Page Turners

June 23, 2011: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:47:00 +0000

Book: The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

Discussion:

The reaction to this month’s Page Turners selection, Sarah Blake’s The Postmistress, was a bit divided. Of the twelve members attending, exactly half gave it a thumbs up vote, while the other six voted thumbs sideways.

The major complaints concerned the book’s dialogue and tone. The readers thought that the dialogues were too lengthy and the conversations a bit unrealistic. They also had difficulty distinguishing between the characters’ points of view in the alternating vignettes. They would have to read for a bit before they could ascertain from which of the three protagonists’ viewpoints the story was being told.

We then began to discuss each of the three women in more depth. Emma, the doctor’s wife, inspired a lot of sympathy. With her orphan background and lack of self-esteem, it seemed unfair that she lost her husband as well. His death seemed to reinforce her belief that she was completely alone in the world. One Page Turner called Dr. Finch a wimp; while another felt he was living his father’s failures. We speculated on possible suitors for Emma. One group member thought she might be a match for the widower Fish though others thought Otto the house painter might be a contender. However, we managed to talk each other out of any romantic entanglements for Emma.

One Page Turner commented on the speed of romance depicted in the novel. At times, it seemed really fast and at others very slow. The romance of Iris, the postmistress, and Harry Vale exemplified both speeds very well. In the beginning, it seemed to really take off, but later the couple seemed a bit embarrassed to be seen holding hands by the townsfolk. We found Harry’s death at the end of the novel very surprising and a bit sad due to his relationship with Iris. We also discussed Iris’s title of postmaster, as opposed to postmistress. We found it strange that the book was titled The Postmistress if that is an inaccurate term.

The title also seemed strange since we viewed Frankie, not Iris, as the main protagonist. We discussed Frankie’s privileged upbringing and her radio career; in addition to the experiences she had interviewing people on the trains. We felt that prior to these experiences she was a bit naïve and did not follow all of her stories to the end, as illustrated by Emma and Will Finch wanting to know what happened to her neighbor Billy after a bombing. After her experiences on the trains, Frankie seemed shell-shocked, as if she was used to reporting the news but not to being so intimately involved in it. We also saw a few parallels between her and Dr. Finch. Both seemed to be trying to prove or earn something; the doctor was attempting to regain confidence in his medical skills, and Frankie was trying to make it as a female journalist. They both seemed to feel better when they were contributing to the war effort too. Harry Vale seemed to share this quality as well.

As the meeting wound down, we discussed one of the major themes of the book. Blake wrote in the afterward that the fundamental question the book strove to answer was about how people bear the news. Each of the three women in the story did this in different ways. Iris and Frankie both delivered the news; Iris served as a temporary repository of the news in letters, and Frankie experienced, and then reported the news. Regarding the letters Iris and Frankie possessed relating to Dr. Finch’s death, they each had to decide how to bear the news physically, while Emma had to bear the news they delivered emotionally.

We also questioned whether Iris and Frankie were right to withhold the letters from Emma. The consensus seemed to be that the group felt it was appropriate for Iris to withhold the letter until she knew Dr. Finch was officially deceased. However, several of the readers thought the decision to withhold the other letter was not Frankie’s to make, even if she did it out of compassion or emotional inability.

Before the meeting ended, we mentioned a few titles we might want to include on next year’s reading list. Group members are encouraged to bring suggestions next month as well, before the voting commences in August. Next month we will meet on July 28 to discuss Stieg Larsson’s second book in the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire. I anticipate a fiery discussion.

May 26, 2011: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:54:00 +0000

Book: Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

Discussion:

This month’s Page Turners meeting was a pleasant change from last month for two reasons. First, we reconvened at the Central Library for the first time this year; and second, everyone liked this month’s selection, Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. We had twelve members attending the meeting, and they all gave the novel a thumbs up vote.

The Page Turners liked the book because they found it a quick and easy read. They viewed it as a survival story that was true to the era and enjoyed reminiscing about the time period. It was also the story of a teacher, a subject that resounded well with many in the group, including a few former teachers.

The subjects of teaching and education were popular at this meeting. We discussed many aspects of Lily Casey’s teaching career, particularly how she supplemented it with gambling, horse racing, bootlegging, and her hearse taxi service. The former teachers remarked that this type of behavior would not have been tolerated in their day, and likely would not be today either. We decided that Lily was able to get her jobs due to the demand and isolation of the areas she lived in.

Lily’s ability to keep her jobs was a separate discussion and led to a conversation on working women in the 1940s. Some of our group members were in the workforce at that time and recall that many women were let go from their jobs when they got married. Many of these women wed soldiers home on weekend leave and consequently would lose their jobs on Monday.

We also commented on Lily’s marriage to Jim. One Page Turner said the book mentioned that Lily and her daughter Rosemary shared a room, while her husband Jim and son Little Jim shared another, a situation she thought seemed a bit strange. I personally thought the more stereotypical roles of man and woman were switched in Lily’s marriage. Lily seemed more domineering and masculine, and Jim seemed laidback with an "it will all work itself out" attitude.
Another group member brought up the subject of economizing and said that the activities the author described as economic measures would have been normal practice. She thought these measures were probably customary during that time period, but seemed strange to the novel’s young author.

The author, Jeannette Walls, was the granddaughter of Lily Casey. She wrote the book as a "true to life" novel. She also authored a memoir entitled The Glass Castle, which chronicles the marriage of Rosemary and Rex. Four Page Turners had read that book, and one remarked that she liked it even better than Half Broke Horses. Many of the group members said they enjoyed Half Broke Horses because it was a family story. Considering The Glass Castle, which is also a family story, occupied a spot on the bestseller list for several weeks, this seems to be the type of story Walls excels at.

Next month we will once again meet at the Central Library, at which time our selection will be The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. Group members are encouraged to bring their suggestions for next year’s reading list to both the June and July meetings.

February 24, 2011: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:56:00 +0000

Book: Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

Discussion:

This month the Page Turners discovered that our second book of the year, Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy, had a great deal of heart but seemed a little lacking in the soul department. The book received a decidedly tepid reception with thirteen group members voting thumbs sideways and only two giving it a thumbs up.

A few of our members had read Binchy before, and they all agreed that Heart and Soul was not her best effort. The novel, though not bad, and therefore not worthy of any thumbs down votes, displayed many characteristics of a cozy soap opera.

The foremost of these characteristics was the regurgitation of characters. It seemed as if Ms. Binchy was trying to be a bit Dickensian in her proliferation of characters. However, due to the lack of depth and development of these characters, she fell a bit short of a Dickens’ ideal. Many of the characters briefly mentioned in the novel are featured in some of Binchy’s other books. While this may have pleased fans of her complete array of work, for those of us reading her for the first time a few sentences detailing a non-essential character’s actions seemed a bit irrelevant.

The second characteristic which led us to describe Heart and Soul as a cozy soap opera was the overabundance of happiness expressed in the novel. Each character was so positive, nice, or forgiving as to render them unrealistic and the book underwhelming. For example, the twins, who at first were presented as typical irresponsible adolescents, went on a vocation-vacation to Greece and transformed into a focused, ambitious team of caterers. Declan, the new doctor at the clinic was in a near-fatal accident, but was cheerfully up and about, albeit with a cane, less than fifty pages later. Even the dramatically intended end of the book, when Fiona almost relinquishes her engagement to Declan due to issues concerning a prior relationship, fails to inspire any anxiety in the reader. By this juncture we had discovered the book’s inherent white picket fence nature, thus we knew everything would end happily ever after.

There were a few other improbable plot lines, which required some suspension of disbelief. The first of these involved Eileen Edwards, the woman stalking Father Brian Flynn. Eileen came off as being mentally ill, which we believe Binchy planned. Yet one Page Turner rationalized that she could not have been too ill, otherwise she would not have agreed to stop stalking Flynn when confronted by all his friends. Her agreement implied that she knew she was doing something wrong, which led some of our group members to question the notion of her being mentally ill.

The second improbable plot line was the underdeveloped love-hate relationship between Clara and Frank. For the majority of the book we heard about how detestable Clara found Frank, then, near the end, she begins complimenting him and socializing in such a way with him that a date appeared to be in their future.

Some of the Page Turners commented on the relationship between Anya and Mereck, her former employer. They thought this section of the book was the best because it had the most conflict. However, the details were a bit vague, so we wondered just how far Mereck’s maltreatment of Anya went.

As the meeting concluded we talked a bit more about romance in the British Isles, which lead us to a discussion of the upcoming royal wedding and remembrances of the wedding of Charles and Diana. As usual copies of next month’s selection were available for checkout after the meeting. We will convene again at the North Garland Branch Library on March 24, at which time we will discuss Elizabeth Kostova’s novel The Swan Thieves.

January 27, 2011: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:55:00 +0000

Book: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

Discussion:

We celebrated a new year of Page Turners with a change in location this month. Due to renovations at the Central Library, the group met at the North Garland Branch Library, where we will continue to meet through part of the spring.

This month we read Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, which received a bit of a cool reception. Several group members enjoyed the book, seven gave it a thumbs up vote, but these reactions were tempered by an equal number of readers who either voted thumbs down, three, or sideways, four. We also had a few members abstain from voting pending completion.

The group was split over two different ways of defining the novel. One faction saw it as a love story consisting of two tales of survival. The other section described the novel as primarily a story of war. Personally, I found Cold Mountain to be a bit of both. The novel took place during the Civil War and many of its characters are soldiers, some with haunting memories of the fighting. However, apart from some of Inman’s recollections, readers did not encounter many scenes of battle. The bulk of the story detailed his sweetheart, Ada’s attempts to survive on her family’s farm and his own efforts to walk back to her, wounded in more ways than one.

