Book Club Companion

Thirty five years have elapsed since twelve giddy college girls emulated Huckleberry Finn by setting sail down the Mississippi on a raft.

Now, four of the original dozen reconnect at the famed Peabody Hotel in Memphis for a somber purpose. They will cruise the mighty river again-this time on the Belle of Natchez – to honor the memory of Margaret ‘Baby’ Ballou and commit her ashes to the ages.

The Old Maid School Teacher

Ill-at-ease in the hotel’s elegant furnishings, Harriet Holding, considers leaving almost upon arrival.  Like the novel’s acclaimed author, Lee Smith, Harriet teaches community writing workshops for women.

Even though men have found her attractive over the years, Harriet has shied away from attachments and remains unmarried at 53.  A scholarship student at Mary Scott College, Harriet identified with the cafeteria help that she worked with rather than her  fellow classmates. read more…

Touted solely as a woman’s writer by some, Elizabeth Berg fearlessly tackles the tougher moments in life.  She grabs hold of your heart by touching on topics that we all can relate to such as:  infidelity, loss, death and divorce.

Often termed sentimental, Berg draws an accurate picture of grief – “the doubts, the dailiness, the decisions, the daring to dream again”.

While some reviewers feel that Berg has a tendency to write scenes that are a little bit far fetched with predictable textbook characters, they still praise her eye for detail, simplicity, and beauty.

Two people, having read the same book, can come away with opposite opinions of its characters, plot and setting.  I suggest you decide for yourself by sampling one or more of Berg’s books listed below.  Happy reading!!

Durable Goods
(1993), 12-year-old Katie, struggles with the loss of her mother while  being dragged from town to town by her abusive father.

Discussion Questions here.

read more…

While I’m not usually a fan of memoirs or novels pieced together in diary form – These is my Words proved to be a welcome exception. (click here.)

Book #1 in Nancy Turner’s trilogy introduces the reader to a young girl who matures into a strong independent woman while traveling by wagon train and settling in the Arizona Territory.

In the year 1881, calamities come in many forms:  unfortunate accidents, Indian attacks and sickness plague the travelers as well as the unscrupulous bandits and ruffians who meet them at every turn of the wagon’s wheels.

Because 17 year-old Sarah Prine is uneducated, nearly illiterate, her early diary entries are peppered with spelling and grammatical errors making a slow, often painful reading process.

But when she acquires a wagon load of books, her education takes off as does her writing ability.

The author’s use of first-person narrative draws you into the story laying open Sarah’s thoughts, pain, despair, and insecurities for all to experience first hand.

One reviewer commented, “I cared so much that I dreaded turning the pages for fear of the horrific fate that could befall any of the characters at any time”.

The reader cheers as Sarah overcomes the obstacles barring her way to love, marriage and establishing a family in the far flung, often lawless, western territories of 1881-1902 while always, always waiting for disaster to strike as it so often does.

Readers recommended Sarah’s Quilt, the continuing story of an extraordinary pioneer woman and her 3-year struggle with drought on the family ranch.

Book #3, The Star Garden, finds Sarah, at 43, with grown sons, and the center of a large, unruly family. Living in a house built by the man she refused to marry and courted by her neighbor, Sarah is not so sure she wants to be a wife again.

Discussion Questions for These Is My Words follow:

1. Suggest why an illiterate girl would find it so important to keep a diary of her Arizona trip and life afterward.

2. Explain, if you can, why the Lawrence family shunned Sarah after she saved the lives of daughters, Savannah, Alice and Ulyssa.

3. If you had to debate the issue of the pioneers fighting the Indians to save their own lives and the lives of their families, which side would you take and why?

4. Whenever Sarah measures up against her sister-in-law, Savannah, she always finds herself wanting. Agree? Disagree?

5. A genuine thirst for knowledge compels Sarah to learn and grow as an individual. Who helps her? What does she learn and from whom?

6.Talk about Sarah’s marriages. What makes her attractive to Jimmy Reed? Jack Elliot?

7.What ultimately brings Jack and Sarah together? Sarah’s transformation? Jack’s transformation?

8. Any idea why Jack refused to resign her army commission leaving Sarah and the children alone and vulnerable?

9. Does Sarah’s picture of the West challenge or confirm your ideas of life on the frontier? Think of the many losses, the hardships and how the settlers surmounted them. Are we, in modern times, as tenacious and courageous as Sarah and her contemporaries?

