February Book Club 2016

First, let me give you my apologies for being so behind on the blog! Sometimes it is because I am busy managing the Bed and Breakfast. Sometimes, it is because I am having a hard time sitting down at the computer long enough to do it! But, I have a goal today to get caught up starting with the most recent book club and working my way back. Diana mentioned on her Facebook post that after spending most of the day on the computer, it is hard to go there in her spare time. I totally empathize.

February's book club was held at Arnora's. We missed Lou, Darby and Pam. Tammy joined us and is back on dry land for a time. We look forward to having her join us as often as possible. Arnora made sausage rolls and roasted vegetables. Denise and Lis brought salads, Tammy brought deviled eggs, Janie brought homemade bread and butter and for dessert we had Girl Scout Cookies from Barb, Carla G's homemade Nutella cupcakes and Carla A's pears with goat cheese and pomegranate.

It was also Valentine's Day and we exchanged a few Valentine's and chocolates.

Our book this month was A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. I did not care for this book at all. And I was the only one who didn't like it.  Everyone else loved it. I had hoped to like it and after listening to the first three chapters with Diana I told her that Ove reminded me of Niles and Frazier Crane. But, in the end, I just didn't find him funny and I didn't connect to the characters. Denise said, "Sherrie, I know you don't like Alexander McCall Smith and this book reminded me of his books." Well, that hit the nail on the head for me. She's right! I find him mundane and boring and this book hit me the same way. So, that said, I asked Diana to give her review as she loved it so much. Her assessment is more in line with the consensus of the group.

"I loved the story and connected with the characters. I'm glad the story was well liked by the majority and it rated 4.3.  I loved it for the characters, the writing, philosophy, and revelations about myself that I experienced while I listened. I enjoyed the narrator, listening to the story twice. I loved Ove's humor and honesty. Life gave him some hard knocks and he may have become bitter over time, but his essence was always good and his wife Sonia could see his goodness (Parvanii and the cat, too). I loved the quirky real neighbors, Parvanii in particular, and of course, the mangled Cat, which I believe was Sonia reincarnated.

Lis commented, "Maybe, most of us saw a little of ourselves in at least one of the characters - maybe that's what was so appealing about the story. I still think about Ove and Parvanii a lot, I'd like to have Parvanii as a friend."
While Denise was reminded of Alexander McCall Smith, Carla A was reminded of the movie "Grand Torino".

Laura has volunteered to host in March and our book is The Little Paris Bookshop.

January Book Club 2016

January Book Club was hosted by Diana and we had our annual pajama party. Here I am including remarks made by Diana on our Facebook page.


"Thanks everyone for a lovely evening and all the delicious food! For me, hosting January bookclub is a wonderful way to mark the weekend and to start the new year. Love PJ's and breakfast for dinner. Plus, thanks to leftovers, Rex and I had a perfect breakfast this morning!

We missed half our members, although we carried on in true book club spirit, dined well, and laughed a lot! Arnora, Janie, and Lis recounted several of the Arabian night stories complete with hilarious hand gestures. While none of us have finished the 1001 tales, we are enjoying them and we plan to continue reading and discuss as we go, reserving our ratings until the end.

If you missed book club, this is only a bit of "what's new" which, for Arnora is great excitement, Sarah is expecting a baby in August! The whole family is thrilled and I'm sure Arnora will have more to share when she hosts our February 5th meeting. Janie shared photos of Santa Jim, best Santa ever! Lis has Natalie and grandchildren staying with she and Mickey while Natalie and Mark work toward a new goal of moving to Hawaii....story to be continued. Terry's hand/wrist is on the mend but still healing. Ember at 16 months is much calmer and throroughly enjoyed the full house and all the attention."

Perhaps it was coming off the heels of the holidays but no one finished our book, The Arabian Nights by Husain Haddoway. I was never able to put my hands on a copy by this author so, I never even started it. This is a pretty ancient text from the Islamic Golden Age, that has gone through many translations and we had settled on this one. As Diana stated, we still managed to have an animated discussion in spite of low reader participation.

The gist of the story is that the sultan, Shahrayar's, first wife is unfaithful to him and he kills her. He then vows to marry a different woman everyday - killing her the following morning to avoid another betrayal.  He then marries Scheherazade. She is smarter than he is and devises a plan to tell him a "bedtime" story every night. The trick is, she gets to the cliffhanger and stops the story so that he is forced to wait until the next night for the resolution. This goes on for 1001 nights until he has a change of heart. This is where we get such stories as Aladdin's Lamp, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves and, Sinbad the Sailor.

