Discussion of A Christmas Carol

We met 15 December to discuss Dicken's A Christmas Carol, & O'Henry's Gift of the Magi

In attendance were
Dave & Mary
Darryl & Barbara
Jack
Alice
Carolyn
Catherine G.

Most of us had read A Christmas Carol at some point prior to this club selection.  A few of us who had read it in school did not re-read it for this meeting.

Several readers found the language difficult, partly due to idioms of British English, and partly due to the dated writing style. One example of a simile that the group did not understand from the text was "like a bad lobster in the cellar", referencing the pale glow of Marley's face as seen in the door knocker. Catherine was able to look up a reference for us during the club that explained it, but that's an excellent example of a phrase that did not readily convey meaning in modern American English.

Part of the discussion was the role of food and drink in the story, and the amount of text dedicated to describing them.  We speculated that food distribution and availability may have influenced it's importance in this text written in 1843.  Water purification would not have been well understood at this time, so beverages that are brewed or steeped might have been the norm for beverages as standing water sources may have been unsafe to drink.

Darryl brought his copy of the text, which had some discussion questions we used for the meeting. 

Overall most seemed to find A Christmas Carol to be an enjoyable read, if somewhat challenging language.

The Gift of the Magi was highly thought of by a couple of members, but less well liked by others. In general, the women in our group seemed to enjoy it more than the men. One member reported it was not at all the story he was expecting, as it is focused more on sacrifice and giving, rather than greed as he expected.

Our next selection is Frank Herbert's The White Plague (meeting 16 January), followed by A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny.

There are new entries on the What's Next list, so be sure to check them out. If you have a suggestion to add to the list, please email it to me.

---

State of the Club

We discussed the current state of the book club, and those in attendance seemed happy with how it was going, though we acknowledge we have lost quite a few members. Some have moved away, others have changes in personal circumstance. As far as we know, no one has "rage quit" on us!

The Reading Selection Process

One member proposed a change to the club selection process, wherein members would submit recommendations that would be drawn at random rather than voting on a list of candidates. In general we seem to feel the democratic selection process, with the discussion (and negotiation to a certain extent) works for us, but this raises the possibility that we are suffering from tyranny of the masses, if some members don't feel their suggestions are given fair consideration.

We had decided a while back not to track who made what suggestions, as we felt knowing who made the suggestion might be biasing the selection process, but in this smaller group it is usually pretty obvious who made what suggestion. I will be considering how best to address these concerns about the fairness of the selection process.

The Suggestions List

Since we are beginning year 4 (four years!!) we discussed what kinds of selections we would like to be reading during 2017. Several members expressed appreciation for the biography, history, and memoir selections we have read, and wanted to insure those types of works remain available on the list. One member was interested in seeing greater representation of "classics" (though what was meant by classics was vague) on the list, rather than the concentration of fiction works represented in 2016.

One member expressed she would generally not read biographies, though would consider something about Nickola Tesla.

I will try to be more thoughtful about things I put on the list, and try to insure a range of genres is represented on the list.

One member once commented that she felt the books should be better vetted by the moderator before they are added to the list. I would not want to pre-read every (or, really, any) candidate work, as that would detract from my pleasure in the shared reading experience, but I recognize we have had some duds make it onto our agenda, so perhaps a deeper vetting is in fact necessary.

If folks have feedback to share, or thoughts about what they would like to see or experience in the club during 2017, please let me know!

Discussion of Girl on a Train

We met on Nov 10 to discuss Girl on a Train.

In attendance were:
Dave & Mary
Darryl & Barbara
Alice
Jack
Suzanne
Katherine G.

And two new members:
Nicole
Carolyn

Welcome new  members!

Most of us really enjoyed this novel, and found the ending surprising.  One member guessed early on who committed the murder, others had different theories.

The writing was felt to be quite good.  Some of the men found it somewhat "soapy" e.g. like a soap opera.

Of those of us who had seen the movie, we felt the book was far better than the movie.

Our next meeting will be Dec 15, to discuss Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" and O'Henry's "Gift of the Magi".  Both texts are very short, and are both free on Amazon and other ebook sources.

Updates

Upcoming book club meetings:

Oct 13th: Blue Highways by William Least-Heat Moon
Nov 10th: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Dec 15th: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

My new favorite word, found in Blue Highways, is "meretricious", moving "defenestration" down to number 2 on my favorite words list.

