Christmas Book Swap, fun as usual!

Thanks to everyone who came and brought wonderful books to put under the tree. We had a great time as usual, and the food was amazing. There were some wonderful books to be had including a pop-up version of The Little Prince that was so lovely that we were all very jealous of Wendy who ended up with it.

The big winner for the night in terms of swap might have been the annotated Lolita. Not much of an edition (I brought it) but the amount of insight the annotations offer is amazing, all the more so when considering Nabokov wrote it in English, his third language. Lolita is considered one of the best novels ever written, and among most controversial.

The other contender for most swapped was The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. Val was determined to have this book and lucky for her, she drew number 1 so it went home with her. We added this one to the reading list for March, so we can catch up with her.

For January, we decided on The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert. This is supposedly very different from her blockbuster Eat, Pray. Love and I personally love her writing, so I am looking forward to this. Our next meeting is Jan. 18, at 6:30. For a change, we are going to meet at a restaurant and decided to try Maple and Pine at the Quirk Hotel, if it can accommodate our group.

For fun, here is the full list of books and who brought them.

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett - Jean
Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening by Carol Wall - Wendy
Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler - Dawn
The Little Prince (pop-up edition) by Antoine de Saint-Exupery - Maggie
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert - Lynn
Val brought a three-fer:
     Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton
     Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund
     The Red Tent  by Anita Diamont
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro - Liz
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante - Ashley (I think)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - Celia
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee - Kathy (who could not come but sent a book anyway, thank you!)
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini - Carol
A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny - Julie (Mary got this one, I already bought it, I was so jealous.)

The group wanted to read a biography of a strong woman or a classic for February (not Lolita,  sadly) so we compromised and came up with Joan of Arc by Mark Twain. I can't wait!

See you all Jan. 18 at Maple and Pine, Quirk Hotel, 6:30 pm. Happy Holidays!

A Marriage of Opposites, by Alice Hoffman

Thank you to Ashley for hosting the book club meeting in your lovely home! We had a lively discussion of this book (and of a couple of wines - more on that later) that took many looping turns but kept coming back to the central themes of the book.

A Marriage of Opposites, by Alice Hoffman tells the story of Rachel Pomié's life and experiences in St. Thomas in the early 1800's. Rachel was the mother of the painter Camille Pisarro and this book explores the development of his artistic voice, but the persistent influences of his mother's childhood, her family, and the community's traditions regarding religion, race and class echo throughout both Rachel and Camille's lives, as does the tropical lushness and fertility of the island of St. Thomas.

Our discussion ranged from the life of women in the St. Thomas, then under Danish rule, and the religious tolerance that her Jewish family found there.  We discussed women's rights to property, to vote, and had to do a quick Google for the date of suffrage in England (1928) and in the US (1920).  Some notable women we were interested in learning more about are Madame Clicqot, The Grande Dame of Champagne, Marjorie Merriweather Post, and Beryl Markham.

 We agreed that we enjoyed the book, and the discussion that proved that the social confines experienced by Rachel, her friends and family were still pertinent and in need of examination and re-examination to see where gains have been made, what we are taking for granted and what we still need to achieve.

Wine Notes:  We enjoyed two wines, one called Two Vines, a Columbia Valley 2012 Merlot/Cabernet blend, and a Nero d'Avola by Archeo, 2013.

We were very sad to hear of the passing of Celia and Rick's beautiful dog Jessica, and send her our love, sympathies and condolences.  We will all miss Jessica, as she was an honorary member of the book club, and we spent many happy book club meetings petting her and getting to give her treats from her special drawer.  She was a great dog.

A God In Ruins, a lovely story but how did it end?

Thanks to Fiona for hosting yesterday and for making not just the fabulous bread we have come to expect, but also an amazing apple tart. Thank you and thanks to all who brought lots of fun goodies to  share, it was wonderful. All the better for the fact that Val is back from the frozen north! 

As far as the book is concerned, most of us really enjoyed it and Fiona really loved it. While this is nominally a sequel to Life After Life, Kate Atkinson created a beautiful story that stands on its own while still allowing the stories to work together. A God in Ruins found a way to have Teddy, the golden boy of the first book stand in as a symbol of Britain and its path before and after World War II.  

The beloved young boy, connected with his future wife by the age of 10, growing up in the bucolic country becomes a grown man with many horrifying war experiences behind him, somehow drifting along in his life to its inevitable end. His family story intersects in many ways the major events of the  early 20th century in England and so does its trajectory. 

Teddy's daughter and her children take up a lot of real estate in the book, for better or worse. Viola is difficult to like but there is some sympathy for her in the revelations that Atkinson adds much later in the book, when the relationship between her and her father is set in the reader's mind. That she was shaped by her parents' experiences, without her understanding them, may be part of who she is.

The writing is so effective, so descriptive and precise in this novel. Atkinson's ability to describe a scene is incredible. The wartime bombing scenes were so convincing, so complete, they were hard to read. While the characters involved did not come to life as much as the main characters, none the less, their journeys and outcomes were wrenching. 

As well, Atkinson's ability to pace the plot and tell a story is amazing. Whether we loved the characters, or the plot line, still we all felt it kept us turning the pages, and most of us had a strong emotional reaction, good or bad. 

As far as the ending goes, we had no conclusion as to whether Teddy died in the war, or lived his life.  The option opened the question of ones impact in the world and ended the story with ambiguity. What actually happened? What would have been different in that scenario? What was clear was that this book was definitely worth reading, and thank you Kate Atkinson.

On to our last read of the year (OMG!) for our November meeting.  After some discussion, we have substituted A Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman for our prior pick, At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen. Our next meeting will be November 16 at Ashley's. (Thank you Ashley!) 

Our last meeting of the year is our annual Christmas Book Swap, tentatively scheduled Dec. 14, pending input from the group. We are scheduled to come to my house right now. Susan Victoria offered to host if her new place is ready in Church Hill,  thank you Susan! 

Weigh in if you want on the book or the conversation, so glad to have us all together! 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle - a great read if odd

Finally, here is the blog for the last book club meeting, what a fun time we had at Susan's house. What a lovely place and a lovely setting! We are still trying to figure out how the ferns got so big. 

While we were a smallish group, the consensus was definitely positive on our book by Shirley Jackson. I had no idea that she was as prolific and as well know as she was during her lifetime, which ended in 1962. Like many people, I thought "The Lottery" was the sum of her work, so this book was a revelation. 

This novel, quite slim, was also quite odd, the story of a prominent family in a small town that had suffered a great tragedy that in some way turned the town against it. The two sisters and an uncle that remained somehow survive, isolated from the townspeople that are beneath them and the other prominent families that they cannot bring themselves to include in their small world. 

As the story unfolds through the unreliable voice of the younger sister, Mary Katherine Blackwood, known as Merricat, who gradually unfolds as the iron fist of the family and the source of the tragedy. In the end, it was just Merricat and her beloved sister Constance, living behind the barricade of the castle, blocked off from the life around them but somehow rehabilitated with the village. 

How much time goes by is impossible to tell, other than the fact that the ruin of their large house is now covered with ivy.  Evidently, this is Shirley Jackson at her best, and that is very good indeed. The writing is wonderful, both the gradual unfolding of the story and the crafting of the sentences. The story is in some way a parable, with people who resonate with us, even though we wish they didn't. 

This is a short read and a really good one - if you didn't get a chance to read it before the meeting, find some time, it is worth it. The gothic, strange nature of Shirley Jackson's work doesn't cancel out the thoughtful stories, the skillful writing and in the end, having a moral to the story, even if it isn't the one we want. 

So on to our next book,  A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson. Our next meeting is Monday, September 2, 6:30 pm  at Gordon Gibson's house here in Goochland. Gordon, let us know if that no longer suits! See you all then! 

Tigerman - a world alway PLUS a change in book for August

We had a lovely time at my house, complete with a visit to my now two month old colt fresh from his breed inspection. Thanks to everyone who came! Welcome to our newest member of the group, Liz Culley! Liz is a trooper, she came with one day notice without reading the book. That's enthusiasm.

Tigerman turned out to be a great read and we enjoyed it. The mash-up of a poisoned community, a war fatigued Brit now nominally in charge of the local mission, a comic-book obsessed 11-year-old and a sinister fleet of boats in the harbor made for a really entertaining story that moved along really well, albeit a bit unbelievably.

Those of us who read the book all agreed that it was quite readable and at least the main character, Lester was engaging, particularly in his awkward attempts to adopt the comic-book kid called Robin. As Lester finds out more about this boy and the impact of the environmental damage to the island, the more he wants to take the boy with him when he leaves - whenever that might be.

The culmination of the book leaves Lester dressed as Tigerman, storming a drug ring with a dozen bond-like devices strung on his belt, thanks to Robin. It is hilarious while also being poignant and thrilling. While that finally goes bad, at least poor Lester gets the girl in the end.

We loved the writing, the pacing and the weird story. At the same time, the combination of a comic-book plot and real life and death, not to mention crime, made this book seem less serious than it might be.

We spent a long time talking about parenting, as that was an important part of the story, even as it was totally missing for this young man. Lester's love for this boy, his desire for a deeper relationship was really touching. Robin, for his part tragically lost his mother, alive but mentally erased by a toxic cloud that swept over the island. His cagey interaction with Lester made it all the more interesting.

Alas, in the end the conclusion was totally unbelievable and hurt the overall book, in my opinion. That being said, it was a fun and interesting read, definitely a cut above many.

So after all that discussion, we turned to the reviews of Go Set a Watchman which is set for our August book. The overall feeling was that we DID NOT want to read it. While it is on my shelf, I think I will wait a bit to read it, Scout and Addicus are too precious to me.

So for August, we decided to move up the Shirley Jackson book, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Ashley has offered to host, let me know if that still works Ashley!

For September, the group wanted to read the new Kate Atkinson book, A God In Ruins. This is a related book to Life After Life, but not a sequel so don't worry if you haven't read it yet.

Call if you have any questions! Lynn was generous enough to give us her Pea and Mint dip recipe, expect to see this on my table anytime you come for dinner! Thank you Lynn! Here it is:

4 shallots, minced (I used scallions)
2 cups peas (I used org frozen)
2 Tbs EVOO
3 Tbs chopped mint
2 Tbs mascarpone
1/4  tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

In medium pan over medium heat, mix the shallots with the peas, and sauté in the evoo until the peas are barely done and the shallots are wilted, about 4 minutes.  Stir in the mint, mascarpone, salt and pepper.  Chop coarsely in a food processor or by hand and spoon onto the bread.  They had crostini - I used rice crackers.  

"Hold Still" - very interesting, perhaps a bit overwritten.

We had a lovely time at Jean's very lovely and book-filled house with some of our most dedicated readers. What fun, and we got to see pictures from Jean's daughter Emily's wedding (so beautiful) and  had yummy ham biscuit from the wedding too! Thanks so much for hosting Jean and to all who brought a wonderful array of goodies.

As for the book, the consensus seemed to be that it was an interesting read and that Sally Mann is a fascinating person who has accomplished a great deal with her work. Whether any of us actually liked her was a different question, one that we wondered was a fair one. Would we be wondering whether we would like a male photographer whose memoir we just read? Maybe, but would there be more distance, with less judgement? Maybe.

And of course, given the subject matter that brought her to prominence, pictures of her children that are still controversial, she come in for a lot of criticism as a person and a mother. The story of the New York Times censoring a photo of Virginia which caused Virginia so much pain was so interesting; the children could distinguish between a photo and themselves, yet so many others couldn't. And we were a bit ambivalent about that as well; was it alright?

Some of us have had a chance to meet Sally Mann and spend a bit of time with her. Fiona shared an exhibition with her daughter Jessie, the absolutely gorgeous one who is now an artist. Having met her,  the question is still open, but also the question of whether that actually matters.

I for one, found her charming and riveting in person, although peculiar in her choice of material and choice of equipment and technique. The mix of ether and ancient lens that made up the Southern photographs were a good example. Why make it so hard? Was that really the best way to represent what she wanted to show?  The story of her having her dog skinned, buried and then the remaining bones exhumed was too extreme for me; oh and then came the Body Farm pictures. Which were in color.

Still, the narrative of how her life and art developed was good enough that we all finished it and for the most part like it. One thing that we all noted was how "crafted" her sentences were. Not all of them, not enough to diminish the overall success of the story, but enough to make me and others skip ahead. In some cases, it was a bit hard to follow and she also seemed to reach for vocabulary. This is a pretty well-read group and we were scratching our heads about some of her word choices, but not enough to look them up. There were too many of them!

So overall, we liked it. The jury is still out on her but isn't that always the way with women artists?

OK, on to a very different read, Tigerman by Nick Harkness. We will meet on the 20th of July at Ashley's. August will be at Fiona's, and we will read the new Harper Lee book, Go Set a Watchman. I can't wait!!

I am a subscriber to Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concerns, which is a literary journal edited by Dave Eggers. It is amazing and so creative and resourceful. The most recent quarterly included two previously unpublished stories by Shirley Jackson of "The Lottery" fame.  It never occurred to me that she had written anything else but in fact she was a prolific and well-read author in the her time. So we have picked one of her best-know novels for September, We Have Always Lived In The Castle. This one will be out west on September 21, I am hoping for the Deep Run Hunt Club.

Please note, Wendy, Mary and I have a board meeting that usually meets on Mondays and so once we get the schedule, we may need to adjust dates a bit. Still, this is good planning ahead. Thank you again Jean!

"The Sociopath Next Door" We all know one.

What a great spirited conversation we had about this thoughtful book, which generally got good reviews from the group. The absolutely most interesting part of the discussion was of the people that we had all run across in our lives, or perhaps still have in our lives whom we now understand only too well.

The stories of when and where we had come across these people in our lives only proved the point that most people have had to deal with the lack of conscience or remorse in another close at hand, with obvious emotional consequences. As it was pointed out, one in 25 people in the US falls into this category and so we have met these people in the workplace, our associations and potentially in our families.

Our own stories were varied, from a (very) bad boyfriend to a manipulative college roommate. Julie had a textbook example of an employee with charm, looks, (just) enough smarts and the key tip-off - a perpetual but ever-changing play for pity. While that recipe worked really well for an individual sales person, it was a disaster for a larger role.

The book is written of course to make a point and so it fairly black and white in its depiction of a sociopath - one either is or isn't. We felt that there had to be more of a spectrum and wondered whether someone could moderate his or her behavior enough to be functional in a perfectly acceptable way. Lynn and Susan thought they knew someone who had done just that - while remorseless himself, he had built a life that was consistent, successful and even generous; just not emotionally engaged. The book does not weigh in on that possibility but it seems like a logical option.

By the way, did anyone else notice that the cover included three sets of eyes, only one that could be male but the statistics show this is a condition that is definitely more prevalent in men than women. We just can't catch a break.

Thanks to Maggie for hosting at her lovely house, including a tour of the tree house for those so inclined. The food as usual was spectacular! Lynn brought a pea and mint dip that was amazing! If anyone wants the magic cake recipe, let me know, it is yours for the asking. Speaking of magic, Ashley, those cookies! Amazing. Rick absolutely loved them, so can I have the recipe?

Our next book is Hold Still, by Sally Mann, a memoir of her life and controversial photography. This should be a great read as she is fascinating. We may want to combine this discussion with a trip to see her work at the VMFA. Jean has offered to host our next meeting on June 15.

See you all there, feel free to weigh in!

"All the Light We Cannot See" - a lovely moving book

Hi all! Sadly, time has gotten away from me so there is short notice on our next meeting and book so I will start there. Our next get together is at Maggie's on May 18 and the book is The Sociopath Next Door. I for one am looking forward to reading this and am hoping to find out I am not the sociopath.

Now for the lovely, intricate, moving novel by Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See. This was a wonderful read and we all agreed (except one, was it Sally?). While I have had my fill of World War II fiction, despite that backdrop, this was really a story of two children, in very different circumstances and how they become the people they are when they finally meet late in the book.

Each of these characters is remarkable. Certainly the war is the catalyst that causes them to meet, but it is really a minor player. Our group loved the language, the way the story unfolded and the interesting subplot of the diamond. We had enough confusion among us that we had to go back and read the page the finally answered the question of what happened to it. Thanks Mary for remembering!

And also thanks to Mary for hosting, it was a lovely evening at Fox Trot Farm! Now on to the next, see you at Maggie's on May 18!

Empire of the Summer Moon, by S. C. Gwynne

For our March book club, we selected Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Commanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, by S. C. Gwynne.  I was lucky to have received this book during our holiday book swap at Celia's house, so I was interested in discussing it with the book club. 

We had our meeting at Beryl's beautiful new home, where she prepared delicious treats for us to enjoy while we caught up with each other's news, then talked about the book. Thank you, Beryl!

The book was stirring, with eye witness accounts of the lives of Cynthia Parker and her family, and the serious consequences of their settling in Indian territory.  We all were moved by the stories of kindness and love between children and their mothers that were beautifully written about, but were equally upset by the stories of violence by the Native Americans and by the settlers and American army.   Many part of the book are harrowing, and made us think of parallels in our world today, where cultures clash in horrific ways, but also reminded us of the love and power of the family. The author went into great detail about the culture of the Commanches and the other tribes of the area, as well as about the culture of the Americans and the Army of the time.  We were moved by the hardships of Cynthia Parker's life, admired her for her strength, and I know I was in tears when I read that her young daughter died. Quanah's story is tremendously interesting, in how he made his life as a chief, and father in the new world his people had to enter. A powerful book, and important to read, as it gave us a deeper understanding of this time in our country's history, as well as of the lasting effects those times have on Native Americans now.

Our next book is All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr.

Mary Milhiser will be hosting the gathering at her home at 6:30, on April 20th.

  

Hilary Mantel - Compelling, Enthralling, Odd

Once again, we have ventured into short stories only to find an unusual mind taking us places we don't want to go with people we don't think we like. In this case however, the journey was a gift, as the artistry and articulation of the author were just superb. Even as we felt uncomfortable with what unfolded, the consensus was that this book was beautifully written and a compelling read.

This slim volume of stories gave up a wide range of favorites among us. Many liked the first, a story first published as a memoir, about a British woman living in Saudi Arabia who opened the door to a visitor who just would not go away.

This we assumed was Mantel herself in another part of her life, before her first publication, unable to handle her health and the demands others put upon her. Her husband was a mirky character, mute but willing to be helpful in the end. Did she really not have enough conviction to ask a stranger not to visit? Sure, haven't we all been there?

The theme of doors showed up a lot - doors you shouldn't open, doors that lead to unwanted outcomes or dreaded knowledge; danger from within oneself came through the doors. Even when you led someone else through the door in hope of safety, as in the title story, there was just an illusion of help, a dead end of purpose if not of geography.

Another story that came up as a favorite was the "Long QT", a shocking story of infidelity that actually kills the wounded spouse. It was odd, creepy, somehow inevitable. I loved the description of the hapless neighbor involved, Lorraine. "It's a shame to be named after a quiche." What else needs to  be said to describe character?

"Comma" was another story that came up, the language so interesting and the story disturbing. And another, "How Shall I Know You" about an uncomfortable book tour, with the title giving away so much of the import of the story.

All in all, a great read if still unsettling. Isn't that the point of reading?

Our next meeting is at Beryl's - we had set Tuesday the 17th, but as it turns out, my flight gets back on the 15th. Can we do the 16th after all? The group agreed to change to accommodate me, but all is ok for our normal evening. The book is Empire of the Summer Moon, by S. C. Gwynne.

We had a good bit of discussion about the March book. Both Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr came up as options. Weigh in if you have an opinion and we can decide in February.

Thanks so much to Val for hosting! See you all next month.