NOVEMBER 2011 BOOKERS MINUTES - Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress

    “A whistling woman and a crowing hen never comes to a very good end.”

                                  (Southern for - be who you are)

23 Bookers and one honorary guest met at the home of Lorene O’Neil to discuss Mark Childress’ novel, Georgia Bottoms.  Mary Jacob and Pam Parks, dressed in character, acted out the book, and led the question and answer session following their wonderful performances.  Many thanks to Mary and Pam for bringing the book to life for us and to their director, Bernie Crudden, for her theatrical contributions.  Rumor has it they are searching for a “Georgia” for the movie version.  Pam might consider leaving San Antonio in the rearview mirror and heading to the Hollywood hills. 

MN is in Alabama finalizing everything at the beach house and we can now happily report they have moved into their little “cottage.”  Sadly, her 92 year-old mother-in-law, Dickie, has suffered a stroke and is critically ill.  For those of you who have been fortunate to meet this genteel southern lady, it won’t surprise you to learn she wanted to make sure her standing hair appointment was cancelled since she was hospitalized.  She is forever a radiant sight in the midst of a drizzling rain.  Please keep the Stanky family in your thoughts and prayers.

Mark Childress is the author of seven novels and three children’s picture books.  Born in Monroeville, Alabama (also the home of Harper Lee) and a graduate of the University of Alabama (Roll Tide), he currently lives in Key West, Florida.  The title character of his latest book tells the story of Georgia Bottoms, Six Points Alabama’s “finest feature.  She is beautiful, worldly, a splendid cook and a faithful churchgoer who cares for her aged mother and sells handmade quilts to her neighbors while leading a secret and rather fruitful life.”  Some reviewers have classified the book as a “light romp” to which he replies: “I guess on one level it is a comedy…but there’s also some really very serious stuff going on in her life…somehow comedy makes the sad parts sadder…it has provoked a lot of discussion in book clubs…it’s nice when people argue about it.”  Georgia might not meet the classic definition of a Southern belle – pampered, coy, willful, selfish, totally dependent on the men in her life, and whose purpose of getting an education was to prepare for an advantageous marriage…she was not named after the flowers of the south, like Rose Ann, Violet Ann, or Iris Ann or Martha after the descendents of Thomas Jefferson…she was just born too late for the antebellum era.

There is an old southern statement that “every dog should have a few fleas” and Georgia with her unfiltered approach to life typifies this saying.  Our two-gal show opened with Mary donning an ant-hat assuming the role of the hostess of the “Ant Connection,” Ms. Ellen DeGenerants.  Today’s special guest was Georgia Bottoms because she patterned her life after ant behavior.  Ants work together for the good of the species…they don’t mind being a speck among millions; the strong help the weak, and when the crumb falls it is how the world goes round and you have to find a way to overcome life’s circumstances.

Pam in pearls, a yellow linen dress and matching pointy shoes called on her best southern drawl to tell us Georgia’s life story.  She lives in Six Points with Little Mama, who blames Rosa Parks for everything wrong in the world, her idiot brother, Brother, who spends most of his life as a convict, and their dog, Wizzy.  She attends the First Baptist Church every Sunday, sitting in the family pew, carrying on the traditions set forth by her grandmother, Big Sue.  Georgia is single, 34 years old, and the sole support of her family holding down two jobs, neither of which are “above board.”  She buys quilts from a group of black ladies, sells them as her own for a very tidy profit and in the evenings secretly indulges the fantasies of six local male pillars of the community.  They don’t insult her with payment for services, but offer a “little gift” for the entertainment.  Her private world was about to come to a screeching halt when one of her “callers,” the Reverend Eugene, decided to make a full confession of his sins in front of God, his family, and the congregation of the First Baptist Church.  Georgia did the only thing a good southern girl could do – faint.  Georgia’s claim to fame was her annual September ladies’ luncheon, set with lavish decorations and a menu that included Miss Angie’s Five-Layer English Pea Salad, Lobster Scallion Shooters, Taco Cheesecakes, Curried Chicken Salad with grapes and candied pecans, Fresh Mountain Apple Jell-O compote, Endive boats with cranberry ambrosia cream cheese spread, Pizzetta Bruschetta, and Coca-Cola Cake.  It was the most sought after invitation in Six Points.  Unfortunately for Georgia Osama bin Laden decided to blow up New York and the Pentagon on the very day of this occasion.  If matters couldn’t get worse, her black illegitimate son from New Orleans showed up at her door, a new preacher arrived to the delight of Georgia, but turned out to be a mole who tried to blackmail her…the life she had built for herself was crumbling and she did the only thing a good southern girl could do – confess and name names.  “Yes, I am a sinner, but let me you one thing…I am not a hypocrite.” Heeding another old southern adage, “the sun don't shine on the same dog's tail all the time,” she knew her hometown and herself had received their comeuppance.  The gang all piled into the car and headed to New Orleans, and just as they crossed the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, it appeared everyone was evacuating the city.  Georgia thinks they are just making room for her…she smiles to her new life as she heads into Hurricane Katrina.

Ellen DeGenerants thanks Georgia for sharing her very interesting story and comments that she seems to have been on a spiritual search…at the beginning being certain there is no God, but her whole life has been leading her in a different direction.  “The hard shell that you put up to protect yourself has crumbled away, and as you have told us you are completely different person than even you thought.  Your world has really been shaken up by a giant cosmic foot kicking the ant hill of humanity.”

Mary and Pam take a bow… and thanks for all your hard work, preparation, and bringing some sunshine and laughter into our lives.  Also, Pam e-mailed the author and he was delighted we were not only discussing his book, but also putting on a production in its honor.

This was a fun spirited book, and we all agree, not a literary giant, but in MN’s words, “very satirical, lots of play on words…liked his writing style…a different kind of read,” which generated lively conversation and offered an element of surprise at each turn of plot.  We generally felt Georgia was justified in her reaction to the events of 9-11…life goes on.  We asked why Georgia never became involved with her suitors and concluded it was because she saw her “evening business” as a job…a means to an end and nothing more.  And, we wondered what life Georgia will make for herself when she reaches New Orleans…she might call upon another truism: “Southerners can never resist a losing cause,”…maybe she will be overseeing the distribution of double-wide trailer homes for FEMA.

            On the business side:

News from Amazon.com posted on their website today is the announcement of the inclusion of a Kindle Lending Library to their Amazon Prime Membership for no extra fee.  You may borrow a book a month with no due dates if you are a member of Amazon Prime, which costs $79.00 per year and includes free two-day shipping on any orders.  If you are not a member of Amazon Prime, they are offering a one-month trial.  More information is available on their site…it sounds like a great deal for Kindle owners and a great incentive for prospective customers.  Thanks to Kay Robinson for bringing this to my attention.

We decided to begin our holiday party and meeting at 9:30 AM instead of 10:00 AM.  Food and beverages will be served first, followed by the review and discussion of A Week in Winter. Bonnie Magee has again graciously agreed to be our food czar and will be coordinating this very soon via e-mail.

Bernie, who is on the Pinnacle Women’s Club Christmas Party committee, is in charge of gathering 100 silver charger plates.  Once again, Bookers rose to the occasion and it seems she will meet her quota, however, if you have any to loan, please contact Bernie directly. 

         COLOR CODING SYSTEM:

                                    WHITE:                       LIGHT READ

                                    PINK:                          MODERATELY CHALLENGING

                                    RED:                            CHALLENGING

December 13^th:            Holiday Party & Meeting, 9:30 AM

                                    A Week in Winter by Marcia Willett

                                    Recommended by Bernie Crudden, MN & JoDee

                                    WHITE

                                    Home of Jean Alexander, co-hosted by Bernie Crudden

                                    Reviewer: Janet Noblitt

                                    Bonnie Magee, Food Czar

NOTE EARLIER TIME CHANGE

January 10^th:                 The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman

                                    RED

Note change:              Home of Bonnie Magee, co-hosted by Patty Evans

                                    Reviewer: Beverly Dossett

February 14^th:               The Paris Wife by Paula McClain

                                    PINK

                                    Home of Daryl Daniels, co-hosted by Janet Noblitt

                                    Reviewer: Patty Evans

March 13^th:                  Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

                                    RED

                                    Recommended by Beverly Dossett, Lee Durso, Alison Crawford,

                                    Jane Freer, Melanie Prebis, Jean McSpadden

                                    Home of Lee Durso, co-hosted by Kay Robinson

                                    Reviewer: Lee Durso

April 10^th:                     Book to be announced

                                    Home of Donna Walter, co-hosted by Charlotte Pechacek

                                    Reviewers: MN & JoDee

May 8^th:                       5^th Annual Wine & Cheese Evening Meeting, 6:00 PM

                                    Home of Melanie Prebis, co-hosted by Linsey Garwacki

                                    Book (or not) to be determined

June 12^th:                      Bonus meeting to be announced.

