Evening Book Club in October

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct.15), the Evening book club read and discussed "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez.
"They were the four Mirable sisters - symbols of defiant hope in a country shaowed by dictatorship and despair. They sacrificed their safe and comfortable lives in the name of freedom. Their codename in the revolution was Las Mariposas, 'the butterflies,' and in this extraordinary novel, Patria, Minerva, Maria Teresa, and Dede speak across the decades to tell their own stories. From tales of hair ribbons and secret crushes to gunrunning and prison torture, they describe the everyday horrors-and the unbelievable joy- of life in the Dominican Republic under dictator Trujillo. Through art and magic, the martyred Butterflies come to vibrant and dramatic life in a warm, brilliant, and heartbreaking story that makes a haunting statement about the human cost of political oppression."
US Penguin Group

Julia Alvarez's father was part of the same group as the Mirabel sisters and they got out, and the Mirabel's did not. Julia, her mother, her father, and her sisters all got out. The book club members enjoyed talking about the "voice" that Alvarez gave to the Mirabel sisters, their lives, their loves, and their faith. They were very human, not tragic stick figures. As a society we need to keep writing and reading books about these awful, charismatic dictators since they seem to keep reappearing in various countries and societies.

August Evening Book Club Meeting

Welcome to new member Judith and welcome back to Doris.

We sure had a great discussion last night about the book "Consumption" by Kevin Patterson. We talked about how rapid the change was for the Inuit community and how it affected the different generations and their relationships with each other. This also reflects how we live now.

Kevin Patterson:"The Inuit moved from the most traditonal hunter-gatherer lifestyle to the Facebook era in about 15 minutes. Until the late sixties, there were still Inuit living on the land, hunting caribou and seal--even today, when one is talking to someone 50 or older, the chances are good that their childhood was spent in migration, watching the geese and the weather and arctic char, as their ancestors did for thousands, even millions of years...but the subsequent pace of change has been violently fast...Disaffected teenagers, heart disease, and depression are examples of this."

So you can see that there was a lot to talk about.

The September book is "Septembers of Shiraz" by Dalia Sofer

June 10 Movie night for book club

On Tuesday this week the book club viewed "The Painted Veil" based on the book by W. Somerset Maugham. The movie was very different from the book, with a completely different ending. Both were very good. It would have been hard to stay more true to the book in certain aspects since so much of the book took place in Kitty's mind. However, I didn't see any reason to change the ending, except to possibly make the movie more acceptable to the modern audience. It was a little more upbeat than the book, even though Walter dies in both the book and the movie. In the book, Kitty has a last one-night-stand with Charlie and feels devastated. She then goes to the West Indies with her father to have and raise her child. The child is not born yet at the end of the book. In the movie, she meets Charlie on the street in London and introduces him to Walter, her 4 year old son, there is no mention of her father and she doesn't fall into bed with Charlie.

Here is the source of the title:

"Lift not the painted veil which those who live
Call life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,
And it but mimic all we would believe
With colours idly spread behind, lurk Fear
And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave
Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear."
byPercy Bysshe Shelley

"What Walter and Kitty see is a 'painted veil' - an unreal mimicking of life." Tony Watkins (Culture Watch) -www.damaris.org


Next month's book is The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. We'll meet on July 8 at 7:00 in the WCR conference room on the second floor of the library.

May Book Club Notes

On May 13 the club met to discuss Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki. Seven members attended and we had fun talking about the various characters, their lies, and the consequences of those lies extending over three generations of a Bengali family. The story took place in Bengal and London.

A few of the quotes we examined were:
"I loved him too much not to hate him now"
"She'd rather be unhappy with the memory of true love, than happy with a real, breathing love."
What replaces true love once it's gone (if not hate). Shona says "emptiness." "..tears where for the coldness of her own unhappy heart."
"Dermot likes her for her intelligence, unlike Parvez who liked her inspite of it."

The issues we covered were bigamy, homosexuality, lies, dysfunctional family, denial, Asians living in London, playing a part rather than living your life, adultery, incest, and mother-daughter relationships.

Comments from readers on Amazon (mixed reviews):
"...unashamedly funny, sharply observed, but also perceptive and tender in its exploration of ethnic difference, family values and relationships..."

"The problem is, it isn't good." "..downright annoying.."

"So this is chick lit for sure."

Anyway, we all enjoyed it and had fun talking about it.

