The Starless Sea - January 2020

Blog #149  Book #212

Our Annual Pajama Party at Diana's is always a warm and fun way to start a New Year! Last night was no exception. We missed, Terry, Denise, Leslie, Barb, Lou and Darby. Terry wasn't feeling well and wish her a speedy recovery. Denise and Lou were in Hawaii and Colorado respectively. Leslie was spending time at her son's games, Darby was in Michigan and Barb was visiting with Kelsie.

Those that came were welcomed by Diana, Ember and the festive Christmas decorations. I don't take mine down right away either. I enjoy the lights during what is usually our gloomiest time of winter.

As it was our pajama party, we dined on breakfast/brunch foods. Diana made a turkey and egg breakfast casserole. Liz made hers with regular sausage and both were delicious. Pam brought a spinach salad, Carla G brought fruit and cheese, Laura brought a scrumptious blueberry coffee cake, Carla A brought two types of Brioche Bread and Arnora brought mixed nuts and her beautiful floral centerpiece. Tammy brough just about the best Bloody Mary's I have had. Gwynne brought some wine spritzers and there were several bottles of wine and some specialty beers. Just an aside note... I have discovered that 19 Crimes has a red blend wine that has been aged in Rum barrels. It is a very smooth red wine for those who don't like dry reds. If you were drinking Bloody Mary's (and I don't blame you!) you might give it a try another time.

I don't eat the traditional New Year's Day food for good luck. I don't like any of it! However, I do rely on great food and drinks, fine conversation and the best of friends to kick of my New Year in the best possible way. It starts the New Year off on the right foot and I am guaranteed that good luck at least once a month! And, more often as we are able to get together in between.

Ember was the perfect mascot for the evening.  She's gotten used to the crowd and quickly settled in. She even warmed toes for several of us. And, we were all delighted with Laura's choice of pajama set that reflected the night sky. In another public service announcement, she got them at Soma at the Outlet Mall on I-40 and you can shop online.

This month's book is The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. This book comes to us recommended by Laura's daughter, Megan.

Thanks by the way to Carla Gibbs who does such a great job of documenting the books so that we can keep track of when book club started (this seems to be a matter of much debate from time to time as people started at different time over a three year period. But, Carla keeps us straight.) And, it was duly noted that our 20th anniversary will be coming up in 2022. A scant two years away. It was suggested we start thinking of a big way to celebrate so that everyone can make their plans well in advance.

It seemed that this Christmas season overwhelmed many of us and only Lis managed to finish the book. The rest of us made a valiant effort, but with 18 hours on audible, it wasn't manageable. As most of us had read at least 7-8 hours, we did discuss it to some degree. This helped a lot of us as this is considered a fantasy fiction or, new myth. Her style of writing takes you into different time frames and parallel universes and at times we're not sure we are following it. 

As many of us had questions and kept thinking that we needed to start over so we wouldn't miss anything, we were encouraged to just keep going. Some things will make sense to us in the end and some just might not. Morgenstern uses a lot of symbolism in the story but, she may leave it to the reader to decipher its meaning.

I'm looking forward to the full discussion of the book next month, at my home. I'm almost tempted to make it a costume party - as there is one in the book. And, it's also Valentine's month. So, I will give some thought to a theme.

We have decided upon Ann Patchett's, "The Dutch House" for March. This comes highly recommended by Carla G and Pam.

One final note of interest. Eight years ago in January, at Diana's, we were discussing Erin Morgenstern's, "The Night Circus." And, in March, we discussed Ann Patchett's "State of Wonder."

Happy New Year!

December Book Club 2019

This December meeting wraps up 2019 and brings us to our Blog #148 and Book # 212. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the year goes.

Our book this month, The Giver of Stars, has women friendships as one of its themes and Janie beautifully reminded us all of the privilege we have of being in each other's company for so long.