As with the split over the type of story, the group was also divided on the subject of the characters. Some Page Turners really liked the characters, particularly Ada and Ruby. They liked the presence of strong women in the novel and enjoyed reading from their perspective. Many of us were impressed by Ada’s transformation and her growing friendship with Ruby. We were pleased that she was able to put her city pretensions behind her and make survival her priority. She also formed an excellent partnership with Ruby, treating her as an equal from day one. One reader compared their relationship to a kind of marriage, each sharing their strengths with the other.

Despite this admiration for the two women, some of the group members found the characters hard to relate to. We received some insight into Inman’s state of mind regarding the war and Ada as he walks, and a few of Ada’s memories of him and her father were supplied. However, I wondered about their relationship for a large portion of the book. Until the scene where Ada read one of Inman’s letters I doubted whether she even liked him and thought perhaps the affection was all on his side. Another Page Turner questioned whether or not “she even knew this guy”. With these doubts in mind we found it a little difficult to become invested in the main characters, although amusingly, everyone in the group agreed that they could have taken or left Stobrod, Ruby’s father.

Despite a few readers still plowing through the books, we went ahead and discussed the ending, thereby spoiling it for them. Due to the vague description in the final chapters, not everyone was clear on how Inman died. Having dispatched Ada and Ruby ahead to the farm, Inman and Stobrod encountered Teague and some other members of the Home Guard on their way back to Black Cove. They were able to subdue all but one of the Guard, an young adolescent. Inman tried to talk the boy into handing over his gun so that he did not have to shoot him, but the boy refused and ended up shooting Inman. Ada heard the shot and ran back in time to hold Inman before he died.

Although many of us were not that invested in the characters, Inman’s death still shook us all. We understood that a novel could lose some of its potency if everything was resolved happily, but it still seemed unfair that Stobrod survived his wound while Inman himself survived previous gunshots to the head and neck only to die from a chest wound shortly after his reunion with Ada.

As the meeting wound down we moved on to topics more loosely connected with the book. One of these was the Confederate legacy which remained after the war. One Page Turner grew up in North Carolina and said she definitely felt some of the tensions amongst the people, even half a century later.

This Page Turner and another recently travelled to Gainesville with the Senior Center. While there they visited the courthouse, where they learned about the Gainesville Lynchings. Apparently, in 1862, forty men who supposedly held Union sympathies were hung in Gainesville, after being condemned by a questionable group of citizens.

Our final topic of discussion was the film version of Cold Mountain. I could not remember if it ended the same way as the book, but another reader recalled that it had. She also pointed out that the Swanger sons played a larger role in the film, returning to the family farm at the film’s conclusion. We also joked about the nationalities of the three lead actors. Nicole Kidman, was an Australian, Jude Law was from Britain, only one, Renee Zellweger, was an American southerner!

As usual copies of next month’s selection were available for checkout after the meeting. We will meet again at the North Garland Branch Library on February 24, at which time we will discuss Maeve Binchy’s novel Heart and Soul.

December 9, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:53:00 +0000

Book: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

Discussion:

Despite several difficulties in parking due to another event, we had a very good turnout at this month’s meeting. We held the meeting a few weeks early to accommodate the holidays this month and chose Mary Ann Shaffer’s slim novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for our discussion. The book received a warm reception, as the voting illustrated. Fourteen group members voted thumbs up, one went sideways, and two abstained pending completion.

One Page Turner had been given a booklet containing photographs and brief first person accounts of people living in the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey during the Second World War. We began the discussion by having her read a few of these accounts, several of which were similar to events in our book. One told of a family who kept a contraband radio inside a church organ, while another detailed a second family’s attempts to keep an illegal pig. The whole group agreed that the war definitely brought out the islanders’ resourcefulness in the book and in real life.

Many of us did not know much about the Channel Islands before reading this book, or that they were occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. We did, however associate them with cows, Guernsey and Jersey cows in particular. One of our members informed us that the population of Guernsey was forty thousand, and another told us about a British television series, Islands at War, which relates the story of the Islands’ occupation.

The next major topic of discussion concerned the book’s epistolary style. One Page Turner said that normally she is not a fan of books composed of letters, but she enjoyed this one very much. Another reader said that some reviews of the book suggested that the book’s style could be limiting, though none of us felt that was the case. We mentioned some other epistolary novels, Pamela, an eighteenth century novel by Samuel Richardson, 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff and the film of the same name, and the Griffin and Sabine series by Nick Bantock. One group member brought three of the Griffin and Sabine novels to the meeting and passed them around for us.

As usual, much of the rest of our discussion revolved around the characters. We talked a lot about Kit’s parenting situation. Her drifting from household to household would not fly today, with the required court orders and legal guardians. We were all glad that she seemed likely to stay with Juliet, who she seemed to bond with. Though we thought Juliet’s proposal to Dawsey was a bit forward for the time period, and a bit humorous too, we felt confident that they would take over the parenting of Kit full-time.

We also discussed Sidney and how he and his sister, Sophie, were the perfect friends for Juliet since they were a family; something she was lacking. They also provided her with a great deal of support, another thing Juliet lacked due to her orphaned status.

We talked about some of the villains in the novel too, namely Adelaide Addison and Billee Bee Jones. One reader compared Adelaide to Hilly Holbrook in The Help, saying that she, like Hilly, attempted to run society where she lived. Everyone thought Billee Bee Jones was awful as well, especially for trying to steal Isola’s Oscar Wilde letters. One Page Turner pointed out that Juliet once commented to Sidney that his secretary was too good to be true.

We mentioned the character of Eli a bit too. We discussed his evacuation to the English countryside and were thankful that his experience was a fairly good one. Some group members had heard that evacuees were sometimes treated as servants, and many felt this was more often the rule and Eli’s experience was the exception. One Page Turner related the personal story of a friend who had been evacuated as a child. She was lucky enough to have a good experience like Eli. Another group member compared the evacuation of British children to the American orphan train. Both were instances of children traveling far from home hoping for someone to take them in, often with unpleasant results.

Near then end of the meeting a group member asked if anyone had ever read any Charles Lamb. Unfortunately, none of us had. In fact, very few of us had read any of the books referenced in the novel. We were, however, glad to have read Mary Ann Shaffer’s book, though we were sad to hear of her death right before its completion. She was an author like Kathryn Stockett, one we wished we could talk to.

As usual flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier were distributed at the close of the meeting. We will resume our meetings on the fourth Thursdays of the month on January 27. Due to library renovations the Central Library meeting room will be unavailable so we will meet at the North Garland Branch Library.

November 18, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:50:00 +0000

Book: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Discussion:

We had a good group at this month’s meeting of Page Turners to discuss Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. The group’s reaction to the book was positive as well; all sixteen attendees gave it a thumbs up vote.

We began the discussion by talking about the dialects Stockett employed; those of Aibileen and Minnie were particularly pronounced. I asked if any group members found the dialects offensive, as that had been mentioned in more than one bibliographic publication. No one seemed to think the accents were distasteful; in fact, many enjoyed the unique voices identifying each character.

Incidentally, the novel’s characters played a large role in our discussion, as is usually the case. We mentioned both Aibileen and Minnie a bit. The readers lauded Aibileen for her attempts to give Mae Mobley the praise and affection she did not receive from her mother. A few also secretly wished Aibileen had not helped Skeeter with her book, fearing it would put her in danger. The comments about Minnie centered on the infamous pie she tricked Hilly Holbrook into eating. Some group members wondered if the pie was really made of what we suspected, or if it was just a trick to make Hilly think she was eating something bad. Most of us seemed to think it was the real deal.

The only drawback to the book, mentioned during the evening, was that many of the group members did not feel like all of the characters were fully developed or their storylines were not resolved. Stuart Whitworth illustrated one example of this. Some of the Page Turners wanted to know what happened to him after his break-up with Skeeter. It was also suggested that Stockett did not fully develop the character of Celia Foote. We knew she grew up in the country, that she was familiar with the kind of domestic abuse Minnie was suffering, and that her husband loved her very much. However, many of the readers wished the author had provided additional details about Celia’s background and more about her relationship with Johnny.

Basically, the group members wished Stockett had written a book on each of her characters, except for Elizabeth Leefolt, who they did not like very much due to her treatment of Mae Mobley. We thought this proved Stockett’s abilities as a writer, her ability to make readers want more.

Aside from the discussion on the characters, much of the meeting’s content focused on the themes invoked in the book; racism, segregation, and the Southern experience. One Page Turner spoke about living in Detroit during the race riot of 1967. She was escorted to work during the five days of unrest, her job being deemed essential, while many others stayed home.

Another group member brought up the bathroom segregation issue. In the novel, Hilly Holbrook convinced the Leefolts to build a separate bathroom for Aibileen in their garage. A Page Turner who lived in Oklahoma during the time period commented that the idea of separate bathrooms was not practiced there. However, another reader mentioned that it was common in North Carolina, where one of our other members resided at the time.

Many readers in our group are from the North originally. In fact, we have a whole Michigan contingent, and more than one member from Wisconsin. Several of these ladies commented that their experiences in the North differed quite a bit from those here in the South. There was less variety in the demographics in these areas and less segregation too. One of our Northerners remembered going on vacation to Florida and feeling very confused by segregation.

As the meeting concluded we discussed two final issues. First, one Page Turner mentioned that there was another kind of discrimination in the book, one based on class. Hilly and her Junior League friends looked down on Celia because they thought she was of a lower class than they were. Our fellow group member reminded us that there were also white domestic servants or help at this time. They, however, did not suffer from the same degree of maltreatment as the African Americans did.

Secondly, we discussed the women’s issues in the book. These were mostly embodied by Skeeter. She had goals and aspirations, beyond the Junior League, like becoming an author and living somewhere besides Mississippi. We did question what Skeeter would think of total desegregation, but I think she would have been very accepting of it.

As the meeting ended, flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, were distributed. We will hold the December meeting early next month, the evening of the ninth, to accommodate the holidays.

October 28, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:44:00 +0000

Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Discussion:

We had an excellent turnout this month to discuss an excellent book. Twenty-one readers attended this month’s discussion of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the majority of the group enjoyed it. Eighteen Page Turners gave the novel a thumbs up vote, two voted thumbs sideways, and one abstained. This bodes well for next year, as we will be reading the second in Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire, in July.

Though most of the group members thoroughly enjoyed the selection, a few shortcomings were identified. One was the overabundance of coffee and cigarettes. One of the Page Turners remarked that our European counterparts still smoke more than we do, which may account for the frequent tobacco references. A second drawback was the superfluity of content. More than one group member thought the book could have been streamlined, although it was said that the final hundred pages were much easier to get through. This brought up the oscillation of pacing in the book. At some points the story would move very quickly, only to slow down, and then suddenly speed up again, depending on the action. Some of this action struck a chord with a few readers as well, there being a proliferation of sex and violence in the story.

As the voting on the book demonstrates, this month’s readers found a lot to like about the book, in spite of the enumerated shortcomings. Most of these had to do with the characterization, although one group member commented that she enjoyed the translation of the book despite not normally being a fan of translated works. The Page Turners also found the statistics communicated at the beginning of each section of the book interesting. We wondered if those statistics were accurate and decided that since Larsson was a journalist they probably were. Yet, it was the characterization that made the book, the character of Lisbeth in particular. Though the group hated the violence directed towards Salander, they loved how she fought against it. One reader called her punishment of guardian Bjurman “wonderful”. We also discussed the idea of Lisbeth having Asperger’s syndrome. It has been suggested in several reviews and summaries that this was the case. One Page Turner related her experience with Asperger’s and based on that felt confident that Lisbeth exhibited several signs of the syndrome, in addition to many other gifts.

We also commented on the characters of Gottfried and Martin, the father-son homicide team. Readers were surprised that there was not just one murderer spanning a period of fifty years, but two, the latter being initiated into killing by his father. We all agreed that both of these men were pretty sick, and the group members did not judge Harriet too harshly for pushing her father into the lake.

The final character we discussed in-depth was Mikael. Mikael was a strong character, in fact, readers frequently question who really serves as the protagonist of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, him or Lisbeth. Based on the later novels, I would say it is Lisbeth, although the first book does an excellent job of solidifying the two as a team, which provides the basis for their interactions in the later works. One Page Turner commented that she thought Mikael was a little over done in his role as a ladies’ man. Every female in the book seemed to want him, but she doubted he was “that sexy”. She hypothesized that Mikael represented Larsson’s fantasy for himself, the dashing journalist turning heads with every scoop.

We could not end a discussion of this book without talking about Larsson himself. By now almost every reader knows that he had planned to make Millennium into a ten book series, but died after only turning in the first three books. The circumstances surrounding his death are also widely known, Larsson collapsed from a heart attack after running up several flights of stairs at his office while the elevator was out. Due to the delicate nature of some of his journalistic work, some question whether or not there was more to the story. Many readers also know that Larsson had a long-time partner who he lived with but never married. It is rumored that the partner has a fourth or fifth book in the series in her possession but may not release it due to issues with the estate. Whatever the real story is, we were certain that either a fourth or fifth novel would find a huge audience.

As the meeting concluded, we discussed the film versions of Larsson’s books. A few of us had seen one or more of the Swedish versions, and with the library ordering copies of the DVDs many more are sure to view them as well. We await the American version of the first movie with wonder and bated breath.

As usual, flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, were made available. The reading list for 2011 was also revealed. Copies of the list will be available at all upcoming meetings.

September 23, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:30:00 +0000

Book: Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson

Discussion:

We had a good turnout at this month’s discussion of Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm. The book received a warm reception as well, with eleven of the thirteen members attending giving the book a thumbs up vote. The remaining two readers voted sideways.

Isaac’s Storm is the third work the Page Turners have read by Larson. We read Devil in the White City in 2004 and Thunderstruck in 2009. The general consensus was that Isaac’s Storm was a good read, but not quite as good as Devil in the White City. The only drawback mentioned was the book’s somewhat choppy flow. However, one Page Turner suggested that this flow mirrored the choppiness of the storm itself and its trajectory.

In addition to the book’s style, we also commented on its characters, Isaac Cline in particular. As the title character, I expected Isaac to play a large role in the book and to be a benevolent character. Instead, he seemed a bit conceited, and Larson pointed out more than once that Isaac exaggerated about the amount of people he warned about the storm and the number of lives he saved. One of the group members remarked that Isaac always appeared concerned over whether he did the right thing by leaving the weather station and going home to his family. With so many people taking refuge in his house, it seemed that he did in fact make the right decision.

We also discussed the resentment between Isaac and his brother Joseph. The book made it sound as if most of the problem was Joseph’s jealousy of Isaac. It was unclear to me whether that jealousy was justified, if Joseph had a case of “sour grapes”, or if his contributions were under-appreciated and disregarded. I actually preferred Joseph over his brother. Whereas Isaac seemed to mention the number of people he saved who were not members of his family fairly frequently, Joseph was the one who grabbed his two nieces and jumped out the window with them as Isaac’s house collapsed.

Many of the group members stated that the book inspired them to do research on the events we read about, which is an admirable goal of any good work of non-fiction. Several readers went online and to print resources to look for pictures of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Some of these Page Turners brought this supplemental material to the meeting with them. One of the items we passed around was a newspaper that contained photographs of the hurricane’s destruction.

I must confess I also did some research after reading the book. I finished my reading near the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Afterward, I wanted to compare the strength of these two hurricanes and a third, 1992’s Hurricane Andrew. According to the National Hurricane Center, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 remains the deadliest storm in the United States since 1851, with an estimated 8,000 fatalities. Hurricane Katrina ranks third on this list with 1,500 deaths. I was unable to locate Hurricane Andrew on this list, which cataloged all storms between 1851 and 2006 that caused over twenty-five deaths. The accompanying article did, however, mention Hurricane Andrew as the second costliest hurricane in the United States during that timeframe.

We could not avoid touching on the topic of Hurricane Katrina after reading this book. It seemed as if almost everyone in the group knew someone who was affected by that storm directly or indirectly. We also discussed the government’s involvement during and after the storm. One group member said she hoped many lessons were learned as a result of the levy situation, the events at the Superdome, and general reaction to the storm.

We also discussed tornadoes, since we see those more frequently here in the Garland area. One Page Turner brought up the Jarrell tornado, a powerful F5 cyclone, which hit the Central Texas town in May of 1997, in addition to two F2 tornadoes which touched down in the same area on the same day.

We concluded the meeting by discussing the effect the hurricane had on Galveston. At the turn of the century, Galveston and Houston were vying with each other for recognition as the premiere port city in Texas. After the hurricane, Galveston could no longer compete with Houston and has since never recovered the prestige it once enjoyed. It did, however, gain its famous seawall as a result of the storm of 1900.

As usual, flyers for upcoming programming were distributed at this month’s meeting. Group members also turned in their ballots for voting on selections for next year’s reading list. The list will be revealed next month, at which time we will be discussing Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

August 26, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 18:09:00 +0000

Book: The Given Day by Dennis Lehane

Discusssion:

This month’s selection, The Given Day by Dennis Lehane, received a very positive response from the group. Of the ten members attending, nine gave the book a thumbs up, and one went sideways.

The main detractors of this novel were the frequent change in viewpoint and the choice language. The story was told alternately from Danny Coughlin, Luther Lawrence, and Babe Ruth’s points of view, and all of these sections sported colorful language, which, considering Danny and Babe’s occupations of policeman and ball player, was not completely surprising.

As usual, the group spent quite a bit of time discussing the book’s characters. In particular we discussed Babe Ruth. Many of us could have taken him or left him. He was not very likeable, but his situation with his baseball career provided an interesting correlation to Danny and the other police officers’ struggles. The description of Ruth’s salary prompted a discussion about the cost of seeing a baseball game. One group member remembered when it cost about ten dollars to take her children to a game and eat hot dogs. This in turn led to many comments on the rise in cost of many things these days, such as movie tickets.

We also talked about some of the members of the Coughlin family, specifically Nora, the housekeeper who marries Danny, and Joe, Danny’s youngest brother. With Nora, we mainly discussed her first marriage in Ireland, the arrival of her husband on the Coughlin family stoop, and her resulting bigamous marriage to Danny. One group member pointed out that it was common for immigrant men to remarry once in the United States, but fairly uncommon for a woman, such as Nora, to do so.

Despite her less than glamorous past, Nora was very good to Joe while she worked in the Coughlin household. The group unanimously expressed their horror concerning his father’s beating of Joe, particularly since it was punishment for saying a word Mr. Coughlin frequently used himself. We discussed how different each of the Coughlin brothers were, Danny and Joe perhaps being the most similar. We could never pin down Joe’s exact age though, which bothered us. Some of us thought he was quite young, maybe eight or ten, whereas others pictured him older, about twelve or fourteen.

In addition to the characters, we also discussed some historical themes in connection with the novel. The first of these themes was corruption in government, which is actually not exclusively historical. We talked about immigration in relation to corruption, the melting pot expression, and the idea of there always being an underdog in the U.S. population, such as the Irish and Italians in The Given Day.

We also discussed diseases, such as the Spanish Influenza outbreak detailed in the book, the Swine Flu, and the recent salmonella scare. One Page Turner did some research on the flu epidemic of 1918 and found that millions were attacked and approximately fifty million were killed by it.

We also mentioned the change in the perception of police officers from workers forced to buy their own uniforms and weapons while being paid an extremely low wage to essential public servants.

We ended the meeting by talking about some of Lehane’s other books, the movies based on them, and the reading list for next year. Flyers for upcoming programming and next month’s selection, Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson, were also made available.

July 22, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:25:00 +0000

Book: Dilly of a Death by Susan Wittig Albert

Discussion:

The reaction to this month’s book, Dilly of a Death by Susan Wittig Albert, was rather varied. Three group members voted thumbs up, two gave it a thumbs down, five voted thumbs sideways, and one abstained from voting.

One of the main objections to the book was that it was the twelfth book in a series of eighteen. Many readers dislike starting in the middle of a series because they do not feel acquainted with the characters or their histories. One Page Turner, who happens to be an Albert fan, gave the first book in the series, Thyme of Death, a ringing endorsement.

The characters presented a problem for some readers, too. While several group members commented that they found China and McQuaid to be interesting characters and Ruby an original sidekick, others thought they felt a bit stereotypical. Our Albert fan reminded the group that since this was the first China Bayles book for many of us we did not have the opportunity to get to know them over time. Readers of the entire series would probably feel comfortable enough by the twelfth book to be able to focus more on plot than characterization.

We also learned about the character of Brian from this group member. Brian was McQuaid’s son from an earlier marriage. One Page Turner commented that he was mentioned several times in the book, but seemed to have no one to look after him with China and McQuaid involved in investigative pursuits. Apparently, in the first few books of the series Brian lived with his mother, a woman typified as a flake. However, by the time Dilly of a Death takes place he has more or less moved in with China and McQuaid.

Another sticking point was the relationship between Amy and Kate. Some group members felt like the relationship between the two women did not jive, particularly with Amy’s list of former boyfriends. At one point in the book, China did wonder if Amy had embarked upon the relationship for reasons of a non-romantic nature, such as security, convenience and companionship, which could be correct. We would have to read the later books in the series to find out.

As in the novel, we engaged in quite a bit of discussion before talking about the mystery aspect of the story. One Page Turner remarked that it was not until page one hundred and thirty-six that we had a body. It seemed as if this installment in the series focused more on the domestic portions of the characters’ lives than on a crime, which again would not be such a drawback were we reading the entire series.

Many of the elements of a good mystery were present in Dilly of a Death; the celebrity of the victim, an original, yet characterized manner of death, several suspects, some with dubious connections, and romantic affiliations. However, it seemed to me, as if there were not many clues as to the killer’s identity. Once I finished the book, I could not look back and identify any thing I might have picked up on earlier to help me figure out who killed Phoebe Morgan.

There were several things we did enjoy about the book, the foremost being the Texas setting. Many Page Turners have travelled to the Texas Hill Country and enjoyed reading about a recognizable place. We all identified with the rainstorm that pre-empted the Pickle Fest. Quite a few of our group members came to Texas from other states, several from Michigan, but in their time here have come to appreciate the weather, making the deluge in the book no unfamiliar event.

One Page Turner really enjoyed the metaphysical elements of the book and identified with the character of Ruby. As a result, we spent a bit of time discussing various herbs that are known to have medicinal properties and others that are just unique. We all wished we could have sampled some of the tea shop’s lavender scones!

The discussion of herbs led into a talk of health and healthcare which took us to the end of the meeting. We also took suggestions for next year’s reading list. At the August meeting we will distribute an annotated list of selections and a voting ballot. Group members will select the twelve books they are most interested in reading and bring that list with them to the September meeting, after which the votes will be tallied.

We also passed out flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, The Given Day by Dennis Lehane, as the meeting concluded.

June 24, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:11:00 +0000

Book: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Discussion:

We had a record vote this month at Page Turners. Of the twelve group members attending, ten readers gave this month’s selection, Shanghai Girls by Lisa See, a thumbs up vote. The two remaining members abstained from voting pending completion of the book.

We began the discussion by talking about the author. As her biography from Barnes and Noble stated, Lisa See does not immediately come to mind when readers think of Chinese-American authors. With her bright red hair and freckles it is easy to understand why that is. However, See is one-eighth Chinese. She grew up in the Chinatown area of Los Angeles and has even written a non-fiction book about her Chinese ancestors. One Page Turner heard See speak at the Dallas Museum of Art’s Arts and Letters Live program, and another provided us with an article on the event.

When asked what they liked best about the novel the group members responded that they enjoyed the historical fiction genre. They felt like they really learned something about China, and more specifically Shanghai, just before the Second World War. Several group members also thought the novel was easy to read. One read it in only three days, and another finished it in five days.

One thing the group members did not like about the book was the ending. The novel concluded with Joy running away to China and Pearl deciding to follow her, even though she would risk not being able to return to the United States. This seemed like a cliffhanger to some of the group members, who felt a sequel was in order. The article one member brought suggested that See’s next project is such a sequel.

We also discussed a few major events in the book and some of the characters. First, we talked about May and Pearl’s time on Angel Island, the concealing of May’s pregnancy, and the fabrication of Pearl’s pregnancy. We were a little surprised that the women managed it so well. I, personally, thought manufacturing a pregnancy for Pearl would be more difficult than hiding May’s. After Joy’s birth, and as she grew up, we wondered about May’s connection to her biological daughter. When she was little May would take her to the movie sets to make money, but otherwise seemed to have little to do with the girl and few maternal inclinations. Pearl, on the other hand, fully embraced her role as "Joy’s mother" and proved herself to be a much better parent than May probably would have been. When May revealed who really fathered Joy, we did question why Pearl had never previously considered the possibility of her being Z. G.’s child.

As the meeting concluded, we discussed a few more topics, such as many societies’ preoccupation with having sons, the death of May and Pearl’s mother, which revealed her to be more maternal than we had imagined, and Joy’s politics and Communist leanings.

A few group members also brought their suggestions for next year’s reading list. Suggestions will be collected next month as well, with ballot distribution at the August meeting. Flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, A Dilly of a Death by Susan Wittig Albert, were also provided.

May 27, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:19:00 +0000

Book: The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry

Discussion:

This month’s Page Turners’ selection, The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry, received a pretty positive reception. Eight group members gave it a thumbs up vote, two voted thumbs sideways, and one voted thumbs down.

The main detractor from the book was its hokiness. There were a few incidents in the book that seemed very unlikely. One of these was the idea that Alexi Romanov was the antecedent of the new heir instead of Alexi’s sister Anastasia. With Alexi’s hemophilia, Anastasia seemed like the more realistic choice to produce an heir, yet Berry killed her off as a young woman. Another example of hokiness in the book concerns the two would-be assassins Droopy and Cro-Magnon. It does not make a great deal of sense for the people who wanted Lord dead to use the same gangsters every time, especially after he learned to indentify them. Nor would it be realistic to continue employing them after they failed to dispatch their target so often.

One Page Turner found this hokiness and some of the invented fictional details a little too much, and even discussed some of the authentic historical facts in a blog post which she read to us. She commented that reading history as opposed to historical fiction is often more interesting.

Several of us really enjoyed the historical bits in the novel. Many of the group members confessed to having long-held interests in the Romanov family, as well as Fabergé Eggs which played a small part in the book. We thought the description of the Romanovs concealing their jewels on their bodies was particularly realistic, and enjoyed the parts concerning Rasputin too. At the meeting we learned about the legend of his death. Apparently there were many attempts on his life such as a poisoning and a stabbing, before he was finally shot and drowned.

A few readers brought related clippings with them. One was an article that described some DNA testing done in 2008 which confirmed that all the Romanovs had been killed in 1917. The other clipping was a review of the book George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I. Interestingly all three of these royal men were related through England’s Queen Victoria. George V was her son Edward VII’s son, Nicholas II married Alexandra, daughter of Alice, Victoria’s second daughter, and Wilhelm was the son of Princess Victoria, the eldest daughter of the English Queen.

We also discussed the bad guys’ practice of taking on the names of previous politicians such as Lenin and Khrushchev. We liked this because we did not have to figure out too many difficult Russian names, having already been familiar with these men.

We wrapped up the evening by talking about a few of Berry’s other books. One Page Turner had read The Charlemagne Pursuit and recommended it to the rest of us, and another mentioned The Third Secret. We also touched on a few other enjoyable historical fiction series, Gabaldon’s Outlander and Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear.

Flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, Shanghai Girls by Lisa See, were distributed as usual, and group members were encouraged to bring suggestions for next year’s reading list to the June and July meetings.

April 22, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:38:00 +0000

Book: In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

Discussion:

We had quite a varied reaction to this month’s book, In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. Since we read his A Walk in the Woods last year I expected more thumbs up votes, but we only had three. Aside from those three, three other Page Turners voted sideways, and the final third abstained from voting.

We began the discussion by talking about Bryson in general. We wanted to know what exactly his occupation was before he began writing full-time. Some thought he had been a teacher. I read the biographical information I had brought with me but it did not properly address the question. After the meeting I looked up Bryson’s official site through Random House, which suggested that he had previously been a journalist in England. He wrote for both The Times and The Independent while supplementing his income with travel articles. In this respect Bryson seems similar to Dave Barry, a humor columnist and author we had already been comparing with Bryson.

Once we had dispensed with Bryson’s biography we moved on to his Australian trip. Throughout the book he takes different mini-trips, some by train, some by car, and he also references previous trips to the island continent. A few readers found it difficult to keep all these trips straight. It also reminded us of his piecemeal expedition on the Appalachian Trail. In that book, Bryson would hike a large portion of the Trail for many days at a time, then he would leave to fulfill other obligations and return when he could, sometimes only for a day.

