June 2014

 

Next Book – Jennifer’s House – Thursday June 26

MAY 2014

• This months pick belonged to Carol and Helen was back from her Florida retreat and hosted the evening.  There was much speculation on everyone’s opinion of the book and overall – results were higher than anticipated.  After everyone did their own research on the author (we were all looking for reasons why) so it was clearly seen from the start that there were many personal qualities carried throughout many of the short stories.  She raised peacocks – she had lupus so reoccurring episodes of the disease forced to live with her mother – she was raised catholic which explain much of the religious undertones throughout.

Jennifer’s unique description was that many of the stories made her feel angry and frustrated.  “A lot of artistic prattle about getting into the simple peoples minds.

Karen’s most clarifying description of the book came from a review which described the book as ‘a christian vision with a darkly comic intent.

Carol found humor in many of the stories – The Artificial Nigger had her laughing hysterically.  She will be reading more from this author – keep us posted!
Thought the artists face would help us connect better!  She was born in 1925 and died in 1964 from complications of lupus

Carol     10

Jennifer 7

Laura 8

Helen 7

Sue – will advise – spending the weekend in Kentucky so was not able to attend

 

 

 

 

 

April 2014

Carol’s house – Everyone was there and this time Helen was traveling so couldn’t join us but she will be back in May and we all look forward to having it at her house and welcoming her back.

Mixed reviews on this one – Sue and Karen were mentally in the need of a good and easy read with a happy ending and this fit the bill.  We scored with with a 10.  However, Carol had no fondness for the content (not believable) the writing style (poor) and she gave it a 6!  Not too many sixes but she really did not enjoy it.  Jennifer and Laura were neutral on the topic but everyone agreed that the cover did not match the content at all.

 

And now that I have more free time I will get back to updating the monthly minutes with more regularity and accuracy.  We will be sure to start off with the scores and because way back when we came up with the concept of scoring with a 6 to 12 logic (not sure where it came from, but we’re sticking with it….here’s the reminder – 6 is the lowest and 12 is the best!

March 2014

February 2014

January 2014

Sue’s house in January and she fed up with a favorite comfort food from Portillo’s.  As we were freezing (little did we know that the cold and snow was far from over) Helen appeared by Facetime sitting on her porch enjoying the warm ocean breezes.  Enough of that.

 

Those that were “gamers” in their youth may have gotten more out of the book as they reflected back on memories (I think Sue and Jennifer were in that group) but everyone else enjoyed the book   

December 2013

This book generated much conversation.  Jennifer was the host.

There was much conversation regarding the true feelings of the father and whether this book was written with commercial motivation.  Mixed feelings about the storyline but everyone enjoyed the read.

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October 2013

Two books this month

October 3 was My Notorious Life at Laura’s house

October 30 was Plowing the Dark at Carols

Sept

Sept 7 – Sue’s House

July

Was planned for Sue’s house but had to change to Karen’s due to Sue’s skunk family moving  in

Wednesday July 17

Jennifer 11, Laura 11, Sue 11, Carol 9, Karen 11, Helen 11

This was a hard but good read for everyone but especially Carol and Laura who are dealing with Alzheimer in a personal sense.  Both their mom’s suffer from the disease so they’ve lived and are living the book.

There was much conversation about how she tried to take over the control of the end (but failed ) and would we do or be able to do the same. The biggest question with many different thoughts – would you be tested for the gene?

No one totally understood the role the husband took, but as the conversation developed, much of the evening became personal sharing experiences that others had gone through, fear and concern of it happening to us and what and how each of us thought we would deal with it on a personal level.  The book was very thought provoking in a sad way.  All scores were fairly high and Carol gave it a 9 just because she had a hard time reading it due to her personal experience.