November Book Club 2016

Welcome to November 2016 Book Club hosted by Carla Gibbs. We had a beautiful night for this Thanksgiving meeting. As we move in to November we're still in the low 70's and high 60's during the day but, the evening temp of 54 was perfect for having our discussion near the fire pit on Carla's new patio. We missed Leslie, Lou, Arnora, Janie, Darby and Barb. We wish Barb a speedy recovery from her recent surgery. As for Darby, we are just jealous. She was able to attend at least one of the Cubs home games and got to revel in their first World Series Win in 108 years. We all agreed whether we were baseball fans or not that this was an exciting year! We were excited to include my sister, Karen Brackeen, who was visiting from Roanoke, Texas.

As usual, everyone out did themselves on our meal. As the hostess, Carla provided turkey breast, gravy, wine & tea. Terry brought excellent dressing. Laura brought holiday potatoes and Liz brought sweet potato casserole and her Mayan Hot Chocolate. Tammy brought roasted brussel sprouts with bacon, Diana brought pumpkin pie and Denise brought Holiday Cookies. Pam brought rolls. My sister contributed mini gingersnap muffins and wine.

Our book, Anna and The Swallow Man rated a 4 out of 5 and we had a very interesting discussion. The book opens in 1939 in Krakow, Poland as events are leading up to Hitler's WWII. Anna is seven as the book opens and her linguistics Professor father has been rounded up in one of the first waves of the Jews being sent to the concentrations camps. Anna observes a man who seems to be able to communicate with the Swallow bird and soon they form an unlikely pair trying to survive "off the grid" as the war progresses over the next four years.  As we discussed the book, it dawned on me that their journey was similar in nature to the Exodus.  Led by Moses, the Jews wondered in a circle for 40 years only 11 miles from their promised land.

We never do find out the true identity of The Swallow Man but the narrative alludes to the danger of anyone finding out who he is. Without saying it directly, we are led to believe that he has something to do with the invention of the atomic bomb and he does not want to be the instrument of global death. The Swallow Man is kind to Anna and protects her fiercely. He becomes a surrogate father and it is also hinted that Swallow Man had previously lost a daughter. Anna and The Swallow Man are always walking and always on the move to avoid detection. They do not use their real names or tell the truths about where they come from. The make temporary friends along the way to survive.  And their survival requires that they see and do some rather unsavory things. Denise deduced that Swallow Man had Graves disease that had to be treated adding additional complications to their journey.

The story ends with Anna on a boat moving through the fog to an unknown future. Several of us felt the ending was abrupt and ambiguous leaving us feeling unsettled. The story was not wrapped up for us and Anna's future and safety are left to our imagination. Laura pointed out that this was done intentionally as life is the big mystery and we live in the questions. She also pointed out that there was speculation as to whether the Swallow Man was real or a figment of Anna's imagination. The story is told in a metaphorical way with the characters represented as archetypes. So, we get to also decide if he is real or imagined.

I understand the idea of living in the mystery and the questions of life. We're all living in the "unknown" know matter how we try to construct our lives.  I did like the book, but I am still thinking about whether or not I liked the ending. For me it's more about the abruptness of the ending that the vagueness.

Our next book is A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote and we will meet at Laura's house on
December 2.

I was thinking that it might be time to update our photo for the Facebook page. We might keep that in mind as well.

October Book Club 2016

We had a gorgeous fall evening for book club at a Arnora's home. Pam, Denise, Lou, Tammy, Terry, and Carla Gibbs could not be with us for our discussion of The Woman In Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. Darby, sorry we didn't FaceTime call you, we were going to and then, well you know...we get distracted too easily, promise to next month.

Arnora provided sausage rolls and the perfect gin and tonic. Laura brought delicious cheeses and olives, Barb brought a mixed kale salad, Janie brought homemade baked bread and almond butter, Diana brought garlic roasted potatoes, Leslie brought pumpkin squares, Lis brought pumpkin ice cream and Carla a brought the flowers and lemon yogurt almonds. 

As always, Arnora brought out our 10 year "calendar girl "photo. I always look forward to seeing it. It brings up great memories of a fun night! And we want to arrange sometime in 2017, when we have one of those perfect meetings where we are all together, a 15 year anniversary photo of us! I do believe Janie's reserved a place on the back row of the photo, step stool required. :-)

We had a lively discussion of our book. We picked it because it seemed like a spooky mystery for the Halloween month. Everyone generally like the book most giving it a 3.

Let me help to me redefine 1-5 rating system. 

#1. equals I hate the book and I want throw the book out the window and run over it with my car.  
#2 is hating the book but I wouldn't hurt it and I wouldn't  recommended it. 

#3 Is I liked it. It was interesting but not necessarily an emotional or great read. 
#4 is nearly great, an interesting story with great writing. 
And #5 is so good you need a cigarette after. A story that takes me on an emotional journey and one that I can't put down.

Leslie said for her a #3 is one she liked and didn't feel compelled to roll her eyes at. A number two involves lots of I rolling.