10. Although Sarah’s story is fictional (there is no actual diary according to the author), it is based on stories about the author’s great grandmother. Do you feel the story is realistic or highly romanticized? Is Sarah credible? If so, what makes her story convincing?

11. Would you read Sarah’s Quilt or The Star Garden? Why or Why not?

Once a year, the church book club sets aside the monthly discussion questions in lieu of an evening of drinks, hor’dourves and fun.

Sometimes the evening will feature the movie version of a favorite book and other times the high point will be a game of trivia drawn from the year’s reading list.

For December ‘09, Anne compiled a jeopardy game using information from the following books:

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

84, Charing Cross Road

Wish You Well

The Persian Pickle Club

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Third Angel

Back When We Were Grownups

The categories and the questions were as follows:

The British Isles

1. A channel island between England and France where our August selection took place: (Guernsey Island)
2. The Marks & Company address Helene Hanff sends her reading requests to: (84 Charing Cross Rd)
3. Lucy Green is given a dog while visiting this country:  (Scotland)
4. Biddy, Patch & No No’s mother lives in this country:  (England)
5. The Lion Park Hotel in London plays a big role in this book : (The Third Angel)

Food & Drink

1. Precious Ramotswe enjoys this particular brew:  (bush tea)
2. Rebecca Davitch gets this spilled all over her shoes by her future mother-in-law:  (ham)
3. Dessert was always provided by the weekly hostess of this group:
(Persian Pickle Quilt Club)
4. Will Allenby’s nightly dinner: (chili)
5. Tinned ham and eggs were some of the gifts Helene sent because of this in 84 Charing Cross Rd: (rationing)

Mysteries

1. Besides coal, this other fuel was also discovered in the Cardinal coal mine:
(natural gas)
2. Ella Crooks husband Ben disappeared and was found here: (buried in a field)
3. The problem with Michael Macklin’s room on the 7th floor of the Lion Park Hotel: (haunted/ghost -of Teddy Healy)
4. Mma Makutsi figures out that Mr J.L.B. Matekoni’s house is being used as this: (illegal bar – shebeen)
5. Mma Ramotswe’s secret that she can’t bring herself to tell anyone:
(she thinks she is still married to her 1st husband)

Friends, Relatives & Others

1. Mma Ramotswe’s office manager proudest achievement:
(97% on her final exam from Botswana Secretarial College)
2. Louisa Mae & Oz Cardinal go to live with this relative when their parents died:  (great-grandmother)
3. Juliet & Dawsey decide to do this:  (get married)
4. How Helene Hanff and Frank Doel kept in touch:  (letter writing/post/mail)
5. The gift Zepha leaves for Queenie when she and Blue leave suddenly:
(Quilt- called Road to California)

Name That Book

Identify book by location

1. Takes place in Appalachia – (Wish You Well)
2. Kansas – (Persian Pickle Club)
3. New York and London – (84 Charing Cross Rd)
4. Baltimore – (Back When We Were Grownups)
5. Botswana – (In The Company of Cheerful Ladies)

Note: Elly won the prize for the most correct answers.

** To facilitate this year-end trivia bash, refer to the discussion questions distributed monthly.

What does your bookclub do for fun?

***Thanks to Anne for sharing the jeopardy book trivia with my readers!!

In November, The Times on Line issued a list detailing the best 100 books of the decade.

Unfortunately, I’ve read only five.  (Must have been living under a rock for the past 9 or 10 years.)

They are:

46   Middlesex
by Jeffrey Eugenides (2002)

An American epic concerning three generations of the Greek Stephanides family and their lives in Detroit. Calliope is a girl with no breasts and a forest of unwanted hair who finds that s/he is a hermaphrodite — raising questions about sexuality and gender.  (waste of time)

30 The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini (2003)

Afghanistan before the Russian invasion is the setting for a timeless story of betrayal and redemption. Amir, the quiet son of a wealthy businessman, lets down his friend Hassan, the son of a servant, at a crucial moment. Years later he returns to Kabul to make amends. (good read)

25 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon (2003)

A runaway bestseller hailed as a successor to The Catcher in the Rye for its sensitive depiction of an autistic teenager. Christopher is 15, a maths genius with a terror of ordinary social situations, whose investigation of a dog’s death reveals truths about his parents. (strange, yet interesting)

10 The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown (2003)

A murder in the Louvre, and the clues are all hidden in the works of Leonardo. Some love it, some hate it,but you can’t deny that its mix of conspiracy, riddles and action dominated the decade. (not my favorite)

9  Atonement
by Ian McEwan (2001)

A foolish act of bravado and a simple act of conceit at a 1930s house party combine to spoil three lives. Can amends be made? You either love or hate the postmodern twist at the end, but you cannot deny the brilliance of the descriptive set-pieces. (freaked me out!)

If you’re interested in the entire list click here.

Which books have you read?  Let me know.

*Be sure to check out some of the comments from readers!!!

Every book lover needs a book mark.  Here are some cute ones that would make great gifts.  All of these are available online from Oriental Trading Company.

IN-4/3050
Holiday Character Ruler Bookmarks
$4.99 48 Piece(s)

Made of translucent vinyl. (4 dozen per unit) 5 1/4″ © OTC

Dog lovers might prefer one of these:IN-12/2215Plush Dog Bookmarks$5.99 Per Dozen

Each cute pooch comes on a satin ribbon and is ready to guard where you left off! 11″© OTC

For the crafty bookclubber, try this one:

IN-41/1228Christmas Bookmark Craft Kit
$4.99 Makes 12

With self-adhesive jewels and felt! Makes 12. Approx. 3 1/2″© OTC

For a Mom’s book club:

IN-57/2388
24 Fabulous Foam Mom Bookmarks
$5.99 Makes 24

Bookmarks, 3 1/4″ x 4″; shapes, 3/8″ – 1 3/4″.Ribbon included.© OTC

For that personal touch:

IN-4/46980
Personalized Holiday Pencils With Bookmarks
$7.99 24 Piece(s)

Each 7 1/2″ wooden pencil comes with a 6 1/2″ paper bookmark. Personalize them with 1 line of 30 characters/spaces. (2 dozen per unit) © OTC

Go to Oriental Trading Company to see all eleven pages of available bookmarks.

Can you guess which one I’m giving to all my bookish friends?

The Christmas season has often times been described as the most wonderful time of the year.

Strangers become friends, smiles grower wider and  warmer as all of God’s creatures prepare to celebrate once again the birth of the Christ Child in a Bethlehem stable.

There’s no better way to observe this most joyous season than by sharing a warm and wonderful book from one of the following authors:

Richard Paul Evans

The Christmas Box Collection: The Christmas Box, Timepiece, and The Letter

In The Christmas Box, we meet an elderly widow, MaryAnne Parkin.

Her advertisement for a live-in couple answers the prayers of a struggling young family crammed into a drafty one-bedroom apartment in the foothills of the snow-clad Wasatch mountain range.

The Evans gain as much or more than MaryAnne from their living arrangement and almost 4-year-old Jenna finds a grandmother in residence.

TimePiece, the prequel to The Christmas Box, chronicles five years in the life of David Parkin, through his marriage to MaryAnne and the birth of their daughter, Andrea.

The Letter finds the Parkins 20 years later as they struggle to cope with the tragic loss of their daughter and the slow deterioration of their once happy marriage.

Although Evans did not compose these three books as a trilogy, each book relates to the other two but does not have to be read in any certain order.
Some readers characterized the stories as syrupy while other lauded their refreshing innocence.

Fannie Flagg

A Redbird Christmas

Searching for a milder climate in which to live out his final days, Oswald T. Campbell (named for the soup) lands in a small town located somewhere near Elberta, Lillian and Mobile.

Maybe his life-long streak of bad luck has finally turned as Oswald settles in and interacts with the citizens of the fictional town of Lost River, Alabama. Jack, the red bird residing at the neighborhood grocery, and Patsy, the young crippled child, figure prominently in this character’s new chance on life.

Discussion questions can be found here.

Kate Jacobs

Knit the Season

In this feel-good holiday novel, Jacobs reconnects the reader with the characters from her two previous novels in the hustle and bustle of New York at Christmas time.

To fully appreciate this yuletide offering, The Friday Night Knitting Club and Knit Two should be read first for the back story and character development.

As a gift to faithful readers, knitting patterns and some delicious recipes have been added by the author.

But don’t forget two of my timeless favorites:

Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol

Discussion questions for A Christmas Carol can be found here.

O. Henry (William Sydney Porter)

The Gift of the Magi

Click here for reflection questions for Gift of the Magi.

Prolific author, Debbie Macomber, loves Christmas so much that she puts up five fully-decorated trees and 37 Nativity scenes.

In between all of these extravagant holiday preparations, she still  finds time to pen a yearly Christmas novel ever since the early 1990s.

