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Thursday, November 16, 2017

NOVEMBER 2017 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS, Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

            The dragonfly…messengers of discovery and enlightenment;
              the keeper of dreams showing us that anything is possible.
Chris Batt welcomed 18 Bookers to “Kingdom Arcadia” including Barbara Creach walking without assistance on her two new knees. Melanie Prebis offered the following review of the novel:

“Before I read this book I was unaware of the scandal surrounding the Tennessee
Children’s Home Society and Georgia Tann. The stealing of children from their birth parents actually happened, with single mothers, women in mental wards, and indigent families targeted and tricked into signing away their rights while still under the effects of postpartum sedation. Some were even told their babies had died. Children who were older reported being snatched off the streets, walking home from school and from houseboats on the river like the children in the book. It is estimated that 500 children simply vanished between the 1920’s and 1950 from the Tennessee Children’s Home Society due to inhumane treatment and lack of medical care, and thousands were adopted for profit, having their names and birth records altered so that birth families could not find them. Many of the children were adopted by high profile individuals such as politicians and Hollywood celebrities at exorbitant fees that were pocketed by Georgia Tann. It is estimated that she illegally made 10 million dollars by today’s standards. Although this book is fictional, it is based on real life experiences of children taken from their parents during this time.

This book is the story of two families, the Fosses, a poor family living on a riverboat in the waters near Memphis, and a well to do political family in South Carolina. It begins with the Foss children being taken from their home under false pretenses while their mother is giving birth in a Memphis hospital. They are taken to the T.C.H.S where they are prized for having blonde hair. Although the children hope their father will come rescue them, over time they are adopted by different families despite the efforts of the oldest girl, Rill, (who was renamed May) to keep the family together.

Avery Stafford, a lawyer and daughter of a prominent family in South Carolina, is being groomed to take over her senator father’s seat in the event that he does not survive his cancer. She is engaged to a childhood friend, Elliot, with whom she has a comfortable relationship. Avery is very close to her grandmother Judy, who is in the early stages of dementia and recently has been moved to an upscale nursing home, which is a political issue her father is dealing with. At a publicity event that Avery attends with her father at a different nursing home, she has a chance meeting with May Crandall, who calls Avery “Fern.” May thinks that the dragonfly bracelet Avery is wearing (which was given to her by her grandmother Judy) is hers. When the bracelet is later found in May’s possession, Avery goes back to the nursing home and sees a picture in May’s room that seems familiar and takes a photo of it. Later, when Avery questions her grandmother, she recognizes the photo and mentions the words “Queenie” and “Arcadia.” This starts Avery on a quest to solve the mystery of her family.

The book goes back and forth from present day to the past experiences of the Foss children at the T.C.H.S. During her search for the truth of her ancestry, Avery finds out a lot about herself and what she wants for her future. Although the theme of this book is about deplorable events in our history, it is also a testament to the love and devotion of families, resiliency of the young, and how the past effects our future. This book illustrates that Georgia Tann was incorrect when she said that children were blank slates that could become anything you wished them to be.”
GREAT JOB MELANIE!
Our discussion centered on adopted children…the joys and sometimes sorrows associated with the process. Some of the children adopted through Ms. Tann’s orphanage did receive life changing and often life-saving placements, while others were merely moneymakers for her business. We talked about the difficulty to unearth biological parents with sealed adoption records drawing a fine line between the rights of the adoptee versus the mother who relinquished her claim to her child. One side decries that adopted children are living their lives from chapter two and deserve to start from the beginning while the other side fiercely protects the birthparent’s right for privacy. Adoption laws today reflect an evolving attitude, as mutual agreement by both parties enables an adoptee and birthparents to connect with the other. Those with personal experience offered that disturbing childhood behavior could occur in any family dynamic, not just with an adopted child.

