Postcard Kept Us Reading

 Thanks to everyone who braved the cold to come to my little house - good timing as everything is going to get packed up and stored for a while while the floors get done. Fun! It will be nice when it is over. At least I got to host one book club! 

And we had a great discussion, such fun to have everyone. The Postcard by Anne Berest was an unusual approach for a novel centered on the Holocaust. The structure, centered on one Jewish family in France, kept the pages turning, and we generally really liked the book, despite the upsetting material. There were details none of us had heard before, particularly about the state of the returned prisoners and the way France tried, with mixed results to accept these poor people back in and provide some care. The desperation of those hoping for news of their own loved ones was just wrenching. 

The whole mystery of the postcard, who sent it and why, was the mechanism to investigate and tell the story, which Anne Berest says is that of her own family. I personally really liked the story line and the resolution but not everyone did. I listened to this book on my long migration to Florida, so that might have colored my view - to me it is a very different experience than reading. 

We had some trouble scheduling February with travel, so we picked Feb. 6 as the date for our next meeting. Carole has volunteered to host, thank you! Since that is pretty soon, we selected a quick book to read - The Art Thief by Michael Finkel. It is a great read, and easy to get through, and an amazing story. 

See you all then, let Carole know what you can bring! 

Another great Holiday Swap!

 Many thanks to Margo for hosting our Holiday evening on Monday, what great fun! We had an absolute blast and thanks to everyone who brought fantastic things to eat and drink. There was a great holiday cookie tray, was that also our hostess with the mostest Margo? It was fab. 

And so were the books, which had a different twist this year. Our goal was to bring books that we wanted to read in the coming year, and that turned out to be a great idea. There were still a lot of swaps, but there was also a lot of discussion about the books.  Generally we knew them as they tended to be recent, and that meant a bit of swapping around, and in some cases lurking waiting for a chance. 

So here is the whole list of the books that showed up, and how about this, I have who brought them and who got them! Amazing. 

There might be a few errors, it was a lively night! 

Title	Author	Who Got It	Who Brought it
The Wager	David Grann	Val	Wendy
Here in the Dark	Alexis Soloski	Wendy, then Celia	Margo
Absolution	Alice McDermott	Gabby	Karin
Down Cemetary Road	Mick Herron	Margo	Fiona
Let Us Descend	Jesmyn Ward	Celia to start	Gabby
Heaven and Earth Grocery Store	James McBride	Kathy Baker	Val
The Golden Spur	Dawn Powell	Jean	Celia
The Art Thief	Michael Finkel	Karin	Maggie
A Man Walks into a Barn	Chad Oldfather	Mary	Kathy
The Covenant of Water	Abraham Forges	Ashley	Jean
The Postcard	Ann Berest	Fiona	Mary
Fates and Furies	Lauren Groff	Maggie	Ashley

No progress at all was made on January, except I vaguely remember selecting The Postcard as the January book. Get started, it is a bit long! Would Jan. 15 work for our next meeting? We can all try squeezing into my tiny little newish house if so. 

See you all then, I hope!

Dartmoor's Daughter was really fun!

 What a great time we had learning all about Dartmoor, the setting for Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles and the folklore and history that led up to its creation. 

Emma Cunis, who is the founder of Dartmoor's Daughter was just a delight and a fount of information about all parts of the moor, and a lot about Conan Doyle as well. She was kind enough to stay up (very) late as Emma zoomed in from the U.K., in between tours and lectures on the moor. I was lucky enough to take a hike with her last June when I was there, and it was well worth it. 

Conan Doyle had evidently been ill and had gone to Dartmoor to stay with a friend. During that time, and later visits, he walked up to 17 miles a day on the moor (not hard to do, I will say, as the space is vast) and learned much of the folklore of the area. There was a cruel and difficult lord who terrorized the local population in earlier centuries, he evidently had a big, black and cruel dog that he used to good effect. 

The variable and difficult weather of the moor led to tales of witches with enchanted animals endangering the hapless people who might be out at night, or even taking revenge on those who wronged them - more fodder for the fairly terrifying events of the story. And of course, the prison, with its feared escapee is still there in Princetown, high on the moor, still in use, and still allowing for a famous escapee in the '60's.

The moor itself is so much a character in the story. Conan Doyle talks about the ancient peoples who created and left behind villages and memorials. Emma was able to show us some of the many remnants that still litter the landscape, beautiful in their way and wholly different than the even more ancient thors which are natural granite formations, carved by the wind and time itself, also mentioned in the story. The bogs were also a danger, along with the massive hound. 

Emma just did a masterful job of showing us the actual places, the actual landscape in the context of the history, it just made it all so fun, thank you Emma! I cannot recommend a trip to Dartmoor enough (there are riding tours!) and when you go, make sure to call her for a tour. 

All this was made possible by Maggie, who grew up going to the moor in the summers as her family had a home there, and in turn bringing her own children there. Thank you Maggie!!

And thank you to Karin for hosting in her beautiful home and thank you to Sally who worked on the technology challenges - we definitely need to import a 16 year old for night like this to reduce the whole stress level of high tech. 

Karin also provided the idea for our next book - Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I contacted Ann (or her publicist at least) to see if she would zoom in for a discussion. She turned me down flat so we will just have to struggle on without her. Can anyone volunteer to host? Our date should be Nov. 20. See you all then! 

Pursuit of Love - surprisingly entertaining and interesting

 This may have seemed like a period comic novel at first page but in fact it turned out to be an interesting reflection of the effect of world politics on the people who lived through them, in all its personal opportunities and costs. 

The book was based on the author's own life and her family, making her and her sisters famous in their time. It is the first of a trilogy, an immediate best seller and has been repeatedly adapted into film and television, a pretty good result for what might be considered a flimsy novel. 

We found plenty to talk about, from why gentlemen wear pink coats to fox hunt (they are actually red and named after the tailor who invented them) to the politics of running away to the Spanish Civil War and/or marrying a fascist. The choices of these family members put them on opposite sides of history with all the complications that would normally arise from that. It is truly a reflection of its time. 

We all enjoyed it so much that it is a contender for movie night, which is our August plan. We are meeting on August 14, at 6:30 and the plan is to meet at the Deep Run Hunt Club so we can use the large screen TV. If you have another idea, let me know, either for venue or for the movie. 

See you all then! 

The Personal Librarian - mixed reviews, a fascinating history

There is a lot to like in the history of this accomplished woman who became the personal librarian to J.P. Morgan, and perhaps more importantly, the force behind the donation of that library to New York City. Marie Benedict (a pseudonym as it turns out for Heather Terrell) has written, with a co-author, Victoria Christopher Murray, the story of Bella Da Costa Greene, a light-skinned black woman who, despite all the odds against it, becomes a famous professional whose work is acclaimed across the globe. 

And so the set-up is a great one, the story has much to offer but our group felt (with some exceptions) that the story itself was tediously told and the most difficult part, passing as white, was not a major factor in the plot. It was however, clear that the choice to invent a Portuguese heritage came with a huge emotional cost - she was not only completely cut off from her family, she refused to marry or have children. The risk was too high, she wrote, because her children might expose her true heritage through their own skin tone. That is pretty hard to imagine. 

I was surprised to see the range of historic topics this author had taken on, including Hedy Lamarr who between movies was a ground-breaking inventor with significant contributions to the WWII efforts, Agatha Christie's unexplained disappearance in 1928, and the story of Winston Churchill's wife Clementine. The co-author, Victoria Christopher Murray, has been largely overlooked but is herself the author of more than 30 books, most geared to the African-American Christian audience. 

We are lucky to be going back to Gabby's for our next meeting, as she says the roses will be out! Yeah! Our next book is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Gramus, which has garnered a lot of buzz in the literary press. The date is May 8, at 6:30. See you there! 

Prisoners of Geography - enlightening and interesting

 Thanks to Gabby for hosting our fun event at her beautiful country house, what a great time! Highlighted by a big pan of delicious Mac and Cheese, what could be wrong with that. We also had a great discussion of the book, Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall. 

This book did a great job of describing how geography dictates the political and strategic interests of each country (or region). I was particularly taken with the China chapter, where the plight of the minority Uighur population came into focus but that was not the only time it seemed illuminating. And on top of it all, it was very well written and moved along like fiction in many places. 

That being said, we wondered what happens now in a time when technology rather than geography will define conflict. And are there ways to mitigate these interests that might be deeply-seated, regardless of whether they are still an active problem to solve. 

One of the best attributes of this book, in my opinion is that it is easy to dip in and out of - each chapter stands alone in its own way and could easily be read when any one of these countries or regions hits the news as great background. It was really good. 

Now on to next month, which will be on April 3. Jean has kindly offered to host at her house, so let her know what you are planning to bring. Our book is The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict. This was one of our Christmas books, historical fiction that tells the story of J.P. Morgan's personal librarian who as it turns out was a black woman passing as white. Sounds great! 

Fiona has also arranged for Anne Margaret Daniel, the editor of the newly reissued Great Gatsby and I'd Die for You, a collection of short stories by Fitzgerald unpublished in his lifetime to come to our September meeting which will be on the 11th. This should be really fun! 

I am also working on getting Rachel Beanland, a local author to come talk with us about her first book Florence Adler Swims Forever and her upcoming book The House Is On Fire, about the Richmond Theatre fire of 1811. I am going to see her give a talk about this book on April 4 if anyone wants to join in. 

And, one last activity, the Junior League Book and Author dinner is May 4. I have a conflict, but I think some are planning to go. It will be at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, a great venue. Speaking of that, the VMHC has some terrific book events. I just went to a talk by Stacy Shiff who wrote the new biography of Samuel Adams, it was great. April 19 is a talk by Charles Fishman, who wrote One Giant Leap, about the US space race that we read a couple of years ago. That is in conjunction with the Apollo exhibition there, which also looks great. 

See you all in April! 

Happy New Year!! What a fun Christmas Swap!

 Hi all and Happy New Year! It is hard to believe that we are on to another year of wonderful friends who talk about wonderful books! We had a bang-up time at Mary's for our annual Christmas Swap, thanks to everyone who came and brought a wide range of interesting new ideas for our reading in the coming year. Mary had the brilliant idea of using this list as a starting point for our book choices going forward which will make it all a bit easier! Thanks again Mary!

While everything on the list sounded great, the most swapped book of the night was Demon Copperfield by Barbara Kingsolver. This is her take on David Copperfield, so those of you who are Dickens fans can take note. I am going to give this a try on audio while I haul my horse down to Florida for the winter - can't wait for any number of reasons.

Our next meeting is Jan. 23 at Fiona's, if she can make the date. (I haven't asked yet!) Thinking ahead, our February meeting is on the 20th - at Gabby's if she can make the date and the book is The Expendable Man by Dorothy B. Hughes, unless the group wants a change.  These are the two dates I will be in town for January and February, so I hope they work, if not, maybe I can call in. 

Drum roll, here is the Christmas Gift Swap List! 

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall, from Mary

Under The Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes from Gabby

Demon Copperfield by Barbara Kingsolver from Karin

Jigsaw Puzzle from Sally Graham- for a break from reading! 

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larsen from Jen

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus from Carole

The Invention of Wings by Susan Monk Kidd from Sally Ashburn

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams from Maggie

Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin from Carole

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Milford from Ashley

The Expendable Man by Dorothy B. Hughes from Celia

The German Heiress by Anika Scott from Wendy

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn from Jean 

Anil’s  Ghost by Michael Ondaatje from Fiona

Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict from Margo

I think I got all that right, weigh in if not. See you all on the 23rd, all the best for the New Year! 

Sea of Tranquility - not a big hit

What a lovely night we had at Karin's house! It is very beautiful, as you would expect, and we laughed and laughed and laughed at all kinds of things, not many of them related to the book. It was a blast! 

As far as the book goes, not a happy group, as not many of us liked it much. I did, but mostly because it was beautifully written, although she did not have that much to say. The structure was somewhat difficult to follow, and the time travel, and space travel was confusing, and I got all the people confused more than once.

That being said, the premise was interesting and kept some of us involved and turning pages. It is an interesting moral dilemma - if you know the future and can save heartache but cause other issues, do you do it? And how do you know it will cause issues? Interesting. 

And so we go on - our next meeting will be Oct. 17 at Ashley's, our book is Horse by Geraldine Brooks and we have a special guest! Mary will bring along her friend Ann Archer, whose family owned the farm where this story starts. Can't wait! 

See you all then! 

Gaudy Night - great stuff!

 Hello all and thanks to Margo for hosting! Too hot for the porch but a wonderful night anyway, thank you! What a fun conversation about what was, at its time, a ground-breaking novel with rather ground-breaking characters. Ashley in particular knew a lot about this book and where it fit in the Lord Peter Whimsey stories of Dorothy L. Sayers. 

While this book definitely stood alone, Ashley's ability to put it into context was illuminating. Harriet Vane, the main character, was back at her college at Oxford for an Alumnae dinner. Expecting a cool reception since she had previously been on trial for murdering the man she lived with. In the thirties! Not the done thing. 

Expectations and pre-conceived roles played a big part in how the book moved along. I could almost see Harriet's eyes rolling every time she is asked about Lord Peter Whimsey. What was he like, was he going to show up, did she have any insight into him? Oh to be a handsome, wealthy member of the aristocracy, even one (his ground--breaking part) with shell-shock from WW1 and also a reputation for womenizing.  

While this was a good story, it left me a bit puzzled about why it was considered such an important book for Sayers. Again, written in the 1930's, with a plot that hinged on education for women and their role in the world, perhaps it was the topic. It was also a lovely read, with well-defined characters and a plot that moved right along, at least after painting the picture of life at this secluded women's college. 

All in all, we liked it, and if you have questions about it, Ashley is your best source. 

Our next book brings us back to the current day. It is Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. She is the author of Glass Hotel and Station Eleven, both relatively popular books. We are going to Karin's new house at Monument Square, can't wait. The date is August 15, at 6:30. See you all there! 

By the way, I was at the library the other day picking up Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, and was surprised when I was handed a lovely canvas bag with eight copies of the book and a discussion guide inside. It was a Book Club Kit! Nice to know such a thing exists, maybe we should give one a whirl! 

See you all on the 15th. 

Palace of the Drowned - some said yes, most said no

With a title like Palace of the Drowned, one might expect a relatively grim story, hopefully still a gripping one. This novel was not as grim as might be expected but not everyone found it gripping. The characters were quite vivid and some felt this was a story of women's friendships, with the inevitable positives and negatives of any life-long strong bond. 

The character at the center of the story, an author with dwindling literary success and a very public and flamboyant failure, is an unreliable narrator from the start. Angry at her rich friend who has lent her a palace in Venice but has not arrived as promised, her gloomy outlook seems to match the descriptions of Venice in the winter. Cold, damp, deserted and resistant to newcomers, it seems one more rejection, until she meets a young woman who admires her and wants to be her friend. 

Never mind that she doesn't want this friend and that she is also unreliable and intrusive. Needless to say, it doesn't end well for anyone. Sadly, the plot felt contrived, the characters actions unbelievable and the writing a bit overwrought, at least for some of us. Others felt it was interesting as it was hard to guess what might happen, and a lot did seem to happen. That is why we read and discuss, for differences of opinion. A good night, and a good discussion! 

Many thanks to Kathy Baker for hosting in her beautiful home with gorgeous newly mown hay fields out the back windows and lovely art on all the ways. It was great! 

And on we go. By popular demand, we are changing the July book away from Dickens but staying with a British classic writer. We are reading Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, which is considered one of her best of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. I am reading it and am quite involved already, immersed in Oxford University in the 30's. Our date is July 18 and we will be at Margo's, thank you Margo! 

See you all there!