                                 Can you name the smartest state in the United States?

                                               ALABAMA – 4 A’s and 1 B

Well, shut my mouth,

JoDee

OCTOBER 2011 BOOKERS MINUTES - Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

The paths of life run parallel until one day, a turn – left or right, by guidance or chance – leads us down another road.  Do we cross over never to return or simply open a new window without closing the door on the old?

18 Bookers met at the orange-clad home of Cherry Fugitt all decked out in the spirit of Halloween and ‘Horns’ to discuss this month’s selection, Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, reviewed by Jane Freer.  The group was unanimous in their appreciation of this book and of Jane’s efforts.  Bravo Jane for your insights and your willingness to step up to the plate.

Sadly, we recently lost a member and friend, Madelyn Chubb.  The twinkle in her eye, the smile on her face, and her laugh-out-loud sense of humor are indelible images that will be recalled with the mere mention of her name.  In her honor we should probably re-read the one-thousand-page novel, Truman…she would smile…MN would groan - again!  Also, Janet Erwin’s 102 year-old mother passed away, but on a happier note, they welcomed a new grandchild to the brood.  Bookers’ family extends our condolences and congratulations.

I would like to thank Beverly Dossett for succumbing to “slight pressure” to take notes in my absence.  I would love to have been at the meeting, but decided to have skin removed from my ‘oh-so-meaty’ chest and transplanted behind my ear…no puns please!  Seriously, I missed you all and trust that I’m on the mend and will be back to my duties very soon. 

Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning author of March, which we read in June of 2007, has once again taken a scrap of history and used it as the scaffolding for her latest historical fiction, Caleb’s Crossing masterly utilizing the antiquated language of the time and reflecting her extensive research and attention to detail.  “She created a believable story of ‘what ifs’ and ‘what might have been,’ setting real-life Caleb and a group of fictional characters to document his ‘crossing’ from pagan life to Christian culture.”  Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, a member of the Wopanaak tribe of Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard), became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College in 1665.  His story is told through the voice of Bethia Mayfield, the young daughter of a liberal Puritan minister, whose family had broken away from John Winthrop’s colony in Massachusetts.  The book is a battle of the Indians and the Pilgrims on one level, a story of love, loyalty, and friendship on another, and an intellectual, spiritual and cultural crossing that asks the question:

 “If I (Bethia) had turned away from that boy…and left him in peace with his gods and spirits, would it have been better?  Would he yet live, an old man now, patriarch of a family, a leader of his tribe?”

                                             A summary of Jane’s review:

Bethia’s family came into possession of Martha’s Vineyard through “fair dealings” with Native Americans.  Her grandfather was the magistrate and her father, the village liberal who didn’t believe in stealing from or slaughtering the local Indians, was the minister of the island.  When Bethia’s beloved mother dies in childbirth, she assumes her role taking care of the baby and the household.  But she is “born of a restless spirit and curious mind and slips the bounds of her rigid society to explore the island’s glistening beaches and observe its native inhabitants” while her father tended the farm, fulfilled his missionary duties, and prepared his son, Makepeace, for study on the mainland.  At twelve Bethia meets Caleb, “the young son of a chieftain and the two forge a secret bond that draws each into the alien world of the other.”  Reverend Mayfield’s mission is to convert the natives to Calvinism, and when Caleb loses his family to smallpox, his education becomes the Reverend’s pet project.  The fruits of his labor are rewarded as Caleb, his fellow tribesman Joel, and Makepeace enter Cambridge in preparation for studies at Harvard.  After the death of her father, Bethia has little choice in order to insure her brother’s education than to accept the position of the housekeeper in the headmaster’s home, also giving her the opportunity to eavesdrop on classes further enhancing her own “secret” education.  Eventually she marries the headmaster’s son and gains a freedom and wisdom not attained by most women of her time.

