Merry Christmas to all, we have a lot to read!

Thanks to everyone who came to my house for our annual Christmas fun book swap. What a great time! I have to say, we were pretty restrained when it came to stealing books from others, unless it was A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler which moved around a number of times, leaving some sad people behind. So that is our March book!

March you say? Yes, January is War and Peace, thank goodness I am taking some time off. So much for tourism, I'll be reading. February we have been invited by Maggie to a private tour of "Congo Masks" at the VMFA on Feb. 6 which is a Wednesday. I think the time is 5pm but Maggie will let us know, thank you so much for your kind generosity! The tour will be followed by a private reception, it doesn't get much better than that!

If you are Congo-minded, I did some research on books on the Congo or by Congolese. The first of course is The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. It is a great read if you haven't had the chance yet. Another is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. A modern Congolese author, Ronan Bennett has gotten great reviews of The Catastrophist, another option.

So March.

As for our books under the tree, wow! What fun we had and the food was both copious and delicious, no big surprise by now. I feel so lucky to be a part of such a smart, well-read, intellectually curious and sophisticated group of people who bring such great ideas.

So here are the books under the tree:

We Are the Lucky Ones - Georgia Hunter
Becoming - Michelle Obama (this one showed up twice under the tree and got traded as well)
Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruis Zafon (another that more than one person wanted)
Summer of Hate - Hawes Spencer. This is about the Charlottesville "events" by a local author
Those We Love Most - Lee Woodruff, daughter-in-law of Judy and Bob. Also popular with the group.
A Time to Be Born - Dawn Powell.  I didn't bring this book, but I spent a goodly amount of time trying to decide among two other Dawn Powell novels and one I eventually brought, she is someone to read if you haven't already.
A Well-Behaved Woman - Enough said, people were dying for this book. I can't wait!
The Riders - our old friend Tim Winton.  Another must read for me, but not before I finish his most recent, The Shepherd's Hut. 
Kingdom of the Blind - Louise Penny. I got my hands on this one and wouldn't let it go.
Unsheltered - speaking of Barbara Kingsolver, her latest.
Empire of the Summer Moon - S.C. Gwynne. Remember when we read this? A great read and a tragic history. One of our newer members brought this, so good to know we are reading things that resonate.
The Makioka Sisters - Junichiro Tanizaki.
The Irish RM - E. Somerville and Martin Ross. I have read this, it is great, first of a couple on this topic.
Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate

While I know who brought a few of these, for the most part, it is still a mystery, so fess up if you want.

Any one of these is a great place to start for 2019. We are meeting at Fiona's next time, which is January 22 at Fiona's at 6:30. See you then! Thanks.

P.G. Wodehouse Never Disappoints

The language might be stuffy and the scenarios from a distant era of a place far away, but the human interactions of Jeeves and his charge Bertie Wooster are endlessly entertaining and on point. The endless cast of overbearing aunts and romantic intrigues made for a great comic novel.

Maybe it is hard to separate one Wodehouse novel from another, as they all seem to include a large cast of exaggerated characters loosely based on Wodehouse's own expansive and odd family tree. Bertie bumbles into an adventure, requiring Jeeves, his clever and calm valet, to find a way to extricate him and make all right with the world.

Still, the writing is very clever. As an example, from the Mating Season comes the line "As far as the eye could see, I found myself gain on a surging sea of aunts." Wodehouse often references literary sources including Shakespeare and Tennyson, even A.A. Milne with comic changes. He also uses variations on familiar word formations to create a comic effect, like "de-dogging the premises". His use of puns, his over-the -top characterizations and the underlying truth of the human condition, rendered with affection made Wodehouse a pretty reliable read.

Thanks to Lynn for hosting in her beautiful house, always a treat and thanks to everyone who brought great things to eat and drink! And many thanks to Maggie who has invited the book club for a private tour and reception of the VMFA Congo Masks exhibit in January. Date TBD, but thank you Maggie for this very kind invitation!

Our next meeting is the annual Holiday Book Swap at my house. There has been a change of date - we will now meet on December 17, which is a Monday at 6:30. Let me know what you would like to bring, I am hoping to get an apple cake on the table.

If you are new, here is a quick rundown. This is a Yankee Swap format. Each person brings a book that you think others should read - no need to buy one if you don't want, just pull your favorite off the shelf, wrap it and write a note about why this book appeals to you. DON'T SIGN THE NOTE!! We want this to be anonymous.

Each of us will pull a number, then select a book. If you want someone else's book, you can steal it when it is your turn. The book that gets traded around the most will be our next read, this year in February. Fun!!

