How surprised the subdivision book club was to learn that  Almost Astronauts, 13 Women Who Dared to Dream, was recommended  solely for 9-12 year olds.

Two or three times a year, we like to break up our steady diet of  fiction with a factual volume or two and don’t even mind learning a little something in the process.  That’s how Almost Astronauts and Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her made the 2011 reading list.

Growing up in the 60s, I was not aware that  qualified women had been denied the opportunity to participate in America’s Mercury space program.

During the late 50s and early 60s, “women weren’t allowed to rent a car or take out a  bank loan without a man’s signature; they could not play on a professional sports team at all. They couldn’t report the news on television or run in a city marathon or serve as police officers. They weren’t allowed to fly jets, either.” (page 5)

Let’s look at  the women featured in the situation comedies of that era: the zany red head, Lucille Ball;  Dick Van Dyke‘s beautiful, yet ditzy, stay-at-home wife, Laura; Margaret Anderson, a paragon of solid reason and patience on Father Knows Best; and  the ever present pearls of June Cleaver, mother of  the ‘Beav“.  No matter what the weekly plot line, the man of the family was almost always called upon to save the day even though the wife/mother was present in the household and capable of handling the matter herself.

With role models such as these on the boob tube, it’s not surprising that media bias and influential politicians were able to keep these women out of the space program.

In Tanya Lee Stone‘s 130 pages, the reader finds a vivid description of the testing and training set up by Dr. Randy Lovelace, the doctor responsible for overseeing testing for Mercury astronauts.  Led by Pilot Jerrie Cobb, the first to pass all the tests, the group equaled or surpassed their male counterparts with much less complaint.

As one reviewer pointed out, the only purpose of the privately-funded project was to develop medical standards for women in space.  They were “never trained for space, never worked for NASA nor were they ever classified as ‘top secret’”.

If that is a true statement, then please explain why the entire program was stonewalled by President Lyndon B. Johnson‘s terse note: “Let’s stop this now!”   Was it just jealousy that prompted Jackie Cochran‘s lack of support for her fellow fliers? Cochran had run the WWII WASP Program, the first women in history trained to fly American military aircraft.

Read Almost Astronauts and you will be intrigued by the historical and scientific details, outraged at the attitudes of powerful people and inspired by the women who paved the road for others.

Discussion Questions:

1.  Tom Wolfe wrote, “The world was divided into those that had it and those who did not.  This quality, this it, was never named . . . The idea was to prove . . . that you were one of the elected and anointed ones who had the right stuff.”  What do you think  ‘it’ was?  Could women as well as men have ‘it’?

2.  Compare/contrast the roles of women during WWII with that of the 1960s.  In which time period would you have been most comfortable?  Why?

3.  Discuss the motives of Randolph Lovelace, chairman of NASA’s Life Sciences Committee, Look magazine and Brigadier General Donald Flickinger behind their campaign to include women in the space program.

4.  Discuss why project WISE (Women In Space Earliest) stalled.

5.  The U.S. and Russia were neck and neck in the race to land a man on the moon.  Why did the U.S. never enter the race with the Russians to send a woman into space?

6.  The possibility of women in the space program prompted the media to ask:

What is a woman capable of?          What is a woman’s place?

How were those two questions answered in the 1960s?  How would they be answered today?

7.  Discuss the part that politics played in the space race taking into consideration the of intentions of JFK and LBJ.

8.  In  lieu of the fact that, “women are less susceptible to monotony, loneliness, heat, cold,  pain and noise than the opposite sex,” would you classify the female of the human species as stronger than the male?

9.  Was Jackie Cochran a traitor?  Why or why not?

10.  John Glenn said, “I think this gets back to the way our social order is organized.  The men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes and come back and help design and build and test them.  The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order.”  What does John  Glenn mean by the term, ‘social order’? Would you consider his statement just another excuse to restrict women from the men only astronaut club?

11.  What part did NOW and the Civil Rights movement play in changing the social order?

The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck, Kevin Balfe, and Jason F. Wright is sort of a  ‘cross between IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE and A CHRISTMAS STORY‘ without the lasting effect of either .

At first the reader feels a certain degree of sympathy and hopeful anticipation for 12-year-old Eddie.  Even with his  father’s death and the sale of their once-prosperous bakery,  the young lad still thinks this Christmas will be the best ever and hopes for a much-desired red, Huffy bike.

Unfortunately, Eddie unwraps “a stupid, handmade, ugly sweater,” and reacts accordingly.  Begrudgingly, Eddie agrees to spend Christmas  Day with his grandparents but refuses to spend the night even though his mother is too tired to drive back home.  You guessed it, a tragic accident takes the mother’s life and the boy spends the rest of the book  living with his grandparents.

A well-worn neighbor,  supposedly only Eddie can see, tries to help the youngster work through some of his anger and guilt.  But nothing really changes the young man’s surly outlook on life until he courageously steps into the gathering storm in the cornfield.   The other side of the hill is filled with colorful flowers,  wonderful sounds and Eddie shouts, “I am Happy!”

Reviewers characterized The Christmas Sweater as ‘hackneyed and flat-out unoriginal’.  A fast read, Beck’s story is not  autobiographical, as one might think.  However, the radio and television host, manages to sneak in some of his  own personal philosophy and political views.  The epilogue or afterword, The Way It Begins sounded more like a sermon than the winding up of a warm-hearted, fictional tale appropriate for the Christmas season.

Fans of Glenn Beck will probably enjoy this book, our book club much preferred A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg.

Discussion Questions follow:
1. Glenn Beck defines his core values as: personal responsibility, private charity, the right to life, freedom of religion, limited government and the family as the cornerstone of society.
How did the author’s upbringing, as portrayed in The Christmas Sweater, form these values?
2. The magic of Christmas means something different to the various characters in the novel. How did the youngster, Eddie, view Christmas? His Father? Mother? Grandfather?
3. Since his father had been dead for 3 years, Eddie’s only male role model was his grandfather. Did the grandfather’s vivid imagination along with his lying and cheating help or hinder the young boy’s development?
4. Was Eddie’s Mother a Grinch about other things than snow? What?
5. Did you find the mother’s death a believable part of the story? Did the author give the reader any hints to the contrary? If so, what?
6. In Eddie’s eyes, the Ashtons were the perfect family. What aspects of their family life is he overlooking or failing to see?
7. The character, Russell, had all the dirt of every farm on earth on him yet he felt clean and peaceful. Who is he?
8. Can you draw parallels between Eddie’s situation and that of the horse at the Johnson’s abandoned farm? Explain.
9. How would the plot of The Christmas Sweater have differed if Eddie had received the red, Huffy bike instead of the dreaded sweater?
10. In your opinion, was the dream sequence an effective literary device or just a gimmick used by the author(s) to accomplish their purpose? In your reading experience, what other devices have authors used to bring about a similar transformation in their characters?
11. Voice your feelings about the section titled, The Way it Begins.

First on the list was A Christmas Beginning by Anne Perry.  If you’re looking for a story full of mistletoe and holly along with yule logs and a cup of good cheer, then my advice is look elsewhere.

For the last five years, Ms. Perry has extracted a minor character from one of her regular series and placed him center stage in a story where the central theme overrides the mystery. In A Christmas Beginning, Superintendent Runcorn, the  William Monk series, enters the limelight.

After a particularly brutal case,  Runcorn of the London Metropolitan Police travels to the Isle of Anglesey off the north coast of Wales.

Rising from humble beginnings, this plain man, devoid of  family or friends with which to spend the holiday season, walks the cold, windswept landscapes seeking solace.

Imagine the reaction of the peaceful, upper-class island society, when Runcorn finds the body of a beautiful young woman, Olivia Costain, the vicar’s unmarried sister.

Totally inexperienced, the local constable and the Chief Constable of the County must acknowledge the superiority of Runcorn in this homicide case and ask for his assistance.

Coincidentally, the appearance of Melisande Ewart from a previous case, highlights the restrictions of Victorian society and the futility of a relationship between a lowly policeman and a lady ‘born and bred.’

Discussion Questions for A Christmas Beginning follow:

1.  Given that Superintendent Runcorn needs a vacation after a particularly ugly case, why does Ms. Perry send her hero to the isolated island of Anglesey in mid-December?

2.  Explain Perry’s theme (main idea) in A Christmas Beginning and speculate as to why she chose Runcorn as her main character.

