Who Doesn't Love a Dog Story?

 Thank you Maureen for hosting our meeting in your lovely home.  We all enjoyed the warmth of friendship along with a good meal and thought-provoking discussion.  

Take one self-focused, self-centered ultra marathoner and add in one determined little dog.  You get a heart-warming, true story of strangers coming together in a foreign land for the good of this one lucky little pooch.  Gobi proved to be strong and resilient and certainly was attracted to the person who most needed companionship.  Dion was ultra-focused on his goal of being on the podium or winning this race and he wasn't planning on letting anything get in his way.  This ultra marathoner had ultra tunnel vision.  But he had a concern about Gobi and opened his heart.  Bringing a dog home to the UK from China is no simple matter but fate worked in Gobi's favor.  Dion made a promise to Gobi of safety and security because Dion never had these growing up.  He was amazed at the outpouring of help and happiness by so many strangers because Gobi put a smile on people's faces.  Dion also learned that "working as a team, rather than a bunch of individuals, wasn't nearly as bad as I used to think it would be."  He learned to count on other people and realized that his areas of weakness were covered by other's strengths.  "I didn't have to shoulder the work all on my own.  I could lean on the others, and they could take it.  They didn't let me down.  And I didn't fail them either."  We all learned a bit about China and found that people all around the world are similar to us.

Our next book, "Upstream" by Mary Oliver, is a short book so we set the date of March 9th, 5:30pm at Claudia's home for our next meeting.  Looking forward to seeing you there.

Crime, Punishment and Mercy

 Thank you Esther for providing us another wonderful evening filled with great nourishment.  Two delicious soups and homemade bread.  Always warm and cozy, just like home!  With all our shared contributions it was quite the feast.  

Esther noted that it was fortunate this discussion coinsided with the Martin Luther King holiday as our book, "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson, was set in the South and dealt with racial injustices.  Although a difficult subject to read about, we had a lively conversation on equal justice, or lack thereof.  There is an unfairness based on ethnicity, social class and gender, and the punishment does not always reflect the crime.  It take small steps over many years to make changes, even when the needed changes are obvious.  Time and patience are the rule. 

Carl Sagan Quote

"A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called ‘leaves’) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person - perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic."

-Carl Sagan, Cosmos

 

Tropical Evening

 We met at the Entiat Fire Station, arranged by Chris M, for our December gathering.  Our read for the month, "Daughter of Moloka'i", started and somewhat ended in Hawaii so our pot luck had a definite Hawaiian/Japanese "flavor".  We enjoyed quite an array of tastes.  Esther brought some home made tofu and Mary researched a typical Manzanar dinner dish for us to share.  We also had Yakasobi, pineapple and sushi.  Different and very tasty!  Judy B brought an example of a Japanese quilted Washi paper lidded box.  

"Daughter of Moloka'i" focuses on Ruth, the daughter of Rachel, who had Hansen's disease.  Rachel had to give Ruth up for adoption at birth to protect her from contracting Hansen's.  Throughout her life, Ruth wondered about her past and why she was sent to an orphanage.  Unknowingly, Ruth's life bore similarities to Rachel's life as Ruth and her family were sent to Manzanar internment camp during WWII.  We discussed this similarity and somewhat decided that Rachel's "imprisonment" on Moloka'i was worse than Ruth's imprisonment at Manzanar as Rachel thought she would live her entire life on Moloka'i.

This was our annual Christmas gift book wrapping event as well as the last chance to contribute to our Christmas jar for 2022.

Esther will host our next meeting scheduled for Wednesday, January 18, 2023.  See you then.  Aloha!

A Different View of Russia

 Thank you Judy Bell for hosting our meeting with a delicious Beef Stroganoff.  As always, everyone shared wonderful items, including a yummy apple cake by our new member, Mary Spohnholtz.  Welcome Mary!  It is always a pleasure to gather and share our friendship.  

