Mona's Eyes - great on the art, not so great on the story

 Many thanks to Mary who was just a stellar host on Monday, what a lovely time! We had a set table, lots of yummy food, thanks to everyone's contributions and to Mary's lamb kabobs! It is always so fun to get together with this fun group and chat about whatever we want including sometimes the book at hand. Thank you, thank you. 

As for the book, the reaction was fairly consistent among all of us. The selection and descriptions of the artworks were very good, interesting enough to keep us turning the pages and for most of us to finish the book. The analysis maybe a bit overdone but still interesting. 

What was not so well done was the story holding it all together. Mona, only 9 years old, had a sudden, short blindness. That caused enough concern for her to need a phycologist once a week for a year. Her grandfather intervenes and secretly takes her to the museum to see and learn about a piece of art. All the issues of Mona's family life and the clever ways Mona acts to patch it all up were just a bit too much, and frankly a bit overwritten. 

But all is well that ends well, Mona can actually see better than most, she won't go blind, the parents are not upset that the grandfather lied to them for a year, and the family resolved its issues. 

And so we go on too. Our next book is Daughter of Time by Josephine They. This has been named as one of the best mysteries of all time by the New York Times so I am all in. And for those of you who are not mystery fans, it is short. 

We are meeting on May 18 at 6:30pm but who volunteered to host? I know someone did. 

Because we had a difficult time making a decision on the book for May, we added the other option in for June. That book is The Vigil by George Saunders. Get on the library waiting list now, it is popular! The date is June 15. 

See you all on May 20! 

Marriage and Other Monuments Book Launch - what fun!

 Hi all, our February meeting was a new idea, a book launch for Virginia Pye's new book, Marriage and Other Monuments. Set in Richmond during the time that all the monuments came down, it hit close to home and so she had an enthusiastic crowd on hand to celebrate. 

You likely remember that Ginnie Pye came to our book club long when she published her first book, River of Dust which is still a favorite of mine. She was just delightful and has continued to be in the years since when I am lucky enough to see her. 

The moderator was just fantastic (I can't remember his name!) and did a great job of asking about how the book came to be and what caused her to use this setting. Interestingly, she had written a book in 2019 about the marriage part of the book and had never gotten it published. When all the activity around the monuments happened, she got new ideas, picked up the old manuscript and came up with this book. 

At one point, she was asked whether she was someone who just wrote and the story unfolded or someone who plotted out the path and then wrote. It was interesting that she thinks she is both. Her process is to hang a string out like a clothesline in her office. She then puts the defining action of each chapter on an index card and hangs it on the line. As she gets to the chapter, she pulls down the index card, sees what she intended to happen and writes away. And of course that has the added benefit of visually seeing progress.Very ingenious. 

And on to the next, more traditional meeting, which is March 16. The book is Mona's Eyes by Thomas Schlesser. We are lucky to go to Ashley's, see you all there!

See you then. 

 

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

 Thanks to everyone who was able to attend book club in January and special thanks to Karen Wimbish for hosting! I heard it was a lot of fun, more fun likely than the event I had to attend at the museum, and I missed seeing everyone. 

Ashley was nice enough to take notes on the discussion and send them to me oh so long ago, so here they are, thank you Ashley!

In general, almost everyone liked the book. Several people commented that Sybil would probably be a bit prickly and difficult in person but people enjoyed how she seemed to gain self-knowledge through the course of the book. They found it interesting how she didn't deal very well with her own daughter but seemed to know exactly how to relate to Harry.  People found the epistolary format made for quicker reading than some of the books we'd read before. One critique was that they felt that things got resolved a little too neatly in some cases (like her encounter with the college dean who didn't want to let her take classes). All in all, though, generally positive reviews. 

I am still slogging through the audio book as my trips to the barn have been sharply curtailed by the weather, but so far I agree. 

Our next event is a foray out to a book launch for Virginia Pye's new novel Marriage and Other Monuments set in Richmond at the time of the protests that brought down the Monument Avenue statues. Some of us met Ginny when she came to book club for her first novel River of Dust and she was a bit hit. Her husband, John Ravenal was the Contemporary Art curator at the VMFA for a long time, no doubt he will be there and it will be great to see him too. 

The event will be at the ICA at VCU, which is at 601 W. Broad Street. Parking is a major pain so carpooling is greatly encouraged. The event is free but they would like registrations. Here is the link to register:

https://icavcu.org/events/author-rva-virginia-pye-marriage-and-other-monuments/

It will be fun! Please come! Wednesday, February. 18 at 5pm to 7pm. I imagine the group could convene at a local spot after for discussion if we want, Tarrant's is close. 

See you all there!