“That
blouse was cut so low you could see her breakfast.” A Southernism
16 “blue bloods” arrived at the Magee’s Saint Andrews
“filling station” armed with books to donate to the Pinnacle Club Lending
Library and an assortment of luck of the Irish items for Jane Freer’s “green”
project…delivered to her door, welcomed, and appreciated by her and Gary!
Mission accomplished. The report earlier was Linda Hoff had a setback, but as
of this writing, she is back home and doing much better. Bookers send well
wishes and hopes she will be able to join us again soon. Many thanks to Bonnie
Magee and Rosemary Farmer for setting the stage for this month’s selection…from
the sign on the door to the bird feed and feeder to the model airplane, to
Rosemary dressed in “filling station” attire!
Barbara Creach offered a summary of this quirky, wise,
witty, warm-hearted novel that showed up “wearing a big smile and bright
clothes” set in the historic little town of Point Clear, Alabama. The story
opens just as fifty-nine year old Mrs. Sookie Poole has married off the last of
her daughters in elaborate theme weddings and is looking forward to her golden
years with her dentist husband, Earle. Her mother, Lenore nicknamed “Winged
Victory,” was “terribly energetic and startlingly beautiful at age 88” lived
two houses away and insisted Sookie embrace the traditions of every Southern
lady, real pearls and a full set of silver – Francis the First, of course. Then
the phone rings and a man says, “You are not who you think you are.” Sookie is
not a “belle” after all…Lenore did not writhe in pain for forty-eight hours to
give her life. She was adopted and a child of a Catholic Polish unwed mother with
an unpronounceable last name.” Sookie’s search for answers leads us on a
journey back to World War II where we learn of a little known piece of history
about the WASP’s…Women Airforce Service Pilots who ferried military planes from
their factory of origin to their point of departure for various fronts. The
ending is full of discovery and acceptance with the characters receiving their
fair share of “happiness bombs.” Many thanks to Barbara for an excellent review
and discussion…the selection delivering as hoped, a mini-panacea designed to
lift spirits.
The WASP’s story, not recognized officially for
thirty-five years as their service records were sealed and classified, was of
particular interest to our group as much like the “hidden figures” in our space
program, these women paved the way for female roles on the largest of stages.
We talked about the patriotism during World War II…everyone’s mindset was what
do we need to do to win this war and get our men back home and the sacrifices
every American made to facilitate that effort. Some suggested the difference
beginning with Viet Nam and into today’s conflicts, is that the wars are not
seen as “winnable” as often happens once we’ve sacrificed lives and leave the
country, it reverts to “business as usual.” We offered some of our own
“motherly wisdoms” to add to Lenore’s, “make sure your luggage matches,” like
always wear clean underwear in case you get in an accident (did you ever think
that if you were in an accident, those clean underwear might get soiled…just
saying. Never ever wear white because it will make your butt look big…don’t
ever rub your eyes…pearls and proper English will take you anywhere you want to
go…sit up straight…if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at
all…always check the lint trap in the dryer…don’t air your dirty laundry. The
more we talked the more we remembered some of the things our ancestors used to
say…like you “know you’re a blue blood.” Do you know why the Royals are
referred to as blue blooded? Nor did I…here’s the scoop. Great Grandma put a
silver dollar in the milk to keep it from spoiling as it sat on the back porch
in the summertime. Silver is a powerful, natural antibiotic that has been used
for thousands of years. Kings, emperors, sultans and their families ate from
silver plates, drank from silver cups, used….drum roll…Francis the First (or a
similar pattern,) and they stored their food in silver containers. Silver slightly
rubbed off and mixed in with their food…the Royals’ skin had a blue tint due to
the accumulation of minute traces of pure metallic silver….history lesson over.
We did discover that no matter whether you grew up north or south of the
Mason-Dixon Line, etiquette, good manners, and family tradition carries you a
long way in life.
On the Business side
The
Shack,
William
P., Young’s debut novel – Bookers’
book, November 2008, is now a movie. It’s a wonderfully written and poignant
book beginning with a man in the depths of “the great sadness”…a broken
believer struggling to bury the burden of guilt after his youngest daughter is
kidnapped and presumed murdered. Keep up with the author at wpy@wmpaulyoung.com.
We asked anyone with a copy of Left Neglected to donate
their copy to MN to assist her brother in his seminar on the subject. She would
make a donation to the PWC as reimbursement. Bonnie reminded us we supplied
Diane Ewing with this book as she struggled with similar symptoms from her
illness. However, if you have a copy, I’ll make sure MN gets it.
We threw out the idea of dedicating next year Bookers’
(if I’m invited to return to the helm by the new PWC President) to a theme,
memoirs, non-fiction, historical fiction, mysteries, bestsellers…the
consensus…variety wins again!
The books for the Pinnacle Club Lending Library will
be delivered upon completion of the downstairs construction. They are stored at
Bonnie Magee’s home for now. Daryl suggested asking Dee Dee to include a notice
in the newsletter about the library, as most residents don’t know about its
existence.
Janet Noblitt recommended Hillbilly
Elegy by J.D. Vance. It’s a memoir written by a former marine and Yale
Law School graduate…a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town.
It’s a personal analysis of a culture in crisis – that of white working-class
Americans. He tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class
decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
Others you might enjoy reading
are as follows:
The Tennis Partner,
memoir by Dr. Abraham Verghese, the author of Cutting for Stone. With
his marriage unraveling, he relocates to El Paso where he meets a medical
student recovering from drug addiction and the two men begin a tennis ritual
that allows them to shed their inhibitions and find security in the sport they
love and with each other.
Tribe by Sebastian Junger
(only 192 pages).Decades before
the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were
constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same.
Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for
hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a
communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans
who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of
platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may
explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military
veterans today. Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, Tribe explores what we
can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human
quest for meaning.
Lincoln
in the Bardo, George Saunders new novel, a moving and
original father-son story featuring Abraham Lincoln, as well as an
unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and
invented. February 1862.
The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and
the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle.
Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs
in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a
recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor
boy, he was too good for this earth,” the President says at the time. “God has
called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns,
alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy’s body. The negatives I’ve
heard are that it is confusing and written in very unconventional style.
Possible Summer Reads:
We are considering American’s First Daughter by Stephanie
Dray and Laura Kamoie as our summer read. (600 pages). It’s an historical
fiction telling of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson
Randolph, the woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father.
She became the “first lady” when her mother died and at fifteen learned about
her father’s troubling liaison with Sally Hemings, a slave girl her own age.
Beartown, by Fredrik Backman, bestselling author of A
Man Called Ove returns with a dazzling, profound novel about a
small town with a big dream—and the price required to make it come true. People say Beartown is finished.
A tiny community nestled deep in the forest is slowly losing ground to the ever-encroaching
trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by
the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason
people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice
hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually
have a chance at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on
the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys. Set to release April 25th.
Elizabeth
Strout’s latest, Anything Is Possible is set to release April 25th.
It’s written in the same vein as Olive Kitteridge, a series of linked
short stories exploring the
whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling
to understand themselves and others. She’s
taken the characters from My Name Is Lucy Barton, featuring
the return of Lucy to her hometown after a seventeen-year absence.
FYI, we had talked about Life in a Box being our summer read.
Unfortunately, its status is a bit dicey right now, as my publisher has been
hospitalized. The book is in her hands for “final” edits. I’m hopeful the
release date will still be May, but I’m not certain so looking at a backup plan
for summer reading. Thanks for caring!!!! In the meantime, I’ve set up a
website with some information on the book, the characters, motivations,
etc…check it out and let me know what you think: www.jodeeneathery.com.
COLOR CODING
SYSTEM
WHITE: LIGHT READ
PINK: MODERATELY
CHALLENGING
RED: CHALLENGING
April
11th: The
Girl Who Wrote In Silk, by Kelli Estes, debut
PINK
The
protagonist discovers an elaborately stitched piece of fabric hidden in her
deceased aunt’s island estate revealing a connection with a young Chinese girl
mysteriously driven from her home a century before.
Reviewer: Pat
Faherty
Home
of Rokhshie Malone
May 2nd Earlier date due to travel conflict
Orphan
# 8 by Kim van Alkemade
RED
Reviewer:
Patty Evans
Wine
& Cheese evening meeting, 6:00 p.m.
Home of Melanie
Prebis.
Bonnie
Magee, Food Czar
Summer Read: To
be determined
“Don’t
let anyone put dill in your pickle!”
Happy Reading,
JoDee
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