See you all in December, so hard to imagine that it is that time again!

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was an unexpected hit

Wow, was this an enthusiastic discussion about the unexpected fun of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos.  Thank you Ashley for hosting this lively discussion. Who knew this was such a phenomenon in its time, turned into a movie in 1928.



It was also a Broadway play starring Carole Channing in 1949, which included the song "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" and a 1953 movie launching Marilyn Monroe. "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" provided the scenario for the music video of Madonna's "Material Girl". And we haven't yet mentioned the Blonde inspired wallpaper and fabric, among other things. Who knew?


We thought this would be a quick and fun read and it was - James Joyce read this book when the strains of writing Finnegan's Wake got overwhelming. (Too bad the book wasn't longer, maybe it could have distracted poor Joyce from a few hundred pages.) Edith Wharton called it "the great American novel."

There is no doubt it was a romp, and it inspired a comic strip that ran in 1926. Evidently, this type of story was not so often told at the time, as it made a huge hit. 

The story of the "professional lady" may seem all too familiar, but in this case, the general consensus was that Lorelei Lee controlled her fate and used what she could to get what she wanted, unabashedly. Lorelei was perhaps named for the German mythical siren of the Rhine and the convoluted plot would support that theory. 

Lorelei and her "chaperone" Dorothy go through a convoluted series of adventures that result in one man after another buying them jewels, clothes, fancy dinners and more across two continents.   In the end, Lorelei gets what she wants, and we were rooting for her. 

Supposedly inspired by Loos seeing a young blonde exert control over an older H.L. Mencken, then a highly prominent journalist, this story was told in stylized way that some found hard to read. 

This novel was taken up by the women's lib movement, and the author was quoted as saying  “They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men, That’s true, but it should be kept very quiet or it ruins the whole racket.” 

This book was published in the same year as The Great Gatsby and was if anything even more well received. Perhaps it is the odd grammar and spelling of the narrator but this story lives on as film much more so than as a novel, unlike Gatsby. 

And so on to November which will be at Lynn's. Good news for us all, we have decided to move War and Peace to January as we are all struggling with the small type. I keep getting distracted by the French, so I am crawling through it, although I am quite happily immersed. 

Our November book will be The Mating Season by P.G. Wodehouse, which was one of our Christmas swap books, brought by Gordon. While it may be in the same vein as Blondes, we wanted something light and fun to give us time for Tolstoy. Also, if you have read Wodehouse, or are attracted to a different one of his books, no problem, read what you want of his and we can have a more general author discussion. I have a stack of Wodehouse and feel Jeeves and I are old friends already. 

It is a pleasure to read something, like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, that I would have never, ever picked up on my own that was a cultural phenomenon in its time. It is one of the things I treasure about this group! Thanks everyone!

Tim Winton's Breath, oh so good

Wow, was that a fun night and a great read. Thank you Julie for hosting us in your beautiful home, next time I hope an art tour is in order. This time, we were just too enthralled with this wonderful novel to tear ourselves away, except perhaps for a nibble or two.

The consensus was that this was an amazing novel, beautifully written with an interesting and unusual central thought  - that breathing is both an imperative and a choice.  The emotional fallout of that choice had, in this case, recriminations that affected the trajectory of the lives of each character. While our attention is on the main character, Bruce Pike, each person in this narrative was damaged as illustrated by their breath, in some cases by their compulsion to stop breathing. Brilliant. And very intense.

If this were any less well written, more tautly constructed, this story would not work anywhere near as well. The descriptions, particularly of surfing were mesmerizing and wholly believable. The characters, perhaps were not as well wrought. Particularly the older (but far from old!) Eva and Sando, who were the center of the storm for these two young boys were a bit flat.

I wondered a bit whether what happened to these two boys, only 11 years old at the start of the story, was enough to set their courses so permanently. If it had been two young girls though, I likely would have considered the adult behavior predatory and dangerous. Even as presented, with a bit of the Aussie swagger, there are some experiences that you can't get over, no matter what you try. For Looney, it meant a life of thrill-seeking of greater proportions until the inevitable end. For Pikelet, it was a life apart. Maybe they would have ended up in those spots anyway, but it sure didn't seem so.

And so, on to October which is right around the corner. We are meeting on Oct. 16, place TBD as there is a last minute change. Anyone want to volunteer? And a change in the book - we were schedule to discuss War and Peace but decided we needed more time. The October book is now Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which we think will be an easy read, allowing more time for you know what.

See you all soon!

The Alice Network - interesting historic fiction

Thank you to the wonderful Fiona Ross for hosting! We are so lucky to have such smart and fun people to read books with, and it was a great (and dark and stormy) night.