3.  Do you agree/disagree with Melisande Ewart’s comment that she and Olivia Costain had much in common?  How were they similar?  Different?

4.  Why is it so important for the villagers to believe that Olivia Costain’s murder was either an accident or committed by a raving mad man?  How does Runcorn use his expertise to prove otherwise?

5.  Is Perry making a statement about the class system prevalent in the Victorian era when Chief Constable Alan Faraday takes credit for solving the case?

6.  Discuss Runcorn’s conclusion that, “Love was a gift, a grace.”  Does Perry give us any examples of that type of love in the novel?  Where?  Who?

7.  Which, if any of Perry’s female characters measure up to the model of Victorian womanhood as described below?

(Society dictated that a gentlewoman in the Victorian era(June 1837-January 1901) must be innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and ignorant of intellectual opinion.)

8.  What compels an individual to kill another?  Under what circumstances would you be compelled to commit murder?

9.  How does A Christmas Beginning fit into the genre of a cozy mystery?

(G-rated, light-hearted, crime is off-stage, quick and merciful, sleuth is usually an educated woman, small village where characters enjoy gossiping about each other)

10.  Will Melisande and Runcorn be allowed to marry?

Our second selection for the holiday season, A Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck will be discussed next.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan not only sparked a great, in-depth discussion, but led club members to read other works about famed architect, Frank Lloyd Wright such as Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders by William R. Drennan.

The widely-read post Wives and Lovers can be found here.  This selection complete with discussion questions has received over 1,000 hits in the past year.

These is my Words, written entirely in diary form by Nancy Turner, has also found favor with club members.  The post Pioneer Woman can be found here.

Told entirely in  letter format by Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society sparked a great deal of interest and a lively discussion.

One book club member wished that the fictional characters would indeed inhabit the aforementioned island, because she would love to visit with them to learn more about their war-time experience.  Click here for The Next Step – Discussing the Book.

The holiday season brings with it a chance to relive Christmases past and present.  Books read and discussed for our December meeting  include The Christmas Train by David Baldacci, The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans and Red Bird Christmas by Fannie Flagg. Of the three mentioned, Red Bird Christmas rated as number one.

The post, It’s Unanimous, proclaimed our love for Mma Precious Ramotswe, the main character of the The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

More information about its prolific author, Alexander McCall Smith, can be found here.

What are some of your favorites?

While this makes for a pleasurable reading experience, one misses out on the vast range of fiction and nonfiction available at your local book store or neighborhood library.

That’s the beauty of a book club – members are forced to read outside of  their comfort zones.

Left to my own devices, I would never have picked up Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough.

McCullough’s biography of  Teddy Roosevelt’s remarkably innocent childhood depicts a pathetically weak, asthmatic boy clamoring for his parents’ attention. It was through the demanding love of Roosevelt’s unusually demonstrative father that Teddy grew into his tough adult self.

While this book was a favorite of both Laure and Dixie, I returned it to the local library partially read.

Discussion questions can be found here.

Anyone who has enjoyed the The Inspector Lynley Mysteries on PBS, would likewise appreciate  the printed version of works by Elizabeth George.

In her debut novel, A Great Deliverance,  the novelist lays the groundwork for the up-and-down working relationship of  smooth, attractive and utterly upper-class, Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton, and  ”stubby, sturdy” detective-sergeant Barbara Havers,  who’s painfully conscious of her plain appearance and lower-class.

The mismatched team must weigh the general conviction of the villagers that this  silent, obese adolescent Roberta Teys could not have possibly wielded the bloody axe that killed her church-going father with the mounting evidence to the contrary.

Not your typical book club fare, but the skeletons in every closet made for a great discussion.

Questions are as follows:

1. Does the opening sentence, “It was a solecism of the very worst kind,” apply to Father  Hart only or to the entire novel?  Explain. (Solecism – grammatical mistake or absurdity)

2. Given that Barbara Havers and Thomas Lynley come from vastly different backgrounds can they, in your opinion, work together successfully?

3. Is Havers accurate in her assessment of her own abilities as a detective?  Do others at Scotland Yard share the same opinion?  Webberly?  Lynley?

