella, and home grown basil salad. Carla G. made her first chicken salad and it was delicious and Janie brought the croissants to go with it. The homemade vanilla ice cream went great with Darby's homemade fudge and salty butterscotch toppings. Pam made Sangria, Diana concocted a butterscotch cocktail and Arnora brought the flowers. The perfect cold complement to the hot temperatures.

We missed Denise, Lou, Liz, and Barb who were unable to join us this month.

Darby suggested our book based on a personal recommendation and Laura kicked off the discussion by praising this book as one of the best she's read in recent months.  She loved the writing which was adept at prolonging the mystery of the story right until the end. Several readers had taken notes to keep up with the characters and memorable quotes. This made two of our teachers, Darby and Terry, very happy.

To be honest, this months book is a bit difficult to review and capture in a nutshell. One of the quotes on the dust jacket described this book as an "astral detective thriller".  Our protagonist, Julia Severn, starts the story by telling us it is preposterous to begin with. A warning to "read at your own risk." Julia believes that she is being psychically attacked by her boss and mentor, Madame Ackerman. Julia's mother, who resembles Madame Ackerman, committed suicide when Julia was one month old. As Julia's health deteriorates, she embarks on a journey to heal herself and she stumbles across her mother's dark past. She must come to terms with her grief as she also realizes that she may be the unwitting psychic attacker rather than victim. In the process, Julia meets a number of people who both help and hinder her. Some are real, others are imagined or conjured up through astral travel.

The themes and characters are layered and the action sometimes ambiguous leaving some of us a bit confused at the end.  A little, "is it real or is it Memorex?" In fact, one of Laura's favorite quotes was on page 136, "Memory is unnecessary work. To forget is to respect the past, and to enable your pleasant future."  And Carla A. liked the quote on page 214 "People accuse therapists of seeing abuse where there isn't any; of fabricating memories for their patients. Maybe this is true. But if so, it's because neurosis without a perceptible cause is very hard to accept. How does one fix a problem that arose from nothing?"

In addition there was mythological symbolism of the wolf. A quick search provided this information on the wolf: They are highly misunderstood and have gained a reputation for being cold blooded. In reality, they they are friendly and social creatures who avoid aggression. The wolf is an incredible communicator. By using touch, body movements, eye contact as well as many vocal expressions - the wolf makes his point understood. Some might call these non-verbal cues "psychic" when used by humans.

And, Julia's last name, Severn, means boundary. This may or may not have anything to do with her character. But as I read into it, without being able to form some kind of psychic boundary, Julia left herself open to attack. Finding and setting boundaries of any kind in your life is always part of a healing experience.

In the end the book rate 4.3 among those who vote and 2 "liked it very much". Denise commented that by email that, while she enjoyed the book, she would have preferred more character to development.
Several of us plan to read it a second time.

Next month we will meet at Pam's and our book will be Beautiful Ruins. Lis will host in October and we read Prisoner of Heaven.

Book club members have traveled to this summer to: Europe, Brazil, California/Nevada, Colorado, S. Dakota. Others are heading off to Florida, Wyoming, Mexico. To those traveling now or soon - happy and safe journeys!

July Book Club 2012

Diana's Facebook post and review of book club was so good I just decided to re-post it as this months blog. Any additional comments by me will be in italics. Thanks Darby for hosting our brilliant meeting! We missed Arnora, Carla, Lou, and Laura. Good time at book club last night. Yummy cool salads, delicious cold cucumber soup, bread and butter, cocktails, and homemade peach pie. Plus a lively discussion of "In the Garden of Beasts." WWII, Hitler, Germany, America, and; Russia told from thr perspective of the Dodd's, ambassadors Erik Larson writes "novelistic historical accounts" and this one takes place between 1933-37 in the years Hitler was ascending to power. We agreed it was an interesting subject and some appreciated how the story was told in a somewhat detached state. Others in our group found the detached telling too text book, and challenging to personally connect with the story. Most felt sorry for Dodd, and were amazed by Martha's naivety, while perhaps applauding her boldness. A few in the group thought the story might have been more engaging by focusing on fewer characters and told solely from Martha's perspective. Overall ratings 2-3.5 with an average of 2.5. Our discussion ranked 5 in my opinion. The topic of war, politics, history repeating itself, collide and animate our discussions. We had a lively debate about human nature. It was difficult for us to put ourselves in the shoes of some of the Germans. How could they report on their neighbors with little or no provocation? We like to think we'd respond in a different way, but it's hard to know how you'd be given the same circumstances. I really appreciate listening to everyone's thoughts and; it always improves my opinion of whatever we've just read. The next meeting @ Carla G's and book is The Vanishers: A Novel by Heidi Julavits. Remember we switch back to the second Friday in Aug. and in doing so have a shorter time between meetings. We chose this book as it is highly recommended by Darby, and Laura and it is roughly 250 pages. Looking ahead to cooler times: October 12 book club @ Elisabeth's. October 13 - plans in the works for an overnight in Ft. Worth taking the train! Enjoy the museum, dining, shopping, and anything else you fancy. Love to all, cheers! Diana & Sherrie