We talked about some of the confusion about who was who…specifically “Grandma Judy.” Part of the problem was it deferred to the reader’s assumption rather than something the author clearly defined. Some thought/hoped she was Camille, but her coloring was not right…others thought she was one of the twins reportedly stillborn and taken from the hospital. One thing was clear, Ms. Tann’s “unethical” arms reached into hospitals, political offices, and the rich and famous. The ending was satisfactory to most, the consensus being if all the Foss children were reunited, it would seem contrived and unbelievable. Personally, I thought if Avery’s character were as vividly developed as the other’s, she would have been a more convincing advocate in her relationships with her fiancĂ©, Trent Jr., and her family…making me favor the historical story over her personal plight.

We have to applaud the author’s use of symbolism in the dragonfly bracelets. These harmless insects represent the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life, evident as the dragonfly scurries across the water…the water signifying the harmony of a deeper mind…of a dreaming mind. Queenie and Briny referred to their abode as Kingdom Arcadia…Arcadia in Greek Mythology means a simple and rustic pastoral happiness…their life on the river. Bravo Ms. Wingate!
                                                        On the Business Side
We encourage everyone to support the PWC Holiday Market, November 17 from 5-7 p.m. in conjunction with hosted happy hour. It is a great opportunity to check some items off your Christmas list and recognize the creative efforts of our talented community.

Bookers will participate in a dedication ceremony at the Memory Garden in honor of Jane Freer. Details will be forthcoming as soon as we can coordinate a date with Gary.

The annual Books in Bloom Athens library fundraiser scheduled for April 13 will feature Jeff Abbott, a Texas author who writes mystery/suspense/thrillers. Bookers have always supported this event and we hope to do so again in the upcoming year.

We have filled out the remaining calendar for this year...detailed below, but we also discussed some other noteworthy books. You might like to curl up with a good book for those rainy cold days that surely will occur during our winter months such as:

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler, published in 2015, a multigenerational family saga.
Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom set in 1830 about a slave who fled a Virginia plantation and is passing as a white silversmith in Philadelphia’s society.
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult is based on a true story about an African American nurse in Flint Michigan working in labor and delivery for twenty years who is ordered not to touch the baby of a white supremacist.
A Long Way Home, a 2015 memoir by Saroo Brierley (Lion is the motion picture based on the book.) about a young man who used Google Earth to rediscover his life and home in India to Australia and back again.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, published in 1998, dubbed a dystopian fiction that means the exploration of social and political structures in a dark nightmarish world…Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games are two examples of this genre.
Lonesome Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner, by Larry McMurtry, the third in an epic frontier series.
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving set in the summer of 1952 with two eleven-year old boys playing Little League baseball. One of the boys hits a foul ball and kills the other boy’s mother. (Melanie has agreed to review this WHEN we select it for the upcoming year!!)
                                   COLOR CODING SYSTEM
                                   WHITE:          LIGHT READ
                                   PINK:             MODERATELY CHALLENGING
                                   RED:              CHALLENGING
December 12                          The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
Set in England in 1976, quirky, charming coming of age story of two ten year old girls.
We are returning to our regular 10 a.m. time although we will be reducing and streamlining our menu. Bonnie Magee will be our food czar again for our holiday party.
WHITE
                                                Home of: Beverly Dossett
                                                Reviewer: Ms. World Wide Web
January 9, 2018                     Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
Based on a true story of a forgotten hero, an Italian teenager during World War II…soon to be a motion picture.
RED
                                                Home of Daryl Daniels
                                                Reviewer: Patty Evans
February 13                           The Mourning Parade by Dawn Reno Langley
The mother of two sons killed in a school shooting leaves her successful veterinary practice to volunteer in an elephant sanctuary in Thailand.
                                                LIGHT RED
                                                Home of Bonnie Magee
Reviewer: Jean Alexander
March 13                                The Rainwater Secret by Monica Shaw
Debut historical fiction by Dallas author based on the life of her great aunt about a missionary woman in Africa to teach leper children.
                                                PINK                                     
Home of Patty Evans
We are excited to announce the author will be joining us for the meeting
April 10                                  The Uncertain Season by Texas author Ann Howard Creel
Follows the lives of three women in the aftermath of the 1900 hurricane that devastated Galveston…one living a privileged life, her disgraced and flamboyant cousin, and an unnamed girl living on the streets.
                                                Home of Sandy Molander
                                                Reviewer: TBD
May 15                                   Change of date due to travel plans
To Everything A Season – Sherri Schaeffer, a debut set in Amish country in Lancaster Pennsylvania where two worlds collide forcing them together.
                                                Home of Donna Walter
                                                Reviewer: TBD
Summer Read:                      America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie
Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha, “Patsy” becomes the keeper of the secrets and her father’s confidant after her mother’s death and his appointment as the American Minister to France.

