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!

Jack Says...

I read a couple of negative reviews on the book which doubted that the writer had done proper research.

I bought the kindle version of the book and started reading. One instance that the reviewer mentioned was about John Brown and saying that the book stated that he was executed in 1861. No. I got to that point of the book and it has the correct time period of John Browns execution and it does later mention that Jackson wrote a letter in 1861 about John Browns execution. Perhaps the reviewer was confused. Another point that the reviewer said was inaccurate was that Major General Robert E. Lee, a ranking officer, gave Jackson his first command at Harper's Ferry. His claim is that Lee was not a major general or ranking officer at that time. So I did the research and YES Robert E. Lee was appointed April 18th as a Major General, a ranking officer and he gave the orders to Jackson on the 26th of April.

So the book is right and the reviewer wrong. One of those cases where you don't believe the reviews.

Discussion of The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause

We met December 3rd to discuss L Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause.

In attendance were:

Dave
Mary
Darryl
Barbara
Jack
Shelia

 This book was a short quick read. This one was chosen for it's holiday theme, and because those of us associated with schools are very busy at this time of year and we needed something light and fast. 

The discussion was entertaining and lively. Unfortunately I posted this quite late and backdated it (!!) so I'm afraid I don't remember much of the discussion.

Our next book was chosen at this meeting, it will be S. C. Gwynne's "Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson". We will meet to discuss that book January 21st.

 We also chose the next book, Gregory McGuire's Wicked, which we will discuss Feb 25th.

Discussion of The Book Thief

We met Thursday to discuss The Book Thief.

In attendance were:

Dave
Mary
Darryl
Barbara
Jack
Shelia

Most of us completed the book, and everyone who completed the book enjoyed the read. We set aside 6 weeks for this read as the page count was over 600 pages, but the book is a very fast read. Mary and Dave both completed it within a few days.

The discussion was a little light on this book. There are publisher book club questions, and we did consider a couple of those, but the discussion never really took off.

We spent quite a bit of discussion time on what we want to read after L Frank Baum's "The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause". We seemed to collectively settle on history or biography, but there isn't anything on the current list that appeals. It seemed figures from the american revolution held the most appeal, but several other suggestions were offered including a biography of Custer.

Dave will put four new entries on the list that are biographies or histories, and others should send emails or comment below, with suggested history or biography books they are interested in for December into January.

Our next meeting is scheduled for 3 December, to discuss L Frank Baum's "The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause".