The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray - November 29, 2023

Michèle was our host for the November meeting and we also had, after our discussion a pot luck dinner to celebrate  the 25th Anniversary of the existence of the Muse & Views Book Club.  We began our meeting with a glass of bubbly offered to us by Janet's husband.  After our discussion we had a great meal provided by all of us! 

Present were Beth, Betty, Carla, Colette, Janet,  Linda, Marg, Marilyn, Michèle & Shirley.  All were present.  Shirley presented our book for November, The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.  

Marie Benedict is an American writer and lawyer.   She writes principally fictionalized novels of real women.  Her first book was The Other Einstein, the story of Mileva Maric Einstein, who was Albert Einstein's wife and a brilliant physicist herself.  She has written 9 historical novels about women of this world who had extraordinary lives.   For The Personal Librarian, she partnered with Victoria Christopher Murray a business woman and an author of 30 books.  

The Personal Librarian is the story of Belle da Costa Greene who was the personal librarian of J.P. Morgan and who maintained and built up the collection of rare manuscripts, books and artwork for the Pierpont Morgan Library.  Belle had a closely guarded secret, she was from a family of "coloured folks" but he skin was pale enough to pass as a white person.  Belle became well known in New York High Society and soon had close acquaintances in her professional and personal life, none who knew her secret. 

Most of the members found the story intriguing, many saying it is a "page turner" and also enjoyed the historical aspects of the book.  We could easily visualize the characters, especially the 2 main characters. J.P. Morgan, such a strong character who dominated everyone, both family and professional colleagues.  Belle da Costa Greene, from the beginning was confident in her abilities and knew, for example, how to convince J.P. Morgan to acquire a particular manuscript or artwork that she believed would be worthwhile for the library.  Several members mentioned how the business relationship grew so each had confidence in the other.  

A couple of our members thought that her anxiety and fear that her secret would be divulged was too often repeated in the story.  Every time she met J.P. Morgan's daughter Ann, her fear and anxiety came to mind.  When she was home with her family, the topic was often part of the conversation.  It was a way for the authors to emphasize how important it was for her to keep her heritage a secret, but some found it repetitive.  

Marie Benedict has written 9 books about women, all true stories and several members had read more than one of her books and enjoyed them.  Thank you Shirley for introducing several of us to an interesting author. 

Albatross by Terry Fallis - October 23, 2023

Betty was our host for the October meeting.  Present were Betty, Carla, Colette, Linda, Marg, Michèle and Shirley.   Betty served some lovely cheese including a very tasty cheese ball with crackers and olives.

This month we discussed Linda's choice, Terry Fallis' book Albatross.  We have read several of Terry Fallis' books.  He is a Canadian author and after his studies in Engineering at McMaster University he worked on Parliament hill, working on Jean Chrétien's federal election campaign and then working on the political staff of the Honorable Jean Lapierre.  His work on the Hill was the inspiration for his debut novel The Best Laid Plans.    He has published 9 books and is presently working on his 10th book.  He  twice won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour.   

Albatross is a book about golf, relationships and commitment.  The book was generally enjoyed by the members but few saw it as his best effort.  The story is about a young student in his last year of high school who discovers through his gym teacher that he has the perfect body measurements to be an extraordinary golfer.  The student, Adam Coryell knows nothing about golf and is much more interested in writing.  Along with his girlfriend he plans to study English Literature and Writing at the University of Toronto.  His teacher Bobbie, convinces him to try it and he becomes an almost immediate excellent golfer, winning a sports scholarship and winning almost every tournament he plays.

Most enjoyed the books finding it charming and sometimes funny, well written .  The characters of Adam and his teacher Bobbie were well developed and the relationship between the two was  heartwarming.  

Members enjoyed the end, all loose ends were tied up.  He used his money that he won for good.  The romance with his high school sweetheart re-kindled and she became a well-known author.  There is no big drama in this book, just a nice sometimes funny story.  

Thank you Linda for giving us a good summer read. 

 

The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery - September 25, 2023

 

We were a small group again this month, Beth, Betty, Carla, Marg and Michèle.   Michèle had homemade blinis with smoked salmon, a lovely garlicky dip and vegetables and olives.  Dessert was chocolate cupcakes with blue icing.

We discussed Carla's book choice, The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery.   L. M. Montgomery, as she was known in the publishing world wrote 20 novels, almost all for young adults, numerous short stories and poems.  She was best known for her series of books Anne of Green Gables and those that followed all set in Prince Edward Island.  They are still widely read in many countries throughout the World.  The Blue Castle is one of a very few adult novels she wrote.  

The story is set in small town Ontario, one of the only books she wrote not set in P.E.I.  It is about a single woman of 29 years old who lives with her mother and aunt and feels stifled by their criticism.  After receiving a life changing medical diagnosis she decides to free herself of family and we follow her life through work she takes on and love.  Ms. Montgomery also, as in her other books, describes the surrounding nature in a way that we can easily visualize, lush woods and serene lakes.

The novel was unanimously enjoyed by everyone present and those who sent us their comments.  It was felt that it described well the often claustrophobic lives of unmarried women in the early 20th century, and struggles they had to live an independent life when it was possible.  Many felt that this is essentially a romance novel but with an interesting plot and great characters.  Once Valancy breaks from her family, she learns to problem solve on her own, she does not allow others to dominate her and she learns to love.  

It is a well written story, characters are well developed and dramatic.  The story ends well with Valancy finding herself with her favourite author as her lover.   Several of our members especially enjoy a story that ends well.

This book is filled with "quotable" quotes and this is one that is particularly popular:

‘”John Foster says,” quoted Valancy, “If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and yet be entirely comfortable, you and that person can be friends. If you cannot, friends you’ll never be and you need not waste time in trying.'”

Thank you Carla for proposing this wonderful summer read. 

Books and Meetings 2024

  This list will be updated as members make their choices.

January 29 - Betty's choice, Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict, Marg hosts

February 26 - Colette's choice, The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams , Shirley hosts

March 25 - Marilyn's choice ,  Five Little Indians by Michelle Good, Carla hosts

April 22 - Marg's choice,  The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama, Michèle hosts

May 27 - Michèle's choice,  Poetry, Linda hosts

June 24 - Beth's choice, The Zone of Interest  by Martin AmisColette hosts

September 23 - Carla's choice, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, Marilyn hosts 

October 28 - Linda's choice, The Day the World Came to Town 9/11 by Jim Defede,  Betty hosts

November 27 - Shirley's choice, The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon, Beth hosts

The End of the Alphabet by C.S. Richardson - June 26, 2023

A vicious local storm, summer vacations that were already underway, and illness almost forced us to postpone our meeting. We were therefore a small group as Carla, Linda, Betty and Shirley met at our host Colette’s and Beth, whose book choice we were discussing, attended by zoom. 

Colette provided some special cheeses (particularly the creamy, dreamy Chateau Bourgogne from Jacobsons) representing countries visited by the characters in the book as well as samosas to spice things up followed by fresh strawberry shortcake. 

Our book this month was The End of the Alphabet by Canadian author, C.S. Richardson. This was Richardson’s first novel, and it won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. Richardson was for many years the VP and Creative Director at Random House where he won the Alcuin Society Award for book cover designs many times. His sparse prose is a definite reflection of his thoughtful and creative cover designs.

The book is a new take on tackling bucket lists or the plot device of a character with one month to live. Here we never know why our main character, Ambrose Zephyr, has suddenly been given one month ‘give or take’ to live. Faced with this news, Ambrose and his wife Zaporra (Zipper) embark on a whirlwind tour of all the places he has most loved or has always longed to visit, alphabetically from A to Z, Amsterdam to Zanzibar.

This is a very short, spare novel; there are no long descriptions of place, character or emotions, no flowery words. Ambrose and Zipper were a very devoted but insular couple, and we understand that the life sentence given to Ambrose is given to Zipper in almost equal measure.

The book certainly brought forward thoughts of mortality. What would we do under the same circumstances? Travel the world? Curl up in a ball? Rage against the unfairness of it all? We had a thoughtful discussion of what we would do, and we ended the discussion with a reminder to make end of life decisions … prior to end of life.

While one member of our group wanted a ‘happily ever after’ ending to the book, the book was well written, spare and beautiful. Thank you, Beth, for this thoughtful selection

Haven by Emma Donoghue - May 29th, 2023

Linda was our host this month as we discussed Janet’s book choice, Haven by Emma Donoghue. We were missing three of our group, but Marg, Janet, Colette, Marilyn, Carla and Shirley were there to enjoy the food and wine Linda provided as the book was discussed.

Our club previously read another of Donoghue’s books, The Wonder, so we were familiar with the author’s style of writing. Janet chose the book following a trip to Ireland where she visited the area where the Skellig are found and which is the setting for this stark book.

Ms. Donoghue's books always have well developed characters and a character everybody hates, and this book is true to form. We all come to detest Artt, his meanness, and intransigent attitude. The book is set in the 7th century; Christianity has existed in Europe for only a few hundred years so scholars such as Artt are revered. 