“No matter how much we may love the melody of a bygone day or imagine the song of a future one, we must dance within the music of today, or we will always be out of step….”
Happy Reading,                     
JoDee



Thursday, October 5, 2017

OCTOBER 2017 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS, Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Community…Values…Culture
          Bang, Bang, Bang
14 Bookers sloshed their way to the home of Ann Ireland for this month’s meeting, scheduled a week early due to the upcoming PWC garage sale. In light of all the personal health issues facing many in our community, our neighbors to the south and east coping after hurricanes tossed their lives into uncertainty, and the mass tragedies in Las Vegas dominating our airways, we need something uplifting to focus on. Life is made of moments and as country singer, George Strait, crooned… “life’s not the breaths you take…but the moments that take your breath away.” Consider a three-year old on the autism spectrum who has never spoken a sentence suddenly saying, “I want apples.” The simplicity and innocence of this moment that takes your breath away offers a ray of sunshine for the world we live in. Thank you Harper Stanky!
Pat Faherty led the review of this month’s selection, and in typical fashion, she offered a short synopsis of the book relying on audience participation to get to the crux of the novel. We did not disappoint. New Bookers’ member, Pat Reid, commented afterwards how comfortable everyone was sharing thoughts and personal stories as they related to the book. That’s a feather in our hats Bookers! Pat pointed out the strength of the women characters in Beartown…Ramona (her favorite)…tough as nails, Kira…never trust someone who doesn’t have something in their lives that they love beyond all reason…Maya…the fortitude of a victim of a violent crime not letting that define her… Fatima, who instilled in her son the basics of always being honest and kind whose teachings were evident at the end of the book, and Benji’s sisters…with their unending love for their brother.
The banner, Community, Values, Culture, featured inside the hockey arena was the theme of the novel. Community meant everyone working toward the same goal and accepting their respective roles in order to reach them. Values stood for trust and love for each other. Culture was as much about what they encouraged as what they would permit. The statement heard so many times in sport is…it’s only a game, but this story proves differently. “It allocates power and draws boundaries turning some people into stars and others into spectators.” A sports club in a small town means that once a week they can celebrate all the things they have in common rather than what divides them. With their economy tanking, factories shuttering, and hopelessness dominating the landscape, small towns need something to cheer for so they pinned their hopes on the young who don’t remember that things used to be better. The days of working hard, and taking what is thrown your way without complaining had run out of steam.
Hockey is the metaphor Backman uses to explore human nature. “The world becomes easier to understand and less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, good and evil.” Human nature choses sides, seeks out facts, and then dehumanizes the enemy…human nature asks us who would you choose if you had to save someone from danger…family is the answer. With their backs against the wall, the well-defined characters, both flawed and heroic, followed their instincts, and the town turned upon itself when “their” dreams were in jeopardy…getting caught up in the dynamics of the he said/she said debate in the name of ice hockey.