 As I write the last blog of each year I am reminded of the "seeming coincidence" of typing a zip code into Oprah's website to see if one of her book clubs was forming in my area. That link led me to Diana and Barb and eventually to "the fun book club!" I often puzzle at the directions your life can take with random moments and decisions. Joining this book club was one of the best decisions I have made. My life has had a lot of twist and turns in the years since we met. I know my life would not have the light, the depth of emotion, the laughter and the magic it has if I had not pushed that button. Oh, I would made it through I'm sure but, my life has been made all the richer by knowing you all and sharing your journey.

But, before we talk about the book let us relive for a moment our warm and cozy welcome at Laura's.  Per our Christmas Tradition, Laura hosted our Annual Christmas Tea. This year Laura had house guests her daughter and finance and their two dogs and two cats. The animals didn't seem to mind and, in fact, I think enjoyed lurking around looking for scraps.

Book club members went all out on finger foods and desserts. Laura provided tea and scones. Diana brought croissant chicken salad sandwiches. Lis brought sausage pinwheels and mini cheese sandwiches. Terry brought ham, Gouda and cranberry mini tarts, Carla G brought a cranberry and nut cheese log, Janie brought a coffee-chocolate cake, Barb brought deviled eggs, Pam brought a veggie tray. Tammy brought cake pops and cookies and there was wine and Apple Pie Moonshine and Arnora brought the beautiful flowers.

We saved our gift exchange for after our book club discussion and there were lots of fun, good tasting and good smelling gifts for all.

We missed, Leslie, Denise and Carla A and as always, Darby and Lou. Darby did a Face Time with Diana and I on the drive over and updated us on the goings on in Chicago. Diana, Liz, Arnora and Laura had visited Lou in Florida recently. Our long time connections are still going strong even if the distance is greater between some of us.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes was a big hit scoring a 4.5. Of those attending the discussion only Terry had not quite finished. Arnora led the book discussion questions and we have a lively conversation.

The Giver of Stars follows the lives of 5 women living in rural Kentucky in 1937 who volunteer to become traveling librarians taking books to the rural families of their small community during the depression. Though the characters are fictional there was, in fact, a mobile program started by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Some of the themes addressed in the story are: Women and their gender roles in society socially as well as familial, women's equality, sexuality, domestic abuse,  friendship, economics, big business vs. worker equality, racism and the importance of education.

That's quite a lot to pack into 592 pages. But, I thought the author did a seamless job of interweaving the themes through the lives of the women. Alice Wright meets Bennett Van Cleef and his father on their grand tour of England. They have an attraction and Bennett proposes. Alice is eager to leave her family life and intrigued to be moving to a city in Kentucky. Her husband is handsome and his father is the rich mine owner in town. Unfortunately, things go sour on the wedding night as Jeff Van Cleef is a an overbearing, domineering man who controls his son in every possible way and is oppressive to Alice. Jeff and Bennett have rather misled Alice. She finds that she is living in a rural community in Kentucky and not a genteel southern city. Alice, out of boredom, frustration and a need to assert herself against her father-in-law volunteers to deliver books. Gradually, she makes friends with Margery who, though she is a native of the community, in an outsider in her own way. When her father-in-law becomes violent, Alice takes refuge with Margery. Not only do we address the themes mentioned, but there is a Hatfield and McCoy type feud between Margery O'Hare's family and the McCulloughs who are hermits in the hills. When the drunken McCullough is found dead after a snow storm, a pregnant Margery is arrested.

The women rally around Margery, one of McCullough's daughters even testifies on her behalf assuring her acquittal. Alice finds a way to divorce her husband to be with a man who loves her. Margery marries the father of her baby and the other girl's lives are rather neatly tied up.

I thought the story was well told, and had plenty of suspenseful scenes that kept me coming back. The story of the traveling librarians was knew to me. We all agreed the book reflected issues that continue to be ongoing even today. In fact, Janie reminded us that Dolly Parton has a program of traveling book mobiles still taking books to people in rural communities.