We also discussed the numerous museums Bryson visited while in Australia. Some of them were quite surprising, like the Lambing Flat Museum, while others were just plain odd. In the latter type Bryson would often be the only visitor in them!

From here we digressed into recounting some of the funny anecdotes in the book. One we particularly enjoyed was the tale of a married couple out in a rented boat on a popular waterway. They were hoping to find some good fishing and noticed a small inlet where no one else was. They rowed down a bit and got their gear together only to realize they had steered right into alligator central. After about ten very disconcerting minutes they managed to return to safe waters, in tact and with an amusing story.

This story brought us to the topic of how many unique creatures there are in Australia, many of which could kill you quite easily. Some of these creatures include spiders, snakes, sharks, caterpillars, and jellyfish. With such a large amount of killer species several Page Turners questioned why anyone would choose to live in Australia. Thanks to some history provided by Bryson we know that Australia was originally established as a penal colony. Thus, those poor souls had no choice but to live among these animals. As to the current population, we can only assume that, having been born or raised among these creatures, the Australian people have grown used to them and as a result do not live in daily fear of them. Now Bryson presents a totally different question. I have always considered Bryson to be a fairly fearful individual. Yet, despite more than one encounter with a few of these creatures, our author continued to walk around quite a bit of Australia. Perhaps we misjudged him.

In regard to Bryson’s personality we did decide that we enjoy his adventures more when he shares them with other people. Part of the fun of reading A Walk in the Woods was discovering what kind of person his next hiking buddy would be. Reading about the different sites he visited in Australia was interesting but many of the more comical parts came when he was interacting with another person.

At this point we were nearing the end of the meeting and diverged into the topics of the World War II bombings in Darwin, immigration during that war, internment camps, and the 2008 film Australia. We also agreed that we learned many facts by reading this month’s book and are glad we did so, though we may think twice before making a trip to the land down under.

Flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry, were also distributed as usual.

March 25, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:46:00 +0000

Book: The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Discussion:

The meeting of the Page Turners book discussion group was a little different this month. Due to a professional conference I was unable to moderate the meeting. Luckily, another librarian, John Reid, was willing to fill in. The overall opinion of this month’s selection was rather divided, as shown by the group members’ votes. Two readers voted thumbs up, two voted thumbs down, three voted thumbs sideways, one abstained from voting and another had not yet finished the book. For a complete description of the discussion please see John’s summary below:

The group opened with a discussion of the fact that the book won a Pulitzer Prize and whether it had been worthy of the honor. More people disliked the book than liked it. The most unpleasant aspect of the book for the group was the nature of "time-jumping" in the book, where the author would refer to the future lives of characters in sometimes the same paragraph where they were introduced. The technique gives the reader a sense of being all-seeing and all-knowing. It is also perhaps designed to show off the impressive amount of research the author had undertaken. The huge amounts of (often tangential) detail, related to both the characters and the setting, detracted from a smooth reading. Consensus was strong that the book was a tough read and at many points easy to put down.

There was also a discussion of tone. The book was written in a very dry, historical fashion, almost as though it was a legitimate history itself and not a work of fiction. It was suggested that perhaps the book was trying to serve as such a history, though the details of the book are not historical.

The meaning of the title drew some debate. "The Known World" was taken to mean the small world which the characters in the book knew and understood. Because slavery was so pervasive and normal in that world, the slaves in the book have little context for the extent of the evils perpetrated against them. In that vein, one patron commented how some slaves were actually well-fed and well-treated by some masters, further muddying the moral picture. On the other hand, claimed another patron, such good treatment came at the expense of their liberty. The brutality of the period was well-reflected in the book.

We touched on the character of Alice briefly. Was she truly insane or deranged, or merely faking it to make her way out of slavery? The consensus was that it was all a put-on, as demonstrated by the intelligence displayed in her creation of the Townsend Plantation mural discovered at the close of the book. We also discussed a possible plot hole regarding Caledonia: why did she turn to Moses for comfort? It was perhaps unease with the plantation she had inherited from her dead husband Henry, and an unwillingness to draw the hard line between master and property.

FINAL VERDICT: The book covers an important and novel subject, but it is a shame it was not more readable. Many people who would find the story enlightening and engaging would probably be turned off by the author’s incredibly dry writing style and unwillingness to focus on the immediacy of the characters’ actions.

February 25, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:35:00 +0000

Book: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Discussion:

Many of our regular members returned this month to discuss Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate. The majority of the group liked the book, six readers gave it a thumbs up, four voted sideways, and one gave it a thumb down. The major complaint about the book was its fantastic nature. There are several elements of magical realism and mysticism in the novel, which may not be to everyone’s taste.

The translation was also remarked upon. One member has seen the movie four times, both in the original Spanish and the English version. She told us she had heard that the translation was not exact and that a bit of the story’s power may have been lost. Another Page Turner has read the book in Spanish and English and said the original version was much better.

In spite of this, more than one group member found that some of the book’s scenes were very humorous. One particular scene involved the sister Gertrudis getting very agitated after eating some of Tita’s cooking and trying to cool off in the shower, only to have the water evaporate from the heat and end up running around the farm naked.

In addition to Gertrudis, we discussed Tita’s sister, Rosaura, quite a bit, especially the bodily issues she suffered from after marrying Pedro. No one seemed to particularly care for her, perhaps because she married Tita’s boyfriend, though one Page Turner did mention that she did not have much of a choice considering how the girls’ mother Elena was.

At this point we began to discuss the mother in detail. Elena was a traditionalist, which was why she singled out one of her daughters, Tita, to care for her until she died. The other girls were allowed to marry in order from oldest to youngest. She often repeated the phrase hasta el muerto to Tita, reminding her that they would be together until she died. Several group members said that the remark resembled a kind of threat and probably made Tita wish her mother would pass on sooner than later. One Page Turner slyly mentioned that this threat could have put Elena in grave danger.

We also discussed the rivalry between Pedro and John Brown for Tita’s love. Although we knew Tita and Pedro were the star-crossed lovers of the novel, a few of us were rooting for Doctor John, even if we knew he probably would not get the girl. The wedding at the end, where Tita’s niece marries John’s son threw some of us off a bit. I personally was hoping the wedding in question would be Tita’s and John’s.

We soon strayed into talking about food and cooking. I told the group how I had heard that most of the recipes included in the book did not really work out when made, but that after reading the book I wished I had something fancy to eat, such as the quail with rose-petals described in the story. One Page Turner said that if she had to cook like Tita did her family would never eat!

From here the conversation segued into families in general. We talked about the roles families play in different cultures and in our own.

We ended the meeting by discussing the significance of the title of the novel. Apparently, chocolate has to reach a certain boiling point when made. If it does not get hot enough it does not turn out well, but if it gets too hot it boils over. We decided that the chocolate represents Tita and her emotions, and that her feelings often boiled over!

As usual, flyers for upcoming library programs and next month’s selection, in this case Edward P. Jones’ The Known World, were distributed at the close of the meeting.

January 28, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:34:00 +0000

Book: The Private Patient by P. D. James

Discussion:

We had a smaller group for our first meeting of the new year to discuss P.D. James’ The Private Patient. The book garnered only a lukewarm reception. Of the readers present, five out of six gave it a thumbs sideways vote, and the sixth gave it somewhere between an up and sideways vote.

We all wanted to like the book, but we could not quite do it. One reason for this may be the extensive vocabulary James employed. One Page Turner relayed her vote by email, saying that it reminded her of her children’s homework which required them to find a certain amount of big words and look up their meanings. Other members shared this view, even pointing out specific words they had never before encountered. One such word was "uxorious", which I have since discovered means to dote upon one’s wife, perhaps to a foolish extent. The term was used to describe Dean, the clinic’s cook, who constantly worried about his wife and her ability to cope with the stress of restaurant work.

The subplot of Dean and his wife Kimberly was actually one of many extraneous plotlines and another possible reason for our tepid response to the book. There were several of these types of subplots such as Marcus’ desire to go to Africa, Sharon’s obsession with the occult, Robyn’s etiquette business, and Candace’s father’s will. Perhaps James was using these storylines to keep us on our toes and prevent us from figuring out the killer’s identity too early, however they just did not make a lot of sense.

We did not find too many of the characters, aside from the detectives, likeable either, which may be another reason we were not too interested in their individual storylines. Rhoda, in particular did not strike us as an enjoyable person. James gives us several early chapters focusing on our victim, but in the end we still did not feel as if we really knew her. We learned about the history of her scar, her relationship with Robyn, who seemed a bit of a mooch, and her feelings about her mother, yet we did not really care that much that she was killed.

Having read a summary of the book we did know that the murder was coming. I personally felt it took a long time to get around to it. However, there were a few twists in the story that we did not expect, such as Sharon turning out to have been a murderer as a child, the reappearance of a man she had been obsessed with for approximately ten years, and Robyn’s uncomfortable death in the freezer.

In spite of these twists the ending did not seem to have the requisite British mystery twist to it. Candace had been against Rhoda coming to the clinic from the beginning and is identified as the killer almost fifty pages before the novel’s end. This seemed a bit anticlimactic to me, but I suppose the fire at the end was intended to make up for it.

Another surprise came at the end, the engagement of Dr. Chandler Powell and Helena Cressett. Powell had been previously involved with Sister Flavia, which made this into a strange sort of love triangle similar to Rhoda’s obscure relationship with Robyn.

A couple of Page Turners had read a few of the books in this series before, but no one present had read them all. We discussed a few of them and the television series before moving on to other favorite mystery writers and crime programs. Some recommended authors included Janet Evanovich, Charles Todd, Deborah Crombie, Clive Cussler, and Anne Perry. The television shows discussed were crime mysteries like The Mentalist, CSI, and Bones.

As usual flyers for upcoming library programs and next month’s selection, in this case Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, were distributed at the close of the meeting.

December 10, 2009: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:22:00 +0000

Book: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Discussion:

This month’s selection was very timely. Less than two weeks after President Obama’s speech on Afghanistan at West Point our book group read Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, a novel set largely in that country.

The group members’ reactions to the book were very strong. Nine out of ten voted thumbs up. The reader who voted thumbs down related an opinion that many of us shared, even those of us who liked the book; it was depressing. Not a feel-good novel by any means, A Thousand Splendid Suns contained many horrible events such as bombings, spousal abuse, and murder. Though this was a fictional book, we know that these events are very real and have happened, not only in Afghanistan, but all over the world.

Though the book dealt with some heavy subject matter and was definitely not a festive holiday selection, it did have many good points. The content may have weighed on some readers, but the style did not. Hosseini’s prose was addictively readable, and one reader said he wrote particularly good descriptions. Another Page Turner said she really felt like she learned something by reading the book. A new culture was revealed to her through the work.

We talked about a few specific incidents in the book, one being Laila and Mariam’s first attempt to escape from Rasheed. A few Page Turners wondered why the women waited so long to try to escape, while others questioned their lack of a second attempt. I personally thought they should have had Tariq take them as soon as he returned to Kabul, though of course if he had the novel would not have had such a climactic end.

We also discussed the references to the film Titanic in the book. Even when television was outlawed in Afghanistan, people still managed to find and screen the film on the black market. Movie-themed souvenirs abounded. One Page Turner asked what we thought the reason was for the people of Kabul’s obsession with this film. One reader called it a form of escape. Another compared it to a similar phenomenon in the 1930s. During the Depression people were barely managing to make ends meet, but would still scrape together enough money to see a movie and forget their financial problems for a few hours. I think Titanic provided a specific kind of escape for the Afghanis. The film’s female protagonist was a proper, well-bred girl who was seeking to break out of her preconceived role and be more independent, something they could not be in their restrictive society. The men probably identified with the male character, Jack, admiring his gallantry and heroic actions. In short, the citizens in the novel likely saw some parallels between the sinking ship in Titanic and their own circumstances, at least subconsciously. In both situations many of the people involved experienced a state of powerlessness, and only those with money, undefeatable wills, or great resilience were able to survive unscathed.

We also compared this novel to Hosseini’s other work, The Kite Runner. Based on an informal tally of those who had read both books, five readers liked A Thousand Splendid Suns better than The Kite Runner, and one felt the reverse. I lean toward the latter Page Turner’s opinion. I really liked both books. I think even books with depressing events can be enjoyed if they are well written, and both of these were. I liked A Thousand Splendid Suns better the second time I read it, but I still think I prefer The Kite Runner.

As the meeting drew to a close we mentioned some of our favorite selections from this year’s list. A few said this book was their favorite. Others listed Loving Frank, Interpreter of Maladies, and Thunderstruck as the best of the year. One member even reached back to the beginning of the year and voted Gilead as her top book of the year!

As usual, flyers for upcoming programming and books for the next month were distributed. We will be back to our regular schedule, the fourth Thursday of every month, in January when we will discuss P.D. James’ The Private Patient.

November 19, 2009: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:46:00 +0000

Book: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Discussion:

We had a smaller group attend this month’s discussion of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The majority of the group seemed to enjoy the book. Seven readers voted thumbs up, one voted thumbs down, and one voted sideways. Two group members who were unable to make it to the meeting sent in their votes by email. Interestingly, they also voted sideways.

It appears that short stories are not everyone’s cup of tea. More than one Page Turner commented that they are not really fans of the genre. One member said that she prefers a little more meat in the books she reads. Another said she was not necessarily a fan of short stories but that she enjoyed Lahiri’s book because of her wonderful prose and writing style. A few other Page Turners seconded her opinion.

After discussing the work as a whole we began talking about the individual stories. Many of the group members chose the final story The Third and Final Continent, as their favorite. In this story a young, recently married Indian man comes to the United States to take a job and prepare a home for his new wife. In doing so he develops a kind relationship with his landlady. Other stories that made an impact on us included Mrs. Sen’s, The Treatment of Bibi Haldar, A Temporary Matter, and This Blessed House.

In discussing the stories we inevitably began talking about food. Food is present in each of the stories in one form or another. In When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, an Indian American family invites another immigrant from the same part of India to share their evening meals, in A Temporary Matter a man working from home begins making dinner for his wife each night before their power is interrupted, in Mrs. Sen’s a boy watches his babysitter prepare traditional Indian food, particularly seafood, and in The Third and Final Continent a newly married man subsists on meals of cornflakes until his wife joins him in the United States.

We decided that this prevalence of food must serve as a connection for each of the characters to their Indian homeland. Aside from some of the female characters’ attire, Indian food is one of their final cultural ties to the world they grew up in. Thus, they are anxious to preserve it.

This idea of food as a kind of connection led me to think about connections in general. The book is obviously about the immigrant’s search for identity, but is also about the connections that are made between people. The stories in this book are full of these connections. Some of them occur between people from the same place such as the reconnection between the married couple in A Temporary Matter during nightly power outages. Others take place between immigrants and Americans as in Mrs. Sen’s when a young American boy grows to care about the Indian woman who watches him after school, or in the final story as the protagonist connects with his elderly landlady and shows a great deal of kindness by visiting her even after he moves out of her house. In the end, however, whether they take place between immigrants or natives, Interpreter of Maladies seems to be about human connections.

From this point on we meandered through a number of topics. We discussed Indian restaurants. One Page Turner recommended one near the South Garland Library. Another Page Turner mentioned an international market she visited in Richardson. Greg Mortenson’s organization had a booth there where you could donate to the building of his schools and teacher salaries in the Middle East. Readers will remember Mortenson from Three Cups of Tea, one of our previous selections.

We concluded the meeting by discussing the institution of arranged marriages. In the United States we often think of arranged marriages as outdated, but it seems that they are still quite common in other parts of the world. Several of the Page Turners related stories of people they knew whose marriages had been arranged. Some of them were quite successful while others were not, but the institution still remains in practice.

This discussion of marriage and some of the other themes allowed us to touch on our selection for next month, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Copies of that selection and flyers for upcoming programming were distributed at the meeting. Next month we will meet two weeks early, on December 10, to accommodate the holidays.

October 22, 2009: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:47:00 +0000

Book: How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill

Discussion:

We had two new members join us this month for our discussion of How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill. The book was well received by the group members. Ten of them voted thumbs up, two voted sideways, and one abstained pending completion.

As the meeting began we launched right into the main theme of the book, happiness. One group member remarked that many times throughout the book Gill seemed surprised to discover that he was happy. It was as if he thought his high-power advertising position, wealth, prestigious peers, and even his marriage were prerequisites for contentment. Yet, he found joy in his Starbucks job, his young son, and the beginning of reconciliation with his older children. He even mentioned a growing fondness for his attic apartment, a big change from the mansion he once resided in.

One member stated that it was Mike’s relationships with his peers that showed what a change he made in his life. During his tenure at the Starbucks store at 93rd and Broadway, Mike ran into to a couple of his former work and school acquaintances. He also observed many men resembling the type of man he used to be, dressed in designer suits heading to corporate offices. Some of these men Mike connected with, like his friend Benjamin from Yale. Others he seemed to feel uncomfortable around, as if they reminded him too much of his former life.

At this point one Page Turner announced that she had made a list of all the famous people Mike claimed to have met in his life. The list is quite long and includes Jacqueline Kennedy, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Frank Lloyd Wright, Queen Elizabeth II, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, who he threw apples at, and Muhammad Ali. We agreed that Mike was quite a name dropper.

Although he did not express any intimidation when writing about these celebrity encounters, Mike was intimidated by other things, particularly the technology at Starbucks. At the beginning of the book Mike worried that his diminished hearing would hamper him in completing drink orders and feared the infamous contraption known as the cash register. For the first few weeks Mike routinely avoided register duty by cleaning everything in sight, particularly the restroom. Eventually, Mike did have to learn to work the cash register and to make drinks, and in doing so he discovered another thing he was good at, interacting with the customers. The public relations skills he employed in the advertising world and his own gregarious nature served Mike well at the Starbucks counter. He soon got to know several customers by name and beverage and enjoyed becoming a part of their days.

This mention of PR skills led us into a discussion of the Starbucks mantra. Customers are customarily referred to as guests, and staff members are known as partners. Managers and partners rarely command or order each other to do anything. Instead they ask if someone can "do [them] a favor". We also remarked on how Starbucks treats its part-time staff members. Usually people who work less than forty hours per week receive little or no benefits. At Starbucks, even part-time workers are eligible for health insurance; one of the reasons Mike accepted a job there. One of the Page Turners told us about an acquaintance of hers who was diagnosed with a serious illness but had no insurance. She was advised to get a part-time job at Starbucks because it is one of the fastest providers of insurance to its employees.

The question of Mike’s health is one that concerned me throughout the book. Before he met Crystal and interviewed for the job, Mike was diagnosed with a small tumor in his brain. His doctors recommended that he have surgery to remove the tumor, but at the time Mike did not have insurance. He took the job at Starbucks hoping to rectify that situation so that he could have the operation. However, he rarely mentioned this medical condition once he began the job. Near the end of the book Mike went to the doctor for a check-up, only to find out the tumor had not greatly increased in size. Due to his fears of going under the knife he decided to continue his wait and see approach. As the book moved closer to its conclusion I kept wondering whether or not Mike was going to have his surgery, one of the main reasons he took the Starbucks job, but he never did.

This issue with Mike’s insurance got me thinking about the title. There are three different ways to interpret its meaning. First, Mike could be referring to the health insurance the job provided him with which would enable him to get the needed brain operation. However, since he never got the surgery, at least during the period of time the book covers, we can assume he may have been referring to something else. One night a customer who did not want to leave threatened Mike with a knife when he confronted him. Luckily, Kester, another partner at the store, stepped in before anyone got hurt, thereby saving Mike’s life. This could be another interpretation of the title, although if Mike had not taken the job to begin with he might not have been there for the man to threaten. There is a third possible interpretation of the title, the idea that Starbucks saved Mike’s life by teaching him that money and position are not everything, releasing him from his prejudices, and allowing him to grow as a person. As this final analysis goes along with the book’s lightheartedness and feel-good appeal our group agreed that it is likely the correct one.

At this point the conversation took an anecdotal turn. We each told tales of coffee addiction, Starbucks tastings, and experiments with homemade Frappuccinos until the meeting ended. Flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, were also distributed. Next month’s meeting will be held a week early, on November 19, to accommodate the Thanksgiving holidays.

September 24, 2009: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:07:00 +0000

Book: Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Discussion:

We had three new members join us this month for our discussion of Loving Frank, Nancy Horan’s biographical novel of Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress Mamah Borthwick. I expected a really animated discussion this month, as this selection received the highest number of votes when we chose the 2009 reading list, and I was not disappointed. At one point we had four different discussions going on simultaneously. I had trouble keeping up my notes!

Almost all the group members enjoyed the book, eleven voted thumbs up, one gave it a thumbs down, two voted sideways, and one member abstained from voting. The group member who voted thumbs down mentioned that she did so out of concern for the accuracy of the book. Apparently, Horan revealed in her Writer’s Note that she obtained her factual information from newspapers, census reports, scant information in Wright’s autobiography, and from ten letters Borthwick wrote to Ellen Key. Having just read Thunderstruck, a non-fiction work containing a plethora of historical notes, our fellow group mate expected a little more from this book. We did remind ourselves that unlike Thunderstruck, Loving Frank is a work of fiction, and whenever we discussed the personalities of Wright and Borthwick we kept in mind that this was how Horan believed they thought, felt, and acted, and not necessarily exactly how they behaved.

Aside from this question of accuracy, we were able to sum up the book with one word: shocking. The affair between Wright and Borthwick was scandalous during its time, as evidenced by the newspaper attacks Horan mentioned in the book. Some of us also found the manner of Borthwick’s death at the end of the novel shocking, having no previous knowledge of the crime and its particularly violent nature. Others were quite shocked by Borthwick’s abandonment of her children. In order to live with Frank Lloyd Wright, she knew she would have to give up custody of her son and daughter, even after her divorce from Edwin Cheney. Many mothers in the group said that was a decision they could never make themselves, and one remarked that she had trouble separating her own feelings from what she was reading.

From this point we segued into discussions of some of the secondary characters. I remarked that I liked Edwin Cheney better than either his ex-wife or Wright. It may be the writing or the characters themselves, but I never felt like I connected to either one of the protagonists. Another member said she felt the same way, caring for neither Wright nor Borthwick, but that she still enjoyed the book. Edwin Cheney provided a good life for his family, let Borthwick make up her own mind whether or not to stay in Oak Park, allowed Borthwick’s sister to continue living with him and the children afterwards, and even gave Borthwick summers with the children after their divorce. One group member suggested that Borthwick was having a midlife crisis when she met and began her affair with Wright. She also thought Borthwick was dazzled by Wright’s artistic genius. Cheney was an engineer himself, certainly not lacking in intelligence, so I wondered whether it had to be Frank Lloyd Wright, or would Borthwick have fallen for any genius-artist type that crossed paths with her at that time.

Ellen Key, the Swedish feminist whose works Borthwick was translating, was another minor character we discussed. One member brought up the fact that at the beginning of their correspondence Ellen seemed to be encouraging Borthwick in her affair with Wright, arguing that women should be free to love outside the bonds of marriage. However, she later seemed to recant that and suggest that Borthwick should return to her husband. This, combined with her agreement to make Borthwick her American translator and Borthwick’s eventual discovery that Key extended the same rights to someone else, makes Ellen Key seem like a dubious character, one who may not have had Borthwick’s best interests at heart.

While discussing the novel’s characterization we revisited a concept we explored last month: genius. In Thunderstruck we met two characters we dubbed dumb-geniuses. In Loving Frank we found that genius and sociability do not always go hand-in-hand. Frank Lloyd Wright, undoubtedly a genius, rarely paid his bills, and often said those who worked for him received the privilege of being a part of his work in lieu of money. Some members seemed to find this acceptable, while others cursed Wright’s name stating that he might have been a great architect but not a very good man.

Throughout the discussion, we passed around articles and pictures of Wright’s houses and buildings. We also collected voting ballots for next year’s reading list, and I hope to have the results available soon. Flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill, were also distributed.

August 27, 2009: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Book: Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

Discussion:

The Page Turners’ opinions on Thunderstruck, this month’s selection, were very mixed. Of the seventeen group members that attended, seven gave the book a thumbs up vote, two voted down, and six voted sideways. The two remaining members abstained from voting.

The majority of the complaints about the book fit into two categories, detailing and style. Erik Larson is obviously a dedicated and skillful researcher. His extensive notes and bibliography prove this. However, his plethora of detail may have overwhelmed us and thus caused our tepid reaction to the book. One of the first things we discussed was the number of towers Marconi erected in his development of wireless telegraphy and Larson’s recounting of what seemed to be every one of them. If there were in fact more towers than Larson described we were glad we were spared descriptions of their constructions. The many we did read about were quite enough. We did however find their increasing height amusing. I seem to recall one topping out at about 400 feet. We wondered how high the tallest would end up reaching, as Marconi seemed to out do himself in this respect with each additional tower.

Some of us also got a bit bogged down by the amount of science in the book. Perhaps I should have expected more since half the story focuses on an invention, but I had considered the book to be more of the historical crime persuasion. I was therefore, not surprised at science being present in the book, but at the depth of science in the book. I also think most of the group was more interested in the biographical details of Marconi’s invention. We might be hard pressed to explain how Marconi got the device to work, but we do remember the people who felt exploited by him and the effect his determination had on his love life and later, his marriage.

The second detractor of the book involved Larson’s style. In his previous book, Devil in the White City, Larson alternated the stories of two men, Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the 1893 World’s Fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer posing as a charming doctor. Larson employs the same device in Thunderstruck, switching between Marconi’s experiments and Dr. Hawley Crippen’s exploits, yet the pacing in this second book leaves something to be desired. The book does not always “flow”, and some of the vocabulary is awkward. One Page Turner described these as “weird words you have to stop and Google before going on”.

It also took a great deal of time before the reader got to what I thought of as “the meat” of the story, the murder of Belle Elmore, Crippen’s wife, and the subsequent race to Canada between the doctor and Chief Inspector Dew of Scotland Yard. I had expected the majority of the book to cover this, yet the murder did not occur until sometime after page 250 of a less than 400 page book, and the trans-Atlantic chase did not begin until page 300. Thus it seemed that the majority of the action in the book was jammed together at the end.

We did enjoy the chase and apprehension of Dr. Crippen. At times we found Crippen’s story more interesting than Marconi’s. We questioned his motives and actions more than once, especially his allowing girlfriend Ethel Le Neve to wear Belle’s prized broach. We wondered how a man who was so smart could do something so dumb. This led to our creation of the idea of “the dumb-genius”. We also put Marconi in this category because his narrow focus on wireless caused him to skip his own engagement party, which put an end to his betrothal.

We ended the meeting by discussing Belle’s extravagant spending, considering Crippen’s medical specialties, and debating whether or not he would have killed his wife if he had not been having an affair. We also passed out the ballots for voting on next year’s reading list titles. Group members are to select the twelve books they would like to read from the list provided and turn in or email their selections to Krystale by the September meeting. Flyers for upcoming programming and books for next month were also distributed.

July 23, 2009: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:15:00 +0000

Book: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Discussion:

We had a smaller group than usual this month as we discussed Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but we still found much to talk about. The majority of the group liked the book. Nine members voted thumbs up and two voted sideways.

We began our discussion by passing around an article from this month's issue of Mental Floss. The article described a period of time when the author disappeared for eleven days. Her marriage was on the rocks at the time, and she was eventually found at a resort spa, registered under her husband's mistress's name. However, for those eleven days, the world was captivated by Christie’s own real-life mystery. The article also talked about the novel we read and its controversial ending. Prior to the 1926 publication of Ackroyd a narrator was rarely, if ever, revealed to be the murderer in mystery stories. We are not sure, but it may be that Christie was the first to employ this plot twist. The reaction to it was very pronounced and many felt tricked. However, fellow author Dorothy Sayers praised Christie for her use of the plot device, and similar endings have appeared in novels and movies ever since, one notable example being the film The Sixth Sense.

The discussion then began to move from the author to her character, Hercule Poirot. Poirot is a Belgian detective and, along with Miss Jane Marple, is one of Christie's most famous characters. Christie also created the detective couple Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, although we could not remember their names at the meeting. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the third or fourth Poirot novel chronologically in terms of publication, yet the character had already retired from detection when the novel begins. The novels published later have him back in London as if he had come out of retirement or as if those stories occurred before Ackroyd. The group was not sure which premise was Christie's intent.

We discussed another character, Caroline Sheppard, the sister of the narrator and neighborhood busybody. We decided that she provided good insight into the people of the neighborhood. Several group members were glad that she was spared the knowledge of her brother's actions at the end of the novel.

The story ended quite differently in the TV version of the novel, where Poirot and the others gathered at Mr. Ackroyd's factory for the revelation of the murderer. While everyone else was inside, Caroline found the doctor's journal and a gun in the glove compartment of his car. She went into the factory, gave him the gun, and a shootout occurred. There were a few other differences in the TV and book versions of the story. Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard assisted Poirot instead of Sheppard, who ran over Parker the butler in his car several times on screen.

One Page Turner asked if the poison used in the book, Veronal, was real. She was unable to find it in the dictionary. Merriam-Webster's online medical dictionary defines Veronal as a sodium salt compound and a form of barbital. The mention of this poison led to a discussion of poisons in general and household items that can be poisonous such as ammonia and paint. A few group members mentioned household uses for arsenic they employed in the past before they fully considered its potential negative health effects. I read a novel a few months back in which arsenic was used to poison someone over a prolonged period of time. According to this work of fiction, the arsenic actually had a positive effect on the person being poisoned up to a certain point. Once that point passed, the character then built up enough poison in his system so that each additional dose brought him closer to death. We were unsure if this was true of arsenic because it was fiction book.

We brought the meeting to a conclusion on that note. Next month’s selection, Thunderstruck by Erik Larson, was made available for checkout, flyers for upcoming programming were distributed, and many recommendations for next year’s reading list were submitted. The list of potential book selections for future programs will be distributed at the August meeting along with voting ballots, which will need to be turned in at the September meeting. Anyone with further suggestions for the new list was encouraged to contact Krystale at the Central Library before next month’s meeting.

June 25, 2009: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:01:00 +0000

Book: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Discussion:

We had a smaller crowd at this month’s meeting. Many of our regular members had travel plans or had just returned from vacations which fit in nicely with Eat, Pray, Love. A few of the group members really liked the book, one even gave it a double thumbs up, while others thought it was just so-so. When the votes were tabulated five gave it a thumbs up, six voted sideways, and one abstained from voting.

We began the discussion by talking about the author Elizabeth Gilbert in general. One Page Turner aptly characterized her as “wacky”, while another thought of her as “self-obsessed”. A third described her as a person experiencing transition. She felt that Gilbert was a little immature and childlike in the first section of the book. In India, during the second section of the book, she began to mature and gain confidence. Our group mate described this as Gilbert’s teenage period. In Bali, the final section, Gilbert found love and “became a woman” or grownup, and her transition was complete.

We also talked about depression versus mental illness. Some of us thought that Gilbert suffered from depression, a not uncommon diagnosis, while a few others thought her depression and self-obsession might be signs of a more serious mental illness.

Next we discussed her marriages, her first, the termination of which lead to her year of travel and self-discovery, and her recent one, to Felipe, the man she met in Bali. Many of the Page Turners were happy to hear that the romance that began in the book continues and that the author has an everyday reminder of her life-changing experience.

From here we segued into Gilbert’s current life. In her book, she wrote that she and Felipe might split their time between four different locations, America, Australia, Bali, and Brazil. However, everything we have found says Gilbert lives either in Philadelphia or New Jersey, so we are not quite sure where she has ended up. She recently appeared at TED, an annual conference held in California promoting technology, entertainment, and design. In her talk on creativity, Gilbert elaborated on the idea that instead of one person being a genius, we all have genius within us.

One of the group members reminded us that a movie version of Eat, Pray, Love is going to be made, starring Julia Roberts. She was not quite sure she could see Roberts in the part, although others in the group could. We speculated on who else we might select for role and came up with the ideas of Sandra Bullock and Meg Ryan.

At this point we meandered into talks of the food Gilbert ate on her trips. We all envied the Italian desserts she had! We also discussed food-related fiction such as the mysteries of Diane Mott Davidson. One of our members has read several of her books and his description of them lead us to thinking about books for next year, and possibly including one of Ms. Davidson’s among them.

We rounded out the evening with travel stories of our own. One Page Turner described trips to Greece and the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, while another related her recent trip to Michigan via Chicago and Arkansas. As we were concluding one group member made a final observation that Gilbert’s book was more of a spiritual quest than a travelogue, traveling was just the form her journey took. Many of us agreed with that.

Flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, were also distributed. We are looking forward to hearing suggestions for next year’s reading list at the July meeting, so do not forget to bring your recommendations!

May 28, 2009: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:04:00 +0000

Book: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Discussion:

This month’s selection, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, elicited a much wider range of opinions than last month’s Three Cups of Tea, which almost everyone praised. This variety of opinions became obvious as soon as we voted on the book. Seven members gave the book one or two thumbs up, two voted thumbs down, five went sideways, and four abstained from voting.

The main complaint about the book was its depressing nature. Some of what made the novel depressing was the political climate and the violence that was going on in the Congo at the time. The death of the Price family’s youngest child was even more disheartening. However, a great deal of sadness in the book was caused by one character, the Reverend Nathan Price, described by one member as "a pretty rotten missionary". Price abused his wife and daughters emotionally and physically, refused to let them evacuate when the political situation exploded into unrest, and did not respect to the local Congolese customs or opinion. Instead, he forced his way upon his family and the village, ignored the advice of his neighbors, and constantly tried to baptize the villagers in the river, never understanding that the river was full of crocodiles.

I made a comment early in the meeting that I did not like a single one of the characters in the Price family. The father was "rotten", the mother "powerless", as one patron described her, the oldest daughter was pretty narcissistic and had a tendency toward malapropism, the oldest twin seemed to be miserable by choice to me, and the other twin played word games throughout many of her chapters. Only the youngest girl, Ruth May, really made a likeable impression on me, and she got killed off half-way through the novel. However, a few of us thought that if an author’s work can cause such as spark of emotion in a reader, be that emotion affection or irritation, that author must have done good job. In that respect, some of us sideways voters were glad we read this book. It is one that will be remembered, despite our mixed opinions on it.

We all also agreed that Kingsolver did an excellent job writing the passages from each characters point of view; once we had gotten quite a way through it we could identify which character was speaking by style alone. Judging by some supplementary materials brought by a couple of group members, this easy identification was one of Kingsolver’s main intentions.

One reader told another that she thought the book was too long and that she would prefer it if some of the political stuff was cut out. Others found that part of the books interesting, although they said there were some things they learned about what was going on in that time period that they would have preferred not to know, such as the circumstances of Patrice Lumumba’s death.

We also discussed some of Kingsolver’s other books. One patron mentioned James Michener’s The Covenant as a book that is similar to The Poisonwood Bible but with a different viewpoint. Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was mentioned several times. In this non-fiction work Kingsolver and her husband and daughter go live on a farm in North Carolina and attempt to grow their own food or at least obtain food that had been grown within one hundred miles of their farm. This led to a short discussion on whether or not we could go back to a lifestyle of farming, canning, and preserving. One group member said that she could and that she has tried it before. I declared that I would be absolutely hopeless in that type of situation since most of my food comes from a restaurant or out of a can or bag.

After the farming discussion we wrapped up by passing out copies of next month’s book, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Flyers for upcoming programming were also distributed.

April 23, 2009: Page Turners 7 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (krystale) — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:04:00 +0000

Book: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Discussion:

Three Cups of Tea proved to be a popular book. For the second month in a row we had to add tables to our usual room configuration. We also had a few new members attend which inspired us to go around the room and introduce ourselves.

Once our introductions were complete we voted on the book. I was not surprised when no one chose to vote thumbs down. One reader voted sideways, two abstained pending completion, and everyone else voted thumbs up, or even double thumbs up. One member said the book was life-changing, that she bought all the related books, visited the Central Asia Institute’s website, and made a donation.

We next discussed Greg Mortenson and the various peace and humanitarian awards he has received. We are by no means surprised by his recent Nobel Peace Prize nomination; we even mentioned that his wife Tara deserves some kind of award for supporting him and enduring all the time away from home his job requires. We also mentioned others who are completing similar projects, particularly Oprah Winfrey’s South African School, and while we find those efforts commendable, we value Mortenson’s work just a bit more because of his physical involvement in the actual building of the schools, his inconspicuousness, and the friendships he creates with the people the school will serve.

Despite the high number of thumbs up votes, the book did receive a little criticism from the group. This was related to the grammar and literary structure of the work. Apparently, there were a few instances of misplaced modifiers and general awkwardness in the sentence structure, though these were not so prevalent that everyone noticed. One Page Turner who listened to the audiobook version said she enjoyed it very much and that the grammar faux pas were not noticeable during her listening sessions. In the end we all agreed that the content more than made up for the grammatical errors.

We also discussed the female situation related in the book. One member reiterated Mortenson’s belief that if you educate the girls today, fewer young men will join extremist groups in the future because boys must have their mothers’ permission to join, and mothers who were educated in their youth are less likely to give that permission. Another member praised the young girl who confronted Mortenson and reminded him of his promise to send her to a higher education institution in the city, remarking that it must have taken a great deal of determination for a young girl of that culture to speak to a man in such a way. A third Page Turner recounted a story she heard while traveling in Turkey. Some of the poorer girls were offered scholarships if they agreed to wear a burka-type head and face covering. Many of them accepted this offer and later were attending a class in which the professor said the students could remove the headdresses as they were in an all female class. They each refused to remove the covering in fear of losing their highly-valued scholarships.

We concluded the meeting with a discussion of the relationship between education and crime. As Mortenson said mothers who have been educated are less likely to allow their sons to join extremist groups. One member compared that to some of the crime in this country. Many of the students who leave school prematurely find that they have little opportunities to support themselves and will sometimes turn to crime in order to do so.

The meeting ended on a more positive note. We mentioned next month’s book, Barbara Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible, had some copies to hand out, and distributed flyers for upcoming programming as well.