The novel highlights the good, bad, and ugly side of not only youth sports but what the newspapers are full of in today’s spotlight…coddled athletes void of a moral compass where entitlement comes automatically with athletic ability. Any team sport teaches loyalty, responsibility, commitment, discipline, and rules and is capable of forming seemingly unbreakable bonds between like minds…your teammates will never abandon you. On the edge of that are the parents who hang their hopes and that of the town on the backs of “children.” In this small town, the mentality was they need to win at something because they have the “bear in them.” Their mascot, the brown bear, is the largest land-based predator on earth. It is not a coincidence the author picked Beartown as a “bear” personality is a combination of gruff and powerful and sensitive and intelligent. They have a natural confidence and swagger, the tension level rising when they enter a room and they are successful through the sheer force of their personalities. They have a debate mentality of never avoiding an argument and never backing down. We hope those of you who have not read or finished this book will look at it in a different light. It’s not a book about ice hockey. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the discussion!
             On the business side
As you remember, we had extra funds from our bookcase project and we’ve found a way to put them to good use. Cherry and Jane Freer had an unbreakable bond and one of the things they shared was Cherry’s love of anything Halloween, especially pumpkins. An angel holding a pumpkin will adorn the Freer’s front porch and if you would like to add a pumpkin of your own,  please do so with Gary’s blessing.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman is being made into a movie starring Tom Hanks as Ove. Well cast!
COLOR CODING SYSTEM
WHITE:          LIGHT READ
PINK:             MODERATELY CHALLENGING
RED:              CHALLENGING
November 14                         Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Based on a true-life scandal, Memphis, Tennessee, 1939 about a family who lives on a shanty boat in the Mississippi River.
PINKISH/RED
                                                Host home: Chris Batt
                                                Reviewer: Melanie Prebis
December 12                          The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
Set in England in 1976, quirky, charming coming of age story of two ten year old girls
We are returning to our regular 10 a.m. time although we will be reducing and streamlining our menu. Bonnie Magee will be our food czar again for our holiday party.
WHITE
                                                Host home: Beverly Dossett
                                                Reviewer: TBD
January 9, 2018                     Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
Based on a true story of a forgotten hero, an Italian teenager during World War II…soon to be a motion picture.
RED
                                                Home of Daryl Daniels
                                                Reviewer: Patty Evans
February 13                           The Mourning Parade by Dawn Reno Langley
The mother of two sons killed in a school shooting leaves her successful veterinary practice to volunteer in an elephant sanctuary in Thailand.
                                                LIGHT RED
                                                Home of Bonnie Magee
Reviewer: Jean Alexander
March 13                                Possible: The Rainwater Secret by Monica Shaw – stay tuned
Debut historical fiction by Dallas author based on the life of her great aunt about a missionary woman in Africa to teach leper children.
                                                PINK                                     
Home of Patty Evans
                                                Reviewer: TBD
April 10                                  Book: TBD
                                                Home of Sandy Molander
                                                Reviewer: TBD
May 15                                   Change of date due to travel plans
                                                Book: TBD
                                                Host Home: Donna Walter
                                                Reviewer: TBD
“You can’t look a gravestone in the eye and ask its forgiveness.” It’s never too late to soothe the soul.
Happy Reading,                     
JoDee


Thursday, September 14, 2017

SEPTEMBER 2017 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS, LIFE IN A BOX, a novel by JoDee Neathery

              It’s impossible, said pride…it’s risky, said experience…it’s pointless, said reason
           Give it a try whispered the heart.

This moment for me…Surreal, Dreamlike, Otherworldly, Illusory, Fanciful…you’re tired of overwhelming, so how about engulfing instead.

30 Bookers and special guests met at the home of Melanie Prebis to toast the beginning of Bookers’ fourteenth year of reading, walking in each other’s shoes, and discussing our mutual love and respect for the magic of the written word. It was a mix of family, my first cousin, Cindy Camp, and new Bookers, Pat Reid and Joanne Bara, and old friends Mary Jacob and Leslie Mullins, many clad in Life in a Box t-shirts…I may go back to overwhelming. Many thanks to Melanie for providing the mimosas, and to all who brought sustenance to soak up the champagne. It was a special occasion!

Elaine Bownes, not a Booker but a backbone of our community, has been diagnosed with primary peritoneal cancer. She is handling the chemotherapy treatments like a trooper and wants to acknowledge how grateful she and Jim are for the outpouring of love and support. They do not need anything at this time, but would appreciate our thoughts and prayers.  

Guest reviewer extraordinaire, Penny Barshop, offered a little background and overview of the creation of Life in a Box. She recalled sitting by the outdoor fireplace on MN Stanky’s back porch with a fifty-page sampling of the manuscript. The fire crackled and the journey began. If Penny were to teach this book, it would be a “two to three week study” in order to understand the complexity of the story as it relates to the characters. Penny pointed out the similarities between Andee and the author with The Yearling reference to “write what you know,” the fulfillment of a dream, a passion for golf, propensity for pristine books, and Las Vegas weddings. From a stylistic standpoint, Jackson offered Andee a critique of her writing, one that held true in Life in a Box. From the suggestion of limiting quirky minor characters, more blending of the narrative with dialogue to adjust the pace of the book, and Andee’s ability to create visual settings from the scene descriptions, the references to Heron’s Nest Golf Club and the women’s club Christmas parties tied the author and character together.

There were side stories that pulled the reader away from the main plot, but provided a glimpse into the makeup of the characters, telling their stories through a series of events. Christmas at the Camps in Dauphin Island set up the conflict between Andee and Scott’s sister, Blanche, the discovery of Scott’s Dad’s illness, the Santa story from the little “Southern” girls, and Beau’s special gift to Andee of Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale. We learned how protective Scott was of Andee and how much he worried about the toll the writing project would take on her health. We discovered the launch of the S.C.C & Brown Group with the connection between Scott and Andee’s father, Will, each bringing a different skill set to the successful partnership. And, historical events happening during the varied timeframes of the novel showed what people were reading, eating, watching on television and going about their everyday lives during those scenes.

Penny pointed out one of her favorite parts was the numerous mysteries and clues scattered among the text often leaving the reader with the answers before they knew the question such as  Jackson Barton-Brown’s relentless pursuit of the identity of his birth parents. Was Sonny’s drowning accidental…what happened to VJ, Ben and Will on the beach, who knew what and why? What was the significance of the big orange teddy bear Will brought to the beach…Was Sonny involved with the fire that took the life of his sister and critically burned his father? Why was Will and VJ’s relationship different after he returned from the war? What happened after VJ’s twenty-second birthday party and who was responsible? On VJ’s wall of shadowboxed teacups, why was only one dated, chipped and not shaded in pastels?

I loved everyone’s comments and questions proving how we each garner different things from our reading…things that touch us personally or speaks to the parts of our lives that we have experienced. It was uncanny how many incidents were brought forth, from a Jell-O salad recipe, to Don Cherry’s love song “Thinking of You,” to the 1970 University of Houston’s NCAA golf championship. There was a connection to horse “whispering,” same spelling of a name, sorority  ties, favorite perfume, and a wedding date of April 26, 1941 – the same as Muriel and Sonny’s – with the bride a twin, and of course the Pinnacle community and PWC connection.

Many have asked how much of the book is true…that’s a hard question to answer without a specific question, but here are a few facts that might satisfy any curiosity. Penny has already accurately pointed out the similarities between Andee’s character and me, but beyond that, her relationships with her parents are based on mine who were married for 43 years. Andee’s initial melanoma diagnosis is from my own lab report in 2003, but the reoccurrence dictating the clinical trials is fictional. Fictional Scott mirrored Mickey only in mannerisms…he was born in Dallas, grew up in Garland and has only one brother…no golf scholarship or development company and was not engaged at the time he and fictional Andee married…the Las Vegas wedding did take place however. The real-life Smith twins were as bonded as VJ and Ben. Catherine and Fulton are based on my maternal grandparents…she was very active in the women’s movement and a member of the P.E.O…he was President of a California bank. Hilda Hatter Otter was a “real” imaginary friend of my Aunt’s. The Brown segment contained mostly fictional characters, although my dad’s stepfather had characteristics not unlike R.M. Stinson. Please enjoy the characterizations of the real-life figures, but keep in mind, the events surrounding the story are fictionalized.

Bernie Crudden asked a question about the title of the book…did it refer only to the contents of a box that included the Smith/Brown histories, or was it two-fold also addressing the protection and security of living within the confines of a box. VJ spelled it out in her letter to Andee… “you are the rare bird in the protective shell your father and I created for you…robbing the songbird of lyrics and shackling your independence to our expectations.” Jackson on page 91 noted that possibility as well. Bernie, thank you for recognizing the significance of the “box.” Although I was an only child and very protected especially from failure, I had a fascinating childhood and what I am today is a reflection of that.
On the business side
Our donation in Jane Freer’s name to the Friends of the Animals enabled twenty-five families to have their pets spayed and neutered. We intended to purchase Jane’s brick for the memory garden but Gary beat us to the punch. We’ll hold on to our petty cash for another project.
Thoughts and prayers go out to Jean McSpadden who lost her mother to kidney cancer. Best wishes to Barbara Creach who will soon be undergoing partial replacement of both knees.

                              COLOR CODING SYSTEM
                             WHITE:          LIGHT READ
                             PINK:             MODERATELY CHALLENGING
                             RED:              CHALLENGING
October 3                               Moved a week early due to garage sale conflict
                                                Beartown by Fredrik Backman
All the hopes and dreams of a small hockey town rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.
PINK
                                                Host home: Ann Ireland
                                                Reviewer: JoDee Neathery
November 14                         Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Based on a true-life scandal, Memphis, Tennessee, 1939 about a family who lives on a shanty boat in the Mississippi River.
PINKISH/RED
                                                Host home: Chris Batt
                                                Reviewer: Melanie Prebis
December 12                          The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
Set in England in 1976, quirky, charming coming of age story of two ten year old girls
WHITE
                                                Host home: TBD
                                                Reviewer: TBD
January 9, 2018                     Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
Based on a true story of a forgotten hero, an Italian teenager during World War II, soon to be a motion picture.
RED
                                                Home of Daryl Daniels
                                                Reviewer: Patty Evans
February 13                           The Mourning Parade by Dawn Reno Langley
The mother of two sons killed in a school shooting leaves her successful veterinary practice to volunteer in an elephant sanctuary in Thailand.
                                                LIGHT RED
                                                Home of Bonnie Magee
Reviewer: Jean Alexander
March 13                                Possible: The Rainwater Secret by Monica Shaw – stay tuned
Debut historical fiction by Dallas author based on the life of her great aunt about a missionary woman in Africa to teach leper children.
                                                PINK                                     
Home of Patty Evans
                                                Reviewer: TBD
April 10                                  Book: TBD
                                                Home of Sandy Molander
                                                Reviewer: TBD
May 15                                   Change of date due to travel plans
                                                Book: TBD
                                                Host Home: Donna Walter
                                                Reviewer: TBD
Sleeping Beauty said if you dream it more than once it is sure to come true…
Happy Reading,                                             

JoDee

Friday, May 5, 2017

MAY 2017 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS, Orphan # 8 by Kim Van Alkemade

21 Bookers armed with sustenance descended on the home of Melanie Prebis for our “wine and cheese” evening to say farewell for the summer to meeting, but not reading. Bookers will resume on September 12 for the beginning of our fourteenth year of camaraderie celebrating a mutual love of the written word. Please keep in mind this is your book club. My role is simply the facilitator (an adored role I might add!) Your input on the direction of Bookers is a valued part of its success, our goal continuing to be to embrace our own “cup of tea” reading choices and at the same time, challenge our minds and hearts with an understanding of what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes. Thank you for this opportunity and we (MN and I) look forward to resuming Bookers in the fall.

New PWC member, Kittie Minick, joined us for our end of year soiree, and we hope she got a taste of what we are all about and will join us again. As always, Bonnie Magee did an excellent job as our food czar and we appreciate her organizational expertise. Many thanks to Kathi Baublits for coordinating Jane Freer’s Summer Fun Bucket, which she delivered today, and to everyone who contributed a wonderful assortment of “fun” and love. Jane called earlier to give an update on how she is doing and to express her heartfelt appreciation for everything Bookers has done to try to boost her spirits. All the flowers from last month are planted under the big tree in their front yard and she and Gary are enjoying the wealth of color added to their landscape. Jane recently spent two days in the hospital and this past Monday she received a double bag of chemotherapy, starting her “rough patch.” She’ll have a week off then a CT scan and MRI to assess the results of the chemo. If good news is measured in love, prayers, and support, we’ll all be toasting Jane’s prognosis!! Kay Hazelbaker sent a thank you card to Bookers for all the well wishes. We missed Lee McFarlane also, and hope she is on the road to recovery from her recent surgery.

The mere mention of mistreatment of Jewish children and medical experimentation allowed comparisons of Orphan # 8 to the horrors of the Holocaust. The author, doing some family research, came across information on the day-to-day operations of an orphanage that in 1920 was one of the largest childcare institutions in the country. The inspiration for the novel came from a request for the purchase of wigs for eight children who had developed alopecia because of X-ray treatments. She tapped into her family tree to produce characters based on her great-grandfather and great-grandmother, discovering how many women were involved in medical research on children during this timeframe and the dual role of medicine in healing and harm. Ms. Van Alkemade referencing the “unnatural” relationship between Rachel and Naomi remained true to the norm of the era in which they lived their lives in secret and as adults would be referred to as “female spinster roommates.” As late as the 1950’s, homosexuality was a psychological disorder that could be cured through analysis and therapy, its cause, “a deep-seated and unresolved neurosis…instead of really being happy, they are lonely and unhappy but afraid to admit it.”

Patty Evans dissected this month’s selection, Orphan # 8, a multi-layered novel, with the skill of a surgeon fostering a lively discussion from our group. The novel begins with four-year old Rachel Rabinowitz living with her parents and older brother in a crowded tenement in New York City’s lower Eastside. When tragedy strikes, Rachel is sent to a Jewish orphanage where she is part of an experimental X-ray protocol conducted by Dr. Mildred Solomon. Years later Rachel is confronted with her dark past when she becomes a nurse at Manhattan’s Old Hebrew Home and her patient is none other than the elderly, cancer-stricken Dr. Solomon. Rachel arrived at the orphanage, “whole, undamaged, and pretty,” but Dr. Solomon left her weak, vulnerable, and disfigured. If you had the power to seek revenge on the woman who ruined your life, what would you do? Rachel finally realized what it felt like to control someone’s destiny. Could she justify her actions because the old woman was going to die anyway? In the end, she recognizes that a person’s fate – to be the one who inflicts harm or one who heals – is not always set in stone.

The majority of our group read and finished the novel, those who did not found the mistreatment of children too much to bear. Granted it was not an easy read, but Rachel discovered a resolve to continue moving forward, not allowing herself to be swallowed up by her circumstances, pursuing a career in the care-giving field of nursing. She found the fortitude to break through the walls of misery, evolving as a valuable asset to society, becoming a genuine “good girl.” We discussed mother figures, abandonment, the men in Rachel’s life, the importance of cuddling children from a very early age, and some personal blasts from the past.

On the business side:
Bookers donated many books to the Pinnacle Free Library located downstairs of the Clubhouse only to discover the bookcase was removed due to mold. John Magee generously offered to build a new one for the cost of materials, around $150.00. We voted to embrace this project and Beverly Dossett is collecting the funds for us. Please contact her if you can help with this project. If we collect additional funds, we hope to purchase a Bookers plaque for the bookcase with the intention of donating books throughout the year for others to enjoy. This is our way of letting the community in on our secret… Bookers’ books.