The old saying still proves true, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

January book club will be our annual pajama party at Diana's and our  book will be Erin Morganstern's The Starless Sea.

I've updated the 2020 meeting schedule.

November Book Club 2019

Something Wicked This Way Comes was our book for November. As we met on November 1, we're still in the Halloween and Dia de Muertos mood.

It was a beautiful fall night as Tammy greeted as her new place of residence. We missed Janie, Terry and Leslie and, of course, Lou and Darby. Diana joined us via phone as she was suffering from a cold. In fact, several of us had been sick since the last book club but, we seem mostly recovered.

Arnora was just back from her Trop-Rock Tour of Paris and Normandy. We enjoyed hearing about her adventures and seeing her photos. Arnora (she's been a busy girl), Diana, Lis and Laura were just back from visiting Lou in Florida.

Tammy made us a Taco Soup and Pam brought a Chicken Tortilla soup. Just what we needed on a cool fall night. Lis made some delicious enchiladas, Cara G brought a salad. Tammy also made homemade Sopapillas and Lis topped it off with ice cream. And, Arnora brought a beautiful bouquet of flowers and the lavender roses matched Lis' pants! We had the usual assortment of great wines, coffee and tea to round out our meal.

Our book, Something Wicked This Way Comes was authored by Ray Bradbury. He had written what he called, The Green Town Trilogy. The books were semi-autobiographical stories based on his childhood. Dandelion Wine, Farewell to Summer and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Our book takes place during the time of a fall carnival arrives in town. Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are boys on the verge of their 14th birthdays when they encounter a strange lightening rod salesman who announces that a storm is coming their way.  The a dark and sinister carnival shows up on the heels of this announcement and sets the stage for adventure and coming of age.

Bradbury took his title from a line in Shakespeare's Macbeth. In Macbeth, three witches predict that Macbeth will be king but, under certain circumstances. Macbeth ignores the conditions and sets about to murder everyone who he sees stands between him and the throne. Our book was not quite that sinister. But, our lightening rod salesmen running into town and predicting a "storm" serves the same kind of ominous portend.

The book was well received over all rating a 3.84. We agreed that there were some problems with the writing. Bradbury tended to wonder off sometimes in his descriptions and that bogged down the action. But, I thought some of the writing was really beautiful. I particularly loved the part where Jim's dad was talking to the two boys in the Library. His prose describing why he loved his wife read like poetry to me.

I also particularly liked the use of the Carousel as a time machine that could speed up or slow down the aging process. When Diana, Rex and I were at the Buchart Gardens in Victoria, BC, we saw a beautiful carousel that now I'm sorry I didn't ride. I heard after the fact, that it's the fastest carousel and, not sure if this is true or not, but that if it went any faster they'd have to classify it a roller coaster! I wish I'd have found out for myself! I like the idea of "the faster it goes - the slower you age!" haha

I thought it was a fun read about two boys trying to uncover a mystery and save some of the towns people from the evil Mr. Dark. The story was actually based on a true evening in Bradbury's life when he came into contact with a Mr. Electrico at his local carnival. Mr. Electrico command that Ray, "live forever" and told him that he was the reincarnation of a friend who'd died in WWI. Ray went home and started writing and never stopped.

This book was all about ominous predictions and what you do about them. I had enjoyed the book but some of the slower writing had me ready to give it a 3.5. But, our discussion and some of the connections we made caused me to raise my rating to a 4.5.

Our next book club will be our traditional tea at Laura's and our book is the NY Times Bestseller, The Giver of Star.

October Book Club 2019

Blog #146 Book #210

Lis went "all Italian" on us for this month's book club. The colors of Italy's flag are red, white and green. Lis decorated the table in those colors. She turned a lamp into a sign post with Italian cities on it and added red, white and green streamers to the banister. She even had pasta in a wine glass as one of the decorative objects. The living room was awash in romantic candlelight. Who says friends can't be romantic?

We went all out on our Italian meal as well. For appetizers, Diana made a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad also in the colors of the Italian flag. Lis made a blue cheese and pineapple pepper  jelly served with crackers.   Janie brought cornbread salad and Robbie sent a cauliflower salad. Carla G made a green salad with 2 choices of Italian dressing.  Lis made a meaty pasta dish. Janie also made Stromboli and Denise brought beautiful cupcakes. As usual, it was all delicious.

We missed Tammy, Arnora, Pam and Leslie.

We got the chance to hear about Denise's amazing trip to Ireland and Laura's new job at OU's Goddard Health Clinic. Next month, we'll get to hear about Arnora's trip to Paris and Pam's trip to Washington State.

Our book this month was a murder mystery entitled, "Aunti Poldi and the Sicilian Lions." Those that read the book enjoyed this lighthearted mystery as told by Aunti Poldi's nephew. As we discussed the book, we realized that the nephew is telling the story from his point of view and never names himself. He is a writer who is having trouble with his most recent project and ends up focusing on the latest mystery that Aunti Poldi has recently solved.

Aunti Poldi is an interesting protagonist. She is 60, German by birth, widowed and, a former costume designer. Early on we learn that "murder seems to follow where she goes." One of the characters refers to her as Ms. Marple of the Agatha Christie series and I also thought of Murder She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher. The difference being that Aunti Poldi has a rather provocative sex life. I rather enjoyed a character who is in my age bracket still exploring her passions.

Aunti Poldi has retired to a town in Sicily where she rather hopes to sit on her balcony watching the ocean and drinking herself to an early grave in response to her widowhood. But, life has other plans for her. Soon her handsome young handyman goes missing and is discovered murdered. Discovered washed up on the beach by Aunti Poldi, no less. Soon there is an investigation, a smoldering police inspector, a romantic entanglement, one false lead after another and, a rooftop showdown coinciding with a volcanic eruption. Through it all Aunti Poldi, remains perfectly poised even if her wig is slightly tousled.

I think several of us had a few issues with the writing. The author, Mario Giordano, did seem to tell more than he showed. And, he relied a bit too much on "list making" for his descriptions. But, all in all it was a fun read. The book rated a 3.5.

Laura said that she finished in time to go back and start over. She was glad she did because she was able to see how he foreshadowed many of the events and the clues were always right in front of us. . Her handyman was, unknown to her, involved with a profitable black market organization that stole  antique tiles and other architectural figurines i.e., the Lions, to resell for new construction.

When I was googling for some more background information, I stumbled on a photo of the author. He was not what I had expected. He is quite handsome. I expected someone older and more rumpled. I don't know why. Mario was born in Munch, Germany. His novel, "Black Box" was based on a true story of an occurrence (Stanford Prison Experiment) and adapted to Film as Das Experiment. He received the Bavarian Film Award for the best screenplay.






Our next book is Ray Bradbury's, "Something Wicked This Way Comes." And, we will meet at Tammy's.

September Book Club 2019

This is blog #145 and Book #209

Holy interruptus, Batman! It is September. This is the time of year when things really start to speed up and New Year's Eve will be here before we know it!

Carla G hosted our September meeting. Our book, "Where the Crawdad's Sing," provided us with ample suggestions for food. Diana and I arrived a little later than most. She got some great photos of the food but, in the hubbub of greetings, I did not take down who brought each specific item. However, the food, as always was delicious. We had: fried chicken tenders and cornbread; cheesy grits and shrimp; quiche, several salads, watermelon and both blueberry cobbler and gluten free blueberry cobbler. And, our usual assortment of wines and other beverages.

We also had a full house!  Lou was in town and able to join us. Gwen accompanied Barb and so we were only missing Darby, Denise and Robbie. This is as close as we have come in a while to having us all in one place at the same time.

The temperature had cooled down enough by the time we got around to discussing the book, that we were able to sit out on the patio. Carla announced that she and Randy have purchased a lot in downtown Norman and will be building something new soon. We congratulate them and look
forward to our next adventures in her new home.

"Where the Crawdad's Sing," is a debut novel for Delia Owens. It went quickly to the top of the bestseller list and has been optioned for a movie by Reese Witherspoon. Delia is a zoologist who had authored several non-fiction books with her ex-husband. She grew up in Georgia but lived in Africa for a time and now resides in Idaho. Her writing style is being compared to Barbara Kingsolver, who is a favorite author of many of our members.

Diana said the book rated a 4.66 - but I think we just round that up to a 5. Most everyone loved it. Three of us liked it a lot but thought the telling was rather slow. I was listening on Audible and I thought the story moved slow as did the narration.

This is funny, I had not looked at any reviews on line. The first one I looked at says:

The story follows two timelines that slowly intertwine. The first describes the childhood of our protagonist, Kya. She is abandoned, one by one, by her family members and left to raise herself in the marshlands of North Carolina between 1952-1969. The second timeline follows the murder of Chase Andrews a local athlete and celebrity. Delia's extensive knowledge of biology and zoology did give us a depth of understanding what it must be like living off the land alone and what you must know, or learn, in order to survive by your wits. She did have some help and guidance by a few people on the fringes who kept an eye out for her and allowed her this privilege without turning her into the authorities. Although, they authorities did get close a few times. Kya was certainly a person who had a formidable strength and will to survive. I will be interested to see how they bring this book to the screen. 

Our next book will be Aunti Poldi and the Sicilian Lions.

August Book Club 2019

Many thanks to Denise for hosting the August book club. As you know, Diana and I phoned in our book report this time. She had mentioned we might be calling from Mt. Hood and she wasn't far off. We were having a hard cider at a roadside orchard and cutting garden in the shadow of the mountain. It was good hear everyone's voices and we enjoyed the discussion.

Carla Anderson did a great job of writing our update this month and I have posted it below. If anyone took any photos they would like to share, please add them to the Facebook page and I will upload.



Last night was just one more magical night of friends; women who are spiritual beings gathering together in a home filled with love, support and a safe place to be exactly who we are as individuals. Thank you, Miss Denise!

The food, as always, was absolutely wonderful. Denise made a Pasta e Fagioli soup, both vegetarian and sausage. Barb made egg and chicken salad sandwiches. Tammy brought a cheese plate. Liz made Taco salad and Carla G brought broccoli salad. Arnora brought fruit and, of course, beautiful flowers. Terry made a strawberry cobbler.

(At the time of this writing, the book had not been scored.) I am not sure how Miss D figures the score so I will send her the numbers and anyone who wants to rate it later may let Miss D know.

I know that wine, truffles and so much more were present and I apologize for not taking better notice of the who's and what's. (I totally understand - once you are in the mix of such great conversation you sometimes forget to take the notes and photos, guilty as charged!)

Leslie, Robbie, Pam, Janie, Sherrie and Diana were all missed.

Next month's book is "Where the Crawdad's Sing," by Delia Owens.

One last thing, we are all enough. We are all kind, loving and amazing women. Our higher power, or whatever each of us believes in, could not ask more or be more delighted in who we are as humans because we are enough. We are exactly who we are supposed to be.

NOTES from Sherrie.

From our end, it sounded like everyone had a good time discussing Bernadette. The story of Bernadette, is really the story of a kind coming of age story for Bernadette and her 15 year old daughter, Bee. This story is a variation on the many young adult novels where the child, on the verge of adulthood, is orphaned. In our story,  it is Bee's mother who disappears rather than both parents dying. Bee is still rather abandoned by both parents even before her mother's disappearance. So, I would say she it technically orphaned. Bee's parents suffered several miscarriages before Bee was born. Even though Bee is now 15, her parents relationship has suffered from the unexpressed grief of these prior losses and retreating into their own shells. Her father, who works for Microsoft, retreats into his work and a brief affair. Bernadette, a once famous architect, becomes housebound due to agoraphobia and is a stay at home, a mom at odds with the environment around her. Due to a serious of misunderstandings and miscommunications, Bee is forced to piece together shards of information to discover who her mother really is and why she went missing.

The adult characters in this book didn't necessarily come across as very likable and often were downright irritating. Absorbed in their own pain and navigating difficult life passage of their own, they were leaving Bee to fend for herself. But, this is how we grow up. This is how we learn to navigate in that adult world.

Bernadette has taken her grief and retreated from the world around her. She ensconces herself at home and is not fulling her passion. She is no longer creating beauty in the world but, havoc. This is what happens when we think we are avoiding our pain. It just leaks out in other ways. Bernadette takes off on an exploration. She doesn't know that she is missing. But, in disappearing the way she does she started to reconnect with herself.

This sparked the discussion that all women have at some point; are we enough. Are they doing enough for their families, their community, their God. Where do you draw the lines between giving everything to others and only scraps for yourself (I added that part, I don't know that it was part of the discussion.) And, who are we comparing ourselves to?

I really enjoyed this book when I read it a while back. I enjoyed how it was told and I enjoyed the journey of the characters. For me, characters don't have to always be likable. It is those grains of sand, the irritations, the people we don't like that often teach us the most about ourselves.

The book rated a 3.86 for those who rated it.

July Book Club 2019

Terry hosted us at her new, and very lovely home, for July. Tammy and Pam have also changed houses recently and we look forward to seeing their new digs at some point in the near future.

As it is July and the weather is warming up, Terry decided on Quiche and cool, summer salads. As, usual, we out did ourselves. Along with the Quiche and salads, there was Hummus and deviled eggs, and a veggie tray. Laura also brought a frozen, Reese's Peanut Butter
ice cream cake. I hope I didn't leave anything out. I do believe this was the first time that neither Diana, nor I, took any photos. Feel free to upload to Facebook if anyone else got any. I believe that Denise and Leslie were our only missing members this times (besides Darby and Lou and we always miss them.) Robbie joined us this month and we were happy to see her!

Our, book for July was Neil Gaiman's, The Graveyard Book.

Neil conceived the idea of this book in 1985 while watching his son ride his bike toward a graveyard. He dabbled with the writing the book for several years but ended up putting it aside and writing other things. Finally, he finished and published it in 2008. He considers each of the 8 chapters short stories on their own - separated by two year intervals. He was inspired by Rudyard Kipling's 1894 work. For example the chapter "The Hounds of God" parallels the "Kaa's Hunting."

This is an unusual coming of age story. Our protagonist is Nobody Owens, who is typically orphaned. His parents and siblings are deliberately murdered by an intruder. Nobody is a precocious toddler who has wondered off on his own out of the house and finds himself in the local cemetery. The murderer turns out to be a man named "Jack" who is a member of a secret society called "Jack of All Trades." He has deliberately searched out and killed Nobody's family because it has been prophesied that Nobody's mission in life will be to destroy the Jack of All Trades. Most of the story revolves around the ghosts and caretaker of the cemetery who agree to raise Nobody Or "Bod" as he is called. 

There are many mystical happenings as the story bridges the world between the living and the dead. Several of us listened to the book on audio that was performed by a cast of actors. I thought that made it very entertaining and easier to follow. There were at least two people who started the book and put it down because it wasn't capturing their interest. However, on giving it a second chance ended up loving it.

The Graveyard Book is a modern classic, and is the only work ever to win both the Newberry (US) and Carnegie (UK) medals.

The book rated a 4.5

Our next book will be "Where did you go Bernadette?" Denise will be our host.

September's book will be "The Power" at Carla G's home.