Our read this month was "Disappearing Earth" by Julia Phillips.  Julia received a 2011 Fulbright scholarship which she used to immerse herself in the culture of the Kamchatka peninsula, a former closed military zone.  This crime story unfolds over a calendar year as "a means of exploring violence in women's lives, violence in many forms..." (quote from NPR).  Esther was not able to attend our meeting but emailed her comments: "I found the book interesting and the connections between characters kept me going back to find how each was related. The people and traditions of the Russian province of Kamchatka are so different from our American experience, but the human relationships are common, if uncomfortable in one way or another. If I had to choose a likable character, it would be Denis whose fantastic obsession with UFO’s and belief in alien abduction was so frustrating to his sister.  I appreciated the tenacity of the mothers who never gave up hope in their search.  It was a dark read, and certainly the war in Ukraine is much much darker. I felt some insight into Russian life and mindset was gained."  I found it noteworthy that Russians treated their indigenous culture in the same manner that America has treated ours.  

Judy likes to display items from her collevtin which are reminiscent of our story or something from the story.  These pieces are from her family's Eastern European travels.

Epic Russian Tale

 Thank you Debbie for hosting our gathering.  It was a pleasant way to spend what turned out to be an extremely smoky evening due to wildfires along the Canadian border.  We did miss Esther this evening.  We enjoyed sharing friendship and conversation during dinner and a good book discussion too.  

Author Kristin Hannah writes novels which focus on women; their strengths and their relationships.  This story unfolds as a Russian fairy tale which hides details of the mother's past.  It unwinds the relationships between a contemporary mother and her daughters and focuses on the cost of survival and the triumph of human spirit.  The character's perspectives changed as the story pregressed.  "It was all out there - the mystery, the beauty; beyond her ability to see now, but there just the same.  It was simply a matter of timing and perspective, what one saw."

Judy Bell's favorite shared quote:  "Meredith felt a kind of sadness.  It wasn't what she'd felt before: not disappointment that her kids didn't call or fear that Jeff didn't love her, or even worry that she had lost too much of herself.  This new feeling was the realization that she wasn't young anymore.  The days of frolicking with her little girls were gone.  Her children were on their own now, and Meredith needed to accept that.  They would always be a family, but if she'd learned anything in the past few weeks it was that a family wasn't a static thing.  There were always changes going on.  Like with continents, sometimes the changes were invisible and underground, and sometimes they were explosive and deadly.  The trick was keeping your balance."

The lesson of the story: "Joy and sadness were part of the package; the trick, perhaps, was to let yourself feel all of it, but to hold on to the joy just a little more tightly because you never knew when a strong heart could just give out."

Chris M is planning our next gathering which will be in November.  We will select a date later in October.  At the moment it may be a high tea held at Columbia Breaks.  Stay tuned for updates and details.  See you all then!

A Detective's Tale

 We all gathered at my home this August to share friendship and our love of reading.  I stole Esther's typical menu idea and made soup.  Yes, it's hot and one doesn't expect warm soup this time of year, but every time I thought about what to make, this is what popped into my head.  Everyone contributed and we enjoyed a pleasant meal.  We reviewed "Mrs Sherlock Holmes" by Brad Ricca.  This is a biography of an amazing woman, Grace Humiston,  at the turn of the 20th century.  She was a lawyer advocating for immigrants, investigated modern day slavery as a US District Attorney and acted as a detective, solving the murder of an 18 year old girl.  Truly remarkable in her day, yet history forgot about her.  The book itself was scattered and hard to follow, skipping back and forth in time and topics.  It's a shame it wasn't presented in a better, more organized manner as her remarkable story was diminished by this presentation.  It did spark lively discussion on women's rights and politics and showed us that things haven't changed much during this last century - some stories always remain the same.  Thank you all for your contributions and sharing.  I'm looking forward to our next meeting which is planned for Thursday September 8th at Debbie G's home.  See you then!