On a comical note: After book club I was visiting with a couple at the B and B when the girl looked down at the end table between us at some old books. The first one she picked up was "the Arabian Nights", haha.  It was right under my nose the whole time. It wasn't by our chosen author, but it will definitely suffice and I am sure to one day read the stories.

December Book Club 2015

Christmas sleepover at Laura's contemporary barn home! We always love going out to Laura's for a leisurely book club, talks by the fire pit, staying up late watching movies and getting up slowly with our coffee to bird watch out the big picture windows. What a treat! Of course, there was the always fabulous meal you will see pictured here and our annual Christmas photo. Unfortunately, it wasn't 100% participation but I think the photos turned out pretty good!

For Christmas, we selected two very short Christmas stories; Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales and Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck.  The stories were what we had hoped for. Christmas is a busy time and we don't have time for long, complex novels. These stories had the right amount of nostalgia and Christmas spirit. These books were the perfect duo for the start of the holiday season. They were well liked and we didn't feel the need to rate them.  They gave us plenty of time for food, gift exchange and other girlie sleepover actives (minus the pillow fights!)

November Book Club 2015

Lis was unable to host or join us this month so Book Club moved to the Holmberg House for November. We had our somewhat traditional Thanksgiving meal and I provided the turkey. My long time friend, Mary Marxer, had dropped by to visit me earlier in the day and I persuaded her to stay through dinner.  As the weather was getting cooler, most everyone arrived in their winter boots! However, there were a few rogue members who had not switched to winter shoes. And even though it was cooling off we managed to have part of our discussion on the big front porch!

Our book was Euphoria by Lily King. Since, I was unable to write the blog immediately following book club - I've copied a plot summary here from Goodreads.

"From New England Book Award winner, Lily King, comes a breathtaking novel about three young anthropologists of the 30's caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and ultimately, their lives. English anthropologist, Andrew Bankson, has been alone in the filed for several years studying the Kiona river tribe in the Territory of New Guinea. Haunted by the memory of his brothers death and increasingly frustrated and isolated by his research, Bankson is no the verge of suicide when a chance encounter with colleagues, the controversial Nell Stone and her wry and mercurial Australian husband, Fen, pulls him back from the brink. Nell and Fen have just fled the bloodthirsty Mumbanyo and, in spite of Nell's poor health, are hungry for a new discovery. When Bankson finds them a new tribe nearby, the artistic, female-dominated Tam, he ignites an intellectual and romantic firestorm between the three of them that burns out of anyone's control."

The story is very loosely based on anthropologist Margaret Mead.  Most everyone rated the book between 3.5 and 4 and the final rating was 3.3. Diana and Terry did not finish the book, not their cup of tea.

October Book Club 2015

A beautiful full moon night at Arnora's to discuss The Boy Who Drew Monsters. The book was well liked and we stayed late in the evening. The book rated 3.38.

Here is the plot summary from Goodreads, "From the New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Child comes an hypnotic literary horror novel about a young boy trapped inside his own world. whose drawings blur the lines between fantasy and reality. Ever since ten-year old Jack Peter Keenan nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier, he has been deathly afraid to venture outside. Refusing to leave his home in a small coastal town in Maine, Jack Peter spends his time drawing monsters. When those drawings take on a life of their own, no one is safe from the terror they inspire. His mother, Holly, begins to hear strange sounds in the night coming from the ocean and she seeks answers from the local Catholic priest and his Japanese housekeeper who fill her head with stories of shipwrecks and ghosts. His father, Tim, wanders the beach, frantically searching for a strange apparition running wild in the dunes. And the boy's only friend, Nick, becomes helplessly entangled in the eerie power of the drawings. While those around Jack Peter are haunted by what they think they see, only he knows the truth behind the frightful occurrences as the outside world encroaches upon them all. In the tradition of The Turn of the Screw, Keith Donohue's, The Boy Who Drew Monsters, is a mesmerizing tale of psychological terror and imagination run wild. A perfectly creepy read for a dark night.

On October 3, we met at Laura's house for our Elephant Fund Raiser Wrap Party. We had 7 artists who donated 14 paintings and we raised $2,450 on our Facebook Art Auction page for the Endangered Ark Foundation.  Kristin Parra, grandaughter of the founder of the Ark, joined us and invited us as her guests to the Carson and Barnes circus the next day. Diana, Carla A, Terry, Lis, Laura, Arnora and family and I were able to attend. It was a small but very entertaining circus AND, we got to ride the elephants at intermission.  As you know, this whole thing started when I had the dream of riding the circus elephant. And so, my dream has come full circle and we were introduce to an amazing story, amazing elephants and helped them improve their watering system at the Ark.

September 2015 Book Club

Well, of all the things that I could have predicted for my future, Lou selling the her B & B and the new owners hiring me to manager it was not one of them. But, that is what happened and I came on board in July. So, in keeping with tradition, I hosted the book club at the Holmberg House. It was a gorgeous night and after dinner we held our discussion on the front porch. We were thankful that Lou was in town to join us but, sad that Terry, Barb, Darby and Carla G  could not join us. Our love and prayers are with Carla as she takes care of her mom at this difficult time.

This months menu was inspired by the fact that New Mexico Hatch green chili's are in season. I picked up some and Carla A roasted them. I found a simple Green Chili & Chicken casserole that turned out pretty good and Carla A made rice and beans. Denise brought a beautifully layered fruit salad, Janie brought a cornbread salad and Liz brought a Kale salad. Diana brought guacamole, Lou brought a delicious gluten free Mexican wedding cake, Arnora brought the chocolate and Pam provided the Sangria.  We had 100% happy plates at the end of the meal.

Our third book in our "series" of animal themed stories was H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald. This was not a novel but a memoir of a woman's journey through her grief at her fathers sudden passing. She is a professor and a falconer and chooses to train a Goshawk as a way to manage her grief. She parallels her personal story with that of T. H. White. He was also a professor, author and sometimes falconer. She is fascinated with his story, as well as the stories of other similarly like minds through history. Some of the group did not care much for the technical and historical details she provided. It made the story difficult to connect to emotionally. I read T. H. White's novel, The Once and Future King, in high school and it was one of my favorite books and I have very fond memories of my English teacher reading the book aloud to us everyday. However, his personal story is a lot more difficult to take and his treatment of hawks did not sit well with some. However, she is a beautiful writer and many of her descriptions were quite poetic. She takes us on the journey of grief through the shock, as her dad's passing was unexpected and sudden, to denial, anger, sadness and acceptance. At first, she isolates herself with the bird as her excuse. She is depressed and works at becoming invisible, not only to the hawk, but to the community around her. She isn't paying her bills, her job is in transition, she must move house. She is resentful of the demands made of her. But, as she works with the hawk she has many self-revelations and eventually she seeks the help of a doctor and resumes her life in the community. The story is layered and subtle and she talks about man and nature and our ill effects on it.

 

Denise's daughter is a falconer and she loaned Denise several of her bird "hoods" to show us. Denise found parts of the story difficult to take because some of the descriptions and the necessary obsessions of training a hawk were too familiar.

 

The book was generally well received and rated a 3.64. We all agreed that we had learned a lot from our reading of man and animal.  Since next month will be Halloween, we've decided on a scary story by Keith Donahue, The Boy Who Drew Monsters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

AUGUST 2015 Book Club

So many changes going on with our book club members! As I mentioned in July, Lou and Gene have sold their B & B and bought a motor home. Currently, they are making the Florida, Colorado, Wyoming circuit. Once again based in Blanchard, she still plans to attend when she is in town. I have taken up residence at the Holmberg House. Denise is downsizing and has bought a smaller place on a lake nearby. This book club marks our last one at her lovely home with the pool. A few of the girls brought their suits and dipped their toes in the water of "bon voyage!" We're very happy for them.  Barb is planning her wedding for October, the second book club member to marry this year. Darby and Nate were married on the beach in the Bahamas at New Year's. Pam and Dave have welcomed back Nate, Na Sim and baby Sophie from Dubai. We're all very excited to see the new baby!

Denise decided on a Mexican themed dinner; taco soup and fiesta zucchini salad, chips, salsa & salsa verde (Janie) and Barb brought homemade ice cream sandwiches. We missed Lou, Janie, Laura and Terry.

Our book was The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin.  A.J. is a widowed book store owner living alone and drowning his grief when he discovers an abandoned baby in the book store.  He decides to keep the baby and a cast of quirky town characters and one idealistic book seller help him raise her.  Each chapter opens with a book and notes from A.J. to his daughter, Maya, about why he thinks she will enjoy it, or why she must read it. The book was just what I need after an exhausting July and on the heels of a move. It kept me turning the pages, I enjoyed the characters and it was just the right size, more of a novella. I wouldn't have been able to finish a heavy handed novel this month. The book rated a 4.2. 

September's book club will be hosted by Sherrie and Carla A at the Holmberg House and our book is H is for Hawk.... I just realized the alliteration!