4. Discuss the purpose of the two shrines in the novel.  Would you consider them productive or counterproductive?

5. We know why William Teys wanted to marry Olivia O’dell, but what did Olivia have to gain from their marriage?

6. Not judging by appearances is a recurrent theme in ‘A Great Deliverance’.  Discuss who is judging, who is being judged and the result of that judgment.

7.  Webberly told Havers, “There’s a lot you can learn from working with Lynley.”  What could she learn?  What did she learn?  What was she afraid to learn?  Does she really hate Lynley?

8. “People would do anything for the ones they love most.”  How does this statement explain Roberta’s behavior and/or her motive for killing her father?

9. Was Barbara Havers at fault for her hard-nosed treatment of Nell Graham a.k.a. Gillian Teys?

10. After entering her parent’s home and seeing Tony’s shrine, Havers realized that she had been, “incubating a chimera and what a bloody waste it’s been.”  Explain.

(Chimera – In medicine:  a person composed of two genetically distinct types of cells; In Greek mythology:  fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent.)

11. Did you agree with Father Hart’s decision not to betray what he had heard in the confessional?  Why/Why not?

12. In your experience, was the picture of religion that Elizabeth George portrayed in ‘A Great Deliverance’ an accurate one?  Did the author have an ulterior motive?

13. Discuss the emphasis the author places on setting/scenery in the novel.   (p. 55 – the right streets of Acton, p. 56 – the wrong streets of Acton, Scrapbook of travel sites, p. 108-109 – Yorkshire countryside)

14. Give examples of the author’s use of humor to lighten the subject matter of the novel.

15. Given the book’s title, ‘A Great Deliverance,’ did you believe the murderer’s confession early on in the text?  What other characters had sufficient motive to kill William Teys?

What unlikely books has your club enjoyed?

• a small southern town where nobody’s business remains private for long
• several irresistibly, quirky characters living out their convictions regardless of public opinion
• shrewd insights and observations cloaked in homespun humor for all to enjoy

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

In this break-through Alabama novel, the action swings between the Whistle Stop Cafe and the Rose Terrace Nursing Home.

This two-fold story introduces Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, co-owners of a post-depression era eatery.  The secondary account revolves around the nursing facility where Ninny Threadgoode, Idgie’s elderly sister-in-law, coaches middle-aged housewife, Evelyn Couch, through several of life’s more challenging moments.

Through the respectful treatment of Idgie and Ruth’s ‘relationship’, Flagg presents her personal views on feminism and Sapphic love.

Probably the author’s best known novel, its story line spawned the1991 movie, Fried Green Tomatoes , but also earned Ms. Flagg an Academy Award nomination for her work on the screenplay.

Discussion Questions can be found here.

Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man

Coming to light first as a short story that garnered the author first prize  at an 1978 Writer’s Conference, this novel is told from the perspective of 11-year-old Daisy Fay.

The story unfolds in diary form peppered with spelling mistakes which Ms. Flagg hoped would disguise her lack of competency in that area.  (an outgrowth of undiagnosed dyslexia)

Set in the 1950s era town of Gulf Coast Shell Beach, the dysfunctional Harper family, complete with adored alcoholic father and neurotic mother, will stop at nothing in their struggle for survival.

Whether riding half naked through town on horseback or competing for a scholarship in the Miss Mississippi pageant, the hapless, truth-telling heroine just can’t avoid trouble.

Discussion topics can be found here.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

Main character, Dena Nordstrom, travels from Elmwood Springs,  to New York City and back again when the stresses of TV journalism and life in the big city take their toll.

Each humorous character:   cousin Norma and  her husband, Mackey; sorority sister, Sookie, the antithesis of our heroine; and the recurring character, neighbor Dorothy, lends a spark to Dena’s life  below the Mason-Dixon line.

But Ms. Flagg shoves humor aside when Dena confronts a major crisis during the search for a mother who abandoned her daughter many years before.

Click here for discussion questions.

Standing in the Rainbow

Once again Ms. Flagg takes the reader back to Elmwood Springs, home of the Smith family.  There’s earnest Cub Scout Bobby Smith, his pharmacist father, and his radio personality mother, Neighbor Dorothy. (This character first appeared in Welcome to the World, Baby Girl.)

The story follows the family, their friends, neighbors and acquaintances over a 50-year period of time  starting when $1.50 could buy a live Christmas tree, movie goers could find an afternoon’s worth of entertainment for a nickle, plus sit on a stool afterwards for a sundae at the soda fountain.

Questions for book club discussion can be found here.

A Redbird Christmas

A synopsis and discussion questions can be found by clicking here.

Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven

In this 2006 selection, the novelist treats the reader to one person’s view of heaven-the botanical garden in Kansas City.

After octogenarian Elner Simfissle dies of anaphylactic shock, she rides a crazy, side-ways elevator to meet her makers in the guise of Neighbor Dorothy and her husband, Raymond, atop a sparkling crystal staircase.

Later a sudden and most unexpected resurrection prompts those around the rosy-cheeked lady to make drastic changes in their lives:  Norma becomes a real estate agent, Luther marries Bobbie Jo and Tot gives up her negativity.

Click here for discussion questions.

I Still Dream About You, Honey

Coming soon – November 2010

No matter which Fannie Flagg book your club  might choose, members will always find a multitude of  unconventional characters known to make observations such as, “That catfish was so big the photograph alone weighed 40 pounds.”

Don’t miss out on the fun!!

]]> http://www.bookclubcompanion.com/questions/southern-fried-fiction/feed 0 http://www.bookclubcompanion.com/questions/literary-comfort-food http://www.bookclubcompanion.com/questions/literary-comfort-food#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:50:46 +0000 Linda http://www.bookclubcompanion.com/?p=2252 In her 28th novel, Rosamunde Pilcher introduces an ensemble of five main characters who converge in Scotland on the darkest day of the year, Winter Solstice.

Former actress Elfrida Phipps, 62, flees London for a cottage in the small English village of Dibton where she is befriended by the Blundell family.

Retired college professor and organist Oscar Blundell turns to Elfrida when an auto accident claims the lives of his wife, Gloria, and 12-year-old daughter, Francesca.  Grief-stricken Oscar leans on Elfrida who convinces him to return to his grandmother’s estate in Scotland where he retains half-ownership in the Estate House.  Since he has nowhere else to go and Gloria’s sons have put The Grange up for sale, Oscar agrees.

When her affair with a married man turns sour, Elfrida’s second cousin, Carrie Sutton, leaves Austria and returns to London.  There she finds her niece, Lucy, refusing to accompany her mother and male friend to Florida for two weeks. Grandmother, Dodie, also has plans to spend the holidays in Bournemouth with friends leaving the 14-year-old bereft of friends or family for winter break.

Called back to London by his company chairman to revive a defunct Scottish textile mill, Sam Howard, shows up at the Estate House during a blinding snow storm.  While trying to enter the building with a key from Oscar’s cousin and co-owner, Sam discovers an ailing Carrie who invites him to come in out of the cold.

In two short weeks, these five people from three generations begin to put their lives back together and find something to celebrate.

While most readers reacted favorable to this novel of hope and renewal, some reviewers found fault with Pilcher’s unrealistic time frame for Oscar’s grief process.  Gloria and Francesca have been dead for two months and Oscar and Elfrida are definitely a couple in every sense of the word.

Others found the players stereotypical:  the grieving widower, the neglected child, the broken-hearted  lover, the cold-blooded socialite and pleaded for multi-layered character development.

Most readers will find the plot predictable, but don’t let that keep you from enjoying the rich descriptions of domestic detail, exquisite depiction of Scotland in winter and that sure-to-please happy ending.

Discussion Questions follow:

1. Elfrida made many friends in the small village of Dibton, but the Blundells became her favorites.  Discuss what attracted Elfrida to each one in turn:  Oscar, Gloria, Francesca.

2.  Both Oscar and Elfrida have spent much of their professional lives in London, yet find Dibton a comfortable place to live.  What makes Elfrida comfortable? Oscar?  How did the tragic auto accident affect their comfort level?

3. Sam retains fond memories of Radley Hall, his boyhood home, and Oscar remembers Corrydale, his grandmother’s estate.  What memories do you carry with you of your childhood home or hometown?  Good or bad?

4. Taking into account Elfrida’s admission that, “She liked Oscar immensely; perhaps too much,” how would you characterize her relationship with Oscar before and after the tragic accident?

