We had a wonderful book club party at Sally Graham's house!  Thank you for all your hospitality, Sally - your home is lovely, and the weather was perfect for a candlelight book club on the deck.  The book for the month was Women in Sunlight by Frances Mayes.

Most of us thought the book was a light, fun read, perfect for summer.  Maybe just a touch too perfect? The fantasy of being able to jet off to Italy, find a mystical love match, find freedom, all while simplifying life, with no budget worries at all, felt facile.  What if we want to complicate life, for the sake of freedom, open things up, instead of narrowing them down?  Some of us felt a tiny bit targeted, a bit "marketed to".  The idea of going to Italy, inspired by all the  wish fulfillment, beautiful scenery and "ambles" in the book has taken hold, and so we have decided that we are going there, and will have book club in a Tuscan villa. Susan V. knows a person named Elizabeth Minchilli who can help us eat our way through Italy. Literally. 

At this point we were very happy thinking about the next time we get to go to Italy (or anywhere, oh, hey, Celia!), and also decided that we should go to Bordeaux, where there is another very knowledgeable guide and gorgeous Air B&B host, named Kim Freeman.  I'm thinking there is something to this ex-pat deal, and that I'd be darling at it.  

Which leads to next month's read, Karen Abbot's Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, the true story of four women who went undercover during the Civil War. Abbott's research is very thorough - all dialogue, quotes, and actions are from primary sources, letters, diaries, court proceedings and the like.  I got the audio book, and Bill and I listened to it on our way up and back from Leesburg, VA last weekend.  It was really interesting to hear all the places we were passing mentioned in the book, and Richmond features very prominently in the story lines of all four women.  It might be fun to do a book club history walk around Church Hill some weekend, have Sunday brunch at Alewife ...

Margo suggested that Deep Run Hunt Club would be a good place to meet in October, which sounds good to me!

Book suggestion for November: Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle.

December is our Annual Book Club Holiday Party and Yankee Book Swap. Everyone brings a wrapped book (new, used, handwritten, whatever), and puts an anonymous note in it saying why it's terrific.  Then, happy mayhem ensues.

January's book suggestion is  The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbary

Aaaaaaand! Big congratulations to Mary Milheiser and My Boy Tex for being USEA Novice Amateur CHAMPIONS! We are all so delighted for you! 

The Code Girls - such interesting people!

 Thank you Margo for having us out on your gorgeous screen porch, what a treat to be there to discuss The Code Girls by Liza Mundy. There seems no end of the contribution that women made to the massive effort  of World War II and other major American milestone projects like going to the moon. 

Of course, none of these women got any credit at the time, no matter their area, and it was no different for the Code Girls, called such because their role was to crack the encryptions of enemy communications and in some cases, ensure those decoded messages found the right part of the government or armed forces to make it effective. 

These girls were recruited from around the country, including some of our group's relatives, because of their intelligence and character and of course in some cases, their looks. Mysterious letters arrived inviting the candidates to Washington DC for vague interviews and remarkably, they went. 

Decades later, these valiant women still keep the secrets of their work, not even telling their families what they did and how they did it. The author did a remarkable job sussing out the many personal stories and even more difficult, their accomplishments and pulling them together into a book that tells their story. 

There wasn't all that much plot despite these moving individual tales, which made it a bit difficult to invest for all 448 pages. Still, it is another great story to tell of the patriotism, talent and accomplishment of American women. 

And so on we go to our next book, the most recent by Frances Mayes, called Women in Sunlight. Sally has offered to host in her beautiful house in Sabot Hill  on Sept. 20 at 6:30. I will be out of town that night, would anyone volunteer to coordinate and write the blog? 

See you all in October! 

The Eighth Detective - really interesting structure, content not so much

This book was a real act of imagination in its structure, seven murder mystery short stories sandwiched with another mystery that unfolds over the course of the book - who wrote them? 

I for one was really taken with it, such an interesting premise! It helped that the first story was gripping, with twists that kept me turning pages, albeit rather grisly ones. That was evident in several of the stories, the could be pretty tough. The stories were supposedly published in a collection that was intended to prove that murder mysteries follow a mathematical formula that can be described and identified. 

To a certain degree, that formula dulled the stories, and made them repetitive despite the wildly different settings and plot lines. And the interruption of the present day search for the author (the so-called eighth detective carrying out the investigation) broke up the atmosphere in a way not completely welcome. 

So, the group was relatively split on how enjoyable this book was - I liked it, some others did too but far from everyone. 

Our next book is Code Girls by Liza Mundy. This is a true story of women who worked to break codes during World War 2, and were then forgotten. Thanks Sally Graham for the recommendation, it has great reviews. 

Other books recommended were The Gift of Imperfection by Brene Brown, The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen, The Narrowboat Summer by Anne Youngson and A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabelle Allende. They may all have been Sally Graham recommendations! 

Our next meeting is August 17, anyone able to host? See you all then!

The Thursday Murder Club was fun!

 Ok, people did die, so not a complete romp, but they certainly seemed to deserve it. Toss in an octogenarian super spy with unlimited contacts around the globe and all was well by the end. What a charming group of retirees mixed up with the most stereotypical bad guys and the inevitable dodgy priest - this was certainly not War and Peace but it was imminently readable and at times laugh out loud funny. A great, if fluffy, read. For those who loved it, the sequel comes out in the fall. 

A fun read, but not much to discuss, unfortunately. Ok, the characters were unbelievable and thin. Who cares? We all liked it and liked even more having a chance to be together again. Here is a picture! 

And so, on to the next book. No one was interested in a deep read during the summer, so the choice is The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi. This is an interesting structure, a mix of short stories and back story. It is also a mystery, and another fun read. August is Women in Sunlight by Frances Mayes. Another good summer read. 

We are set to meet on July 20, which is the usual date. Would it be convenient for the group to go back to the third Monday rather than Tuesday? That might make it easier for some of us and would shift us to the 19th. Anyone want to volunteer to host? 

Speaking of that, thank you, thank you, Julie Weissend. What a lovely evening we had at her house, just fantastic. 

See you all in July!

Go Went Gone - Masterful

 We had a wonderful and engaging discussion of this fabulous book, thanks to everyone who participated and special thanks to Fiona and Bill Ross for letting us use Bill's Zoom platform. That is much preferable to having my compliance team watch, so thank you! While I can't say we all loved the book, it was certainly thought-provoking and well-written, with an impressively effective translation. 

This novel in some ways seemed quite straightforward and in others complex, and in ways hard to explain. The story line was fairly narrative and seemed quite mundane; a newly retired professor of Medieval Literature becomes away of, and then involved with a group of refugees from various parts of Africa, While straightforward, this novel is profound and unsettling while still being subtle. As Richard delves into the individual refugee story, he is drawn in and tries to help. 

The self-absorbed, rather remote Richard becomes entangled with the individuals trying to find a life in their new location. He also returns again and again to a disturbing death in his neighborhood. A man has drowned in the local lake, and his body has not been found. The drifting, inert body recurs through the novel, somehow mirroring the stasis of the refugees - between an unattainable future and an inconceivable past. 

As we learn more about Richard, as well as these vividly drawn migrants, the degree of his insulated life shown through clearly. As he discovers the rest of the world, one with difficult, urgent and emotional issues, we also see the larger story. This is a remarkable book, one with a story to tell that transcends its time and setting. 

And so, on we go. There were too many great reading suggestions to pick just one, so we have a list. Our next meeting will be on April 20, at 6:30 pm. The book will be The Great Influenza by John M. Barry. This is a bit of a tome, but it has gotten lots of praise for its telling of the flu pandemic of 1918 and the race for scientific discoveries to fight it. Let's hope we can be together. 

