“The fault, dear Brutus, is not
in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
William
Shakespeare
17 Bookers braved East Texas’ version of
Siberia to the home of Patty Evans, our one-woman show as she recommended the
book, hosted the meeting, and reviewed the selection. Thanks for being
“all-inclusive” and walking us through the tears with doses of humor and quotes
from the characters and author. We welcomed back Marsha Smith and Sandy
Molander and hope they will become regulars again. And, we’re very happy to
report that Lois is feeling a little better each week and in her words, “At
first I was afraid to hope, but now I believe my kidney has rallied a bit and
I’m convinced the crisis is over.” She also credits the improvement to the
love, prayers, and support from dear friends…and all the sweetness under her
angel umbrella. She has rejoined the bridge group and maybe she will feel
strong enough to put Bookers back on her schedule. Great news!!
As a warm-up we gave the group the first
half of a well-known proverb and asked they use their imaginations to add the
remainder of the quote. We then compared their answers to those of a group of
six-year olds to see how we stacked up. Some of us were as creative as the
children…Better late than – pregnant.
A bird in the hand…is going to poop on
you.
On the surface, John Green’s The
Fault In Our Stars is a familiar story. Two teenagers meet; discover
raging hormones, and the magic of first love. She’s smart and shy, certainly
not “the hand raising type,” who views herself as “a normally proportioned
person with a balloon for a head.” He’s “long and leanly muscular”...with
straight short Mahogany hair and eyes so blue you could see through them…not to
mention being “hot.” But, sixteen-year old girl Hazel Grace Lancaster and
seventeen-year old Augustus Waters are living with cancer…each no more than a
breath or heartbeat away from death. We rated this selection RED as it is a tough read on an emotional level
although written for young adults.
The author wrote in the first person
age-appropriate voice of Hazel skillfully examining the “largest possible
considerations – life, love, and death – with sensitivity, intelligence,
honesty, and integrity.” His inspiration came from a chance meeting at a Harry
Potter convention where thirty-one year old John Green developed a friendship
with Esther Grace Earl, a child living with cancer whose dream it was to be a writer,
but of course, cancer’s specialty was “murdering dreams.” Hem was consumed by
the need to give a voice to the small victims of life-threatening diseases,
their parents, and caregivers, and by writing The Fault In Our Stars,
he honored the life of his friend, Esther, by dedicating the book to her
memory. Her parents, Lori and Wayne Earl gathered their daughter’s journals and
photos and compiled them in a book titled, This Star Won’t Go Out. John Green
wrote the forward. The Earls also founded a nonprofit organization under the
same name (www.tswgo.org) providing
financial assistance for families struggling through the journey of a child
living with cancer. So far, they have given away more than $130,000 to families
in need.
Hazel Grace is a three-year survivor of
Stage IV thyroid cancer who hasn’t attended regular school during this
remission. She looks at herself as the “alpha and omega” of her parent’s
suffering, but also describes them as two of her best friends. She’s obsessed
with her “third” bestie, Peter Van
Houten the reclusive author of An Imperial Affliction. The book is
the closest thing she had to a Bible because he seemed to “understand dying
without having died.” Anna, the narrator, suffers from a rare blood cancer, but
the book abruptly ends in mid-sentence, leaving Hazel in a neurotic limbo as to
what happened to the characters. She, according to her doctor, is clinically
depressed, which he says is a side effect of cancer, and recommends she attend
a weekly support group. Hazel says, “Depression is a side effect of dying,” but
in order to keep peace in her family, she reluctantly agrees to give it a try. This
simple act launches her into an uncontrolled world laced with possibilities,
where she finds Augustus, who suffered a “touch of osteosarcoma” which cost him
his right leg. Their relationship began and ended in the basement of the
Episcopal Church – a fragile rare thing which gave each a “forever within the numbered days.” Their lives together were
side effects of the other. Hazel Grace “walked lightly upon the earth” and
Augustus walked beside her in infinity… an infinity bigger than some.
No stone was left unturned when it came to
symbolism, metaphors, and foreshadowing abundant throughout the novel. The swing
set in Hazel’s backyard reminded her of childhood and represented the ups-and-downs
of human life, as “no matter how hard you kick, no matter how high you get, you
can’t go all the way around.” Augustus Waters’ unlit cigarette and Holden Caulfield’s
red hat in Catcher In The Rye both signified a fly-in-the-face to the
adult world. Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman Empire, a name
associated with confidence and bravado. His nickname, Gus, might appears in children’s
picture books as an endangered little boy rather than a strong Augustus. And,
then there’s WATER. Not only Augustus’ last name, but for Hazel it meant both a
creator and destroyer of life. Water makes her life possible but the fluid in
her lungs is killing her. Amsterdam would not be a great City if not surrounded
by water, but is also drowning and at a constant risk of disaster from
flooding. Perhaps the most poignant was ending Van Houton’s novel in
mid-sentence…you might die in the middle of life, in the middle of a sentence.
Green achieved his goal to write a novel
about “the things that make life possible and valuable and how many of those
things are also what makes life painful and temporary.” His message is clear
though, it’s still attainable “to live and make decisions despite the fault in
our stars.” The movie version is set to release June 6th.
The majority of our group who read this
book favored the selection. We are glad so many of you were able to digest this
difficult read, empathize with the characters and their story, and recognize
the importance of Mr. Green’s message to his target audience. Once again, many
of us had personal stories to share offering some insight into real-life
tragedies and the inspiration of others in dealing with the painful side
effects of loss. Cherry’s seventeen-year old granddaughter, Katherine,
recommended the book to her (before we picked it.) She’s waiting “until she has
time to cry” before reading it. The resiliency of youth.
On the
business side
We have twelve Bookers attending Books
n’ Bloom at the Cain Center on April 4th. Thanks to everyone for
supporting this fundraiser for the Henderson County Public Library.
As a recap, the following is the rating system MN and I have
assigned to OUR opinions of books we’ve read. Again, this is meant to be a
guideline only.
5 Stars: Order Now. Expedited shipping
worthy. Include in your will
4 Stars: Borders on Little Bee
3 Stars: Beach Read
2 Stars: Borrow don’t buy
1 Star: Put your money back in the
piggy bank
We’ve both read The Rosie Project, a
debut novel by Graeme Simsion, currently on the NY Times bestseller list.
MN rates it a (3). I give it a (3+). It’s quirky and entertaining about
Professor Don Tillman, a socially inept scientist with Asperger’s (although he
doesn’t know it) who is tone deaf to irony. Rosie is an edgy young woman whose
fallback mode is sarcasm. Put them together and you have a comedy about a
brilliant, emotionally challenged geneticist who’s determined to find a
suitable wife with the help of a carefully designed questionnaire, and a
patently unsuitable woman who keeps distracting him from his search.
Emma Donoghue, author of ROOM,
will release her first literary crime novel, Frog Music on April 1st.
It’s about an unsolved murder set in San Francisco in 1876. Keep your fingers
crossed for another 5 star book!
Apologies to Daryl as she brought a copy
of the children’s book, The Snow Child, which she knew she
had seen in her “children’s literary” stash and we forgot to give her the
floor.
COLOR CODING
SYSTEM
WHITE: LIGHT READ
PINK: MODERATELY
CHALLENGING
RED: CHALLENGING
March 11th: The
Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
PINK
Home
of Marlene Ungarean
Reviewer:
Jean McSpadden
April 8th: Don’t
Let Me Go by Katherine Ryan Hyde
PINK
Home
of Sandy Molander
Reviewers:
MN Stanky & JoDee Neathery
May 13th: Wonder
by R.J. Palacio regular meeting 10:00 AM
PINK
Home
of Bonnie Magee
Reviewer:
Jean Alexander
Children always seem to be running
toward life instead of away from it….especially true of those with cancer. They
seem to have an inner strength to be able to replace fear with courage creating
an aura of inspiration for those around them.
OKAY,
JoDee
