Recommended Reading

The Land of Painted Caves: A Novel (Earth's Children)
The Shelters of Stone
The Plains of Passage: Earth's Children
The Mammoth Hunters: Earth's Children
The Valley of Horses: Earth's Children
The Clan of the Cave Bear: Earth's Children
A Week in Winter : A Novel
Ladder of Years: A Novel
Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference
Cutting For Stone

Bookers Book Selection - March 2011

We have moved this selection to March instead of May.

JANUARY 2011 BOOKERS MINUTES - The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

"We've come a long way baby."

Braving twenty-four degree temperatures, 20 members of The Clan of Bookers gathered at the hearth of Bonnie Magee to discuss Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children novel, The Clan of the Cave Bear.  Rosemary Farmer co-hosted the meeting making certain the hunter-gatherers felt right at home by displaying a table set with an animal skin, a bowl of nuts, and baskets of fresh rosemary.  Bonnie’s idea of sharing responsibilities for our meetings clearly shows what a good thought looks like when implemented.  Great job and thanks to both of you for contributing to Bookers.

MN’s sister, Dianne, attended her last Bookers meeting as she is returning home this week, much to the chagrin of those who have become accustom to seeing her.  Personified in this charming example of gentility is the true language of the South.  We are going to miss her and hope she will come back to Bookers the next time she is in town.

Pat Faherty, slated to lead the review of this selection, was blindsided by a snowstorm in the midst of moving to her new house and was unable to join us.  Flexibility being our strong suit…really!...MN pulled a couple of reviews from the Internet and Lorene used her velvet voice to deliver us back to the dawn of modern humans in prehistoric Europe during the Ice Age. 

Animal totems played a significant role in Auel’s book as each child of the Clan was “anointed” with a spirit identifying their persona.  Instead of The Mog-ur determining our totems, our animal personality was revealed in a warm-up exercise of ‘Name Your Totem.’  Eunice, the spirit of owl, hovered quietly above observing the scene sharing air space with our other feathered friends – Bonnie, the spirit of flittering bird, Madelyn, the spirit of bluebird, and Rosemary, the spirit of chickadee.  A match of wills emerges as Lorene, the spirit of bull and Daryl, the spirit of ram squared off with Aulsine, the spirit of mountain goat, and Marsha, the spirit of horse.  Janet and Lois, both spirits of prairie dogs, continuously popped up out of their holes curiously eyeing the aquatic group of Pam, the spirit of crab, Sandy, the spirit of beaver, Leslie, the spirit of dolphin, and Patsy, the spirit of penguin.  In the corner Donna, the spirit of golden retriever, growled playfully at JoDee, the spirit of cat who hissed at Cherry, the spirit of peacock, strutting her colorful feathers in front of Melanie, fittingly in the spirit of our medicine woman.  MN…(have you ever heard the spirit of tiger roar with a southern drawl?)  …  signaled an end to the naming game, corralling us in to listen to the discussion of the book while Dianne, being quiet as a mouse, settled in to endure yet another discussion of yet another book.  (Alabama, I’m coming home!)  Rest assured we were not chewing on any root or swallowing anyone’s essence, nor were we tempted to dance naked until we dropped from exhaustion, just attending another monthly (ho-hum) meeting of fellow book lovers.

Jean M.Auel is seventy-five years old and the latest (and reportedly the last) novel in this series, The Land of Painted Caves, is due to be released March 29, 2011.  Between 1980 and 1990 she published the first four in the series, The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, and The Plains of Passage, but her fans had to wait twelve years before the fifth, The Shelters of Stone was released.  She is “not a trained novelist and certainly not a trained scientist,” but her attention to detail and passion for prehistory endears her to anthropologists, archeologists, and book lovers.  She admits freely to taking literary license throughout the novels (defined as speculative alternative historical fiction,) but does so for the sake of the story.  As a whole, the series is a tale of personal discovery, coming-of-age, invention, and cultural complexities, encompassed within a profound study of humanity.