This post will highlight five of Macomber’s holiday gems:

The Christmas Basket (2002)

This small, 240-page novel features an exaggerated, laughable version of  the historic Hatfield and McCoy feud.

When 28-year-old, Noelle, could avoid her hometown of Rose, Oregon, no longer she hopped a plane in Dallas.   Wouldn’t you know it, she just happened to encounter Thom, the high school sweetheart that jilted her 10 years ago, on the same flight.

Slowly the couple rekindles their fractured romance among the mom-against-mom cat fight which ensues when the two women must cooperate to finish a service project for the town’s Century Club.

Some readers felt that the mother’s antics while shopping and filling the Salvation Army Christmas baskets more interesting than the plot involving the two main characters. Agreeably, the supermarket demolition derby  and the toy-throwing incident at the local mall are not to be missed.

One reader described the story’s content as: “no meat on this bone,” while another asked for a more, in-depth explanation of the 10-year-old misunderstanding that  had separated Noelle and Thom.

But it’s all in good fun; so curl up with a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy this feel-good Christmas story. read more…

Seven mourners + no sermon=a three-minute funeral.

Hard to believe isn’t it that the 1849 death and subsequent burial of Edgar Allan Poe drew such little attention?  Reports say that most friends and followers did not learn of the funeral proceedings until the following day.

To rectify this grave injustice and commemorate the bicentennial of the author’s birth, the Baltimore Poe Society staged an elaborate reenactment complete with:

• an 11-hour, public, open-casket viewing in his former home at 203 North Amity Street for a $5 fee.
• an all-night vigil at Poe’s Monument, Westminster Graveyard, where literary fans  paid homage to the deceased through words, poetry or song.
• a horse-drawn hearse processional from Amity Street to Westminster Hall,  led by the Loch Raven Pipes and Drums.
• hundreds of spectators, many in appropriate period attire, lining the streets to pay tribute.
• two, 2 1/2 hour services, 12:30 and 4:30 p.m., to accommodate the vast number of mourners; 600-700.  The cost was $35 in advance and $40 at the door with no SRO or children under 10 allowed.

Best known for his role of the original Gomez Addams, John Astin, officiated at both services. An esteemed Poe researcher, Astin heads up the John Hopkins theater department.

Poe biographer and rival Rev. Rufus Griswold was forced from the podium after referring to the master of the macabre as a “carping grammarian”.

Griswold scowled and muttered through the rest of the proceedings as Poe admirers from the past and present lauded the originator of the mystery/detective novel and horror story.

Exhibiting obvious paranoia, horror writer H. P. Lovecraft read from the Necronomicon.

Other noted individuals in attendance included: Sir Alfred Hitchcock, legendary film director;  Walt Whitman, American poet; Sarah Helen Whitman, former fiancee; Nathanial Parker Willis, loyal friend; J.T.L.Preston, childhood friend; Charles Bauldelaire, French writer;  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes; Mark Redfield, actor and filmmaker.

Actual footage of the reenactment can be found at the following links:

NPR

BBC

FOXBaltimore

http://mouseski.blogspot.com/2009/10/into-region-of-shadows.html

Poe grew up, fell in love, married, penned his first poems and started his literary career in Richmond, VA.  Information regarding Poe’s life in Virginia can be found here.

Five Poe myths debunked here by Dante Club author, Matthew Pearl.

*Thanks to my niece, Amy, for her eye-witness account of the event.

” Program, program, get your programs here!”

” Programs, here! You can’t tell the players without a program!”

Just like the avid baseball fan, readers of Back When We Were Grown Ups would  appreciate a program or even a score card to keep track of the sheer number of characters strolling in and out of Anne Tyler’s 15th book.

First off, the jovial Joe Davitch married Tina and begat three daughters:

1. Bridget (Biddy)
2. Patricia (Patch)
3. Elinor (NoNo)

As the novel opens, we meet Rebecca (Beck) Davitch, 53, a dimpled grandmotherly type whose loose style of dress resembles that of a bag lady.

Widowed at 25, this proprietress of a 19th century Baltimore row house/party rental, inherited a ready-made family when Tina abandoned Joe and their three children for a career as a New York night club singer.

The eldest Davitch daughter, a  part-time nutritionist who dreams of being a gourmet chef, habitually refuses to taste her own concoctions for the Open Arms clientele. With her fiance’ dead of an asthma attack, the newly pregnant Biddy, 20, moved in with his gay brother.

Together, she and Troy have parented Dixon, the black-haired, brown-eyed heart throb who waits tables and aspires to attend John Hopkins. read more…