Join us on June 10 at 6:30 pm for a viewing of a movie based on a book by W. Somerset Maugham. The movie stars Naomi Watts and Edward Norton.


Val

April Book club notes

On Tuesday, April 8 we had a fun discussion of "Stormy Weather" by Paulette Jiles. There were comments about poor character development, like in "Enemy Women." We talked about the strengths and weaknesses of most of the characters. Jeanine was a strong woman, but was an enabler to her father. Her motherwas not a strong woman at all, and the girls had to take over the family. Many secrets were kept from mother, and Jeanine used "a secret" to get close to Innes, Ross's son. Some commented that the story wrapped up to fast and too neatly. Do you agree?

Our May meeting will be on Tuesday, May 13 where we will talk about"Bitter Sweets" by Roopa Farooki. We will meet in the conference room as usual. One member already read the book and loved it. I am eager to hear from the rest of you.

Here is the synopsis: "It follows the machinations of a Bangladeshi-Pakistani family whose penchant for telling lies shapes the destinies of every member, from Henna, who lies her way into a marriage to a wealthy romantic, to her daughter Shona, who struggles with the superficialties binding her loved ones." (Novelist).

February Book Discussion - Getting Mother's body

Last night we discussed Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks. Ms. Parks was born in Kentucky and lives in Manhattan. She holds degrees from Mount Holyoke College and the Yale School of Drama. A 2001 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award, Parks received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play "Topdog/Underdog." She is known for her ability "to capture the explosive patois heard on the inner-city streets and in the rural backwaters of America." (Iris Fanger in Christian Science Monitor, April 12, 2002). Getting Mother's Body is her first novel.

The discussion was lively with topics like poverty, morality, sexuality, race relations, rural Texas, abortion, teen pregnancy, and religious beliefs. Some members didn't like that the narrative skipped between all of the characters in the book and also had a hard time with the "patois" of rural Texas blacks in the 1960s. The book was easier to read the second time and most of us thought the ending was satisfying. Several members thought Billie was headed down the same road as her mother, who died from a self-administered abortion.


I want to welcome a new member to our group, Jennifer Wilson, who came last night and was a great addition to our discussion. We missed those who couldn't make it this month. Hope to see you in March.
The book for March is The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar. “Captures the delicate balance of class and gender in contemporary India as witnessed through the lives of two women--Sera Dubash, an upper middle-class housewife, and Bhima, an illiterate domestic hardened by a life of loss and despair.” HCPL Catalog.

Here is the revised schedule for this spring and summer (subject to change):
April 8 - Stormy Weather by Paulette Jiles
May 13 - Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki
June 10 - Painted Veil (movie)- based on the book by W. Somerset Maugham
July 8 - People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
August 12 - Consumption by Kevin Patterson
September 9 - Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
October 14 In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

I had to move the movie to June due to room scheduling conflicts.Please continue to send me suggestions for the group to discuss. I can change any of the titles in June - September if a member of the group has a better suggestion.

The Outside World book discussion - Jan. 8

The book club met on January 8 at 7:00 pm at the library. Several members found the book (The Outside World by Tova Mirvis) hard to get into, but they were glad they stuck with it. Some almost didn't go past the first chapter. We talked about the many interesting characters and issues: Ztippy who wants to escape from her mother, her mother who has been planning her wedding since before she was born, and Bryan who came back from Israel a very religious person, when he had gone over as a modern baseball-playing, college-bound young man.

How do the parents and sister relate to the new Bryan while they miss the old Bryan? What role is there for Shayna in Tzippy's life after the wedding?

Freed from having to think about getting married, Tzippy felt free to imagine more for her life. How did that affect her relationship with Baruch/Bryan? The marriage house is bigger than they thought ... there's always new rooms to discover.

Mirvis shows us an insular world, when the old and new collide. Things she asks the reader to consider include: isolation and assimilation; the fervor of the zealot, the doubt of the truly faithful; the hunger for freedom, the hunger for God; and the retreat in traditionalism that has become a worldwide phenomenon. http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/outside_world1.asp).

Tovis grew up in the Othodox Jewish community in Memphis, TN. She received her M.F.A. from Columbia University and now lives outside of Boston with her husband and two children.

Suggested reading:
Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Kaaterskill Falls by Allegra Goodman

Future Book Club Selections:

February 12 - Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks
March 11 - The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
April 8 - Strange as this Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake
May 13 - Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki