A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles - November 26th, 2018

Our November meeting was hosted by Beth at her home. Present were, Beth, Betty, Colette, Janet, Linda, Michèle and Shirley.  Beth had a nice array of cheese, devilled eggs and nuts.  She served us a wonderful Apple Crisp for dessert and of course wine and tea were also offered.

This month's book presented by Shirley was A Gentleman of Moscow by Amor Towles.  This is the second book we have read from this author, the first being Rules of Civility.  Mr. Towles is an American author and graduate of Yale and Stanford University.  He work as an investment professional for over 20 years and now writes full time.

A Gentleman in Moscow recounts the life of a young Count Alexander Rostov who in 1922 is placed under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow, a large grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin.  For 32 years we learn how he copes with life within the hotel, we meet the friends he makes, the women who have shaped his life and how he grows emotionally and intellectually.

All our members enjoyed the book.  It was an interesting premise, everything happening within the walls of the Metropol Hotel.  The character development and relationship development between the Count and members of the staff and some hotel guests was very interesting.  It was interesting to see how they evolved.

Hotel living is a world in itself, you learn who the staff are and who does what. You learn who the long term guests are and regular visitors to the restaurant. The Count enjoyed the food and wine and the people, he enjoyed working in the restaurant and used his skills to deter conflicts between clients.

We delighted in his relationship with the young Nina that he ends up raising.  Together they explore the hotel and he teaches her about art, history and life.  We wonder how his relationship with the actress Anna will develop.

Many enjoyed the storyline, long and very detailed, descriptions painted beautiful pictures of the Count's surrounding and the people he met and his friends.  The end was well plotted, a bit of a countdown and charming in the way it unfolded.  When he goes home at the end, he knows it won't be the same and he accepts the changes.

Thank you to Shirley for the book choice.

Books and Meetings - 2019

This list will be updated as members choose their books.

Monday January 28th, - Michèle's choice The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve, Colette hosting.

Monday February 25th -  Janet's choice  On the Up by Shilo Jones, Janet hosting.

Monday March 25th - Betty's choice, The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman Colette hosting.

Monday April 29th -  Beth's choice  If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin, Jane hosting.

Monday May 27th -  Carla's choice, Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris, Betty hosting.

Monday June 24th - Linda's choice, Requiem by Frances Itani, Michèle hosting.

Monday September 23rd - Colette's choice, The Maltese Falcon by Dashielle Hammett, Linda hosting

Monday October 28th - Jane's choice, Starlight by Richard Wagamese, Shirley hosting

Monday November 25th - Shirley's choice, A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay, Beth hosting.

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce - October 22, 2018

The October meeting of Muse & Views Bookclub was hosted by Betty. Present were Beth, Betty, Colette,  Jane, Janet, Michèle and Shirley.  Betty had prepared deviled eggs, cheese, olives and a great apple pie for dessert.  Of course, wine, coffee and tea were also available as usual.

This month's book presented by Jane was The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce.  We read a couple of years back one other book, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by the same author.  Ms. Joyce is a British author who has written several plays for BBC radio and adaptations for BBC television. She has also worked as an actress with several theatre groups in London.

Most of our members enjoyed the book and saw it as love story with a lovely nostalgic atmosphere and a bit of fantasy. The characters are well developed. Music plays an important role in this story and Frank, the main character, is a very tender, lovable person that seems to have "magical powers" when it comes to music. He has a special gift of knowing what music a person needs to hear for whatever is ailing them or what is going on in their life. We learn more about Frank in chapters that take us back to his youth living with his eccentric mother. Although she is not a particularly nice person, she taught Frank all he knows about music.

We get to know other shopkeepers on the small community of Unity Street and their characters; although they do not play major roles, they are well developed. Maud is the typical London woman with her tattoos and weird clothes. Kit, Frank's assistant, is a young man who is excited to be working and enjoys learning from Frank.

Early in the story a young woman faints in front of Frank's store and as he tries to revive her he feels an immediate connection with her that he tries to deny. We meet Ilse Brauchmann and so the love story begins between Ilse and Frank. He teaches her about music, introducing her to different pieces at weekly meetings. They develop a certain rapport but there is something on both their sides that keeps them from developing a deeper relationship and then Ilse disappears.

This is a touching story with a good ending and the music, very eclectic, is wonderfully interspersed and woven into the story. There is a playlist on Spotify. Thank you Jane for an excellent read.

They Left us Everything by Plum Johnson - September 24th, 2018

The September meeting of Muse & Views was hosted by Michèle. Present were Beth, Colette, Janet, Linda and Michèle.  We were served some wonderful hors d'oeuvres, a fig and walnut spread, spicy olives, small rolls of salami and mini-pizzas, red and white wine of course.  Shirley's wonderful Pot à la crème was served after our discussion with tea for everyone.

This month's book presented by Colette was They Left us Everything by Plum Johnson.  This is a memoir that Ms. Johnson writes as she is emptying the family home after the death of her parents, her father and then her mother.  A process that she thought would take 6 weeks eventually took 16 months. She writes about the toll 20 years of taking care of her parents took on her life, the resentment she felt that it was left to her, the constant trips to the family home from her own home in Toronto to see to her parents needs and whims.  As she goes through each room of her family home, she catalogues everything and she describes life as it was growing up.  We learn of her parents' relationship, the ups and downs, her parents' characters and the impact of their many moves before they settled in the Oakville home.

All of us talked about our own experiences with parents and what they have left us.  Several of us understood her attitude before the death of her parents, the resentment she felt and appreciated the feelings she had while she was slowly going through the house, cataloguing, throwing away, selling her parents' possessions.  Some of us regretted not using the time before to allow our parents and older family members tell of of their lives and putting it on paper so it remains with us and our children and relatives.

We talked of all the articles and advice books that have appeared in the last years on how to deal with aging parents, illness, finances, how to encourage family members to downsize, to get rid of "stuff". Yet this memoir They Left us Everything,  shows how often parents gave us everything, family life, memories, our history.  Ms. Johnson came to appreciate the chance to relive memories of their family life as she cataloged, sold and threw out parts of her family life in the 16 months it took her to finally close the house and sell it.

Many of us saw the house itself as one of the characters as Ms. Johnson went through the house we were able to visualize it both inside and outside.  As she described family gatherings, weddings, parties that were held in the home and in the garden, we could "see" the home as it existed with the family.

We all enjoyed the book, found it brought back memories for some and gave some of us with living parents an new perspective, different that what is usual.  Books may give us ways of dealing with illness, downsizing, finances but our family memories are in our family homes and possessions they have collected.

Thank you Colette for a good recommendation that came originally from Sharon.

Brooklyn by Colm Tobin - June 25th, 2018

The June meeting of Muse & Views was hosted by Linda.  Present were Beth, Betty, Colette, Jane, Linda, Michèle and Shirley.  This month's book, Brooklyn by Colm Tobin was presented by Beth.

Colm Toibin is an Irish writer currently a professor of Humanities at Columbia University in New York. He is also Chancellor of the University of Liverpool.  He worked several years as a journalist and has written six novels, published two books of short stories and has also published non-fiction books and poetry.  Several of his books reflect on life in Ireland and he has relatives, his grand-father and uncle, who were members of the IRA.

Brooklyn his sixth novel, tells the story of a young woman who is encouraged to move to Brooklyn in the United States so she may have a more productive life.  She battles severe homesickness but eventually adapts, working, taking bookkeeping classes and participating in a social life. She meets an Italian young man and eventually falls in love with him.  When her sister suddenly dies in Ireland, Eilis goes back to Ireland to mourn and eventually finds herself in a dilemma.  Should she stay in Ireland or go back to Brooklyn to Tony who she secretly married before leaving?

Our members all enjoyed the book, found it to be a good enjoyable read.  Mr. Toibin describes well life in a small Irish town, the jealousies, the despair, the limits that were part of many European countries in the 1950's after the war.  When Eilis immigrates to Brooklyn, she lives in a rooming home owned by an Irish woman and much of her life is still rooted in Ireland.  However when she meets Tony who comes from an Italian family, she is exposed the the opportunities of life in America.

We found that Eilis really let life happen to her rather than being proactive.  Her sister arranges for her to meet the priest who will convince her to move to America, she lets her sister make the decision for her.  In America she is influenced by Father Flood and eventually by her boyfriend Tony.  She is easily manipulated not a decisive person.

