February 2013 Bookers Minutes, The Good Dream by Donna VanLiere

        The Good Dream by Donna VanLiere

               Your stomach may growl from hunger but it’s your soul that starves if not nourished with love.

23 Bookers met at the home of Janet Erwin for this month’s meeting. Although our host had a prior commitment, she opened her home and trusted us to take good care of things. We hope we didn’t leave it in disarray. We love to see Bookers’ members return and were especially excited to have a very healthy looking Lois Welch back among us!

As we’ve come to expect, Jean Alexander pulled out all the stops in her review of The Good Dream by Donna VanLiere taking us back to rural America in the 1950’s…reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting…to visit the time period in which the book was set. A good author begins with a blank canvas and by using all five senses crafts descriptions and narrative to enable the reader literally to see, touch, hear, taste, and smell the words. Jean replicated this technique in her review. She asked we close our eyes to laundry flapping in the breeze, the smell of fresh air lingering on the clothes as they dried on the line in the backyard and feeling our fingernails caked with soil as we dug in the garden and gathered its bounty. We rocked on the back porch with a glass of sweet tea, shelling peas while the kids ate a bologna sandwich and drank a glass of cold milk. The Golden Age of Radio dominated with stations airing the important events…births and deaths, the Farmer’s Almanac crop reports, the specials at the general store…all mixed in with a broadcast of our favorite baseball team, The Grand Ole Opry, and the humor of Red Skelton. We felt the chill of swimming in the nearby creek in our underwear, the texture of flour-sack dresses, and the joy playing a game of jacks or kick the can. It was a time when breakfast was served by 7:00 AM after the morning chores were done…when lunch was called dinner…and dinner, supper…a simpler time but one that rewarded hard work, honesty, and doing right by others. But it also was a time when a spinster was crowned if she wasn’t married by the time she was barely out of her teens giving everyone in the community dibs on finding someone for this ‘charity case’ to cohabitate with. Such was life in Morgan Hill, Tennessee just “seventy miles north of Knoxville, but…as far from the city as it is to the ocean.” Most in attendance loved this book with Jean leading a campaign to rent a billboard on Highway 198 encouraging everyone to read this novel! Seriously, you can help spread the word by visiting the author’s web site, www.donnavanliere.com and joining her “Street Team.” You can enter a drawing to win an autographed copy of this book and volunteer to promote it through various mediums listed on the site, for example…recommending it for your book club…we’ve done our part already.

Ivorie Walker’s my name and old-maid is my game. Everyone called me “that poor thing” especially after my parents died and I didn’t have a man to take care of me. I was lonely but I didn’t think I was as desperate as the town folks did, but I must admit it is amazing “how emptiness makes noise.” My dog Sally and I were getting by all right with our routine until a young boy, Peter, starving for nourishment of the body and soul began raiding my garden and my heart… and then there was a man who I called oatmeal who raised the hairs on the back of my neck. George Coley became my desire until he forced me to choose between him and a malnourished little boy. Peter was a child who didn’t “grow up amazed at how a fish breathes or how a flower opens up in the sun, or goes to bed at night wondering how the wind moves.” Evil kept him locked up, fearful, and leading a hopeless life, until I mounted a mule named after a country singer, Miss Kitty Wells, braved a downpour and ignored common sense. I rode into the hills like a white knight armed and ready to take down anyone who might stand in the way of saving this child. And, I found him, face down in the mud as “still as death” with his Mama’s Bible tied to his midsection. “I was angry when Pearl Harbor was bombed and when our young boys came back from Germany in body bags, but this was rage...“like a fire flaming out and licking at things in the way.” I stared down the pit of evil to rescue him. “I never thought you could hear darkness, but you can.” I took stock in myself rather than listening to what everyone thought I was capable of. The boy conquered his monsters one by one. He learned to trust and find joy and every day worked on throwing “memory and dreams that tormented him into the great heap of ruins outside that shack and set them on fire.” After surgeries to repair a cleft palate, he was blessed with a voice we could hear and understand. “He came to me without any demands or conditions. He was a gift with no strings attached.” I now looked at the future as “ours” and wondered what did I do before that day? All I know is that “nothing took my breath away” and now he does. Peter is free from his bad dreams now…his belly and his heart are full…he’s not drowning anymore. He’s not clawing for breath anymore. He doesn’t feel caught “like a fish on a line” anymore. “I plucked him out of the dark water and set him in the bright of day.” All those evil spirits living in the trees got trapped inside the bottles hanging on the branches… just like the legend said they would. I’m complete and have no regrets. What else could a bachelorette with a faithful dog and a child I can introduce to the small wonders of the world – like strawberry ice cream – ask for?

For those of you who missed the meeting, you missed an event, a well thought out book review, and our own serving of strawberry ice cream. In the corner lurked our own evil spirit tree…the glass bottles ready in case any voodoo spirits thought of escaping. Thanks for the visual reminder Ms. Stanky! (If Pinnacle news spreads as normal, please defend us to the new neighbors on the corner of Island Drive and St. Andrews as we waved to them while driving by in a golf cart with a tree hanging with empty wine bottles strapped in beside a golf bag.)

Jean thought it would be interesting to hear from an adoptive parent about the emotions tied to choosing a child. Pam Davis shared the heartbreak when their daughter, Heather, was diagnosed with Spina bifida and their conscious decision not to risk bringing another child into the world with a developmental congenital disorder. She and George went through a strenuous selection process to adopt their son, Mark, knowing their job was to love and raise this child. Their sentiments are framed with a photo of their young son summing up how it feels to be an adoptive parent: “Not flesh of my flesh, Nor bone of my bone, But still miraculously my own, Never forget for a single minute, You didn’t grow under my heart, But in it.”  We appreciate Pam’s willingness to share their story with us.

The group discussion centered on the story progression and the character profiles, how the author wanted us to believe that Ivorie’s “gentleman caller, George” could be Peter’s natural father because his “wife died nine years ago” and that would coincide with Peter’s age. Ms. VanLiere led us down that road only to throw us off the bridge when the real father’s identity came to light. We discussed how Peter could have eaten anything with his cleft palate and perhaps the author took some liberty with that portion of the novel although it was his starvation and raiding Ivorie’s garden that set up the storyline. We empathized with Peter’s young Mama and what she endured to keep him safe, the agony everyone felt when Ivorie was beaten and Sally was “kidnapped.” We talked of brother-sister relationships and the “gossip mongering” rampant in small towns, the significance of the title and how Peter’s nightmares sank into oblivion to be replaced with a good dream – a nourishment fed by a sense of belonging in a family, in a community, and within his own spirit.

FYI, author Harry Bernstein of The Invisible Wall and The Dream passed away in 2011 at the age of 101. His is a remarkable story…first published at the age of 97. These selections have been included on our recommended reading list.

We discussed several books as possible choices for our April selection and summer reads. I recommended a historical fiction debut novel, In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner. It would be color coded Red ++ as it details the four-year communist occupation of Cambodia in the mid 1970’s told through the eyes of a seven-year old girl. It’s an achingly beautifully account of survival, hope, and the resiliency of the human spirit – hard to read and equally hard to put down. The author was five when the Khmer Rouge overran her country. She made it to America at eleven, not knowing English, but graduated summa cum laude from Cornell.  

MN recommended The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe, which is a discussion between a dying mother and her adult son about books. It also would be in the Red ++ range – very sad but she loved it! From the list of books discussed is Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Karama and Susan McClelland, a short account of one young girl’s journey from war victim in Sierra Leone to a UNICEF Special Representative. The consensus was we wanted a lighter read so we chose the first book, Sentence of Marriage in the Promises to Keep trilogy by Shayne Parkinson, set in New Zealand at the turn of the 19^th century with the remainder of the series to be read over the summer – recommended by Melba.

Pat Faherty is going to read Sonia Sotomayor’s autobiography, My Beloved World, and report in.

COLOR CODING SYSTEM

                                    WHITE:                      LIGHT READ

                                    PINK:                         MODERATELY CHALLENGING

                                    RED:                           CHALLENGING

March 12^th:                  Rules of Civility by Amor Towles                  

                                    PINK

Home of MN Stanky

Reviewer: Lois Welch

April 9^th:                      Sentence of Marriage by Shayne Parkinson, first in the Promises to Keep trilogy

                                    WHITE                      

Home of Charlotte Pechacek

Reviewer: Melba Holt

May 7^th:                       6^th Annual Wine & Cheese Evening Meeting            

                                    Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet, Jamie Ford

                                    PINK

                                    Home of Melanie Prebis

                                    Reviewer: Pat Faherty

Pat has the audio of this selection if anyone would like to listen to the book.

                                   

Summer Break            June, July & August

Mud & Gold and Settling the Account, #’s two and three in the trilogy, Promises to Keep by Shayne Parkinson. A Second Chance is the sequel to these and her latest Daisy’s War revisits some of the characters of her previous novels…all of the above if you want to spend a summer with Shayne. All available through Amazon. E-books from free to $2.99.

Happy Reading,

JoDee

January 2013 Bookers Minutes, The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon

                                      The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon

   A book dedicated to “those who were put away.”

We all have our own lighthouses – most are invisible to others. If in our safe place we are in a room of echoes, we realize the world is so much larger than we are.

The shooting victims at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut assumed they were not in harm’s way, but they were wrong. Gunshots reverberated inside their lighthouse that day. In a tribute to the children, teachers, and their families, we offered a moment of silence while reciting their names in between the stanzas of “God Bless America.” May they all rest in the arms of angels.

26 Bookers braved the weather to meet at the home of Mary Jacob to discuss this month’s selection, The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon, reviewed by Gail Fankhauser. As Lynnie, one of the main characters, pointed out in the book, “A rainy day is better than no day” and she was right. We erred on the side of caution when our original host, Daryl Daniels, received a summons to fulfill her civic duty in Federal Court in Tyler. Many thanks to Mary for coming to the rescue and opening her home for our meeting. Kay Robinson brought a special guest, her “beautiful girl” – granddaughter, Riley, who said all the right things…she couldn’t wait to join a book club, loved the review, wanted to read the book…and even complimented us on how organized and orderly we were. Give us a guest and we find ourselves on our best behavior! MN apologizes to the group for her late arrival…in her mind, inexcusable except when it comes to her sister, Dianne. We are all a little more forgiving!

Gail Fankhauser’s first review since joining Bookers treated us with her perceptiveness gained through all her years of teaching and her passion for the story fell on every word. The author’s personal experience drove the story as her sister, intellectually challenged, was not “put away” as others were not as fortunate. Ms. Simon masterfully intertwines the lives of the four main characters giving them all hope, something to hang on to until their lives changed for the better.

Lynnie, a white child diagnosed with developmental disabilities, was eight when her childhood ceased. It was the day her parents “enrolled” her in the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded. She spent twenty-three locked inside – the walls and her being. Homan, an African-American deaf man, referred to as John Doe # 42, also incarcerated in the “snare of stonewalls,” emerged from his own darkness to bring light to Lynnie’s soul. She called him Buddy and when they kissed in the cornfields, “everything in the world dropped away…it lasted a lifetime and when they pulled back a red feather drifted down from the sky and came to rest between their chests.” Homan lived by his brother’s philosophies and instilled them in Lynnie…Don’t let anyone treat you differently because you have a disability…Don’t let anything break you, not even yourself…If you go in the ring know who your jabber is.    

Martha Zimmer was a retired schoolteacher. Recently widowed, living an “ordinary day” in a farmhouse in Pennsylvania until there is a knock on her door. She opens to find Lynnie and Homan with a newborn baby. They’ve escaped from the School. Her mailbox with a little metal lighthouse topped with the head of a man signaled a safe haven for the couple, until the authorities arrive. Homan escapes. The baby is hidden in the attic. Lynnie is being taken “home.” Two words change Martha’s life forever. “Hide her.” This begins a forty-year journey that no one anticipated, but Martha takes the responsibility of raising this child relying on all those who love her to fill in the blanks of “motherhood.” She names her Julia and journals her story so she will discover her history and in the end, Julia finds a hero in her Grammie, Martha.

Kate, Lynnie’s attendant and friend at the School recognized her as not “an upper division imbecile” and secured her promotion to the “moron cottage.” Lynnie now had a guardian angel. Kate treated her as a person…she encouraged her narrative illustrations through her artwork, kept her secrets, protected her, and triumphed in Lynnie’s confidence and journey into the “normal” world knowing that she had a hand in the person she became.

A fifty-foot glass mosaic entitled Dreams of Hope in the lobby of a Washington office building was the link bringing Lynnie, Homan, and Julia together. We witnessed the “vulnerability of Lynnie’s soul – she was the child who couldn’t stay with her family, the mother who couldn’t keep her child, and the woman who’d waited a lifetime for a man who could never return”  but in the Poseidon lighthouse on the Jersey shore they found each other and the one they lost. “There are two kinds of hope – the kind you can’t do anything about and the kind you can” This story ends with a beginning. “Can you imagine a better day than this?” Didn’t you just want to stand up and cheer!

Floating feathers are interspersed throughout the novel as well as the inside and back covers. Lynnie kept them safe in her treasure “pouch.” Their colors significant…a bouquet of white – innocence, brown – respect, blue – peace, yellow – cheerfulness, green – health, and her favorite – red denoting physical vitality and good fortune. The back cover shows a child’s arm reaching for a floating black feather. Was it mother or daughter trying to grasp the mystical wisdom that comes with spiritual evolution – or both? Feathers symbolically represent virtues, hope for a better life and the courage it takes to reach higher.

Our discussion focused on the mental health crisis in this country and the world as a whole and with different philosophies aired, we concurred that the system is broken leaving a vast majority of the sufferers few options. We must change our perception when other’s challenges are different than our own. While the book pointed out the cruelty and unthinkable conditions in which residents of the “homes” lived, when these crimes of their incarceration surfaced, many still had nowhere to go and no one to care. We spoke of the positive influences a sibling can have if he or she makes the effort to set an example of how to live as Blue did for Homan. We were curious as to the degree of Lynnie’s retardation – we innately need to put a name to a disease – not that it makes it easier to digest, just easier to process. We talked about lobotomies as the standard treatment for mental illness in the not so distant past – we’ve come a long way, but apparently not far enough. Non-verbal communication, body language, was at the forefront of this novel as it was for some their only language of expression. Along those same lines, it’s important to recognize how our four-legged furry friends can help heal a broken soul.

Cherry reported delivering Bookers’ gift of No Easy Day to John Tucker. He was thrilled and touched by the gesture.

Bernie C. received Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn for Christmas and loves it…very interesting and very different. Several of our members have read it and concur describing it as bizarre…good but difficult to read. It would be color-coded Red and the consensus was to include it on our recommended reading list instead of a Bookers’ selection.

Melba came across a simple test to predict life expectancy. Two thousand people between 51-80 participated in the study. The test requires sitting on the floor and rising using the minimum amount of aid – a knee, hand, arm, or elbow to get up. The more support you need the lower the score. She thought it would be of particular interest to those who are comfortable on the lower levels of a room!

My favorite author, the one that lit the fire and started me on my journey to write my novel, Elizabeth Strout, author of Olive Kitteridge, will be releasing her new novel, The Burgess Boys at the end of March AND will be appearing at the Dallas Museum of Arts on April 15^th, 7:30 PM, 1717 North Harwood, Dallas. Tickets are $35.00 for adults and you can order on-line at www.dma.org or call 214-922-1818. I’ve pre-ordered the book and have a ticket in hand to see my “idol” in person.

Dallas author, Kathleen Kent, will be appearing at the Cain Center on Friday, April 12^th to discuss her historical novel, The Heretic’s Daughter, about the Salem Witch trials. This is the event sponsored by four Athens’ book clubs benefitting the Henderson County Library. This is a unique opportunity to lunch with a local author and hear her story. We have monthly discussions as to what constitutes a Bookers’ book, and having read this one, we both feel its scope is too narrow for the majority of our members. It’s a very tedious read but one that would certainly appeal to fans of period historical fiction. MN and I are going to try to attend and we would like a volunteer to coordinate tickets and carpooling for the group. THIS WILL COUNT AS YOUR REVIEW. Please let me know if you would like to take advantage of this “off-the-hook-offer.”

MN and I were disappointed that so few people read the December book selections, which brings up the continuous discussion of books amid the social environment. A column in Dear Abby spoke to this issue and their solution was to do either or. I could hear Yoo-Hooing coming from someone to my right…anyway, here’s our thoughts…Our group is thankfully filled with former teachers who look at a reading assignment as a homework assignment. If it’s not done, there is a penalty for not completing the work. We don’t want to look at Bookers’ books as homework. We want you to embrace the magic books have to offer. When we have a majority in attendance, who have not read the book, our penalty is the discussion suffers and that affects all of us, not to mention the disregard for the person who has volunteered to review the selection. We don’t want to get on a soapbox on this issue, just ask that you make the effort. We all benefit from our varied views and opinions on our books and we relish that input from all of you! For now, everything will remain the same and again thanks for hearing us out.  

We’ve got another round of books on the horizon as possible selections for April. We’ll keep you posted.

COLOR CODING SYSTEM

                                    WHITE:                      LIGHT READ

                                    PINK:                         MODERATELY CHALLENGING

                                    RED:                           CHALLENGING

February 12^th:              The Good Dream by Donna Van Liere

                                    PINK

                                    Home of Janet (Kitty) Erwin

                                    Reviewer: Jean Alexander

March 12^th:                  Rules of Civility by Amor Towles                  

                                    PINK

Home of Charlotte Pechacek

                                    Reviewer: TBD

April 9^th:                      Home of MN Stanky             

Book TBD

May 7^th:                       6^th Annual Wine & Cheese Evening Meeting            

                                    Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet, Jamie Ford

                                    PINK

                                    Home of Melanie Prebis

                                    Reviewer: Pat Faherty

                                    *** Note change of date

Summer Break            June, July & August

Remember Lynnie held dear a pouch of her “precious objects, a plastic blue horse with a green mane from her sister, a shoestring from her Daddy’s shoes, a lucky charm bracelet from her Mommy to wear when she was a big girl, and of course the feathers from Buddy. What would you put in your pouch? Mine would definitely have a penny and a glass egg, a ballpoint pen, an image of Aretha my loaner guardian angel, an Aloha necklace, and…

Happy Reading

JoDee

December 2012 Bookers Minutes, The Young Wife by Pam Lewis and Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

      The Young Wife by Pam Lewis and Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

Whom do you see as you stare into the mirror? Someone you LIKE? If so, congratulations…you’re being rewarded for an introspective life piloted by the golden rule.

28 Bookers jingling with dashes of Jolly Old St. Nicholas and armed with goodies guaranteed to soak up the spirits of the season descended on the home of Jean Alexander for our annual celebration of the holidays. Our ultimate hostess even has her own valet, husband Lee, who chauffeured guests from their cars to the front door. Many thanks to the Alexanders for sharing their beautifully decorated home with us, to those who volunteered to supply the nourishments, to Leslie and Jane for keeping our glasses full, and to Bonnie Magee, the ultimate food czar!

For the sake of clarification, The Young Wife was the book selection for the month, and in keeping with its theme, we added Back When We Were Grownups for its comparative value. In both novels, a common thread zigzagged throughout – young women choosing which path to take in her life’s journey. In hindsight, we should have tied the two together more closely as many read only one or the other, but as our discussion unfolded, the shared elements came to light and our “madness” made more sense. The similarities of the book jackets highlighted the links…both views from behind two women…both looking off to the side…one with an updo…the other with a pony tail…one at life’s sunrise, the other facing twilight…both reflecting on the patchworks of their decisions. Minke and Rebecca… two fictional characters personified in each of us as we look back and wonder…have I turned into the wrong person…or am I just a different person than I was?

Melanie Prebis delivered the review of Back When We Were Grownups, the story of nineteen-year old Rebecca Holmes, a college student, an only child, plump, and socially insecure who was “engaged to be engaged” to her long-time boyfriend. She makes a choice to throw caution to the wind and marry a man who threw parties for a living and had three young daughters. Widowed after only six years of marriage her life revolved around raising the children, nurturing her husband’s older uncle, and running the business, aptly named The Open Arms. At fifty-three she took a step back to evaluate – wondering who she might have been had she chosen the other fork in the road. Rebecca ultimately discovered the most valuable contribution she had given to her family was joyousness filling herself with a sense of pride in her achievements and realizing that she really had been having “a wonderful time.”

Jane Freer led the review of A Young Wife, loosely based on the author’s maternal grandmother’s life, set in 1912 and spanning over three continents from Amsterdam to South America and finally to New York. The story begins with a decision of fifteen-year old Minke to put all her faith in the hands of an older man, Sander DeVries –“ a man who never passed up an opportunity” – and embark on a life-changing voyage of love and friendships, deceit and jealousy, discovery, betrayal, revenge, and redemption. We watch a young woman virtually kidnapped by the promise of adventure and intrigue grow into a pillar of strength breaking ties with her abusive husband and nauseating sister devoting her life to finding her abducted son and caring for her small daughter. The story is of a woman’s struggle to determine her own fate given the choices she has made in the past. If you were going to write a novel based on a member of your family, who would it be?

We discussed our favorite characters in each novel, Minke and Cassian…Rebecca and Poppy – interestingly each were the other’s support systems and one of the favorite scenes – Ellis Island…how Minke turned into a swan all by herself… and how Poppy’s wisdom rings true in every era – you have to do the best you can with what you’ve got. Anne Tyler’s style of writing, sometimes referred to as snail-paced, ponderous, and wearyingly plotted, resulted in a few yawns. Compared to today’s bestsellers, she does mosey along with her literary family of thousands, most with strange names, but she does this very successfully in all fifteen of her novels.

Four book clubs in Athens are sponsoring a luncheon event on Friday, April 12^th at the Cain Center to raise money for the Henderson County Library. Kathleen Kent, author of Heretic’s Daughter, will be the speaker. Tickets are $25.00 for the luncheon only and $40.00 if you would like to meet the author and have your book signed. We’re on their mailing list now so we’ll keep you updated on more details of the event. MN or I will read the book for consideration as our April choice whether we participate as a group or individually.

MN is going to sign Bookers’ to a copy of No Easy Day to give to Mr. Tucker. We thought he would enjoy this military memoir of the capture of bin Laden.

Beverly Dossett loved Rules of Civility and we will be screening this debut novel for a possible selection.

Jack Stone e-mailed us with this selection, The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. It begins, “What are you reading?” The author is asking his mother this question as they sit in the waiting room of a cancer center waiting for her treatment. This is a true story of a mother and son who start their two-person book club and for the next two years, they carry on wide-ranging conversations about the books they are sharing. They are “constantly reminded of the power of books to comfort us, astonish us, teach us, and tell us what we need to do with our lives and in the world. Reading isn’t the opposite of doing; it’s the opposite of dying. It is a profoundly moving tale of loss that is also joyful, and often a humorous celebration of life.”

Eunice Hamlin finished and loved Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah.

Life of Pi, the movie, is being discussed by many – recommended in 3D – and evidently provokes conversation, questions, and conclusions…just like the book!

COLOR CODING SYSTEM

                                    WHITE:                      LIGHT READ

                                    PINK:                         MODERATELY CHALLENGING

                                    RED:                           CHALLENGING

February 12^th               The Good Dream by Donna Van Liere

                                    PINK

                                    Home of Janet Erwin

                                    Reviewer: Jean Alexander

                                    NOTE: CHANGE

March 12^th                   Home of Charlotte Pechacek

Book not assigned yet

April 9^th                       Home of MN Stanky

                                    Book not assigned yet                       

May 14^th                      6^th Annual Wine & Cheese Evening Meeting            

                                    Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet, Jamie Ford

                                    PINK

                                    Home of Melanie Prebis

                                    Reviewer: TBA

At the heart of this season is the focus on family and friends. In cyberspace, all we have to do is click the “like” button and we have another “friend.” However, in a real friendship we have to do more…there is a responsibility attached…we have to stay together in our lifeboat of caring…again and again. Hold dear those in your vessel and have a Merry Christmas.

JoDee

November 2012 Bookers Minutes, The Tender Bar A Memoir by J.R. Moehringer

           A TREK FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT….

 From the haven of a mother’s womb… to budding on a barstool instead of strapped in a booster seat, a young boy longs for the secret of being a good man…finding the answer in the intrinsic worth of one very good woman…his mother.

“YOU DON’T MIND IF I SAY, ‘INTRINSIC,’ DO YOU?”

“Gary’s Bar” opened early to welcome 23 barflies for the November meeting of Bookers. Toby Keith serenaded us with I Love This Bar while a blonde bombshell cocktail waitress, kith and kin of the New York Giants baseball team, and a wannabe Radio City Music Hall Rockette ushered everyone inside where our “publicans” served Mimosas. Many thanks to Jane and Gary Freer and co-host, Cherry Fugitt for going with the flow, and we especially appreciate Donna Walter for being a good sport and dressing up as our waitress extraordinaire. Sadly, her tip jar wasn’t overflowing by the end of the day….seems like everyone was “backed up” by MN and JoDee (aka the slugger and the high-kicker.)

New Pinnacle residents, Bernie Quickel (apologize for the spelling) and Holly Simpson got their first taste of Bookers, and we hope we didn’t scare them off. We tried to explain we don’t generally celebrate in this way, except when MN gets livid, and of course our holiday party and our May wine and cheese evening meeting. We hope to see you again!

Warm-up consisted of last month’s homework, which has been renamed “enrichment exercise” to keep it less threatening for those who still shudder remembering creative writing class and having to pen a thousand words on the symbolism of a falling leaf…by tomorrow. Our goal was to encourage you to reflect on those little things that you should make time for and don’t. Inner thoughts and emotions radiated and we heard:  Stop and smell the roses, slow down, take more time to enjoy the important things that are right in front of you as they might be out of reach someday. Set aside a special time every day to enjoy one-on-one with your true love – you can TiVo the news. Show your family they are a priority in your life. Spread joy. Look at life through the lens of your grandchildren – they have a unique perspective on the simplest and most complicated aspects of everyday. Take a walk and inhale the surroundings. Cherish that box of old photographs – they can break your heart, but most likely will warm it up again as memories lead that charge. Have more Mimosas with friends. Reach out to those you hold dear and thank them for propping you up and not letting you fall off the ladder. See it worked regardless of what we named it! A +…and thank you for sharing.

Kathy Mueller, appropriately sitting on a barstool, led the review of our selection. She walked us through the life of J.R. Moehringer, introducing the vividly developed characters that dominated his life. He always wanted to write a novel based on those who surrounded him, but admittedly failed to be able to bring them to life on the pages. It was only when he embarked on the mission to write his memoir that he was able to pay proper tribute to them. A dysfunctional environment would mildly describe the life of J.R. whose father abandoned him before he was aware he had a Dad forcing his mother to move back into the dilapidated family home in Manhasset, New York. “Huddled masses yearning to breathe rent-free” is how Grandpa described the twelve relatives cohabitating in the house which featured one useable bathroom and furniture held together with duct tape. J.R. got a double dose of his Uncle Charlie, a “Humphrey Bogart look-alike” as he was one of the dozen occupants of Grandpa’s house and the bartender at J.R.’s second home, Dickens, renamed Publicans. Uncle Charlie talked a “crazy jazzy fusion of SAT words and gangster slang – a cross between an Oxford don and a mafia don – following a torrent of vulgar words with one out of the thesaurus like, “verisimilitude.” Rounding out the cast – a Vietnam veteran; a handsome surfer dude with Wilbur his black mutt; a young Dean Martin with shiny black hair and droopy black eyes; a Yogi-Bear sound-alike; a giant who looked like a composite of the all the Muppet characters; Steve, the boss, Bob the Cop, not to mention the porter whose nickname and language were both multicolored, and the list goes on….

The bar assumed the role of J.R.’s father and every person he met became a mentor. He adopted their personalities, becoming part of each one. Dickens/Publicans were his organizing principle – the one thing that grounded him in his identity. His biological father was merely a voice on the radio, absent until it was convenient for him. It was heartbreaking that J.R. had many one-sided conversations with The Voice while listening to the radio. His mother was “the most honest he knew and a beautiful liar…she would cushion a blow by fibbing or fabricating.” Loneliness was a common thread between mother and son. They were each searching for a connection to something – to find balance like the Arizona cactus –“when a cactus starts leaning to one side it grows an arm on the other side to right itself…that’s why you see them with eighteen arms…it’s always trying to stand up straight.”

J.R.’s mother took great pains to teach him language, but it wasn’t until he discovered a treasure trove of books hidden in the basement of Grandpa’s “shanty” did he fall in love with the sway of knowledge. “They organized my world, put order to chaos, divided things neatly into black and white and helped to organize my parents – my mother was the printed word – tangible, present, real – while my father was the spoken word – invisible, ephemeral, instantly part of memory.” As it turned out, words were the secret password into the men’s circle – language legitimized J.R. When he met Bud and Bill at the bookstore in Arizona, his world unlocked at another level. They launched him into the genius of John Cheever, the American novelist whose writings focused on the suburbs around Manhattan and often revolved around cocktails and the sea…J.R. was back “home” again. Bud and Bill “ripped the cover off” of him and he soaked in their passion. “It’s no coincidence that a book opens like a door.”

J.R.’s story is not about a bar, but a fatherless young boy growing up in the arms of a bar and into the arms of a first love… into an academic challenge of a lifetime and into a less than fairy tale ending of a dream. The dictionary defines a bar as a retail establishment that serves alcohol. It is also a counter at which drinks are served, a type of cookie, a law exam, a tropical cyclone, a dance or type of music. For J.R., it was home…where his “fathers” hung out…a swimming pool of manhood…his ultimate security blanket. When he finally evolved out of his permanent adolescence, his search for his identity was complete… he had been found, and his crutches vanished.

 Our discussion centered on the impact the local “pub” had in neighborhoods…it was a way of life. The same theory applies to groups meeting every morning at the local coffee shop for breakfast…it’s a small slice of camaraderie served with a steaming cup of Joe and a stack of pancakes…simple joys. Most enjoyed the read but a few grew weary of the bar…some of the beach…a few of the girlfriend…but they were all important factors in J.R.’s “growth.”

MN and I both read Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. Unfortunately, we don’t have a difficulty rating above Red as it is very challenging. It’s not really about a bookstore, but a secret cult trying to unlock the five hundred old mystery to immortality. New world technology meets ancient world mystery…it’s both frustrating and hard to put down. Interestingly, on page 320 of The Tender Bar you find “to penetrate the penumbra of whatever they were drinking.” The word means shadow or obscurity – the title is appropriate.

Recommended List: Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh –debut novel –the protagonist spends a lifetime in the foster care system and when finally emancipated she finds she has nowhere to go…but discovers a talent of helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. Gayle Robinson recommends Wings of the Morning, The Flights of Orestes Lorenzo, an autobiography (he was one of our airshow pilots.) His father is a high-ranking communist leader. He spent 15 years in the Cuban Air Force, trained in the Soviet Union, defected to the United States, and flew a dangerous mission to rescue his wife and children who still lived in Cuba. Eunice is reading author, Kristin Hannah, her latest, Home Front, is “timely with an interesting twist for the main characters.” Winter Garden has been on our recommended list.

Maybe the bar-talk prompted a more hallowed direction as our group shared the following books:

Mitch Albom’s, Have a Little Faith, A true story about two men of God, one an aging Rabbi, the other an African-American pastor working in the ghetto. His latest, The Time Keeper, a novel, is about the inventor of the world’s first clock who is punished for trying to measure God’s greatest gift…the theme – not to gain more time, but to use it wisely (certainly timely with our enrichment exercise!)

M.D. Alexander III wrote Proof of Heaven – A Neurosurgeon’s journey into the Afterlife…a personal testimony and “living proof of an after-life.”

Todd Burpo’s Heaven is For Real, a true story from the four-year old son of a Nebraska pastor.

Francis S. Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief and The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine will change how you think about your body, health and the future of medicine.

Erich von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods – Unsolved mysteries of the Past and Twilight of the Gods – The Mayan Calendar and the Return of the Extraterrestrials.

Liane Moriarty’s What Alice Forgot is a break from this theme…a novel about a twenty-nine year old happily married woman pregnant with their first child who goes to the gym and wakes up in the hospital only to discover she has lost a decade of her life – she is 39, getting a divorce, and has three kids.

MN and I have yet to get to Rules of Civility, The Wolves of Andover, Dark River Road, or the trilogy, Promises to Keep.

COLOR CODING SYSTEM

                                    WHITE:                      LIGHT READ

                                    PINK:                         MODERATELY CHALLENGING

                                    RED:                           CHALLENGING

December 11^th             Bookers Holiday Party – 9:30 AM

Note time                    A Young Wife by Pam Lewis & Back When We Were Grownups

                                    by Anne Tyler

                                    WHITE

                                    Home of Jean Alexander

                                    Reviewer: A Young Wife, Jane Freer, Back When We Were Grownups,

                                                Melanie Prebis

                                    Bonnie Magee, Food Czar

January 8, 2013           The Story of Beautiful Girl, Rachel Simon

PINK

Home of Daryl Daniels

                                    Reviewer: Gail Fankhauser

February 12^th               Home of Janet Erwin

                                    Book not assigned yet. Possible Reviewer: Jean Alexander

March 12^th                   Home of Charlotte Pechacek

                                    Book not assigned yet. Possible Reviewer: Kimberly Hand

April 9^th                       The Good Dream, Donna VanLiere

                                    PINK

Home of MN Stanky, co-hosted by Kimberly Hand

                                    Reviewers: MN & JoDee                   

May 14^th                      6^th Annual Wine & Cheese Evening Meeting            

                                    Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet, Jamie Ford

                                    PINK

                                    Home of Melanie Prebis

                                    Reviewer: TBA

Last call – “every book is a miracle…it represents a moment when someone sat quietly, (and that quiet is part of the miracle)…and tried to tell the rest of us a story.” Well done Mr. Moehringer.

JoDee

 

October 2012 Bookers Minutes, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

The life you have built for yourself is on the left side of the scale…on the right the exigencies of being connected. Your choices will tip the balance one way or the other. How will it lean?

23 Bookers and 2 friends from the “big city” (not Gun Barrel) met at the home of Lee McFarlane, co-hosted by Debbie Ellsworth. We started the meeting with great news from Jean Alexander who had a first-hand report on Pat Faherty’s successful back surgery. Debbie offered a prayer for Pat’s speedy recovery. We look forward to the return of our resident “spit bull!” Susan Klepper joined us for the first time…welcome.

MN thanked those who donated their copies of Still Alice and due to your generosity, she has nine copies to give to her brother to use in his Alzheimer’s seminar. As most of you know, MN has intimate knowledge of this horrific disease as her Mother succumbed to it and now it’s raging in her fifty-four year old sister-in-law.

It’s difficult to imagine not knowing the side of your body even exists, so we attempted a visual to emphasize the trauma…what it might be like to do something as simple as getting dressed. I wore pull-on pants…no zippers, and a top…no buttons, an earring on the right lobe, a tennis shoe and white sock on the right foot, and a pink flamingo sock on the left foot that I wouldn’t have known I had, and a jangling bracelet on my left hand to draw attention to that side of world. MN’s face divided down the middle, makeup only on the right side, and none on the left. Can you imagine only being able to read these words highlighted in red?

            I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

           Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible,

with Liberty and Justice for all.

Applause goes to Colleen Hinckley on her very first book review! Great job and we appreciate her willingness to tackle this novel. She brings a unique perspective as she was born blind in her left eye…the difference is that she knows she has a left side…she just can’t see out of that eye. From the publisher of Left Neglected: “In an instant life can change forever. Sarah Nickerson is a high-powered working mom with too much on her plate and too little time. One day racing to work and trying to make a phone call, she looks away from the road for one second too long. In the blink of an eye, all the rapidly moving parts of her over-scheduled life come to a screeching halt. A traumatic brain injury completely erases the left side of her world. As she struggles to recover, she discovers she must embrace a simpler life, and in doing so, begins to heal the things she’s left neglected in herself, her family, and the world around her.”

Sarah fits the mold of a Type A personality… associated with time urgency, competitive workaholics. Successfully juggling an eighty-hour a week job, three kids and a husband, she performed as a master conjurer, until…Presto, the magician’s wand controlling her multi-tasking life vanished. An error in judgment left her with Left Neglect Syndrome, damaging the right hemisphere of the brain that causes the patient to experience a deficit in attention and failure to recognize the left side of their body or space. She wasn’t blinded…she just didn’t know there was more to Sarah than what she saw in the mirror.

In a split second, she turned in her Wonder-Woman costume for a hospital gown and became ensconced in learning how to do the simplest tasks. Complicating matters further, her Mother arrived to take care of the family’s daily routine and help with Sarah’s rehabilitation. She was welcomed with the disdain reserved for a gold-digger swooping in to claim a broken family. They had a complicated and distant relationship stemming from the accidental drowning of her little brother, Nate. Sarah lost both a sibling and her Mother that day, her feelings of anger and bitterness festering through the years… and now this “absent parent” was in charge of her life. “Where was she during my childhood…all those nights eating alone in front of the television while she was holed up in pain…Why wasn’t I enough for her?” Often there are blessings shrouded inside cataclysms…Sarah’s injury forced Mother and daughter together giving them the time needed to repair the damage and find a way back to each other, and also allowing Sarah insight into the special challenges of her young son, Charlie, recently diagnosed with ADD. Sarah learned how her Mother’s grief and depression took over her life…how she blamed herself for not being able to protect her son…and her fear… what if something happened to her daughter as well…she didn’t deserve to be her Mother. She had asked God to let her die every night for the past thirty years, and felt responsible for Sarah’s accident because she asked for a reason to be in Sarah’s life. Sarah realizes that her Mother doesn’t need another anti-depressant pill to make her whole again…she needs Sarah’s forgiveness for being left neglected. The words would follow a path from the heart to the voice as shavings of anger dripped onto the floor of understanding.

Before the accident Sarah’s life and success was the polar opposite of her “broken, shameful life of her childhood.” Since business school she had “her head down barreling a thousand miles an hour, wearing the flesh of each day down to the bone…pointed down one road toward one goal, a life to envy.” She was out to prove she didn’t need anyone to help her pave the way to success, especially the Mother than abandoned her in a wake of grief. Her injury forced a different road at a different speed limit. “Slow down. Pay attention. The journey is the destination”…and remember, “Home is where you live.”

Lisa Genova treated us with a myriad of subjects to ponder. Mother/daughter relationships, bullying, the frightening and sudden role of the caretaker, the reality and consequences of keeping up with the Joneses, the importance of balance in our everyday lives, and the dangers of being distracted…none of us are immune. Our group commented on the ending – all tied up in a neat package, and how in reality most lives would not have fit so perfectly into place. That’s the beauty of fiction….and if there was a sequel planned, some loose ends would still be dangling.

The resiliency of the human spirit was evident in our candid stories of courage and challenges. We wore the communal shoes of empathy with those who shared and we appreciate the opportunity to peek inside their lives to see how strength of family towers above mere coping. Thanks to everyone for your input and as always, our members, add depth to any discussion!

We are concerned we are getting too genre heavy with our book selections this season so we suggested moving My Reading Life, the Invisible Wall, and The Dream to the recommended reading list and replacing them with The Story of Beautiful Girl, The Good Dream, and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet. The changes are listed below. This will give us an opportunity to check out other recommendations, Rules of Civility, The Wolves of Andover, Dark River Road, and Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. Melba also read a trilogy by Shayne Parkinson, Promises to Keep, set in New Zealand at the turn of the 19^th century (sounds similar to the No Angel series by Penny Vincenzi)

COLOR CODING SYSTEM

                                    WHITE:                      LIGHT READ

                                    PINK:                         MODERATELY CHALLENGING

                                    RED:                           CHALLENGING

November 13^th:           The Tender Bar, A Memoir by J.R. Moehringer

                                    PINK

                                    Home of Jane Freer, co-hosted by Cherry Fugitt

                                    Reviewer: Kathy Mueller

December 11^th             Bookers Holiday Party

                                    A Young Wife by Pam Lewis & Back When We Were Grownups

                                    by Anne Tyler

                                    WHITE

                                    Home of Jean Alexander

                                    Reviewer: A Young Wife, Jane Freer, Back When We Were Grownups,

                                                Melanie Prebis

                                    Bonnie Magee, Food Czar

January 8, 2013           The Story of Beautiful Girl, Rachel Simon

PINK

Home of Daryl Daniels

Reviewer: TBA (Beverly Dossett original reviewer – recheck)

February 12^th               Home of Janet Erwin

                                    Possible Reviewer: Jean Alexander

March 12^th                   Home of Charlotte Pechacek

                                    Possible Reviewer: Kimberly Hand

April 9^th                       The Good Dream, Donna VanLiere

                                    PINK

Home of MN Stanky, co-hosted by Kimberly Hand

                                    Reviewers: MN & JoDee                   

May 14^th                      6^th Annual Wine & Cheese Evening Meeting            

                                    Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet, Jamie Ford

                                    PINK

                                    Home of Melanie Prebis

                                    Reviewer: TBA