The most poignant passages in the book are at the end.  Caleb is dying.  Bethia is at his bedside as he slips in and out of consciousness…sometimes murmuring scripture mixed with Latin aphorisms and epigrams…but at night he would “ramble in Wompaontoaonk,” his native tongue “addressing himself to Tequamuck,” his uncle, the most powerful local pawaaw of the tribe…  “the only one who has not renounced Satan and his familiars.”  Bethia’s ardent prayers and the most powerful medicines available had done nothing to help.  “If there is anything to be done, perhaps it yet lies in the hands of this other.”  She seeks out Tequamuck and is met with hostility. “He has been marked for death from the day he commenced to walk with you…I have heard (his) cries...I have met his spirit…he is pulled between two worlds.”  But in the end, he gave her what she asked for…a way to bring peace to her dying friend.  “I brought my lips to his ear and whispered…the last of the words that Tequamuck had given me…his lips parted…Caleb’s voice gained strength…he sang out his death song and died like a hero going home…although I do not know which home welcomed him.”  Some might think she made a “pact with the devil” but perhaps she merely allowed herself to cross over to calm the troubled soul of her friend.

“There is so much in this novel that I don’t feel as if I reviewed it fully.  The death of Caleb and the crossings of his tribe’s beliefs and Bethia’s Christian beliefs is, to me, the whole story.  We have so much to learn from each other and to honor those beliefs.  I hope we can discuss this part of the story.  I seldom cry at the end of a book but did cry at Caleb’s death.  I will be thinking of these characters for a long time to come.”  Jane Freer

And discuss we did.  The group appreciated how the author placed us in the story with her vivid descriptions and engaging characters bringing to light the role of women during these times.  A reference was made to Sam Gwynne’s new novel, Empire of the Summer Moon, which took place in Texas after the Civil War.  Flash forward two hundred years from the time of Caleb’s Crossing and the social injustice was equally discriminatory…the world without access to the worldwide web.  The title provided some discussion, as at first glance, it might have merely been the name of a town, but the significance of it became clear as we recognized the many meanings of the crossing.  We wondered about whether “our way” was indeed the right way or the only way?  Indian rituals and medicinal uses were similar to those discussed in Clan of the Cave Bear…maybe all we need is a bottle of vinegar, some fresh herbs, and a box of baking soda to clean and cure everything.  The favorite part for some members was the ending, for others, the non-union of Bethia and Caleb was a disappointment…when you have a couple who makes each other’s “blood boil,” how could you be satisfied without a happy together ending.  We mourned Joel’s death alongside Caleb and could understand how his words were frozen in his grief.  It was stated that men live longer if they are married – women live longer if they have friends around them.  Everyone agreed Bookers fulfills our need for friendships…and what happens in Bookers…stays in Bookers!

                                                On the business side

Drum roll…the results of our Bookers’ voting are as follows – the top five are:

The Paris Wife, The Cookbook Collector, Unbroken, A Fierce Radiance, The Art of Fielding

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote.  We appreciate your support and participation.

                                                COLOR CODING SYSTEM:

                                    WHITE:                        LIGHT READ

                                    PINK:                          MODERATELY CHALLENGING

                                    RED:                            CHALLENGING

November 8^th:              Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress

                                    WHITE

                                    Recommended by Mary Jacob & guest, Pam Parks

                                    Home of Lorene O’Neil, co-hosted by JoDee Neathery

                                    Reviewers: Mary Jacob & Pam Parks

December 13^th:            Holiday Party & Meeting

                                    A Week in Winter by Marcia Willett

                                    WHITE

                                    Recommended by Bernie Crudden, MN & JoDee

                                    Home of Jean Alexander, co-hosted by Bernie Crudden

                                    Reviewer: Janet Noblitt

                                    Bonnie Magee, Food Czar

January 10^th:                 The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman

                                    RED

Note change:              Home of Bonnie Magee, co-hosted by Patty Evans

                                    Reviewer: Beverly Dossett

February 14^th:               The Paris Wife by Paula McClain

                                    PINK

                                    Home of Daryl Daniels, co-hosted by Janet Noblitt

                                    Reviewer: Patty Evans

March 13^th:                  Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