An earthquake left five-year old Ayla orphaned and near death.  The Clan, on the move in search of a new cave, stumbled upon her lifeless body.  From the onset, they knew she was not one of them…they were The Clan (Neanderthals) – stout and short.  This child was blond with eyes “the color of the sky,” – long and lean…clearly a product of “The Others” (Cro-Magnons.)  The novel follows her journey into this new world and details the clash of two diverse cultures striving for the same resources, space, and survival.  This helpless child wins the hearts of medicine woman, Iza, and Creb, The Mog-ur; chief of spirits, the holiest of holy men, and the most skilled and powerful magician of the Clan, and finds a home within their “hearth.”  Signs, omens, and superstitions dictate everyday life of the Clan and manifests in their ritual naming ceremony in which Ayla is anointed with the powerful totem, the Spirit of the Cave Lion.  Confusion, awe, and dissention follow the ceremony, especially since she was not by birth, “one of them.”  This designation set the tone for her emergence into their lifestyle at the same time alienating her from full acceptance into her new family.  The Clan could not conceive a future any different from the past – everything they did was a repetition of something that had been done before.  They were dependent on their racial-genetic memory.  A child’s brain is encoded with this information, which makes Ayla’s grasp of medicine an anomaly to the Clan members – she was capable of absorbing her “mother’s” medicinal memories ensuring her path as heir apparent to the Clan’s medicine woman.

Communicating with body and sign language, it was impossible to lie to the Clan because “spelling an untruth with one’s hands is possible, but one’s posture will betray you.”  Additionally, they used a formal language or spirit language to converse with ancestors.  Although she struggled to grasp it, to Ayla, it was a language of compassion amid a few foreign grunts, gestures, and signs – a universal language of nurturing instinctive without verbalization.  She knew she was cared for.

When battle lines were drawn between Ayla and Broud, the Clan leader’s “child of his mate,” the story developed into a test of wills fueled by extreme jealousy (or was it love?) leading to an explosion of graphic violence, submission, and revenge.

The tenderness of the book amid the brutality of the times in which they lived endeared the reader to the characters and quite possibly, to the Internet to order the rest of the series…“The last thing Ayla heard as she disappeared behind the broken ridge was (her son’s) plaintive wail – Maama, Maaama, Maamaaa!”… heart wrenching and leaving the reader wanting more…well done!

       On The Business Side:

Most of you either are currently members of other book clubs or have been in the past.  The emphasis of Bookers has always been the books, rather than the social aspect of getting together.  Last month’s meeting again set a record (37) for attendance and no one can argue that the mood was festive and in line with the celebration of the season.  However, it highlighted the need to address what we do in the future as it applies to our two “party-themed meetings.”  The combination of eating, drinking, business, warm up, a book review and discussion was too much to pack into our allotted time.  MN & I feel strongly the book and the person who has volunteered to review the selection suffers because of the current format, and it is unfair to ask you to spend time reading something that is not going to be given due credit.  We discussed several options to balance the issues and voted to eliminate the book and review from our May Wine & Cheese evening meeting.  We will substitute either a book sharing or exchange or just swap stories of our favorite books.  There was a reluctance to give up the holiday party so, next December our book reviewer will be first on the agenda; we will simplify our food choices, but continue to toast the spirit of the season.

                  Recommended Reading List:

Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese, an epic tale of twin sons of a secret love affair between a Nun and a brilliant British surgeon unfolds across five decades in India, Ethiopia, and America.

 Outcasts United by Warren St. John, a non-fiction account of a settlement center near Atlanta for refuge families from war zones in Africa and the Middle East.

 Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler is about a 40 year old wife and mother feeling unappreciated, unnoticed, and unnecessary who walks away from her “normal” life and starts over in a new town.  Vintage Anne Tyler – quirky characters addressing mid-life issues.

 A Week in Winter, Marcia Willett who is hailed as the new Rosamunde Pilcher delivers an easy escape into the English countryside chocked full of characters that draw us into their lives, at the middle of which lies an old family farmhouse named Mooregate.

                   COLOR CODING SYSTEM:

WHITE:                        Light read

PINK:                           Moderately challenging

RED:                             Challenging

February 8^th:                 The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

                                    RED

                                    Recommended by MN, Cherry, & Jane Freer

                                    Home of Jean Alexander

                                    Reviewer: Melanie Prebis

MARCH 1^ST:             NOTE CHANGE OF DATE

                                    Still Alice by Lisa Genova

                                    PINK

                                    Recommended by Kim, MN & JoDee

                                    Home of Jane Freer

                                    Reviewer: Kim Hand

April 12^th:                     Room by Emma Donoghue

                                    PINK

                                    Recommended by MN & JoDee

                                    Home: TBA

                                    Reviewers: MN & JoDee

May 10^th:                     4^th annual Wine and Cheese Evening Meeting

                                    Bonnie Magee, food czar

                                    Format to be discussed – no book selection

                                    Home: TBA

If you can’t find me, I’ll most likely be lolling around Ernest Hemingway’s home in Key West.)

Meow….

December 2010 Bookers Minutes - Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky

                               “Walk in my shoes before casting the first stone.”

37 (another record) attended the annual holiday party at the home of Daryl Daniels, which was beautifully decked out in the spirit of the season.  Bookers might consider writing a cookbook as the food and beverages were again yummy!  Thanks to food czar, Bonnie Magee, for coordinating this for us. 

MN’s sister, Dianne, was our special guest and hopefully she enjoyed the camaraderie of our group.  She “reads by osmosis” listening to her sisters go on and on about books and we thank her for being such a trooper amongst the book lovers.  Last month, MN was not able to attend our regular meeting as she was tending to the business of rebuilding their beach house after fire destroyed it in September.  Patsy and Patty reviewed the book Broken For You, and in the process, we created a mosaic cross to be presented to her at this meeting.

To MN:  “In the review of Broken For You when a Booker made a comment about a character in the book, she placed a tile to created a mosaic as depicted in the story.  After losing your home to the fire, we want to gather around you to give support and hope.  This mosaic cross represents our friendship and love.  We appreciate all you have done for us in Bookers and pray for the rebuilding of your life and home.”

Love,

Bookers

We decided an appropriate warm-up for our party/meeting would be to join voices and sing a few Christmas carols.  Melba and Leslie agreed to lead us in song and we appreciate their willingness to participate.  Unfortunately, we might have packed too much into the “program,” so we only had time to sing one song.  We apologize for having to cut this part short, but our reviewer had been waiting patiently in the wings for quite a while.  It was worth it as we were treated to “vintage Bernie’s special touches.”

Bernie donned several hats in her presentation of this book to our group.  Her first voice, seventeen year old, Lily told us she desperately needed someone to talk to – someone to listen to her.  “I’m a high school senior with awesome grades and my mother is the principal of the school, and I’m pregnant and it wasn’t an accident…I know that look, but let me explain…my closest friends and I made a pact to get pregnant…I don’t even have a boyfriend, but I “recruited” a neighborhood friend, but I don’t want him in our lives…we just want babies…something of our own.”  When the pact was revealed, the “town went crazy, and the media attention was coming from everywhere…life would never be the same.”

Susan, Lily’s mother and high school principal took the floor next.  “Where do I begin…Lily is the perfect daughter – she is a good student, popular and responsible.  I wanted her to have an easier path than I had.  I was horrified when I found out about her pregnancy, much less the pact between the best friends.  I struggled not only with the fact that Lily was going to be a mother, but with questions like, whose responsibility is it to prevent this type of thing…the parents, schools, church, the media?  Did I fail as a Mom?”

Bernie, the reviewer, was next.  “I thought it was an easy read, loved the title, but was disappointed in the lack of development of the mother/daughter relationships.  I was waiting for that big ta-da moment and it never came.  I understood the characters but didn’t connect with them emotionally.  If the ‘dying wool’ segments were a metaphor for the novel, I didn’t get it.  The ending was all tied up in a neat package, a happy-ever-after conclusion to an unlikely story.”

Bernie, the reader, asked, “ What do you think?”  The group responded with a burst of applause for a job well done…she is the consummate professional and a dear member of our group.

As always, our book selections bring to the forefront, the back-story of our own lives as was the case with this novel.  It hit pretty close to home for a couple of our members, bringing to light how an unplanned pregnancy changes your whole life and wonderment if subconsciously this provided an escape from their relationship with their own mothers.  We talked about the unlikelihood that these bright, college-bound teens would be stereotypical of  “pact behavior.”  They chose to end their childhoods by forcing themselves into adulthood, but within the confines of their parent’s safety net - an example of having your cake and eating it too.  They thought it would be “fun” to have something of their own…how about a cat?  We discussed the study of how the frontal lobe of the brain in teenagers is not fully developed until later in their teens, whereby an idea is formed, but it doesn’t connect with the consequence.  The book focused on relationships, moral issues, family values and the making of a good mother, described as one who is vigilant, trusting, teaches right from wrong and then takes off the training wheels, provides structure, a schedule, and above all, unconditional love.  The mothers in this book questioned their culpability in the situation, wondering if they had parented wrong.  There was some anger expressed about how Ms. Delinsky acted irresponsibly in writing such a book…remember it was ripped from the headlines, like a Law & Order story, and it did accomplish the very thing that identifies Bookers – did it promote discussion – the answer is, yes it did.  We strive to bring variety in our reading choices and understand each selection will have its critics and supporters, but it is important to judge the book on its merits and continue to respect the process by which we choose what to read as a group.

On The Business Side:

We are always looking for ways to improve Bookers and are considering a couple of options for next year.  Please think about these suggestions (and feel free to offer your own to the mix) and we’ll discuss them soon.  We could have a nighttime holiday party celebrating the season but not have a specific book to read and review…maybe just talk about your favorite Bookers’ book and why it is special to you.  Or, we could have a regular Bookers meeting with a book and review and add a separate holiday party.  I think we all enjoy getting together during the holidays, but the current format seems to be getting a little difficult to manage with the food and beverages, business, book review and discussion.  Let us know your thoughts…as usual; we are a work in progress.

Bonnie Magee reported hearing on several occasions that an individual would like to contribute and host a meeting, but either lived outside the Pinnacle, or felt their home was too small to accommodate our ever-growing group.  She suggested pairing up – one would provide the home and the other would take care of the coffee and beverages, sharing set up and clean up duties.  We all think this is an excellent idea and a solution to the problem.  Please keep this in mind when we are in need of a “host” home.

Jane Freer has located Clan of the Cave Bear at a used bookstore in Seven Points and has offered to take orders and purchase them.  They are $3.00 and please contact her if you are interested in this arrangement.

Generally we discourage moving our meeting dates, but it is possible that both MN and I will be gone during the second Tuesday in March.  Due to Spring Break and other travel plans, many of us will not be able to attend the meeting on the 8^th so we voted to move it to the first Tuesday in March instead.  Please mark your calendars for March 1^st instead of the 8^th.

Bookers-online.blogspot.com is rocking right along.  We have six followers and our total revenues have reached $50.00 – our percentage is now about $2.00…nibble, nibble!  Thanks to everyone who has ordered books through the site.  Beth Hoffman, author of Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt, found us and posted a wonderful note in response to our review of her book…the sky is the limit!

While I was in the company of my hero, Pat Conroy, as he addressed the Arts & Letters Series at the Dallas Museum of Art recently, MN was among 250 ladies all dressed in tiaras and donning pageant sashes paying homage to her favorite, Fannie Flagg.  It would be impossible to tell who had more fun!

Dale Molander, husband of Sandy, was at our table at the philanthropy luncheon and, of course, Bookers came up.  He has recommended, Outcasts United, a non-fiction account of a settlement center located near Atlanta for refuge families from war zones in Africa and the Middle East.  Stay tuned – it might be our selection for March.  We’ll keep you posted. 

I’m about 250 pages (1/2 way) into Cutting for Stone and love the story, but getting bogged down in the medical and cultural terminology.  Admittedly, I find myself skipping chunks of the novel, but since I’m not finished, the jury is still out on a recommendation.

Color code rating system:

                                                WHITE:         Light read

                                                PINK:              Moderately Challenging

                                                RED:                Challenging

January 11^th, 2011:               The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

                                                PINK

                                                Recommended by Pat Faherty, Patty Evans, & MN

                                                Home of Bonnie Magee

                                                Reviewer: Pat Faherty                                                 

February 8^th:                             The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

                                                RED

                                                Recommended by MN, Cherry Fugitt, Jane Freer   

                                                Home of Jean Alexander

                                                Reviewer: TBA

MARCH 1^ST                         NOTE CHANGE OF DATE

                                                Book TBA

                                                Home of Jane Freer

April 12^th:                                 Room by Emma Donoghue

                                                PINK

                                                Recommended by MN & JoDee

                                                Home: TBA

                                                Reviewers: MN & JoDee

                                   

                       

May 10^th:                                 4^th annual Wine & Cheese Evening Meeting

                                                Still Alice by Lisa Genova

                                                PINK

                                                Recommended by Kim Hand, MN, & JoDee

                                                Home: TBA

                                                Reviewer: TBA

                                                Bonnie Magee, food czar

Happy Reading,

JoDee

Bookers Book Selection - April, 2010

Bookers has selected Room by Emma Donoghue for April 2010.  Narrated through the voice of a five year old boy whose entire world is confined to one room - it is where he was born - it is where he learned to read - it is where he eats, sleeps, and plays. 

Dallas Museum Of Art welcomes Pat Conroy

It was an awe moment when writer extraordinaire, Pat Conroy, took center stage at the Dallas Museum of Art on November 16th, 2010. To be in the presence of someone with his talent was inspirational, to say the least.  As he began his presentation, the sell-out crowd hushed as not to miss one word, and it became keenly obvious his style mirrored his written word in its ease of delivery.  He is a regular guy, but a master storyteller with a mischievous sense of humor. He invited us along for the tale of his incredible journey while he reverently spoke of those individuals who were responsible for letting the rest of the world in on his incredible talent. 

Shortly after graduating from the Citadel he wrote and self-published his first book, The Boo, which he says "is the worst piece of writing ever." He looked in the yellow pages under "publishing" and found an advertisement listing invitations,brochures, and books. $5,000.00 got him 1,000 books and the title of a published author - the trip began.  The Water is Wide was next - a memoir about his experiences teaching the "children the world had forgotten."  The Great Santini featured an abusive father, Bull Meecham; the epitome of a Marine officer demanding perfection from his oldest son while teaching him winning is everything regardless of how it is done...he wrote about what he lived.  The Lords of Discipline was set in another military institution in Charleston.  The Prince of Tides followed the story of Tom Wingo and his twin sister, Savannah set both in New York and the low-country of South Carolina. Beach Music (my all-time favorite) took us from South Carolina to Rome and reached into the "terrors of the Holocaust" with his character, Jack McCall.  It took seventeen years before South of Broad was published - again set in Charleston following  a tightly knitted group of high school friends throughout their lives. My Reading Life leads us through the maze of his life with particular emphasis on how reading literally saved him.  His mother introduced the world to Pat through reading and groomed him to be a "southern writer."  I think she must have been very proud!  Due out next fall is The Death of Santini which he says will chronicle the reincarnation of his father.

Mr. Conroy's literature and florid style of writing allows us to absorb his surroundings, make friends and enemies with the unforgettable characters, and witness first-hand the creativeness of his mind.  He said, " I have no imagination - between South Carolina and my family I will never run out of  material."  Makes you want to go out and find a loony-toon or two and move to the DEEP South.  Maybe then I could write one sentence with as much passion and descriptive prose as my idol, Pat Conroy.  Wish me luck.

JoDee

November 2010 Bookers Minutes

         Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos
Trust and an open heart are the keys necessary to repair a broken soul.

19 Bookers met on Tuesday, November 9th ironically marking the 72^nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, ‘the night of broken glass,’ when the Nazis and their sympathizers in Germany and Austria engaged in attacks on Jews and their property.  How fitting our book selection, Stephanie Kallos’ Broken For You, built her debut novel around this theme.

Melanie Prebis opened her beautiful home to us and we welcomed back Lee McFarlane who was able to join us this month.  Our group has some very creative members who often provide visual demonstrations to enhance the review of the book.  Our two Peas in a Pod, Patsy and Patty, did not disappoint and we all appreciate your efforts to bring this book to life for us, especially since you both have a lot on your own plates!  And, speaking of visuals, those of us in attendance were witness to the persona of the resident boxer taking center stage performing a “stimulating” floor belly-dragging dance…you had to be there.

Adorning the coffee table were two wooden crosses and bags of broken tiles, stones, and beads in a variety of colors.  Each character in the book was identified by a color, i.e…Margaret… rust, Wanda…white, MJ Striker & Gina…brown, Irma…turquoise, Troy, Gus, Peter, Susan & Bruce…tan, Stephen & Daniel…gold, Margaret’s mother, Cassandra, and father, Papa O…beggar beads.  Patsy provided a summary of the book followed by Patty with a series of discussion questions.  As the characters were identified, a corresponding tile or bead was placed on the crosses. 

This novel is littered with characters whose plight in life, whether of their own volition or not, was shattered into pieces.  The lifelong searches to put “humpty dumpty back together again” evolved into an unlikely family-by-proxy serving to heal their emotional and physical lives.  The baggage each one brought to the table was taxing, but remarkably, they repaired the damages and completed their mosaics.  By placing the pieces in the proper place, the adhesive that bonded them together and the grout that gave them definition proved to be the right formula for a fulfilled life.

Living and breathing tesserae, seventy-five year old Margaret Hughes, weathered a childhood that “began happily ever after, but didn’t end that way.”  A doting father, who unbeknownst to her, profited from the sins of others, and a mother she viewed as “an ice queen,” dominated her early years.  Adulthood was not kinder as she suffered the tragedy of losing a child in an automobile accident at the hands of her husband.  Despair and guilt drove her to a solitary life of sacristan, communicating only with her massive collection of stolen treasures.  However, when Margaret was confronted with her impending demise, she reached out to work on the relationships in her life – she faced fear with courage and determination, and systematically broke what was haunting her. 

Wanda O’Casey Shultz arrived into Margaret’s world with a broken heart and spirit – abandoned as a child by her parents and obsessed with tracking down the boyfriend that dumped her, literally landed inside a broken body, physically joining the emotional pieces residing inside her psyche.

The remainder of the cast of “thousands” all suffered the same affliction – a life spent focusing on an endless search for what they deemed necessary to complete themselves.  In the end, the creation of mosaics pieced together their disjointed lives and revealed what they were looking for existed within those who loved them.

The more practical members of our group questioned the need to destroy all the treasures.  Why not just sell them and give the profits to designated charities?  Margaret answered that question in her own mind when she realized “bodies had been shattered…but things had not.”  “Purging anger” defines a highly successful method used in grief counseling…the theory being that an object represents your life and by destroying it, you then are able to rebuild it.  Each object in Margaret’s possession was given a voice – each had a story, each one broken in remembrance.  “Tikkun Olam” in Hebrew means repair the world serving as “the narrative catalyst of the book – one of redemption.”

The majority agreed Margaret was unaware until later that she was piecing together a family mosaic with all of the participants of the Crazy Plate Academy.  We talked about the tragedy of feeling “invisible” as isolation breeds hopelessness; whether or not Wanda was really searching for her father instead of Peter and how ironic it was (or was it?) that both men sported long gray ponytails; how Wanda was comfortable with both her father and Troy because “they can be with her and be silent” – was that because the silent ones are generally the good listeners?

There were some confusing segments of this multi-layered book, one of which was the significance of the two figurines Margaret’s father brought to her when she was just four years old – one was very colorful, a shepherdess dressed in a costume exactly like her outfit, the second one “all white, because the clay in this one is so pure, so rare, so magnificent that it requires nothing else…just form and light.”  One was the original, the other a copy – “remember how important it is to recognize purity – recognize it and prize it.  Papa O will not always be here to tell you what is pure and what is the copy.”  Years later Margaret thought the “most obvious and important thing (about this memory) is the way her father had costumed her – not as the original, but as the object of lesser worth.”  Hmmmm…what was he telling her?

The question was asked, what does the YOU in the title of the book mean…who is YOU?  The Jewish people is the obvious answer, but consider this…the author used second person (you) in several parts of the book as opposed to the more common usages of I (first person) and she (third person.)  This technique puts the reader (you) literally in the role of the narrator...maybe YOU is all of us in need of mending.

Magical realism was used in Margaret’s three dream sequences where the author blended magical elements into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality.  Her dreams always began with a journey and ended with Margaret sobbing with the exception of the last one – she had reconciled her life, was content with her relationships, and was happily being steered towards heaven by her mother.  Ms. Kallos tells us to “look at what you value, what you hold dear, objects first not because of their innate value, but because of they are endowed by your mind, imagination, memories – by sentimental value.  Then look at the faces and bodies of those you love – each one a living fossilized record – their experiences is what renders them beautiful.”

Those of you who either had not read the book or had not finished it were lost at times during the discussion…some of you who read it in its entirety felt the same way, but overall, the selection proved a worthwhile and challenging addition to our list of books

Business:

Jean Auel’s sixth and final book of the “Earth’s Children” series, The Land of Painted Caves may not be the end.  Reportedly, she is not through with the characters so there might be more to come.

I am going to the Arts & Letters series at the Dallas Museum of Art on Tuesday to hear my favorite author, Pat Conroy, speak.  Think I should ask him…what were you thinking with South of Broad?

We are considering several books you have recommended for the upcoming months, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, Room by Emma Donoghue and Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler.  We’ll keep you posted.

Color code rating system:

                                                WHITE:            Light read

                                                PINK:              Moderately Challenging

                                                RED:                Challenging

December 14^th:                       Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky

                                                WHITE

January 11^th, 2011:                 The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

                                                PINK                                      

February 8^th:                           The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

                                                RED

                                               

In the author’s acknowledgments, she thanked Deborah Frockt for “illuminating the real reason behind the glass-breaking at the end of a Jewish wedding!”  At the conclusion of the book (page 366) we are treated to the different views of this tradition as follows:  “Technically…it is supposed to remind us of the desecration of the Temple…however, feminists insist that it symbolizes the breaking of the hymen on the couple’s wedding night…personally, I think it’s just another one of those Jewish guilt things, I mean, God forbid there should be one day in your life when you’re happy!  God forbid we shouldn’t be suffering!  It’s supposed to remind us happiness is transient.”  The book has been described as a dance of friendship, a novel of redemption, a formula to repair what is broken, a story of creating family in the most unlikely places, but maybe the simple statement…happiness is transient…is at the core of this novel…what do you think?

Happy Reading

JoDee