After many many war novels covering the Second World War, and a few focused on the First, it is difficult to find a new angle that illuminates those horrible events, but Kate Quinn has found one in this interesting juxtaposition of the two women who feature in this historic novel.

Based on the true story of Louise de Bettignies, The Alice Network links two women, each carrying the weight of war, one from her actions as a spy in WWI, the other from personal loss from WWII. Fate brings them together, along with the obligatory love interest for the younger Charlotte, and intertwines their healing from horrific guilt and loss.

The interesting angle, and highlight for many of us, was the WWI spy network of women, led by the indomitable  Louise de Bettignies, whose pseudonym was Alice DuBois. She led a spy ring of women centered around Lille, France whose actions saved hundreds, maybe thousands. Her personal courage was an inspiration to all those around her. She is widely recognized and honored in France, but I admit I had never heard of this gallant effort before this book.

Eve, a fictional character, worked with Alice and another spy in Lille, and this is easily the strongest part of the book. While the character of Rene Bordelon, the vengeful French profiteer was at best a charicature, then tension of that relationship was gripping, especially given the backdrop of the true story.

Charlotte's portion of the story, and the way the two come together is not as compelling but did help Eve resolve the guilt she had carried for thirty years, and start to move past it. This is the most recent book we have read with the bifurcated storyline, linked through the main characters. Cooking With Picasso also shared two intertwined stories, and for that matter, both of Kate Atkinson's recent books were the similar if more artful.

All in all, a good read, with some great insight into an historic period. For those of you who wanted to read more on the actual Alice Network, Queen of Spies by Thomas Coulson is a biography of Louise (make sure you are getting the right book, there is another by the same title). Women Heros of World War I by Kate Atwood has 16 stories of brave and largely unsung women and for our french readers, La Guerre des Femmes byAntoine Redier is key source material for this book as is Edith Cavell by Diane Souhami.

Fiona mentioned the Zone Rouge, sections of France that are still too contaminated by munitions to allow human habitation. Here is the link she sent on - hard to believe that the destruction of 100 years ago is still with us. And, does anyone else want to move to Grasse? I'm in!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_Rouge

Our next book is Breath by Tim Winton, an Australian writer of great renown there but not as well known here. We will meet on September 18 at Julie W.'s, (I need to confirm that!) at 6:30. Get ready, our book for October (at Lynn's) is War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Look for the most recent translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky if you can find it and if not, stay away from the Constance Garnett version. 

See you all there! 

A Charles Frazier potluck

This month we mixed it up with the Charles Frazier book of your choice, but focused on either Cold Mountain or Varina. I opted to read Nightwoods as it was what the library had available and I had already read Cold Mountain and didn't like it.

And that was the conclusion for the crowd that read it - no one liked Cold Mountain and I don't like Nighwoods, all for the same reason. The stories are beautifully written with a great sense of place and time that connect seamlessly and effectively with the emotional lives of the characters. But those settings are dismal, with brutal scenes and a hopeless future. Not so fun to spend precious reading time on that type of book when you could be reading War and Peace. More on that later.

On the other hand, the people who read Varina loved it. The historic novel with much of the action in Richmond was by contrast uplifting, interesting, and overlapped with historic figures that loom large in the Richmond landscape. Frazier's gift of language and pacing worked well in this book, and his characters were those one would want to know.

It was interesting to discuss the difficult scenes in Cold Mountain, a Civil War book, versus older, equally bruising authors like Isaac Babel. His Red Calvary stories of the Crimean war are every bit as dark as Frazier. Yet the distance of time and place make it easier to read. Set in the early 1900's in far-off Odessa, we can presume that we have progressed, that the behavior in the Crimea is an historic artifact.  Nightwoods, a contemporary story, has no such relief.

So read at your peril, or at least select carefully when picking up Charles Frazier. I for one am done with him, but he likely won't care much.

And on we go to our August book, a historic novel about girl power by the highly readable Kate Quinn. The book is The Alice Network. Jean recommended it so we know it will be good! To accommodate my schedule and to be able to have Jean join in again, we have moved the date to August 30 at Fiona's.

In a burst of organizational fervor, we picked a book for September, Breath by Tim Winton. Winton is one of Australia's most beloved and decorated authors, rightfully so. You may have run across his biggest book. Cloudstreet. Barbara (one of our new, fab additions!) had him on her reading list and in my opinion Breath is a much better book than Cloudstreet, so there you are.