If you have attended a meeting in the last year, it’s no secret that my voice does not carry well and without MN’s hypnotic aura, we’ve enlisted an external microphone to help in the voice of Bonnie Magee, so if you hear her asking you to gather around…she’s doing her job.

With our summer read in flux because of the production delay of Life in a Box, we offered the suggestion of meeting in June in hopes a publish date could be shared for my novel at that time. We voted not to meet, but to wait for the announcement hopefully by the end of June, and select Life in a Box as our summer read to be reviewed in September. Chances are a Q&A with the author will be available at the meeting. HA! Thanks again for all your support!!!!!

Last year we held the December meeting at the Club preceded by cocktails and a very nice dinner. We just learned from our reviewer that when she took the podium, our audience appeared almost asleep and another observation was that it was difficult to hear the discussion if you were sitting behind the participant. We’ll work on a solution or another alternative during the summer.
Here’s a few suggestions to whet your reading appetite while enjoying our break:

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. A memoir written by a former marine and Yale Law School graduate…a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town. It’s a personal analysis of a culture in crisis – that of white working-class Americans. He tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
Tribe by Sebastian Junger. Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today. Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, Tribe explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning.
America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie. An historical fiction telling of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph, the woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father. She became the “first lady” when her mother died and at fifteen learned about her father’s troubling liaison with Sally Hemings, a slave girl her own age.
Beartown, by Fredrik Backman, bestselling author of A Man Called Ove returns with a dazzling, profound novel about a small town with a big dream—and the price required to make it come true. People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest is slowly losing ground to the ever-encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a chance at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Elizabeth Strout’s latest, Anything Is Possible, written in the same vein as her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Olive Kitteridge, a series of linked short stories exploring the whole range of human emotion through intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others. The characters are from My Name is Lucy Barton, featuring the return of Lucy to her hometown after a seventeen-year absence.

 A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles, author of Rules of Civility, is set in a famed Moscow hotel where movie stars hobnob with Russian royalty.
The Doula, by Bridgit Boland, a debut novel about a doula trained to support women and their families during childbirth who is on trial for her best friend’s death.
The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever, by Mark Frost. The year is 1956 and an impromptu eighteen-hole best ball match features living legends Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson versus rising stars, Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi.
Taking Flight, by Adrian R. Magnusom. A thirteen-year old boy sent against his will by his career-absorbed father to spend the summer with his bipolar mother meets a one-legged elderly man with mid-stage Alzheimer’s on a cross-country flight. What happens next is a lifetime adventure for both.
Ida Mae Tutweiler and the Traveling Tea Party, by Ginnie Siena Bivona. A simple, charming yarn that will make you laugh out loud and shed a tear about women, mothers, daughters, sisters, and lifelong friendships.  
                                COLOR CODING SYSTEM
                                WHITE:          LIGHT READ
                                PINK:             MODERATELY CHALLENGING
                                RED:              CHALLENGING

September 12                         Beginning Year 14
                                                Life in a Box, a novel by JoDee Neathery
                                                RED
                                                Home of Kathi Baublits
                                                Reviewer: TBA

October 3                               Moved a week early due to garage sale conflict
                                                Book: TBA
                                                Host home: TBA
                                                Reviewer: TBA

November 14                         Book: TBA
                                                Host home: Chris Batt
                                                Reviewer: TBA

December 12                          Book: TBA
                                                Host home: TBA
                                                Reviewer: TBA

January 9, 2018                     Book: TBA
                                                Home of Daryl Daniels
                                                Reviewer: TBA

February 13                           Book TBA
                                                Home of Bonnie Magee
                                                Reviewer: TBA

March 13                                Book: TBA
                                                Home of Patty Evans
                                                Reviewer: TBA

April 10                                  Book: TBA
                                                Home of Sandy Molander
                                                Reviewer: TBA

May 8                                     Book: TBA
                                                Host Home: TBA
                                                Reviewer: TBA
                                               
Have a wonderful summer…curl up with a good book!

JoDee