The Boston Girl

On February 8,2017 some braved a potential snowstorm to

meet at Betsy's house to discuss her book choice which

was the Boston Girl by Anita Diamant.  The braves one were Nettie, Kathy, Donna,

Madeleine, and Sarah. Our bravery was nicely rewarded by a lovely

supper of a grilled shrimp Caesar salad, fruits and spinach quiche.

Madeleine brought heart shaped sugar cookies.

We all read and enjoyed the Boston Girl who was Addie Baum. 

Addie who is now 85 years old is relating her memoirs to

her favorite granddaughter.

Addie takes us back to 1900 when her Russian parents

escape the horrors of Russia to immigrate to America.

Their life was penurious and fraught with tragedies including

many losses of lives.

Addie's mother does not encourage women to get education and

she tries to suffocate her 3 daughters with her low expectations for them.

Addie however manages to become educated and through joining

a reading club gets exposed to a better class of people.

We liked the romp through the ages including the 2 world wars, the flu of 1918,

the orphan train, the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti

Mostly it is about the triumph of women who manage despite

great odds to become something other than a man's wife.

Carol was not present but sent in her selection of the next read

"The Guernsey Literary and  Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer

and Annie Barrow. It was puublished in 2008 and some thought we may have 

already read the book but we may not have or it was pre blog days.

However we can all use a refresher so we went with that book and

set the next date for the meeting to be March 22nd.    

Georgia by Dawn Tripp

On December 14th, 2016  we met at Nettie's home to

discuss Sarah's book entitled Georgia by Dawn Tripp.

Since it was Christmas we had a lovely social hour with appetizers, soups,

and Kathy's desserts.

Most people were able to attend and we had nine including our

honored guest Doug. So the attendees were Julie, Madeleine, Kathy.

Betsy, Sarah, Carol, Nettie and Janet.

I believe all had read the book and most of us had gone to

Georgia O'keeffe's museum in Santa Fe or had been to one exhibit

or another.

The book starts out with Georgia  painting and teaching in Texas and her

ultimate meeting in New York with her mentor Alfred Stieglitz. They have

an instant attraction and she is enthralled and taken into  his world of art, sex and passion.

She becomes the model for his famous nude photographs but refused to be

defined by those and begins to

develop her own artistic independence and transforms into her own

artistic being using her own instincts. Stieglitz would have liked to

control her art but she manages to break loose and moves to Santa Fe

developing her own artistic freedom  and the rest is history. 

O'Keefe was actually an artist who successfully sold her art as

she had a great manager/promoter husband.

 The author uses the love

letters they wrote to each other almost daily before and after they were 

married to weave the story together. We had to be reminded that this was historical fiction. 

The book had some torrid love scenes and some beautiful visual imagery of the art.

We discussed the character of Stieglitz who was an unfaithful womanizer.

We thought the author did a great job depicting their relationship which

was the meat of the book. It was a good read whether factual or not.

Betsy chose "The Boston Girl" by Anita Diamant to be the next book

and a tentative date was set for February 8th. Betsy offered to host the next

meeting. 

    

   

I Let You Go by Clare McIntosh

Our last meeting was held at Donna's home and she had 2 yummy

soups, bread, salad and of course dessert and vino.

We were joined by Don who graciously kept our wine glasses full.

We all enjoyed the thriller which kept us riveted. The author worked

for many years as a detective in England before she settled into

journalism and writing. Do you also notice the resemblance  she

bears to Fergie?

Our author purposely leads us down a different path intentionally

confusing us  between the mother of the boy who was hit and

the other woman fleeing from her abused husband.

We get inside the police investigative process in England as Ray and Kate follow lots of dead

end clues  but doggedly pursues the case despite opposition 

from their superiors. During the process a 

 mini romantic attraction between the chief Ray and the

rookie detective Kate develops. 

The book is well developed as it twists and turns as a good

detective story should. Happily the abused wife overcomes the

husband's grip and all ends well.

Sarah chose Georgia by Dawn Tripp as our next read. It is about O'Keefe

and Alfred Steiglitz.

The proposed date was the 2nd Wednesday in December which is

the 14th.

Under The Influence by Joyce Maynard

We met at Rockstone on September 7, to discuss

Joyce Maynard's novel "Under The Influence".

The members who attended were Kathy, Sarah, Donna,

Nettie, Julie and Janet.

The book we all agreed was a page turner,

but maybe a beach read which is not really a bad

thing. Sometimes Beach reads are great for a busy 

summer schedule.

The book is about a single mother who is

struggling with alcoholism which caused her

to lose custody of her young son Ollie.

The book does not concentrate on her alcoholism

but the bad choices she makes in life.

The mother  Helen is seduced by a wealthy couple who

seek to control her choices and her entire life.

Eva wants to dress Helen, she wants to have her at her

beck and call. She denigrates the only person who

really cares for Helen always pointing out his ordinariness 

and shortcomings.  They try to take over her child. 

The friendship is caustic and eventually she sees them

for what they really are after a very disastrous incident

her son had with the husband Skip while on a

boating trip. The self serving wealthy couple

are eventually exposed for their misdeeds and

we get the feeling that Helen may be on the

road to healing.

I think most of us liked the book and even went

on the read her bestseller "Labor Day".

Kathy led a great discussion from the study guide

questions .

Donna chose a book by Kate MacIntosh entitled.

"I let You Go".

we chose October 26th for the next meeting.

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

On June 20, 2016 we held our meeting at

Rockstone Pizza. It was a small group of 6 members,

Kathy, Betsy, Donna, Sue, Carol and Nettie.

Sue did a fantastic job of leading the discussion with

the help of the book club suggested topics.

The Spool of Blue Thread was a quintessential

Anne Tyler book about 4 generations of an

American family totally heartwarming and at the

same time dysfunctional.

We discussed the characters we felt were important

and agreed they were Denny the problem child and Abby

the mother who was going to keep her family united.

She was the spool of blue thread who tried to keep

her family grounded and together.

The house that was built by the eldest Whitshank for a 

wealthy client  almost becomes 

a character in the book and so it was surprising that none

of the Whitshank children chose to keep the home.

The story flip flops between the different generations

but all came together. 

Eventually they had to deal with old age and dementia

like all families.  The Whitshanks could be any of our

families, just  ordinary people trying to attain togetherness.    

Kathy chose "Under The Influence" by Joyce Maynard.

It is about a recovering alcoholic who makes some

bad choices regarding a couple who greatly influenced her.

September 7th was targeted for the next meeting.

A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman

We met in June at Rockstone Pizza to discuss

Madeleine's choice "A Man Called Ove" by

Swedish author Fredrik Backman. It has been

a while so bear with me if I am incorrect. I recall

that those attending were Madeleine, Julie, Betsy, Sue,

Carol, Julie, Donna, Nancy, Janet, Sarah and Me.

Those who read the book did not start out liking

Ove who was a cantankerous curmudgeon and widower who

lived by order and rules and was annoyed by any who

did not follow the rules in his housing complex.

He was set in his ways such as only driving a Volvo

and breaking up a long term relationship with a

neighbor as he bought a BMW. 

However as we learn more about him we start to

like him. We learn about his motherless childhood,

his heartwarming courtship and love for his deceased 

wife Sonja, his high principles for doing the right thing.

Ove is trying to commit suicide but is failing miserable 

because he gets involved with new neighbors who are

needy Iranians. He forms an unlikely friendship with one of

the children, adopts a messy stray cat, teaches a woman

to drive his Volvo, harbors a gay boy whose

father has estranged him. He is needed by his neighbors to

fix their heating units, helps a boy fix a bicycle. As he

becomes needed and involved he morphs into a generous

caring person. Ironically he dies of a heart attack at the end of 

the book just when he had given up ideas of suicide.

Sue chose an Anne Tyler book called "A Spool of Blue Thread".

A date was chosen but had to be cancelled.       

My Notorious Life by Kate Manning

On April 13th we met at my home to discuss Janet's book

"My Notorious Life" by Kate Manning.

It has been a while but I remember Kathy, Madeleine, Sarah, Donna,

and Janet attending. 

This was the first time the chooser admitted to not liking

her choice. This was the story of Axie Muldoon, an Irish Orphan who

against all odds rises from rags to riches in 19th century

New York. She apprentices as a midwife/abortionist and

becomes  very successful and notorious in her field.

Her husband a very enterprising orphan himself starts a

mail order business selling abortion  pills, French

letters and related items.

Abortion was against the law but not enforced till one

crusader made Axie his special project. She serves prison

time and  eventually moves to London where she continues

to ply her trade.

We had discussion on the morality of the abortions and its

timing and learned that women had very few rights then

and no voice in how to solve their own problems.

It was an age old story of women's struggles to gain control of

basic rights.  This was historical fiction loosely based on an

abortionist named Ann Lohman who is not very well known.

Madeleiene chose a book by Fredrik Backman entitled,

"A Man Called Ove" which is a charming debut novel about

a curmudgeon. We chose May 18th to be the next date.