Our April Meeting

We could not have had a more glorious picnic for our book group, overlooking the beautiful fields of the Deep Run Hunt Club. The weather was perfect, the sun going down through the trees just idyllic and the food excellent. Thanks to all who brought yummy stuff, it was a great meal in a fabulous setting. At least two of us (me and Kathy) would like to use this as our permanent location, it was so lovely. Certainly we will do it again, hopefully back on our usual schedule.

The conversation was also great, we had a long, wide-ranging discussion about the book and the movie, since most of us had seen it. There was certainly a lot to talk about, starting with the point of the book - the incredibly difficult to imagine  Hunger Games. We had a good bit of chat about why this particular book is so popular with both teens and adults when the topic is so dark. Some postulated that teens were drawn to the story that gave the characters control over their lives, and adults were drawn to the philosophical questions posed by the book about control of society and the role of government.

Beryl brought up an excellent point about the number of times and in what detail food was described in the book - both in the starving regions and in the overfed capital. That led to some discussion about how people  who have at some point been food deprived remain focused on food for the remainder of their lives, it is so traumatic an experience. The dramatic contrast between the pampered, shallow and silly people in the capital and the gritty, practical populations elsewhere was also a point of discussion. Why keep the capital in such luxury? Why starve the rest? What motivated those careers? Very interesting. 

Interestingly, the only characters that generated much discussion were Peeta (a sad name choice for a baker's son Sara noted) and Rue, both of whom were favorites. Katniss was a little too superhero like and capable but still worked well enough. That led to a lot of discussion about motivation, the will to survive, the differences in strategies across the tributes, and why people who are doomed to kill each other make alliances. And why did Peeta join in the alliance? One thought was that individuals make choices as they go along, trying to best they can. There is no doubt the will to survive is a very big part of human nature (remember Lou Zamparini?). Yet Peeta was adamant that he would not allow the situation to turn him into someone he did not want to be. This moved on to discussions about people who strive for success by following the conventional path, like the careers versus those who create a new way to succeed, like Katniss. 

Another point of discussion was the extrapolations the movie included that expanded the role played by the President and the Gamekeeper in the actions within the Arena and created the control room that manipulated the weather and the events. While it was clear this was going on in some way, the subplot of the Gamekeeper being held accountable for Katniss's outsmarting the Games was all new. Sara and others felt this was the way the movie was able to fill in Katniss's thinking which is a big part of how the book moves the plot along. 

Thanks as usual to Val for coming prepared with questions - evidently this book is already being taught in school and she had a teacher's guide! 

The conclusion was that we all liked it. Yeah! Now on to the next book, May 7 at Fiona's. The book is Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald. This is a new author for me and now that I have read a little about him I can't wait to read this book. I will forward on the NYT review and the obit Fiona sent me. Sadly, the author was killed in a car accident in 2001, at the age of 57.  He wrote in German and his books were only available in English a decade after they were written. His work sounds amazing, so thanks to Fiona for the idea. 

We also agreed to take on the summer project of reading Don Quixote. Our goal is to read the book for our September meeting. Since it is 1,000 pages, we wanted some time to finish it. However, we will still read other books and meet through the summer, hopefully with fast reads to make time for the big project. The recommended translation of Don Quixote is by Edith Grossman, who is the translator for Gabriel Garcia Marquez among other notables. From what I read, it is hard to go wrong with most of the translations, and Amazon has some good information contrasting the translations in the reviews of the Grossman book for those who want more info on that. 

For our June meeting, we agreed on Home by Marilynne Robinson. This is a lovely and sad book, beautifully written. I am now reading another of her books that cover the same families in the same small Iowa town called Gilead, I recommend that too. We are hoping for an inspiration from the Book and Author dinner on May 1 for the July book. November will be the new JK Rowling novel for adults called The Casual Vacancy. It comes out on Sept. 27 so that seems a bit tight for the October meeting but we could try for then if we want. 

Other books mentioned during the eventing include Austerlitz by WG Sebald, Cloudstreet and Breath by Tim Winton and a book of short stories that Fiona brought and I can't remember the name! Sorry! Also, for our group's old timers, our friend AJ Jacobs has a new book on getting fit, sure to be a funny read. 

See some of you on May 1 at the Book and Author dinner! I will also post this on our blog.