A Two-fer

 A bit of spring rain and a pleasant evening a Judy Schmidt's home.  Lots of conversation among friends.

We had two books to choose from this month!  "Remarkably Bright Creatures" by Shelby Van Pelt.  A story of family and community, grief, loneliness, connection and hope.  The main character is an extremely intelligent Pacific octopus living/being held captive at the local aquarium.  Sprinkled with humor and a pleasure to read.  "One might make a third list here, which would consist of things humans clamor for, but most intelligent life would consider entirely unfit for consumption.  For example: every last offering in the vending machine in the lobby."  "The Huntress" by Kate Quinn was our second book.  This was a story of searching for a particular Nazi war criminal in the 50's.  By now, most countries wanted to put the war behind them.  Are the things people did during the war to survive black and white, or are there shades of grey?  "I only did what the others did.  What I was ordered to do.  It was legal."  

 Enjoyed a fun gathering at Denise's home.  So nice to see everyone who was able to make it.  Always pleasant and relaxing.

Our Book this month was "Last Bus to Wisdom", the last book Ivan Doig wrote before he passed away.  It is a tale about the summer adventures of a young boy, riding the Greyhound bus from Montana to Wisconsin and back.  Wonderful descriptions of the boys' travels; imagine what you might think, after growing up on a Montana ranch, seeing a large metropolis for the first time!  Young Donal also had a healthy imagination - "It's funny about imagination, how it can add to your peril even while it momentarily comes to your rescue."  This book was packed with great quotable sentences: "...wizen must have had something to do with wisdom", "On the road somewhere south of the moon and north of Hell" and "Still waters can bust dams."    A fun read inviting you in and taking you along on this big summer adventure.  Beautifully written descriptions which place you there amongst the characters: "What a haze of thoughts came over me like that as memory when back and forth, dipping and accelerating like a speedometer keeping up with a hilly road."  "You got some big miles to go...but that's the story of life, isn't it.  Keeping on across the unknowable distances..."  As written in Donal's autograph book:

    "When you take a look in your memory book

      Here you will find the lasting kind,

      Old rhymes and new, life in review,

      Roses in the snow of long ago."