Colm Toibin's writing is not overly descriptive, he gives us enough information and description of life for us to easily imagine the difficulties of life after the war in Europe and the opportunities of life in America that encourage people to immigrate.  The story was a good read.  It was made into a movie in 2015 and was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.  Thank you Beth for an excellent choice,

Flee, Fly, Flown by Janet Hepburn - May 28, 2018

The May meeting of Muse & Views was hosted by Shirley.  Present were Carla, Colette, Jane, Janet, Linda, Michèle, Sharon and Shirley. Shirley prepared a wonderful picnic for us with vegetable, cheese and salami skewers and tea chicken sandwiches.  For dessert she prepared her wonderful lemon pot de crème (you can find the recipe here at the end of the post) and she presented wonderful "picnic cookies" made by a friend.  Of course we had the usual wine and tea.

This month's book presented by Linda was Flee, Fly, Flown by Janet Hepburn.  Ms. Hepburn is a Canadian poet and author. This is her first novel.   She comes from Port Dover, Ontario,  the best place in Ontario for fish and chips according to two of our members!

The story is about two elderly women, Lillian and Audrey who live with Alzheimers in a home for seniors in Ottawa.  Lillian is particularly tired of the boring life she lives, everything being a routine from when she can eat, what she can eat, when she can sleep and even when, as she says, she can poop!  They decide together to go on a vacation and plot how they will get out without being noticed, how they can get a car and money.  Once they have a car, it does not take them long to realize that they have no way of knowing how to get out of the city and what road to take to eventually get to the west coast.  They meet a young homeless man and Audrey convinces him to drive them west.  The story is their adventures as they drive out towards the mountains.

It does not happen often that everyone loves a book we read.  We all felt that the main characters, Lillian, Audrey and the young man Rayne as they call him are well developed.  Several parts of the book are Lillian's thoughts, her struggles to concentrate and remember who she is with, where she is and what she must remember.  She keeps a notebook and writes in notes to hopefully help her, "vacation", "taxi phone number", anything that she think will help jog her memory.  It was a realistic portrayal of thoughts helping us understand what is in a person's head, it was well done.

There were some parts that made us giggle, many parts and the book in general that made us sad.  There were some very poignant periods. As we each talked about our impressions of the book, most of us could relate to the story because of persons we knew who are or had lived with dementia.  It is evident that it is quite prevalent in today's society and since the "baby boomers" are now pretty well over 60, it will become more relevant to us all.

Many of us reflected on the life we subject our seniors to in homes.  We discussed different innovative living arrangements that are being tried here in Canada and elsewhere.  In the Netherlands there is Hogeweyk, a "dementia village" that allows clients with dementia to have a more normal life while still being properly supervised.

An excellent choice Linda, one that we all liked and one that gave us the opportunity for discussion.

Kamouraska by Anne Hébert - April 23rd, 2018

The April meeting of Muse & Views Bookclub was hosted by Jane at Colette's home.  Present were Colette, Janet, Linda, Michèle, and Shirley.  Jane though she could not attend, provided us with very nice cheese from Québec, pickled vegetables and turkey sausage and of course wine.  Colette provided a very nice dessert, coffee and tea.

This month we discussed Michèle's book choice Kamouraska by the Québec author Anne Hébert. Born in 1916, in Sainte Catherine de Fossambault, about 40 km north-east of Québec City  Anne Hébert was the eldest of four children. Her father was a civil servant, of acadian descent.  Her maternal grandfather, Eugène Étienne Taché was the architect of Québec parliament buildings.  His grandfather was Lord Achille Taché of Kamouraska.  

Anne Hébert, in international French literature is a well known and respected author. She wrote 10 novels,  poetry,  plays and a book of short stories.  She also wrote 8 film scripts including those for Kamouraska and Les Fous de Bassan. She won 20 literary prizes in Canada and France including the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry and fiction and the Prix Fémina in 1982 one of France’s most prestigious prizes for her novel Les Fous de Bassan.  Kamouraska, Les Fous de Bassan and a short story, Le Tourent were made into films.  

Kamouraska is based on a true story of the murder of Le Seigneur (Lord) Achille Taché of Kamouraska in 1839 by an American doctor George Holmes who was in love with Taché’s wife Éleonore d’Estimauville.  Anne Hébert took this fact  from her family history and created what many of us saw as a gothic novel about a young woman, Elizabeth who married a brute of man when she was 15, conspired to kill him with her lover doctor who was a childhood friend of her husband. The book begins with Elizabeth at the death bed of her second husband Monsieur Rolland.  He is afraid to be alone with her, he knows what happened to her first husband.  Elizabeth relives her life through nightmares and her thoughts.  

Most of us found this novel a difficult read.  One member felt she was in a nightmare belonging to someone else.  Beth gave a good description of how she read the book and many of us felt the same. "There’s the sense of isolation in the narrator’s painful, horrific experiences and frustrations, and the claustrophobia of the endless swirling vortex of her memories, nightmarish fears and justifications.  We keep trying to decipher what really happened.  We also keep trying to decide how we feel about her.  It’s a very vivid picture of the remote place and society as she experiences it, but exhausting and bitter to read.  Seems to me like a gothic novel  -  sort of like Wuthering Heights. "

We all found the novel frustrating to read, difficult to understand in some parts but as Carla said, "the book was well written and the nightmarish quality had a great affect on us as readers." 

Meeting of March 26, 2018

The March meeting of the Muse and Views Book Club was hosted by Carla and attended by Beth,  Shirley, Sharon, Jane and Betty. As the majority of this month’s book, The Piano Maker by Kurt Palka, was set in Canada, Carla chose a selection of local cheeses and sausages. She also offered tastes of grapple, which is described as an apple that tastes like a grape and which is actually an apple that has been infused with artificial grape flavour. Grapple is also described as two species that have no business being together combined to produce something beautiful and odd and which definitely relates to our book. Her wine selection this month was in direct correlation with book scenarios. Not to give too much away, but one of the wines was called D’Ont Poke the Bear and another was Twist of Fate. Carla’s delicious Pavlova and tea completed the evening’s food, wine and discussion.

Betty presented this month’s book and provided interesting information about the author. Kurt Palka was born and educated in Austria. He began his working life in Africa where he wrote for the African Mirror and made wildlife films in Kenya and Tanzania. He has worked and written for American and Canadian publications and as a Senior Producer for the CBC.

It was while he was living in a rooming house in Johannesburg that Palka first learned about pianos. While travelling the hot, dry back roads of South Africa with a fellow roommate, an itinerant piano tuner, the impression of watching this master at work left a lasting impression on him. Years later Palka was working in France, staying at a pension in Nice where there was a Bösendorfer in the music room, and most evenings it would be played. This time, it was a young woman who came to tune the piano but this time not with tuning forks but with her highly sensitive ear.

Set in a fictional town on Nova Scotia’s French Shore in the 1930s, it follows Hélène Giroux, a mysterious French woman with a troubled past. When she arrives in town, she joins the church as a choirmaster and pianist, dazzling the small, insular community with her talent, refined elegance and stories of the piano factory her family owned in prewar France. After the Great War left her both widowed and destitute from the ruin of her family's piano-making business, Hélène had left France for England and, eventually, Québec. A series of weighty, enigmatic references – to a jail, an institution, dreams about an accident in a "cave of horror" – suggest Hélène is trying to escape some kind of trauma in her recent past.

The Piano Maker offers interesting characters and a story that goes from France to Canada, taking detours into Indochina and Africa. It illustrates the development of a piano-making company, the horrors of WWI, the market in the early 20^th century for ancient treasures from exotic countries and the harshness of Canadian winters in Western Canada. There is an intrigue and you find yourself rooting for Hélène Giroux. Despite so much going on in the novel, it is not even 300 pages long, it is concise and has little irrelevant descriptions or scenes.

It was noted and appreciated that, reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird and Snow Falling on Cedars, part of the story was told by the use of a trial. There was a lyricism to the writing with the story being told as an onion being peeled. The discussion of the making of a piano with all the woods used and the processes was an interesting diversion.

While the general consensus was that this was an enjoyable, quiet and easy read, there were some distractions. A negative point was made with reference to the priest insisting Hélène go to confession which would definitely not have been done, particularly in that era. There was also a discordant note out of time where Hélène’s daughter who lives in England calls her ‘mother’ and then suddenly it becomes the American ‘mom’.

Questions remain. Why would Hélène go off with Nathan after he had bilked her of all her money? Would an unmarried couple travel together easily in that time period? 

Thanks Betty for another interesting read.

Meeting of February 26, 2018

We met this evening at Janet's home to discuss Carla's choice, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.  Present were Beth, Betty, Carla, Colette, Jane, Janet, Shirley and Michèle via Skype from sunny Florida.  As the book is set in France, Janet had some wonderful French cheese, pâté, French wine and for dessert, tarte aux pommes with crème chantilly.

Everyone enjoyed The Nightingale. This is the second book we have read by Kristin Hannah, so those who would like some information on this author can click on the link.  This story is about two sisters in France during World War II and how each coped with the tragedy and events of war.  Vianne, married and living with her daughter in a small village while her husband is fighting endures the humiliation of Nazis living in her home and overtaking the village. Isabelle, the younger single sister who lives in Paris with her father, eventually finds her calling helping those of the resistance escape from France once they are denounced.

The character development of the two sisters is excellent.  We really get know each sister and understand in each of their circumstances how and why they react to events in their life.  Vianne, a mother, will do anything to protect her own child and finds a way to protect and keep her best friend Rachel's, son.  Though her sister Isabelle does not understand how Vianne can allow a Nazi to live under her roof, Vianne knows the consequences of refusing and finds ways to live with it and protect her daughter. She accepts the food and gifts from the first officer so her daughter can eat properly and she endures repetitive rape by the second officer to protect her daughter from the same fate.  Isabelle, younger more of a rebel and without the responsibilities of a family, finds a way to help her countrymen in the Résistence.

Many of us enjoy historical novels that allow us to learn and this novel packs it in. We learn about how the Nazis with the help of some French collaborators rounded up Jews not only in big cities such as Paris and Lyon but also in small villages.  Though we did learn about the the French fleeing Paris in Suite Française by Irène Nemirovsky, there are different aspects and details in this book. In All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr we learned about the Résistence and in The Nightingale, Isabelle's involvement gives us more information.   Kristin Hannah's research for this book was extensive.

Thank you Carla for choosing this book and Shirley for recommending it.

Meeting of January 29th, 2018

As we begin the 20^th year of our Muse and Views Book Club, we met at Colette’s to discuss Still Life by Louise Penny. Attending were Jane, Janet, Shirley, Colette and our newest member, Sharon (Welcome to Muse and Views, Sharon!), plus Michèle and Linda who Skyped in to join the discussion. In keeping with the theme of the book, Colette served an array of Québec cheeses, stuffed mushrooms, and croissants followed by home-made mini lemon tarts, fit for any boulangerie.

The author, Louise Penny, came to writing later in life, having previously been a journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Her husband, Michael, who she describes as ‘kindly, thoughtful, generous, a man of courage and integrity, who both loved and accepted love’, was her inspiration for Armand Gamache. She lives outside a small village south of Montréal, quite close to the American border, and has used the Eastern Townships for the setting of her imagined village of Three Pines and the Inspector Gamache series.

Still Life is Louise Penny’s debut novel and has garnered a number of awards; her subsequent books continue to win accolades. In 2013, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada "for her contributions to Canadian culture as an author shining a spotlight on the Eastern Townships of Quebec”. She has been compared to Agatha Christie in her writing style which features many hallmarks of the British whodunit genre, including murders by unconventional means, bucolic villages, large casts of suspects, red herrings, and a dramatic disclosure of the murderer in the last few pages of the book.

Although all felt that the book was an ‘easy read’, our reviews were mixed. The devices and red herrings used in the book seemed too obvious. Some felt that character development was weak however one of the members, who had read the entire series, explained that the characters do fully develop over the series.

The description of the very rural village of Three Pines was well done as was most instances of family dynamics. Meanwhile, the conversation Inspector Gamache had with Ben about the dwindling rights of Anglophones in Québec was off-putting and definitely one-sided. The portrayal of Gabri and Olivier, the gay owners of the bistro and bed and breakfast, was felt to be rudely stereotypical.

This month’s book discussion was as lively as usual and reading a Canadian author is never a bad thing.