May's book will be Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd. The premise of this historical novel is laughable. A 16-year old girl is left in charge of her family holdings by her absent father in the South Carolina of  1739. It was a surprise to find it is based on an actual historic figure who triumphs in the end and even gets the guy. Feel free to skim the first 100 pages but it is really good by  the end. The date is May 18 unless we want to shift. 

In June we return to one of our most thought-provoking authors, Marilynn Robinson and her first novel Housekeeping. When we read her novel Home, it was hard to stop talking about it. Robinson is revered in the literary world and it is easy to see why. The date for this meeting is June 15. 

Happy reading!

Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck – review

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Circe by Madeline Miller - a transformation that works

What an interesting riff on mythology fills this charming novel that reinterprets a minor god of the Odyssey, Circe, by Madeline Miller. In this take, Circe is treated as an outcast by her majestic family of gods, headed by her father Helios, perhaps due to her having a "mortal" voice, unlike the booming voices of the deities. Her mother sneers at her, the other nymphs ignore her and when she transforms a mortal into a god, he rejects her. Not a good start. 

Her father, says Circe, is "a harp with only one string and the note it plays is himself." The lives of these gods were nothing to envy. The palace intrigue alone would daunt the best of us, but the endless days, proscribed futures and limited roles were even worse. There was no empathy, the gods were purely transactional. At least Henry the Eighth occasionally fell in love, but that didn't happen in the courts of the gods, despite all the virulent jealousy. 

No matter. Circe found her own way. Banished to an island, alone for millennia, she finds a way to connect with others, to overcome her own misgivings, to thrive. This interesting and entertaining book found a way to turn a familiar story on its head and give us a new way to consider familiar myths that contain even more familiar ways of interacting with each other and our beliefs. Very good! 

And so on to our next book. I successfully muscled the group into reading Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck, hopefully you will all like it. Our next meeting is March 16 at 6:30pm, still on Zoom unless the world changes back to the one we remember. 

See you all then! 

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - gripping, moving and a bit melodramatic

Thanks to Fiona for hosting our Zoom book club on Bill's account - thank you! What a fun meeting, and such an interesting conversation about an interesting story. Many of us where unaware of the small population of people in Appalachian Kentucky with a genetic anomaly resulting in blue skin. It is hard to imagine the shock of an ignorant, isolated people to such a deviation from the norm, and the behavior of some reflected the challenge. 

The story of Cussie Mary, the last of the Fugate family that reflected the gene that caused blue skin, was both uplifting and oppressive. She is young, living in abject poverty and hopeful that her job (earned by applying outside of the community) will allow her options in her life. She is a local "book woman", delivering reading material to remote families around the area, over difficult and sometimes dangerous terrain, on a mule with her own agenda. 

Perhaps the most important message of this story is the absolute starvation for those reading materials, among literal starvation. This is the depression, with a people living under the control of the local coal mining company and the "company store". These stories were heartbreaking. They were indeed the representations of "abject poverty" endemic in this time, among these very poor, very proud people up against forces they couldn't possibly conquer, even with a union led by the blue father of the book woman. Was he the leader because of his color that made him more expendable than others? Or because he had the initiative to take action because he had less to lose since he was blue? Maybe both. 

His daughter, by all accounts a pretty woman, although blue, was devoted to providing for the needs of her "patrons, scattered around the hollow despite their sometimes strong aversion to her because of her skintone. She sacrifices her time, her labor and her own sustenance to help those she can, even those who shun her and refuse to allow her to touch them. Pretty tough stuff. 

Overall, this was a lovely book, a lovely story and an interesting time in American history, reflective of its time and human nature. The author herself added to the attraction of the story as she had grown up in Kentucky, in foster care, homeless at age 14. Somehow, she found information about these "blue" people of her area, and her fascination led to this very readable, interesting novel. We liked it! 

And so on we go. Our next book was supposed to be The Irish RM but after some discussion, we thought Circe by Madeline Miller would have more fodder for discussion, so that is our pick. I expect to be Zooming again on Feb. 16 at 6:30 pm although I hope for better. 

Talk with you all then! 

Happy Holidays to all! Fun book Secret Santa.

 Thanks to everyone who participated, we had a super fun (yes, fun) Zoom book club meeting last weekend. What a blast to see the great range of books we picked out for each other. Better yet is the intellectual curiosity of this smart group, who brought insight and context to these interesting titles. Thanks everyone! 

Special thanks to Ashley, who was the top Elf, organizing the entire event including the Secret Santa drop-offs. What a great job! And our delivery elves Karin and Julie, who went way above and beyond, including multiple trips to retrieve wayward packages. Christmas doesn't work without the elves. 

Our January book, culled from this admirable set of titles, is The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson. This novel is based on the true story of the Blue People of Kentucky and FDR's Pack Horse Library Project that brought literacy and hope to Appalachian children in the depression. I'm in! Unfortunately,  so is the rest of Richmond, I am 48th of 48 on the library list. 

Unless something changes, January will have to be a Zoom meeting as well.  Would Tuesday, Jan. 19 at 6:30 suit? Can you believe we finally are getting to 2021? 

February also got an assignment as we had so many choices. The book is The Irish RM by E. Somerville and Martin Ross. This may be familiar as a Masterpiece Theater program as well as for its fox-hunting. February's meeting will be Feb. 16, also at 6:30, which adheres to our practice of the third Tuesday of the month. There is nothing magic about that, we can always rearrange if it suits us all better. 

And so, here is the list of books, including to and from whom they came:

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell. Purnell's book is about Virginia Hall, an American spy during WWII, non-fiction! To Ashley from Jean. 

Green Lights by Matthew McConaughey, a memoir. To Jan from Maggie.

Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate. A big bestseller about children taken from their parents and put into a Tennessee orphanage, and the aftermath. To Margo from Wendy. 

The Irish RM, Irish country stories set in the the early 20th century. Fun! To Mary from Sally. This was from an earlier Christmas swap originally from Ashley. 

The Overstory by Richard Powers. Ostensibly about trees and their canopy above us, it includes much more than that. To Sally from Margo

A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson. Clearly widely read and a group favorite, Bill Bryson is hard to beat  as a humorist and generally agreeable author. To Karin from Carol. 

Circe, by Madeline Miller. A retelling of the Odyssey from Circe's point of view, making her journey to powerful protagonist the main draw. To Julie W. from Ashley, extra credit for recycled wrapping paper! 

Pigs by Johanna Stoberock, a fiction/fantasy novel that asks hard questions. To Celia from Jen. 

The Guest List, by Lucy Foley, a murder mystery with style, to Barbara from Karin. 

Becoming Duchless Goldblatt, by anonymous. Someone decides to reinvent themselves as an elderly aristocrat on Twitter, and this is the outcome. Sounds fun! To Julie J. from Lynn. There is a line to borrow this one when Julie is done with it. 

The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett. The story of twins, girls who chose different lives, one to pass as white, the other to remain in her black identity. A novel, it has gotten lots of accolades this past year. To Wendy from Rene.

The Marriage of Opposites, by Alice Hoffman and Victoria, by Daisy Goodwin, both novels based on historic figures. In the first, Alice Hoffman retells the story of Rachel, a strong-willed girl born in St. Thomas who later becomes the mother of Claude Pissaro. The second imagines again the life of Queen Victoria, in the days and years just after, at age 18, she finds herself as the Queen of England. They sound great. To Jean from Julie J. 

Carrying Independence by Karen Chase, a local author, a novel about the Revolutionary War and the attempts to safeguard the Declaration of Independence from the British. To Lynn from Susan, this book was signed by the author, a lovely and thoughtful touch. 