                                    RED

                                    Recommended by Beverly Dossett, Lee Durso, Alison Crawford,

                                    Jane Freer, Melanie Prebis, Jean McSpadden

                                    Home of Lee Durso, co-hosted by Kay Robinson

                                    Reviewer: Lee Durso

April 10^th:                     Book to be announced

                                    Home of Donna Walter, co-hosted by Charlotte Pechacek

                                    Reviewers: MN & JoDee

May 8^th:                       5^th Annual Wine & Cheese Evening Meeting, 6:00 PM

                                    Home of Melanie Prebis, co-hosted by Linsey Garwacki

                                    Book (or not) to be determined

June 12^th:                      Bonus meeting to be announced.

As you can see we have only assigned two of the books that were voted on.  MN and I are searching for a book the quality of Little Bee or Room for our review…we’ll keep you posted on the progress. We will discuss the other “voter’s favorites” at the November meeting where I will be going solo as MN’s mother-in-law is having hip replacement surgery on our meeting date…we really haven’t broken up!

One last note on this month’s selection, wouldn’t Bethia be proud and a bit envious to know the first Wopanaak from Martha’s Vineyard since Caleb, Tiffany Smalley, is receiving a degree from Harvard this year. Also, I have a hard copy of Jane’s review for anyone who would like to have a copy.

Happy Reading,

JoDee

Books for Bookers

The following are the book selections voted on by our members. The top five are as follows:
The Paris Wife
The Cookbook Collector
Unbroken
A Fierce Radiance
The Art of Fielding

The other selections:
The Friends of Meager Fortune
Dreams of Joy
Atlas Shrugged
A Song I Knew By Heart
The Wanderer
A Stolen Life
Shallows, What The Internet Is Doing to our Brains

SEPTEMBER 2011 BOOKERS MINUTES - A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei

                                                 “Women hold up half the sky”

               Mao Tse-Tung

  “What kind of woman do you want to be, strong or weak, great or ordinary?”

               Lin Yulan

Thank you to Janet Erwin for hosting “Bookers Season 8 Kick-off.”  We have grown in many ways, often expanding our minds…sometimes learning something new…mostly enjoying the camaraderie of our monthly meetings.  One thing is certain; our love affair with reading bonds us together as we are held captive within the pages that transport us to another place and time.  Twenty-four members joined us including Charlotte Barker, who visits us occasionally and Penny Barshop, who we hope will be able to spend more time with us soon, and we welcomed a new member, Liz Lee.  Bookers’ members Madelyn Chubb and Barbara Creach continue to be in our thoughts and prayers.

MN has again been listening to country music, which served as the basis of today’s warm-up.  In Blake Shelton’s tribute to his new bride, Miranda Lambert, he sings: “You be my sunny day, I’ll be your shade tree.”  Close your eyes and think of who is your shade tree and make a point to thank that person (or persons – some of our group have forests) for being part of your life.

A Thread of Sky, the debut novel by Deanna Fei and winner of the New York Times Editor’s Choice award is a lyrical composition of three generations of women who “set out in a way to be astronomers – focused on chasing the unattainable, on charting the unknowable, but forgetting what made them who they were, what gave meaning to their lives– the connections between them.”  Five years in the making and having spent three in China, Ms. Fei used music to bring to life the characters she had created, which she says are: “equally me, and equally individuals outside of me.  They are family.”  She relates writing to method acting in that the “trials the characters face are those you must endure and what transpires in a few pages might take weeks or months from your life.  If you want your readers to feel anything, you have to feel it many times over.”  When she returned to New York she was “by turns, recently widowed, suddenly betrayed, turning eighty, struggling with bulimia, reliving a long-ago war, facing an unwanted pregnancy, hiking the Great Wall, having sex for the first time, and pursuing an old and doomed flame.”  From a writer’s standpoint, the story people rarely leave, and when they do, “we desperately call them back…and sometimes with music.”