Also on Barbara's reading list is the aforementioned War and Peace. It has been years since I last read it and as novels go, it is pretty amazing. Since we haven't tackled a classic in a while, is anyone up for that as our October book? Or January, giving you lots of time. Let me know!

Finally, thank you to our fantastic hostess Rene Massey. Watermelon margaritas are not usually on my Tuesday menu but they were at Rene's! As well as other lovely treats from Rene and everyone else. Thank you all! And welcome, welcome to Margo Hardy and Barbara Scott who added so much to our discussion and our level of fun. Thanks for joining.

See you all on August 30 at Fiona's at 6:30. I will send out an email about a week in advance with more details, so no need to stress about them now. Looking forward to our next meeting and book.

Belgravia by Julian Fellowes - all that you expect

First of all, thank you Ashley for hosting at the last screaming minute to save us all from the flu - that was so nice of you! And we had a lovely time, although the discussion on the book was fairly short and sweet: We really liked it, some loved it. It was reminiscent of Jane Eyre with less subtlety, even more precipitous coincidences and the obligatory happy ending that we all saw coming. What could be wrong with that?

It was a costume drama on the page, starting with a ball in Brussels given by the Duchess of Richmond on the night before Napoleon was defeated and ending with a family reunited, having lost 25 years of familial happiness to the fear of their position not so unusual then or even now.

Of course, the women characters are the heart of the story and all the character development as the men more or less fulfill their plot function as clear cut functionaries. Societal norms are a rigid taskmaster and in this story particularly costly. Still, happy endings make up for a lot and I expect to see this story on the screen sometime soon. I for one, loved it for all its flaws and it took me a few days to shake off the few well developed characters, as by the time the story was over, I felt they were friends.

Lucky me, I dove right into Last Stories by William Trevor, a masterpiece. Needless to say, the complexities and subtleties of his last collection of short stories erased the froth of Belgravia pretty quickly. Trevor, who died in 2016, has left us a treasure in this last collection and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

And so on to the next book, or selection as the case may be. Our next author is Charles Frazier, your choice of Cold Mountain or Varina. I don't think anyone would complain if you tried one of his other books - he has four novels out now. We are lucky to be going back to Rene's beautiful town house in Short Pump and the date is July 17, 6:30 pm. See you then!

Raven Black, by Ann Cleeves

Hi All! We had a really fun meeting at Kathy Baker’s beautiful home this past Tuesday to discuss Raven Black, by Ann Cleeves.

Before we got down to the business of discussing the book, we had a conversation about all kinds of things, from who would walk Meghan Markle down the aisle at the upcoming royal wedding (spoiler), religious iconography regarding the pelican in the early Christian church, to some really good Broadway shows -  Come From Away got strong praise, as did School of Rock, Hamilton, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Mama Mia. This led to a discussion about how best to get tickets. A friend of mine is a Verified Fan through Ticket Master, and receives a code that makes it easier for her to get tickets – link here if you are interested. Mary and I also talked about an app called Get Your Guide that is very useful when one wants to book tours or experiences almost anywhere in the world. I’ve had very good experiences using it in Italy and Portugal, and will use it in Sweden and Iceland in June.

Then we had delicious treats (fondue, special dips, a selection of cheeses, fruit, chocolate, and oh, the desserts...!) and then we discussed the book. 

Raven Black takes place in the modern day Shetland, and tells the story of the investigation of a murder of a local teenager.  The book, the first in a series known as the ‘Shetland Island’ series, has recently been adapted for television, in the series Shetland on BBC. Most of the group enjoyed the book for it’s description of Shetland’s beauty and culture, and the accurate portrayal of the way the small communities operate, but felt that the development of the characters should have been more well rounded to make the reader have better connections to the protagonist and key characters. Some readers noticed a similarity to the structure of To Kill a Mockingbird that made the plot a bit predictable.  Sometimes the plot exposition was more ‘telling than showing’, through conversations that seemed somewhat implausible, and the action flagged in the middle. In all, the group enjoyed the book, and were rewarded by the unexpected ending, that all agreed was well worth the read.  Ann Cleves also writes the Vera Stanhope series, which has been adapted by the BBC as Vera. Apparently, Ann Cleeves and Louise Penny are good friends and often give talks together. 

Some new books we talked about are:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Capitol Dames: Civil War and Women of Washington 1848-1868, by Cokie Roberts.

The Perfect Horse, by Elizabeth Letts

Belgravia, by Julian Fellowes 

Varina, by Charles Frazier

Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward

We decided to read Belgravia for the June 19^th meeting at 6:30pm, which will be at Fiona’s house, and Cold Mountain or Varina by Charles Frazier (pick one or both) for July at René’s house.

Thank you again to Kathy for all her wonderful hospitality, and to all for the great conversation!

River of Doubt was so good!

Wow! What a great book that was! Our general response was that it was hard to believe that it was non-fiction - how would any reasonable person decide to take that trip? 

The idea that a former president of the United States would on a relative whim go on a poorly planned, harrowing expedition down an uncharted river was by itself fantastic, even if he was Theodore Roosevelt. It was so fantastic that many refused to believe it even at the time. Harrowing barely begins to describe the danger, deprivation and hardship the team endured, made all the worse by lack of food, lack of viable game to hunt and most incredibly, lack of boats. 

How does an entourage arrive for a 1,000 mile journey down a river with no boats? It hires a clerk at an outdoor store to plan it, working with a fairly unsuccessful arctic explorer. You can't make this stuff up. Needless to say, although it almost kills Roosevelt and does kill others, they make it through but just barely. Did I mention the insects? Those details alone are enough to wave off the strongest of people. 

And Roosevelt was amazingly strong in body (mostly) and in his iron-clad mind. Yet even he came close to saying it was too much. 

The story has much to offer and it was greatly enhanced by Candice Millard's retelling. This was a wonderful book, well researched, well constructed and written with clear-eyed but still palpable admiration for an astonishing man. The love and devotion Roosevelt earned from his expedition members was easy to understand and that was the overwhelming impression that this book left me. There is a reason Theodore Roosevelt is still renown and revered, nearly 100 years after his death. He was, and is, a force of nature. 

And so on to our next book. After some great discussion on a BBC mystery series called Shetlands, we decided to read Raven Black by Ann Cleeves. If you like mysteries, this one is great.  Ann Cleeves has two detective series and both have become BBC series, the second one called Vera.

We will meet at Kathy Baker's, thank you Kathy! The date is May 15, 6:30. Great to see everyone! 

Cooking for Picasso, another fun, entertaining read

Hi all, and thanks to Ashley for hosting another fun book club. What a good time we had, even though there was not much to discuss with this book. It was charming, easy to read and had a compelling story line, albeit not altogether believable. But, as they say, it is fiction.

The characters were easy to categorize and so there was little conflict in what to think about them. There were evil twins, an overbearing, abusive father and the mercurial celebrity chef miraculously transformed into a generous, supportive boyfriend. Wasn't it really his Picasso painting after all?

But, mere quibbles as in the end, we liked this book a lot and enjoyed reading it, although it didn't give us much to discuss. Too bad, but it meant more time to chat!

And so on to our next book, River of Doubt by Candice Millard. Several of us had read this and really recommended it. Since our meeting, I have heard from a number of people who loved this book so I am looking forward to it. This tells the incredible story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of an uncharted river in the Amazon and is, despite the unlikely scenario, a true story. This is the way Roosevelt chose to get over his election defeat in 1912, and it sounds fabulous.

Kathy Baker has volunteered to host, the date is March 20. We haven't been to Kathy's for a while, so directions will come out later but keep in mind it is in Goochland County, not too far from me but a bit west.

Thanks to Lynn and Julie J. who steered me to the library, I have been reading a lot of varied things and also have discovered that libraries have cookbooks! Who knew? Since discovering that, I have been checking out all kinds of baking books to try and keep up with Ashley's amazing baking. It is a challenge!

See you all very soon!

Uncommon Type - fun to read, typical of Tom Hanks

Hi all, what fun we had at Val's house talking about Tom Hanks and his new collection of stories called Uncommon Type. This collection of stories, some related but most not, revolved around typewriters; sometimes they were mentioned, sometimes they were central to the story, but they were always there. Tom Hanks evidently collects old typewriters and his fascination with them led to this somewhat thin but useful construction.

But first, some administration. Val had a bit more silverware at the end of the night than at the beginning. Does anyone recognize these? If so, let Val know.

And, her husband Steve tried some of the leftover wine and absolutely loved it. He wants to know where to find it - anyone know? Let all of us know that - it sounded fantastic.

And so on to our discussion which was pretty consistent among us. This was charming and sweet, but not too deep. It read like a screen played it was impossible not to hear Tom Hanks in your head as you read because the stories were just like him. I for one had a bit too much and just stopped somewhere along the way.

Interesting that reading Steve Martin is a completely different experience - it is hard to conjure him out of his writings. Really, that was about the extent of what we had to say. If you love Tom Hanks, go for it.

Our next book is Cooking for Picasso byCamille Aubray which is historic fiction. Ashley has kindly offered to host. Our next date is Feb. 20 at 6:30. See you all then!