A Musical Evening

Delicious food and great conversation were shared at Claudia's home.  Our read was "The Music Shop" by Rachel Joyce.  Since this story was about all varieties of music, it prompted nice musical memories from each of us - favorite songs, favorite performers, favorite concerts.  Esther supplied the soundtrack for our evening thanks to Spotify.

The story revolved around a small neighborhood in London with a diverse mix of people who helped each other.  Frank owns the music shop which sells only records, no CDs.  Frank is a good listener and has the gift of knowing the perfect music for every person.  The book was reminiscent of other books we have read - Eleanor Oliphant, Ove, Rosie - some of which involved a main character with "a dysfunctional parent and childhood that deeply affected (their) adult life." (thank you Judy B!) 

The book gave you a different insight into music:
"Jazz was about the spaces between notes.  It was about what happens when you listen to the thing inside you.  The gaps and the cracks.  Because that was where life really happened when you were brave enough to free fall."  "Music said things that words couldn't."  "There were pictures in all kinds of music, once you stopped to listen."  "...music was like a garden - it sowed seeds in in far-flung places."  "Music is about silence....Music comes out of silence and at the end goes back to it.  It's a journey." 

We Give Thanks

We had such a lovely time at Judy Schmidt's home!  Very relaxing and comforting.  And a VERY BIG THANKS to Caitlin for preparing our delicious dinner featuring home-grown fried green tomatoes! 

Our read this month was "Beneath the Scarlet Sky" by Mark Sullivan.  Quite similar to "Boys in the Boat" and also "Unbroken", it is a historical fiction based on one man's life during WWII in Italy.  The story is about growing up during a war and learning much about life: friendship, love, courage, deceit, choices.  What does it take to survive a war?  Milanese took the train to the countryside each evening and slept in the orchards and fields so they could be safe from the bombing and get some sleep.  What does Pino do to survive the war?  He has amazing experiences as he fights for justice the best way he can. 

"Life is change, constant change, and unless we are lucky enough to find comedy in it, change is nearly always a drama, if not a tragedy....if we are lucky enough to believe, we must give thanks for the miracle of every moment of every day, no matter how flawed."

Scientifically Speaking

Thanks to Debbie for hosting our meeting in her lovely home.  Delicious food, as always, and it was quite apparent that tomatoes were doing well in everybody's gardens.  The sharing of a good meal with friends always stimulates interesting conversation.

Science is hard and takes great imagination (thank you Chris M).  Our book, Lab Girl by Hope Jahren, was not only about insights on the growth of trees - roots, stems, branches, leaves, flowers - but also about the difficulties pursuing a scientific life of learning and investigating, especially when you are a woman.  Experiments planned that go wrong and have to be reconsidered and approached from a different direction: "...if there had been a way to success with out traveling through disaster someone would have already done it and thus rendered the experiments unnecessary..."  "Science has taught me that everything is more complicated than we first assume..."  Hope chose this path for her life and, through her own manic way, has made it a success with great benefits for all.

We all have a greater appreciation for trees and the author suggests that everyone should plant trees but cautions that "You must choose with a clear head and open eyes.  You are marrying this tree: choose a partner, not an ornament."  She also leaves us with this epilogue: "Every day, you can look at your tree, watch what it does, and try to see the world from its perspective.  Stretch your imagination until it hurts." 

Summer Schedule

Because the first Thursday in July is the 4th, we have decided to skip our July meeting, and resume meeting in August.  Therefore, our next meeting will be Thursday August 1st and it will be at Debbie Gregory's home.  See you there!

"This is How We Make a Life"

Welcome home Chris P and thank you SO much for hosting our gathering!  It is always gratifying to share good food in the company of good friends.

This month our discussion was about "As Bright As Heaven" by Susan Meissner.  The author researched the Spanish flu pandemic and presented her information via story based in Philadelphia, a city which had thousands of flu victims.  The Spanish flu killed more people worldwide than had died in WWI.  An interesting twist was that this story was set in a mortuary, a location greatly affected by the deaths as bodies were stacking up in many rooms and people would leave bodies on the porch as there was nowhere else to take them.  I would have liked it if Sandy were still in our group as her father was a mortician and she would have interesting insights to share with us.

Although the information about the pandemic was staggering, many felt the author didn't get to the core of each character.  They commented that in other books written in this format of each characters' voice, you knew who "spoke" in each chapter without their name being identified.  In this novel, you had to pay attention to the name on each chapter to know who was speaking.  Also, the ending seemed somewhat unbelievable as each characters' outcome was wrapped up with too many neat bows. 

The book did present several good points to ponder:
Time changes everything - sometimes fast and sometimes slow.
Death is not a cruel phantom but more like a quiet friend.
The gap between heaven and earth may seem vast but in reality is very small.

There were also several good quotes:
"It's as if the body is a candle and the soul its flame.  When the flame is snuffed out, all that is left to prove that there had been a flame is the candle."
"Different doesn't have to mean things can't be good again..."
"...our eyes don't change much from when we were young.  Perhaps it's just how we see things that change."

In the Author's Acknowledgements the author asks "How does this knowledge that we are mortal affect our choices?"  "Each of our stories will end, in time, but meanwhile, we will fill the pages of our existence with all the love we can, for as long as we can.  This is how we make a life."

The Lilac Girls

While somewhat still fresh in my mind, but thinking about the resonance of The Lilac Girls and Cudjo , there is much to consider. How can we become kinder to each other and to all life? Can one eliminate, prevent, and/or control the spirit of cruelty?   Questions about the soul arise,
 

As I place myself in the lives of Cujo, Caroline, Kasia , or Herta , I feel such polar and diverse  pain or ease, opportunity or prejudice.  It is just -  be damned or be lucky, from birth on.

 Our dinner at Chris's ranch was evidence of the strength, character, wisdom, kindness and patience you women possess . It heartens me to see those character traits. 

My lilacs were barely in bloom then, but enough for a bouquet.  The reference to lilacs was found by Judy Bell - page 440.

" He loved these. It's a lovely reminder of him, but terribly sad too, to see his favorite Abraham Lincoln lilacs blossom without him ... But it's fitting in a way - Father loved the fact that a lilac only blossoms after a harsh winter. "

"Happiness can exist in a moment"

A most eloquent forward to Barracoon,  by Zora Neale Hurston written by Alice Walker includes this beautiful quote " That though the heart is breaking, happiness can exist in a moment, also. And because the moment in which we live is all the time there really is, we can keep going. Life, inexhaustible, goes on. And we do too. Carrying our wounds and our medicines as we go. Perhaps our planet is for learning to appreciate the extraordinary wonder of life that surrounds even our suffering, and to say Yes, if through the thickest of tears. "


The reading of Ms. Hurston's series of interviews with Cudjo was challenging, because of the reality presented of our inhumanity to man over the course of all generations and cultures, and specifically in the case of  the slave trade. How lonely, desperate and traumatic was the experience of the men, women and children who were taken by force to a land far from home and all that they knew to be sold and treated worse than animals. We must not let that past be forgotten.  We need to continue to be reminded and to tell our young people of this past  to avoid it's recurrence. And yet, our discussion led us to consider how today in our country and communities, we seem to have not evolved beyond a self centered and uncivilized culture.  No, we won't solve the world's problems by talking about them, but perhaps we will be encouraged to act when we have the opportunity to stand up for what is right,  when we can give of our time, resources, and talents in small and large ways. 

It seemed that working in his garden was nourishing and healing after such a hard life,  and  Ms. Hurston's gifts of food and conversation were welcomed. He needed to tell his story and she needed to hear it . We are the fortunate readers to learn of it.