What
holds true in books as in life is you need to “encounter them at precisely the
right time.”
On one foggy Texas morn, 21 Bookers
converged on the home of Bonnie Magee to extend a very Merry Christmas and
toast another joyful year of reading and sharing books. Co-host Rosemary Farmer captured the season and the theme of this
month’s novel with a display of books in sections and the Island Books sign. We
owe special thanks to Bonnie for once again doing a great job of coordinating
our menu and hosting the holiday celebration, to those who volunteered to bring
food and spirits, and to our Mimosa elves, Jane and Leslie, for keeping us
hydrated and happy.
Melanie Prebis walked us through this
“love letter to the world of books” about a thirty-nine year old grieving
widow, A.J. Fikry, owner of a small bookstore on a remote island off the coast
of New England. It’s a story of overcoming depression and bitterness to give
his heart and name to an abandoned child and trusting in a second chance for
love. The combination of Maya, the intelligent and precocious two-year old and
Amelia, the thirty-one year old single publisher’s sales representative,
provide a solid footing for A.J. to transition from a man bent on “drinking
himself to death” to the toast of the Island’s book community. We see a boorish
A.J. who detests anything from postmortem narrators to children’s books and
adding to the flabbergast he thinks writers are “unkempt, narcissistic, silly,
and generally unpleasant” in a livelihood surrounded by authored hardcovers and
paperbacks. Alongside the ‘new daddy-new love’ story, a cast of minor
characters provides entertaining sub-plots, one involving his
sister-in-law, the mysterious theft of a treasured possession and the stories
tied to it, and her writer husband’s deceitfulness. Another, a police chief
expanding his reading horizons, forming a book club for his fellow officers,
and finding love and skeletons in the closet co-existing in the same bedroom; a
book-signing event featuring a Hemingway-department store Santa faux author
reveals another mystery. There’s a heartrending end to a new way of life, the beginning
of another, and a dream of the future. Although tragic incidents frame the
narrative, the story is uplifting and is chocked full of humorous lines and
observations.
The majority read the book, many liked it, but a
few thought it was very predictable; a couple would have scripted a happier
ending; some applied the common sense approach to A.J.’s drastic personality
change and how he was able to adopt Maya citing these incidents unbelievable,
including Maya’s intelligence level; to a few it read like a fairy tale; We
discussed A.J.’s ethnicity. The author constructed his character as Southeast
Asian while in the book he describes himself as part Indian. Several of us were
under the impression he was of African American lineage. Melanie asked if
anyone knew which C.S. Lewis quote was on the new sales rep’s wrist to no avail.
We discussed A.J.’s summaries of his favorite literary short stories/novellas
for Maya…they cleverly provide us a character profile of A.J. saying, “Read
these and know my heart. We are what we love.” Control flew out the window,
when towards the end of the meeting we had a lively discussion on “coupling” on
the first date. Details are under lock and key.
Some of our favorite quotes:
A.J. on the Maya: “The baby is a terrorist. She
wakes up at insane times – 3:45 in the morning is when her day begins.”
“No one travels without purpose. Those who are
lost wish to be lost.” The Late Bloomer
“The day my father shook my hand, I knew I was a
writer.” (Maya after the writing competition.)
“We read to know we’re not alone. We read because
we are alone. We read and we are not alone. My life is in these books. We are
not quite novels. We are not quite short stories. In the end, we are collected
works.” A.J.F.
This quote from the book reminded Melanie of how
she feels about Bookers. “Why is any one book different from any other book?
They are different, A.J. decides because they are. We have to look inside many.
We have to believe. We agree to be disappointed sometimes so that we can be
exhilarated every now and again.” Thank you Melanie from all of us for
recognizing we each possess a wealth of diversity in our reading lives and in
our lives in general! And, on a personal note from MN and me, we appreciate all
our “cups of tea” are not poured from the same pot, but our goal is to mix the
pekoe with the Egyptian chamomile to find a blend that will minimize the
discontents and maximize the enjoyment. In one of my grandmother’s short
stories, she writes about ‘the first cup of tea moistens the lips and throat
and the fifth lifts one to the realms of the unwinking gods.’ We’re shooting
for somewhere in between.
COLOR CODING SYSTEM
WHITE: LIGHT READ
PINK: MODERATELY
CHALLENGING
RED: CHALLENGING
January 13th, 2015 The Headmaster’s Wife by Thomas
Christopher Greene
RED
Home
of Sandy Molander
No
formal review – group discussion
February 10th: All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr
RED
Home
of Jean Alexander
Reviewer:
Barbara Creach
March 10th: No book selected
Home
of Joanna Linder
April 14th: Orphan Train by Christina
Baker Kline
PINK +
Home
of Kay Robinson
Reviewer:
Jean Alexander
May 19th: The Husband’s Secret by
Liane Moriarty
PINK
Home
of Beverly Dossett
Reviewer: Beverly Dossett
Summer Break: June, July & August
September 8th: Bookers 12th year
“All you need to know about a person is
how they answer this question. What is your favorite book?”
JoDee
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