5. Elfrida declared that she had to set limitations and reservations so she would not be absorbed by or be beholden to the Blundells.  Discuss the above reference and explain what she is so afraid of.

6. Compare and contrast the two young girls (Lucy & Francesca) especially in  their reaction to the merging of the pagan festival surrounding Winter Solstice with the Christian celebration of Jesus’ birth.

7. Why do you think Pilcher chose Winter Solstice as her book title?

8. How accurate is the author’s portrayal of the grief  process?  Some reviewers found it unrealistic that Oscar asked Elfrida to marry him just two months after the death of his wife and daughter.  Do you agree?

9. What part does fate play in Winter Solstice?  Did you find the plot believable?  Did Pilcher’s use of fate lend to or detract from the novel’s believability?

10. Discuss Pilcher’s use of setting to propel the action of the novel.  One reviewer felt that the setting assumed the position of an additional character in the book.  Agree/Disagree?

What other Rosamunde Pilcher novels have you read and enjoyed?

Even a failed, three-way collaboration and later a manuscript’s rejection didn’t scare this journalist away from storytelling.

Over lunch, Dallas and two friends plotted, divided up and crafted characters for a book later abandoned when their day jobs got in the way.

Later the fledgling novelist resurrected and rewrote a post-college manuscript only to receive the dreaded rejection letter from her agent.

Hooked on fiction, Dallas persevered eventually producing Buster Midnight’s Cafe, an end-of-depression look at the hell-roaring days of coal mining in Butte, Montana.

Steeped in history from an early age, Dallas covered the Rocky Mountain region as a staff writer and the first female bureau chief for Business Week magazine.

Schooled  daily in Virginia’s past by her mother, Dallas and her siblings toured Washington’s Mount Vernon and Arlington House, residence of Robert E. Lee as children.

But a 1945 move to Denver opened up the west for a writer who never ventured  back east again.

Subjects ranging from copper mining in Butte, Montana, and polygamy in Utah, to the role of women in business and sexual harassment provided future background for Dallas’ fiction dominated by female characters.

The Chili Queen

Set in Nalgitas, New Mexico, in the 1860s, The Chili Queen follows the life of Addie French, a con artist turned madam.

Returning by train from Kansas City, Addie befriends a prim and proper lady traveling west as a mail-order bride.  But when Emma, the spinster, is jilted, she seeks refuge in Addie’s ‘boarding house’ and life at the brothel is never the same again.

This psychological thriller cum detective story takes the reader on horseback through the plains of New Mexico and Colorado as the con men/women try to out run the person they swindled.   Through Dallas’ words, one can feel the wide open spaces and sniff the sweet-smelling air of the old west.

Tallgrass

Just after the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an act forcing all of  California’s Japanese Americans into internment camps.

When Dallas’ pen hits paper, this relocation to Tall Grass (Amache) produces an  fearful atmosphere ripe with paranoia in Ellis Colorado,  a small town of sugar beet farmers.

From the viewpoint of Rennie Stroud, 13, the reader watches as the bigoted townspeople heap blame on the nearby Japanese when a crippled girl is found brutally murdered and raped.

Often compared to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Tall Grass highlights the struggle of the dirt-poor farmers in the sparsely populated southeast town of Granada.

Discussion questions can be found here.

The Diary of Mattie Spenser

In the post-civil war era, the stigma of being a spinster compels Mattie to accept an impromptu marriage proposal and accompany her new husband by wagon train to the western territories.

While Luke battles to shape the frontier into a homestead, the lone female endures hardship, frugality, betrayal, infant mortality and drought along with the constant threat of Indian attack.

In Mattie, Dallas gives us a woman of courage and faith in the treeless, inhospitable landscape of Eastern Colorado.

Don’t forget the Persian Pickle Club, another Sandra Dallas favorite.

A list of nonfiction titles can be found here.  Fictional titles here:

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.

The Southern Belle

From outward appearances, Courtney Gray Ralston has the perfect life:  a handsome, successful husband, four beautiful children and status in her community.

But on closer examination,  we find that her silver-haired mate strays repeatedly forcing Courtney to find love with Gene, a 300-pound Elvis impersonator.  And when her florist lover issues an ultimatum -  divorce Hawk and marry me or else – Courtney’s world begins to spin out of its perfectly balanced orbit.

