Our Jar

Don't forget our upcoming meeting March 5, 2020 at Maureen's.  We'll make our jar grow!

An Evening at the Pub n Grub

Nice to see everyone who made it to the Entiat Pub-n-Grub for our January meeting.  With two books to review and a new meeting schedule to decide, we certainly had a lot to discuss.

The Christmas Jars by Jason F Wright was our holiday read.  We found this book sad but also uplifting as it illustrates the goodness in people's hearts goes around.  It is a reminder that every day we should write a note of what you are grateful for.  Maureen came up with the wonderful idea of starting our own book club Christmas jar.  We all contributed our change and dollars and will do the same each time we meet.  At our December meeting we will decide what to do with what we have collected.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was our other book to review.  Some of us found the "nearly impossible reality of the main character being able to self-teach herself with a little reading help from her friend" (Judy B) a disappointing aspect of the story, but we enjoyed the author's beautiful descriptions of the marsh and the creatures that lived there and found the story compelling with an unexpected ending.  "We are shaped by the children we once were."

Here is the meeting schedule we have set up for 2020:
March 5th at Maureen's home review "Cutting for Stone"
April 23rd at Chris M's home review "I'll Push You"
June 4th at Chris P's home review "The Library Book"
NO MEETINGS in July and August
September 10th at Debbie G's home review "Educated"
November 19th at Judy S's home review "Me Before You"
December 10th at Claudia's home review Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory"

An Evening Along the Columbia

Reminiscent of the holiday meal book character Susan prepared for Ada, Jamie and the pilots, Judy prepared a delicious ham dinner!  And she had a lovely centerpiece: a ceramic horse and actual rationing coupon books from WWII!  It was nice to have Joe join us as we were a small group.  Plenty of time to chat and share before our book discussion. 

(sorry for positioning of the pictures, but I could not rotate these images!)

Although a shorter young readers book, 'The War That Saved My Life' was a good history lesson describing life and hardships people endured during the war.  It also spoke to the resilience of people, especially Ada, the main character, who was born with a physical handicap and whose mother left her with many emotional handicaps.  I found it interesting to try to put myself in Ada's shoes as she learned so much when she was relocated, an effort to protect the children in the event of a bombing on London.  Not only could she not read or write, but she had never seen indoor plumbing, sheets and blankets, tablecloths and so many other common things we all take for granted.  Imagine her amazement when she first saw grass and a sky that went on forever.  Her determination to learn and overcome her set-backs was remarkable.  The book also spoke to what really makes a family.  It is a great book for youngsters to read and learn from.

The events described in the book directly impacted Judy S as she relayed information about her mother's family during WWII.  The story was very moving to her and she says "For me, it was a walk into my mother's shortened childhood."

Our next meeting will be Thursday, December 5th at Maureen's home.

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!