The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

On November 30th Laura Derrickson hosted us to discuss her book

“The Island of Sea Women” by Lisa See.

We had a phenomenal perfect attendance which has not occurred

for a very long time. Somehow Laura made it work. We were all 13 comfortably

seated as we each shared our thoughts.

The friendship of the two women and the heartbreaking rift was important

to everyone. The need for forgiveness was cited and necessary for self

preservation..The uniqueness of the diving Haenyo women who engage in dangerous 

free diving to harvest food from the ocean was also high on the impressive list.

We even engaged in a little fun experiment to see how long we could hold our breaths.

We discussed the roles of men versus women in that particular Jeju Island

scenario and the various traditional beliefs of Shamanism, Christianity and Confucianism.

Everyone also admitted to learning some new facts about the Japanese occupation 

of Korea and the brutal reality of their civil war as well as the American part in

shaping today’s Korea.

We then retreated to dine on beautifully set tables where we enjoyed salad, 

spinach pasta, and home made key lime pie. All of this accompanied by

lots of wine, beer, and even scotch.

As some people stated it was a great way to kick off the Holiday season.

Molly chose “The Swans of Fifth Avenue” by Melanie Benjamin and January 18,

was set for the next meeting.

 

Never by Ken Follett

In October Marsha hosted us at her home to discuss this gritty new thriller

by Ken Follett. We had two kinds of pasta salad as well as a green salad

and of course dessert.

“Never” is an action packed, globe spanning drama set in the present day.

America has the first female president as well as first gentleman.

There is a brilliant Chinese spymaster, the leaders of both Koreas and many undercover

agents  all struggling to prevent the outbreak of world war 111 when nuclear

weapons are used. Diplomacy has to be exercised to prevent this.

Every nation has its spies and undercover people gaining

each other’s intelligence.

As the crisis escalates we are taken into the world of international tension which is

all too real. There is some romance thrown in which could make the movie more

interesting when it comes out. It was 800 plus pages but it kept us captivated.

We have not read many spy thrillers but all agreed it was a nice change.

We asked Marsha to show us some of her jewelry artworks and

had  a little shopping spree before we went home.

Laura chose a book called “The Island of Sea Women” by Lisa See

for  our next read and November 30th set for the meeting