Several readers have reported they already finished Blue Highways, and a few readers report they are reading it but are struggling with the slow pace of the book.  I'm about 15 chapters in, so really still near the beginning.

I can't wait to hear what everyone thought of it!

Spill Simmer Falter Wither

We met to discuss Spill Simmer Falter Wither on 7 July.

In attendance were:

Dave & Mary
Jack
Darryl & Barbara
Suzanne

Overall we found this book a very interesting read.  Among the points made:

The writing itself was generally felt to be superb.  The story line was interesting and held our readers attention very well.  Some finished the book very quickly, in a couple of days.

Some comparisons to The Strange Incident of the Dog in the Night Time were made, though there was disagreement about whether any of the suggested similarities hold up under scrutiny.

Some of our group conjectured the main character in this novel was autistic or perhaps suffers from Asperger's syndrome, accounting for some aspects of his social awkwardness.  Others thought his difficulties stemmed perhaps from the way he was raised, and blamed the father for isolating him.  One line of reasoning was that his command of language seemed quite strong, he was a reader, had a broad knowledge of plants and animals.  On the other hand, he did not seem competent with regard to operating or maintaining his vehicle.

Some discussion focused on what seemed an absurd amount of time he was able to drive about in a deeply rural setting, in the modern era.  One hypothesis is that the novel is not set in "the modern era" but rather in some earlier time.  One point made is that we, as a group, have very little awareness of the available rural landscape outside our immediate United States locations, so its hard to be reliably certain the time-frame was not plausible.

Some side discussions occurred regarding the incident where he left the dog on the side of the road and drove away.  Both mothers present in the group said they had, in fact, put a child out of a car and threatened to leave them (note: neither actually did leave them!), when the child was non-compliant or combative.  Both reported this approach seemed to resolve the immediate behavior issue, but that they felt guilty about it, or questioned whether that was the "right thing for a good parent to have done".

Several readers mentioned they were still ambiguous about what happened to the main character at the end of the novel. Most readers agreed there were many surprising reveals in the last section of the book.

There was some discussion of the role of rage in the main character, and the extent to which some of his actions were fueled by anger or rage.  Some discussion focused on his apparent difficulties initiating action outside his habitual day-to-day activities.

Overall this novel was very well received among our group.

Our next select is Neil Peart's Ghost Rider, with the meeting planned for 11 August.

That will be followed by
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, meeting 1 Sept
The Satanic Verses by Salmon Rushdie, meeting 20 Oct
The Vegetarian by , meeting 17 November.

We are seeking a holiday-themed selection for the December timeframe, so please consider making suggestions in this area.  Last year during the holidays we read (and enjoyed!) L Frank Baum's "Life and Adventures of Santa Clause".

Discussion of Hard Boiled Wonderland

We met 17 March to discuss Hard Boiled Wonderland. In attendance were: Dave & Mary Darryl & Barbara Jack Katherine Tina Barbara brought a delightful show-and-tell for us, some animal skulls from her collection. Katherine did our poetry reading, she selected a short-form poem from among those she has written. About half the members in attendance completed this novel. Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels don't seem to fit well into the interests of our readership. This Magical Realism style novel reads more like Sci-Fi. Those who finished it enjoyed it, and those who didnt finish found the shifting of scenes between the two environments to be grating. The novel was generally acknowledged to be well written, the translator and editors did a wonderful job as well. We discussed the symbolism of some elements in the book including the skulls, and the shadow. We selected Katherine Setterfield's "The Thirteenth Tale" as our next read, and will follow that one with "Midnight's Lair" by Richard Laymon. We talked about tackling Plato's Republic in small, digestable pieces over the course of a year, rather than having to tackle it in one month. We will discuss whether we want to do that next meeting.

Discussion of Wicked

We met 25 February to discuss Wicked. In attendance were: Dave & Mary Jack & Shelia Darryl & Barbara Katherine Alice I may need to collaborate with others regarding the discussion... I dont recall much about it at this late date. We selected Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World as our next read.

Discussion of Rebel Yell

We met and discussed Rebel Yell on January 21st In attendance were: Dave & Mary Jack & Shelia Darryl & Barbara Suzanne As I recall, the completion rate was pretty high for this one. Folks found it interesting if I recall correctly. Might need some collaboration on this one as well.

Rebel Yell

Happy New Year, Readers!

How are folks doing on Rebel Yell? I've heard from one member who finished the book and really enjoyed it.  Others seem to be holding off, I know several have not started this book.

Get to reading!