The six women of this book are as severed as they are attached.  Irene’s song is a folk classic, the words; “So let it all ebb away, far away/ It wasn't easy/ But we did not cry/ Let it come softly/ Let it go gently/ Now, year after year/ I can't stop missing/ Missing you, missing days gone by" tells of a longing for her husband killed in a car crash by describing the depth of her grief.  Nora had just been laid low with a broken heart and the repetitive words of, “Cheers darlin'/ I got years to wait around for you/ Cheers darlin'/ I've got your wedding bells in my ear/ Cheers darlin'/ You gave me three cigarettes to smoke my tears away,” spoke of her heartbreak.  Kay, had been struggling all year "to trace her heritage in a place where history was being razed, paved over, replaced with steel, glass, and neon," and the lyrics, “these are the scars that silence carved on me/This is the same place/No, not the same place we’ve been before,” was the voice of her Asian American distinctiveness.  Sophie’s song is a rap piece laden with sexual tension representing her new world, one completely apart from her family or their ancestral ties to China, “Honey check it out, you got me mesmerized/With your black hair.”  Susan is forced to remember her tumultuous childhood, the unexplained strife between her parents, her old life, and a cataclysmic love affair.  The piece is set with opulent violins interspersed with the sounds of rushing trains, and ominous percussions, all speaking to the state of mind; haunted, reckless and ready to upend her life, even as she appears to be to her family, just a middle-aged aunt.  The most telling of all is the music of Lin Yulan…silence.  The author tried to find a song for her – an uncompromising woman who devoted her early life to causes, who left her husband and never spoke to him again, who has no patience for nostalgia or tradition.  “She lives in a place beyond music, beyond joy or diversion and only during this tour did she begin to sense what she might have missed.”  We appreciate Mary Jacob for loaning her DVD and for Patsy Dehn whose centerpiece of red silk brought China to us both visually and musically.

Our cast of reviewers each took on a character and provided insight into who they were and what formed their relationships with the others.  Linsey Garwacki offered an overview of the story of a family submerged in secrets trying to find compassion for each without giving too much of themselves in the process.  She led us on a character journey into Irene Shen, fifty-five years old, a brilliant Chinese-born scientist living in Queens, who decided to forgo her career and make her American-born daughters the center of her universe.  She was determined to give them a different upbringing than her own but stay true to the one Chinese word that summarized life – Jia, meaning family, house, and home.  When Bill, her husband of thirty years, announced he needed a break she said, “Good riddance” and told the girls, “Your father is leaving us.”  Irene was haunted by her words and realized she needed to find a way to bring her family home to each other or she would surely die alone.  A two-week tour of their homeland seemed to be her only shot so the six women reluctantly agreed to the trip – to search for an intangible that could reconnect the threads of their lives.  Janet Noblitt, in the role of the eldest daughter, Nora, Harvard graduate and Wall Street trader in the midst of the “golden boys” endured a barrage of sexist comments about her “Asianness, translating to sexy, docile and inarticulate.”  She was terrified of abandonment and commitment holding on to the Wall Street mantra of “cut your losses or bleed to death.”  Daryl Daniels as middle child, Kay, is the one most interested in her Chinese heritage and spends a year in the country her parents once called home.  She finds out she doesn’t fit in any better in China than she did in America…there is still the question, “Where are you from?”  Patsy Dehn took on the role of the youngest, Sophie, just seventeen and fighting to establish her identity all the while competing with her sisters to equal their academic accolades.  She is an artist, a perfectionist, obsessed with her looks, as she is petite and round, not beautiful like her sisters.  She is fighting the monster inside, bulimia, and is tormented when she learns she was “unplanned.”  Beverly Dossett assumed the role of Irene’s sister, Susan, the poet who found not poetry, not passion, but safety and structure inside the scaffolding of love with husband, Winston.  When she reads her ex-student-lover has published a book, she is tempted to rekindle the passion, duck under the safety net, and let a failed relationship once again rule her life.  This time she made the right decision to stay.  Pat Faherty in the role of matriarch Lin Yulan told us of a revolutionary woman who stood for women’s rights and was part of the Nationalist movement during the Japanese occupation of China.  She mercilessly judged others by standards they were bound to fail and encouraged her family to be more than a baby machine.  “A woman’s duty is to make a difference – it’s important to leave a legacy especially in a free country.”  Although she was at the forefront of women’s rights, she was a victim of a womanizing husband who “lost” their only son and offered a “replacement” – the child of his mistress.  ‘Ma’ divorced herself from her husband not only in name and distance, but in emotional ties – the secret of their California “son” would die with them.  In conclusion, from Linsey, the generations found a way back to each other – a thread of sky that connected them as family once again.

OUTSTANDING JOB LADIES

          THANK YOU FOR CAPTURING THE ESSENCE OF THESE CHARACTERS! 

Without taking a head count it was obvious the majority of our members didn’t like this book – it read like a travel log, each character was obsessed with their own issues, the writer failed in developing characters that you cared about, it was boring and slow-paced, there was an emotional distance between the characters, the author must have had a bad time growing up, in our color coding system it should have been rated “black,” you shouldn’t have to read a book twice to find something to like, it needed more tenderness, it was the Joy Luck Club without  joy, the style of writing was inept and confusing…all opinions voiced by our members. Having said that it did live up to the Bookers’ book standard in two respects…it generated a great deal of conversation and the writing was graceful, poetic and rhythmical, if not appreciated for its’ beauty.  We all demand different things from the books we read and this selection highlighted our diversity in that area more than any other selection.  We are as individual as books are plentiful so to assume we are all going to appreciate the same qualities in a book is naïve at best.  Bookers is never about “my way or the highway,” but always about respect for the opinions of others.  Our discussion centered on the question, Are people different because they look different?  What role does culture play in the makeup of an individual? Did the author purposely pit the journey against the self-absorbed characters in an attempt to emphasize the importance of that journey?  The classification of Type A personalities fit the mold of today’s over-zealous parenting in a race to push their children to the top.  Does this mean these children are of a certain ethnic background, or a result of an over-competitive environment or are all children at risk?

On the business side

Book selections for the remainder of the year will be chosen by popular vote.  Several choices were discussed in the meeting, but we ask that if you have a book you would like included, please let me know as soon as possible as I will be compiling a list before our October meeting.  Voting procedure will be included in the e-mail.

        COLOR CODING SYSTEM:

WHITE:                       Light read

PINK:                          Moderately challenging

RED:                            Challenging

                                                           

October 11^th:                Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

                                    PINK

                                    Home of Cherry Fugitt, co-hosted by Jane Freer

                                    Reviewer: Jane Freer

November 8^th:              Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress

                                    WHITE

                                    Recommended by Mary Jacobs & guest, Pam Parks

                                    Home of Lorene O’Neil, co-hosted by JoDee Neathery

                                    Reviewers: Mary Jacobs & Pam Parks

                                   

December 13^th:             Holiday Party & Meeting

                                    A Week in Winter by Marcia Willett

                                    Recommended by Bernie Crudden, MN & JoDee

                                    WHITE

Home of Jean Alexander, co-hosted by Bernie Crudden

Reviewed by Janet Noblitt

January 10^th:                 Book TBA

                                    Home of Beverly Dossett, co-hosted by Patsy Dehn

February 14^th:               Book TBA

                                    Home of Daryl Daniels, co-hosted by Janet Noblitt

March 13^th:                  Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

                                    RED

                                    Recommended by Beverly Dossett, Lee Durso, Alison Crawford,

                                    Jane Freer, Melanie Prebis, Jean McSpadden

                                    Home of Lee Durso, co-hosted by Kay Robinson

                                    Reviewed by Lee Durso

April 10^th:                     Book TBA

                                    Home of Donna Walter, co-hosted by Charlotte Pechacek

                                    Reviewers: MN & JoDee

May 8^th:                       5^th Annual Wine & Cheese Evening Meeting, 6:00 PM

                                    Home of Melanie Prebis (she never learns!), co-hosted by Linsey

                                    Garwacki.

June 12^th:                      Bonus Bookers meeting to be determined

FYI, Beverly Dossett has found “the Chinese silk-filled comforter” purchased by the group while on their tour.  Check it out at Softsurroundings.com.

Don’t forget to check out bookers-online.blogspot.com for your link to Amazon to purchase books.  We get a percentage of the sales and will use them to either defray any costs we might have or to include in a basket for the PWC golf tournament. 

Learn a way to let those who love you, love you.

JoDee