The premise of our book is that our protagonist Laura "Lo" Blacklock's, London flat is burgled on the eve of her departure for the maiden voyage of a new Nordic cruise ship. Lo is already a troubled girl. A travel writer for 10 years she's on antidepressants and drinks way too much. She has a boyfriend she's pushing away and leaves for her trip disheveled, sleep deprived, mad at her boyfriend and suffering from PTSD from the burglary. Our mystery begins when Lo borrows a cheap Maybelline mascara from her neighbor in cabin 10. The same night the mysterious woman, in a Pink Floyd T-shirt, ends up missing and Lo spends the rest of the time trying to discover her whereabouts and subsequently trying to escape the killers. 

We agreed the story was interesting enough and kept us just curious about the outcome. We also agreed there was a recent trend in fiction to make the female lead dysfunctional, disheveled and an alcoholic. These characteristics put our heroine at an immediate disadvantage of being not only an unreliable narrator, but also an unreliable character. She questions herself and so has trouble convincing others of what she has seen.

Some of the writing got a little tedious and repetitive. A lot of the internal dialogue slowed the story down. However she did paint a vivid picture of the ship which was a small boutique cruise line and opulent in every way. I didn't have much trouble picturing it. Although a couple who had been on a cruise didn't think the cabin numbers were described accurately. The book reminded me of Agatha Christie's death on the Nile which is also a murder taking place on ship. This is a tool Christie used in most of her novels. She confines the set specs to a small setting where there was no means of escape such  as trains and cruise ships. Christie's stories were not stories of emotional journey but one of connecting the dots and figuring out the puzzle. Diana ended up caring a lot about Carrie, our antagonist, and hoped for her redemption and escape. Lo seems a bit of a static character right up until the end of the story but, the events on the ship caused her to reevaluate her life and make some major decisions.

It just dawned on me as I write this and think about the ending, what if Carrie was behind it all from the start, she could have convinced Bomar to kill his wife. She did end up with the money after all and perhaps the "gift" was hush money.

Our November 4th meeting is at Carla Gibbs home and our book is "Anna and the Swallow Man" by Gravel Savit.

September Book Club 2016

This months book club was held at Terry's house in Newcastle. We had a gorgeous night for having our dinner out on the patio. We missed Darby but, she called briefly to say hi and sent us a quote that related to the book we; also miss Janie, Denise, Barb and Carla A.

Dinner was delicious as usual. Terry provided an extra large, fabulous quiche and we had several salads, anti-pasta appetizers fruit and cake for dessert.

Our book this month was a memoir entitled When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams. 

She tells the story of losing her mother to cancer when she was 24 and her mother was 54. She has waited until she is the age that her mother was when she died to tell the story. The week before her mother passed, she tells Terry that she is leaving her her journals. When Terry finds the journals she discovers that they are all blank. The story she tells is her journey and trying to discover what the blank journals mean. 

The book rated a 3.9 with most having resonated with the story of the mother and daughter. Diana, Liz, Tammy and Arnora did not particularly relate to the story. We discovered that it was a very different experience having listened to the book,  rather than having read the hardcopy

I enjoyed the book a great deal. I thought she did a good job of weeding the story of her life through her struggles witj religion, nature and the environment tabs her own marriage. She fines 54 different meanings or, possible meanings for the point journals.

As I've been going through my mothers end of life transition, I have had a bit of a struggle about some things in her life and trying to make sense of them. My mother did not journal in notebooks but, grabbed random pieces of paper, packs of envelopes and check registers. She stuffed these notes in a variety of places around the house and we found them while looking for her important papers. We put them in a box and we don't know whether to keep or burn them. Her journal notes were we're not particularly poetic, they were written in fits of anger and frustration at both her husband and her daughters. What I found most compelling about the blank journal pages, is that you can never truly know anyones history or their internal make up. My mother had a life before I came along and she and my father had 40 years after I left home. My mother doesn't really know me. And likewise there are many things my son does not know about me. And as I mentioned, Carla has instructions to burn my journals if I go first.

I think the book resonated with me because of my current circumstances of course. I thought much of the prose was poetic and, I think that also did not translate into the audio version of the book.

Arnora has agreed to host next month, Carla G will host in November, and Laura will host December. Our October book will be The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. 

August Book Club 2016

August 5th bookclub was at Denise's. I'm piecing together this blog from bits off our Facebook posts so it is a recounting of others comments and some from a book description.

Denise prepared Sante Fe black beans and roasted chicken. Lis brought bread and cheese, Carla Gibbs brought a salad, Laura brought fruit, Terry brought homemade cookies for dessert, and Barb brought Sangria; there was probably more that I might have missed as Sherrie and I arrived just in time for dinner.

~ from Elisabeth: Denise, thank you for having us for bookclub and sharing your beautiful home with the gorgeous view of the lake for the evening. It was a wonderful and relaxing time with good discussion and yummy summer food. What a nice surprise that Darby and Pam facetimed in, woohoo! Love my STNM ladies.

For a few of us"A Murder in Time" seemed a challenge reading or finishing because the library connected this book to a free limited time digital download that had a too soon expiration. You can buy it, and those that did and who finished it were Barb, Laura, Lis, Arnora, Sherrie, and Denise. Overall they liked the book rating it a 3.9.

Julie McElwain’s debut novel combines mystery and historical fiction (with a bit of time travel). The protagonist, FBI agent Kendra Donovan, suddenly finds herself 200 years earlier in time at a British castle, where she needs to solve multiple gruesome murders and catch a serial killer.

Our September 9th meeting is at Terry's and our read is "When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice" by Terry Tempest William.
~ Happy reading, Diana
-

July Book Club 2016

We had a nice evening and so pleased, and a bit surprised that we had such a nice turn out for a Wednesday night meeting. We missed Barb, Laura and Darby but we were 13 in all and it was nice to have Lou in town. As usual, there were so many conversations and stories (although I doubt any porch lies, ha!) that I had a hard time keeping up with all the goings on but I'll give myself a break this time since I was hosting. 

The food was superb with awesome salads, chicken, relish plates, and coconut cream pie for dessert, thanks everyone for contributing. Darby you were with us in spirit, literally, as I made pitchers of frozen watermelon daiquiris with your Osterizer blender. We emptied three bottles of wine and some hard lemonade, too!

Porch Lies was fairly well received, with Janie and I giving it the highest rating of 4, we really liked it, and lowest rating of 1.5 by Sherrie who didn't care for the story. Overall most others rated it a 3-3.5. The avg is 3.2 for 13 members. 

Our August 5th meeting is at Denise's new home. Our Our next big read is literally one of Pioneer Library ebooks Big Reads, "A Murder in Time" by Julie McElwain’s and is a debut novel. It is NOT available on Audible, but it is free on the PSL Digital Download. It is only an eBook BIG READ, and not in hard copy at the library. 

Until the same time next month...Diana

June Book Club 2016

We had our June meeting at Tammy's charming and home in Blanchard on Friday, June 10th, nearly 4 months ago. I for one truly appreciate all the years Sherrie has kindly posted a recap of our adventures; she has the gift of gab and love of writing, neither of which I claim as my attributes. Alas, here again is my attempt to delve back into my Pensive of memories and piece together what was a wonderful evening with by best friends!


Tammy prepared delicious fish and chicken tacos, and others brought the fixings and sides. We had Dark and Stormy cocktails, and cupcakes for dessert, YUM!

Lily made a really cool welcome to book club sign that greeted us upon arrival, thank you Lily for the warm welcome!

We enjoyed dining alfresco under the covered veranda and stayed late into the night chatting and discussing the book which was really well liked by most and rated from 3 to 5, averaging a 3.9, so let's call a 4.

This next bit is mostly copied from an online description of the novel. Our book for June, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, written and narrated by Neil Gaiman takes place in Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. He is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock. He hasn't thought of her in decades, and yet sitting by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean), the unremembered past comes flooding back. A stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

I rated the book a 5 and it will be amongst my favorite stories. I've listened to it twice and confess, I am smitten with Neil Gaiman's voice, could listen to him for hours and I have been lucky (thanks to Darby) to hear him, in person talking about his writing and processes. I've read a number of Gaiman's novels and am naturally drawn to his tales. So if this was your first Neil Gaiman book and you liked it, try his others!

Darby if you read this, I finally read most American Gods and am border line on it. I like the old stories, I can see it's multilayered but there's a darkness to it that I was ready to leave.

Our book for July is Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Trickters, and Other Wily Characters and is suggested by Elisabeth. Because of the July 4 holiday and because the following weekend the 8-9 is not a good time for several of us, we are doing a one-off and choosing to meet Wednesday evening, July 6th at my home, Beal Cottage.
Hope to see you then! Diana

May Book Club 2016

****Double header book club weekend****

"The Magicians" was mostly well liked and rated a 4. There were some who "just didn't get it" and others who "absolutely loved it" and who have already completed reading the trilogy.

We had a big turn out Friday evening at Laura's including three guests; Sherrie's sister, Brenda, Arnora's sister, Gail, and Darby's longtime friend, Leslie. 

Laura and Carla A. make a Cheese Souffle'

A few of us took Laura up on the sleepover invite and we enjoyed dinner and breakfast. Our meals were true creations, bringing back some of ours, and especially Darby's all time favorites. 

There was lots of great conversation both Friday and Saturday. We reminisced about 'Our Book Club Story' (there's a novel idea, pun intended!) and had ample time to catch up with each other. 

Saturday's smaller group at Barb's was intimate and the food and company was just as awesome! We enjoyed an in depth discussion while sitting outside under the stars in Barb's beautiful garden.

Friday night at Laura's

Saturday night at Barb's!

Diana's Paella

Our next book is 

"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman. We meet at Tammy's in Blanchard.

Terry's Pear Salad