The Mystery of Henri Pick, by David Foenkinos. Described as a comic mystery enriched by a deep love of books, this one sounds like a romp. Interestingly the last book by this author was about Charlotte Salomon, a young jewish artist killed by the Nazis, who left behind a heart-breaking body of work, so this is quite a departure. To Rene from Mary. 

The Complete Stories of Truman Capote. From this distance, it is easy to forget just how gifted Truman Capote actually was. Despite the caricature of his later life, Capote was a master of the short story. This anthology includes "A Christmas Memory", perhaps one of his most enduring works. To Carol from Barbara. 

An Anthropologist on Mars, by Oliver Sachs. Collected stories of people with affliction, who overcome and thrive in the most improbable ways, written with empathy and understanding by one of our great story tellers. To Maggie from Celia. 

Humankind by Rutger Bregman. Subtitled "A Hopeful History", this book finds the optimism ahead of us. To Fiona from Julie W. Fiona sadly couldn't join us, we missed you! 

Please let me know if I missed anyone or anything or got the tos and froms wrong. Thank you all for Zooming in! 

Happy New Year and see you in January! 

Hamnet - Best on Audio

 Hi all, thanks to our recent fabulous weather, we had a wonderful meeting on the patio of the Deep Run Hunt Club to discuss Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell and have a pre-Thanksgiving feast of amazing dishes brought by our group. Such fun, and it was absolutely beautiful looking out over the fields on a sunny day. Let's do that again sometime soon! 

Our group was pretty split on this book and it seemed to depend on the medium used. The audio listeners really loved the book but the traditional readers were not so impressed. Despite its being recently named as one of the best books of 2020 by the New York Times, I admit to being one of the disappointed readers. Most of the audio listeners though were enthusiastic, so much so that it seems the lyrical language and rather interesting pacing worked better in that format. I will give it a try as all the glowing reviews have heightened my interest again. 

In the reviews, and in our discussion, particular passages really resonated and overcame what might be described as a florid style. The explanation of how little Judith came to be infected, through the Morano glass blower and a fancy dress by way of a rat was memorable. Also, the early romance of the unnamed young Shakespeare and his Agnes in the apple shed was quite a strong, although not so believable impression. 

All in all, the response was more positive than negative and indeed, the writing was beautiful. 

And so, on we go to our Christmas meeting. We have not yet set the time or place, hoping to get ideas from you all about what might work. It would be fabulous to get a good turnout, what circumstances and timing will allow you to attend? 

Let me know! 

In the meantime, Dorie Greenspan (a living cookie legend) has created an Armand Gamache lemon merigue cookie in his honor. I can't wait to make it, and I bet you can't either. Here is the link:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021686-lemon-meringue-cookies

If you get blocked, don't despair, I have it printed and if you wait a bit, the NYTs will eventually let you see recipes again. 

What a great meeting, what a great location

 Thanks to everyone who was able to make our meeting last Wednesday to discuss Dracula by Bram Stoker. It could not have been a more beautiful and fun night under the VMFA tent in the sculpture garden, with the sun sinking. Just lovely. Many thanks to the VMFA for allowing us this beautiful venue and free rein in the Sunken Cities exhibition. It may not have been Dracula related but it was still pretty amazing and full of lore. 

And speaking of lore, Well! It was a delight to read Dracula. As with so many of the classics we have taken on over time, this was a revelation. Rather than a scary vampire movie, this was a(nother) Victorian classic novel of manners, somehow including a nobleman breaking bad with the occult. The societal constraints helped the plot along and I for one found it thrilling. The ending, even from a distance of centuries, was heart-pounding. 

Bram Stoker's Dracula was the first to find ubiquitous cultural recognition but it was not the first vampire novel. Goethe published The Bride of Corinth in 1797, a full 100 years before Stoker's novel. Vampire myths were rampant in folk lore and Stoker spent 7 years researching European folklore and history. He was particularly taken by an essay about Wallachia Vlad III Dracula, a ruler who reigned terror in Transylvania in the 1400's. Although not a vampire. Stoker took the name as Dracula was from the area and killed thousands of people through sheer despotism.

During its time, Dracula was popular but not enduring. Stoker, an Irish theatre manager who made ends meet with chunking out sensational novels did not make much money from it. After his death, an unauthorized theatre production raised the profile again, then followed by a Hollywood adaption in 1931. Since then, the novel has never been out of print. 

As a Victorian novel, the societal constraints are painful. The women in particular, Lucy and Willemina are allowed only to be pure, virtuous and selfless. Still, "Madame Mina" was brilliant, diligent and capable of organizing a horde of male individuals into a cohort capable of a plan, which to my mind is pretty unusual in the male characters recognition of and reliance on her skills. That was a breathe of fresh air in a pretty stuffy society. 

In its time, Dracula was very well received critically. The overt sexual overtones of the vampire experience have been noted over time. In this reading, the three "brides of Dracula" and the John Harker, the sweet protagonist, and Lucy, his first victim in the story were especially vivid, a way to introduce passion into the repressed Victorian era. (Now, just how did Queen Victoria get all those children...?)

All in all, a great read and a great reminder of why "classic" literature persists. Because it is amazing. And so on to our next amazing read,  Hamlet by Maggie O'Farell. This is the story of Shakespeare's son but mostly of his time. Fiona really recommended it and so we are on. 

Our next meeting will be on the weekend, in order to accommodate being outside. We plan to meet at the Deep Run Hunt Club, on the patio with heaters, on Sunday, November 22, at 2:00 pm. There is a screened in porch there if the weather is wet but it will allow us to have excellent ventilation and a beautiful setting. 

There was no appetite to forgo our Christmas book swap, so we want to be outside, during the day for that too. I can host, but did we have another idea? If so, I forgot, fill me in. 

There were tons of book recommendations that flew around, here are the ones I remember, add in the ones I missed, please! 

The Great Influenza  - John Barry - factual, contextual, broad based, fascinating and relevant

Department of Speculation and Weather by Jenny Offill. Dept. of Spec. is amazing, just amazing. Weather is her latest.

Frankenstein - our old friend, as equally interesting as Dracula. If you weren't in book club when we read it, it is a great read. 

Anna Karenina - ditto, although nothing can make up for missing Sean Connery as Count Vronsky in the movie from the 1961 adaptation which we watched way back when. There is a reason he is famous and a reason the book is too. 

Sarah Thornhill - by Kate Grenville, an Australian author, an historic novel of the settling of Australia, similar to her The Secret River, which I loved. So far, I love this new one too. 

The Swan Book by Alexis Wright. An original, about the aboriginal experience in Australia, and the environmental havoc of modern times. I think. Still, it was a compelling read, with tons of awards. 

Woman in White by Collin Wilke - I took way too much time to read this book and am now cramming to get all my library books in on time. It was so worth it. A contemporary of Dickens, he is definitely an equal. 

Moby Dick - I read it long ago, as did Jen. It may be the meaning of life and then again, it may not. FYI, I am not reading it again. 

Want: a Novel - not to be confused with Happiness: a novel which we read before. This is truly a novel of neediness, in all aspects of one's life. How it shapes you, how it cowers you, how you move beyond it. Really good, Lynn Steger Strong is the author. 

We didn't talk about this but honorable mention should go the The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani. A recommendation from my "Fine Literature" Facebook group, it was a stunning psychological novel. I loved it. It is also pretty brutal to start, just fyi. It won the Prix Goncourt in France, its highest literary prize.  Which reminds me, Dreams of my Russian Summer by Andre Mackin won both the top French literary prizes in 1995,  the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Médicis. I loved it. 

Chime in with anything I missed, and I miss everyone who could not join us. 

All condolences to Julie Wiessand, we are all with you mourning the loss of your father.