The Romance Novelist

Anna Todd enters the plot hidden under layers of makeup and clothes, topped off by her trademark black hat and enormous sunglasses.

One wonders if the romance writer is seeking anonymity from her adoring fans or is just hiding from memories of her failed marriage, still born child and 12-year liaison with Lou.

Even when Harriet asks, “Anna, Anna, whatever has happened to you?” few  details come to light; not even her real name.

The Artist

Last to arrive, Catherine Wilson, a direct, down-to-earth sculptor enters with her third husband, Russell, in tow.  Born to a life of privilege, Catherine remembers being more interested in her upcoming engagement party than the original raft trip.

Instilled with the idea that the whole point of college was marriage, Catherine was an indifferent student excelling only in art classes.

When her second husband, Steve, was killed in a robbery at the 7-Eleven, Catherine began sculpting large concrete women with mosaic dresses and hats to support her four children.

‘Baby’

The central figure, ‘Baby’, appears only in the other character’s memories since an auto accident claimed her life just before Christmas of the previous year.  Smith subtly plants doubt by recalling a failed suicide attempt during college.

Springing from a very wealthy Southern family, Margaret Ballou never played by the rules leaving her roommate Harriet to cover up her many indiscretions.   Less than studious, Baby’s main goal was to graduate with an engagement ring.

The driving force behind the original raft trip, Baby considered herself a poet.  As the story progresses,  Smith inserts examples of her work in between the prose of the novel.

The Last Girls, a mixture of  college experiences, interspersed with the grown-up world of marriage, infidelity, health crises and career moves, leaves the reader puzzled as to time and place.  One reviewer suggested that chapter headings would have cleared up some of the confusion.

A natural storyteller, Lee Smith, tells the story in the same convoluted way that Southerners do, “using intimate asides, gossipy digressions and personal observations,” just like everyday conversation.

Smith’s sense of humor shines through with the quirky fellow passengers and Catherine’s attorney husband.  A fellow drinker falls senseless from the adjoining bar stool without Russell ever shifting his attention from the Weather Channel.

There’s plenty to talk about:  thirty discussion questions can be found here.

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.

Talk Before Sleep
(1994),  a nurse caring for a good friend slowly dying with cancer.

Discussion Questions here.

Range of Motion
(1995), deals with the experiences of a comatose man

Discussion Questions here.

The Pull of the Moon
(1996),  Nan’s story, as she travels cross-country seeking to reinvent herself.

Joy School
(1997), a continuation of Katie’s story, as she tastes romance for the first time.

Discussion questions here:

What We Keep
(1998), a girl’s abandonment by her mother.

Discussion Questions here:

Until the Real Thing Comes Along
(1999),  a woman’s love for a gay man.

Discussion Questions here:

Open House
(2000),  after the departure of her husband and a spending spree at Tiffany’s, Sam  must  reconstruct a life for herself and11-year old son

Discussion questions here.

Never Change
(2001), a nurse treats a childhood acquaintance with an incurable illness.

True to Form
(2002), a revisit with Katie’s during the coming of age process.

Say When
(2003), the damaging effects of infidelity on the marriage of Ellen and Griffin written from the husband’s  point-of-view.

The Art of Mending
(2004), a family reunion forces a 50-something “quilt artist”  to face some long-standing secrets.

Discussion questions here.

The Year of Pleasures
(2005), a Boston widow fulfills her dying husband’s dream of starting a new life in the Midwest.

Discussion Questions here:

We Are All Welcome Here
(2006), together a polio victim and her 13-year-old daughter work miracles in the summer of 1964

Discussion Questions here.

The Handmaid and the Carpenter
(2006), inexperienced teenagers, Mary and Joseph, struggle to honor family tradition despite unusual circumstances.

Dream When You’re Feeling Blue
(2007), three Irish Catholic sisters keep the home fires burning for their young men fighting in WWII.

Discussion Questions here.

Home Safe (2009), suffering from writer’s block,  a popular and prolific author struggles with her husband’s sudden death.

Discussion Questions here:

The Last Time I Saw You
(2010), former classmates reconnect with one another—and themselves—at their fortieth high school reunion.

Which is your favorite and why?