Cormac, who came to the monastery and Christianity late in life, sees his selection as a means to be more useful than just prayer, but he is torn by Artt's attitude. He wants to believe God will provide, as Artt tells him, but his life experience leaves him with doubts that they can survive without proper preparation of their own. The innocent but skillful Trian just wants approval and forgiveness, believing that his parents have left him at the monastery to serve as he can.

The description of the landscape, the birds and fauna are extraordinary, as is this author’s signature style. Donoghue’s description of several scenes such as when Trian is capturing the young puffins breaks your heart as it does Trian's. She is excellent in allowing you to visualize scenes and nature.

Mindlessly following any dogma, whether political, cultural, religious, scientific, turning a deaf ear to your inner voice for fear of being outcast will lead one down a dark societal road. In this case, Cormack and Trian doubted, questioned and inherently knew that what was being asked of them was the folly of a delusional egoist.

We are ready to yell "Go for it!" to Cormac when he finally decides he has had enough of Artt and convinces Trian to get in the boat. It gives us a feeling of satisfaction that the good people will survive. And though we don't know for sure if they make it to civilization in the small boat in winter and if Artt finds a way to survive alone, we can make up an end that allows us to believe in the goodness of human nature.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman - April 24th 2023

Michèle was our host this month.  Present were Beth, Betty, Colette, Linda, Marg, Michèle, Shirley and coming back to the fold, an original member of the BookClub Marilyn.  Michèle served a smoked salmon mousse on cucumber slices, a garlic dip with veggies and devilled eggs. A chocolate, strawberry cream dessert was served.  Of course wine was available and tea. 

We discussed Marg's book choice The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.  Mr. Osman is a television and radio personality who in 2020 published his first crime fiction novel.  It became an instant success selling over a million copies in the U.K. alone. It has become a series and three more novels with the Thursday Murder Club members have been published.  According to Wikipedia, Steven Spielberg has acquired the book's film rights.

The Thursday Murder Club is a group of 4 retirees living in a well-to-do retirement village in Kent.  They meet every Thursday to go over clues of a crime to try to solve it.  They find themselves involved in a real crime when a developer of a retirement villages is murdered.  

Most of our members enjoyed the book, found the storyline well developed though somewhat confusing near the end.  The characters, the members of the Murder Club, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron are well described as are the two detectives Chris and Donna.  There is a fair amount of humour injected in the story and the plot moves well in short chapters. 

Members found the book to be light reading and enjoyable.  They liked the short chapters, that the characters were seniors who were active and into modern trends, all having cell phones and texting each other often.  They seemed well connected and often had sources and clues that had the detectives "running" to catch up to them in trying to solve the two murders.  Members liked that there were surprises at the end as to who were the murderers and why.  

Thank you Marg for offering us an enjoyable read. 

Violeta by Isabel Allende - March 24, 2023

 Carla was our host this month.  We were a small group, Carla, Colette, Linda and Michèle.  We discussed Michèle's book choice Violeta  by Isabel Allende.

Isabel Allende was born in Peru where her diplomat father was stationed as the representative from Chile.  She moved back to Chile with her mother when she was 3 years old.   She was educated in private English schools.  She married Miguel Frias in 1962 and had 2 children.  She married twice more, her most recent marriage is to American lawyer Roger Crukas in 2019.  She now lives in California and is an American citizen.  She has received numerous honorary doctorates.   

Her writing career started as a translator of romance novels such as Harlequin Romances into Spanish. She was fired from that job because she was modifying the stories to make them more interesting.  She wrote her first novel The House of Spirits in 1982.  It evolved from a letter she wrote to her 99 year old grandfather hoping  to keep him alive, at least in spirit.  She has written 22 novels and 5 non-fiction books. 

She is often categorized as a writer of magical realism such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Her most notable books are the first one, The House of Spirits, Daughter of Fortune, published in 1999, it was an Oprah choice, and City of Beasts published in 2002. 

Violeta is her most recent novel based on her Grandmother's life begins in the early 1900's during the influenza pandemic and continues through to the present COVID pandemic in 2020. It covers not only the effects of the pandemics but also the depression, military coups in South America and family upheavals.  Violeta Del Valle is a 100 years old woman, almost on her death bed and pens a letter to her grandson describing her life. 

Members enjoyed the book, all present felt she has a good writing style and told the story of Violeta and her family well giving us a good history lesson of South America.  No specific country was mentioned.  Violeta had several men in her life, not only husbands but also lovers. She seemed to thrive only when she had a man in her life.  Though she always had men in her life, her decisions were her own and she was obviously the matriarch of her family. 

The Giver by Lois Lowry - February 27th 2023

Shirley was our host this month.  Present were Beth, Betty, Carla, Colette,  Linda, Marg, Michèle and Shirley of course.  We also had a written opinion from Janet who is presently on the other side of the country. Shirley put out a wonderful spread of "pigs in a blanket" vegetables with a dip, cheese and sweet &sour jelly beans!  Wine of course was served and a wonderful prune cake with a toffee sauce and whipping cream.  

Betty presented this month's book, The Giver by Lois Lowry.  Ms. Lowry is an American author, now 85 years old,  who began writing in her mid fifties.  She has written 47 books most are children's literature, many in series.  The Giver is the first of 4 books, followed by Gathering Blue, Messenger and Son.  Two of her books have won a Library Association Award for Children's Literature, The Newbery Medal, Number the Stars and The Giver that frequently appears on reading lists for Grade 7 & 8 classes in the U.S.A. and Canada.  They also often appear on lists of banned books.

The Giver is a dystopian novel about a community that appears to be utopian.  There is no pain or strife, no protest, nothing that is different.  Everyone lives by the rule book and has a particular role in society assigned to her or him at age 12.  The main character is a 12 year old boy named Jonas.

This novel generated considerable discussion.  A couple of us, not having previously read a "dystopian" novels, were shocked and unnerved by the storyline.  We discussed the "sameness" of the community in the novel, the similarity to a communist country like China or North Korea.  The 'release' of babies who were not thriving reminded many of us of "abortions" and the 'release' of the elderly as similar to MAID. However in effect both were murders probably disguised as letting them go (released).  We were all fascinated  unnerved by the story. One member read all 4 books of the series, curious to read what came next after Jonas leaves with Gabriel to find "elsewhere" and the world where joy, sorrow, pain and feelings exist.   

One of our members who us a former English literature teacher, found the book very interesting and she felt it would be a good teaching tool in the classroom, generating discussion and questions about our own society in comparison to the community in this novel. She felt that the author wrote the book in simple terms with few complicated descriptions, very readable for grade 7 & 8 students, that even young adults with reading difficulties would be able to understand and read it, still being able to compare the society in the book to our own.   It is well put together.  

Thank you Betty for a thoughtful selection.

State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny - January 30, 2023

Marg was our host as we began our 25^th year of the Muse and Views Book Club. Linda, Carla, Betty, Colette, Beth, and Shirley attended as we met to discuss Colette’s book choice, State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny. In the book, the characters travel to Germany, Russia, Pakistan, Iran and is based in the U.S. so Marg took her cue from that and prepared appetizers to represent many of those options including beet bruschetta, a middle eastern platter, bratwurst with a beer sauce and we topped it off with ‘American as apple pie’.

We have previously read one of Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache books so we were familiar with her writing but this book took a very different turn into political intrigue. One might assume that the book’s Secretary of State is based on Hillary Clinton however it was not. The authors did choose people close to them for their inspiration for each of the characters. We found that the co-authors Clinton and Penny mimiced the State of Terror characters of Ellen and Betsy as they worked together in solving the mystery.

We all found the inside look at the Secretary of State's office fascinating plus, of course, the thinly veiled jab at Donald Trump. One of the members found some relationship with the Joshua Boyle incident which happened while Hilary Clinton was Secretary of State. Joshua is the son of a then Tax Court judge.

Overall, the book was enjoyed by all. There were portions of the book that were perhaps a little too close to current events to be able to read without serious thoughts about our world today. There were lots of twists and turns to the story with travel and politics along with the mystery to keep interest alive. It was particularly interesting for our group of ladies of a certain age to see the middle-aged women being taken for granted as being ‘less than’ while proving that they are really ‘more than’.

Thank you, Colette, for choosing State of Terror for our first read of 2023.

Looking For Jane - Heather Marshall - November 28, 2022

The meeting was held at Shirley's with Linda hosting.  Present were Betty, Colette, Janet, Linda, Marg, Michèle and Shirley.  We discussed Shirley's book choice Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall. 

Heather Marshall is a Canadian author. She worked in communications and politics and now writes full time.  Looking for Jane.   

The conversation was thoughtful and we discussed not only the accessibility of abortion before it became legal in Canada but also women's experiences with pregnancy, mother/daughter relationships,  and many other issues around family and women in the 1960's and today.  

It was evident that we do not all have the same views about abortion but the conversation was interesting and many of us learned about the homes for unwed mothers and the religious nuns money making schemes in selling babies. 

Thank you Shirley for choosing such a thoughtful book.