The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb - May 26, 2025

This was our second morning meeting and Linda, our host, provided some lovely muffins, coffee and tea. Perfect!  Present were Betty, Carla, Colette, Linda, Michèle, Sharon and Shirley.

After a great chat discussing summer projects, we discussed Michèle's book choice The Beauty of Humanity Movement  by Camilla Gibb. 

Camilla Gibb is the author of four novels—Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So–and–so’s Life,Sweetness in the Belly, and The Beauty of Humanity Movement—as well as numerous short stories, articles, and book reviews. She has won several awards and is presently teaching at the University of Guelph and at the University of Toronto.

The story takes place in Vietnam after the American War.  The Communists have taken over and life is a struggle especially for the poorer people.  Hung the senior, and Pho maker, best soup in Hanoi,  has several people around him that he considers family.  His next door neighbour, Lan who no longer talks to him but that he still provides her with food, Tu and his father Binh who are the son and grandson of his dear friend and artist Dao.  When Maggie, the American Vietnamese young woman arrives in the picture, looking for her father who was also an artist, she also becomes part of his family.  

 "The old man as special power - he is the heart of this place, was the heart of the Beauty of Humanity Movement - he brings people together, keeps them fed. " pg 252

All members very much enjoyed the story.  All said that the writing, the text was soothing even when difficult aspects were described, the words, the descriptions were easier to read. There was romance and intrigue.  The story kept you reading, wanting to know what would happen next to Hung and his family/friends.  Would Maggie find clues about her artist father? 

There is a happy ending enjoyed by many of our members.  Some however felt that the end was too wrapped up in a ribbon, Hung has a shop again, he and Lan are talking and together serving the family and clients of the new shop.  Artists and professors from the Hanoi University of Fine Arts have a table at the shop.  Maggie has found her father's story and one of his paintings hangs in the shop.  It is all happy endings wrapped in a ribbon, leaving you with a warm, soothing feeling. 

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. 

Cassandra at the Wedding - Dorothy Baker - May 30th, 2022

Present were Carla, Colette, Janet, Linda, Marg, Michèle and Shirley.  We met at Shirley's home and she served wonderful asian inspired hors d'oeuvres, wine of course, coffee & tea and her famous Pots de crème citronée and you can find the recipe at the bottom of the  October 2012 post. 

Dorothy Baker was born in 1907 in Montana and the family then moved to California.  After completing her studies  French at UCLA she went to France and met the poet Howard Baker.  They were married in 1930 and moved to California.  She published her first novel. Young Man With a Horn in 1938. It was very successful and was made into a movie in 1950 with Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and Doris Day.  She wrote 6 novels and some plays with her husband.  She died in 1968.  

Cassandra at te Wedding was her 5th novel published in 1962.  Cassandra and Judith are identical twins who have always lived together and done everything together u to 9 months prior when Judith, a pianist, goes off to Julliard to study music.   It becomes evident that Cassandra finds it very difficult living without her sister and even more when her sister meets a nice young man in New York and invites Cassandra to meet them at their father's ranch to celebrate their wedding.  The book is written mainly in the narrative, firstly as Cassandra drives from California to their father's ranch, in dialogue between Cassandra and Judith and then Judith's thoughts.  

This is definitely not a book that was well liked by the majority of our members. Most disliked Cassandra finding her self absorbed, neurotic and narcissistic.  Most were relieved when the narrative switched to Judith.  None of us were surprised that Cassandra's dress choice in white would be the identical to Judith's wedding dress.  Those who enjoyed the book thought the characters were well developed, that the relationship between Cassandra and Judith was well described.  The drama of Cassandra's sleeping pill incident was tense and profound.  There is a strong suggestion of lesbianism when Cassandra's therapist arrives and takes over Cassandra's care.  

Suffice to say that this book will not win the "best book read o 2022" from this Bookclub!  

Magic Lessons - February 22, 2021

 It is always nice to see all the faces on the screen for our Zoom Bookclub meeting.  Present tonight, Betty, Carla, Colette, Jane, Janet, Linda, Marg, Michèle and Shirley.  The book discussed tonight was Michèle's choice Magic Lessons  by Alice Hoffman.  

Ms Hoffman is an American novelist born in New York City in 1952. She studied creative writing and now lives in Boston.  She wrote over 30 novels, 3 short story books and 8 children's or YA novels.  

Magic Lessons is part of a series of three books about the Owens family, all women.  The first book of the series was Practical Magic written in 1995, The Rules of Magic was written in 2017 and Magic Lessons was published in 2020.  Both of these last two books are prequels, written after the original book.  A fourth book will be published next year about the whole Owens family.  

Magic Lessons begins in the late 1600's and is the story of Maria Owen abandoned as a newborn in the snowy fields of rural England. She is found by Hannah Owens and raised by her until the age of 11.  It becomes evident that Maria has magical powers and Hannah teaches her the Nameless Arts, the herbs and remedies that help for physical maladies a those of the heart. When Hannah is murdered, to save herself Maria leaves England and finds herself on a tropical island in Central America and then goes on to America.  The story follows Maria to Salem, Massachusetts where she travels to find the father of her daughter Faith.  She is arrested and found guilty of witchery.  The story continues when Maria escapes but loses her daughter Faith.  Jolene, who passed away in 2018, would have enjoyed this book since it has a happy ending, tying all the loose ends. 

Most of our members enjoyed the book.  Many found it read like a fairytale and was a page-turner.  The characters were well developed and interesting.  It was an easy read, easy to follow the story and plot.  There are many contrasts in the story, good & evil of course,  selfless use of magical powers as Maria did and selfish use of magical powers as her birth mother Rebecca did.   Many of us felt like yelling at Maria and Faith when they made poor choices, almost always about men! We were definitely immersed in the story! We were also all intrigued by the black soap that all women wanted and bought from Maria. 

Janet pointed out that we have read other books that use magical realism, Yann's Martel's  The High Mountains of Portugal and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.   She also noted that this is the 3rd book we have read in the last year that is in the time of the Great Plague of London of 1665, The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish and Bush Runner : The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson by Mark Bourrie.   

Maria sang the lullaby The Water is Wide to her daughter Faith as some of us did with our own children.  Thank you Janet for reminding us.   This was a good book to read during these difficult times in today's world, easy to escape to another time, a fairytale. 

The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve - February 4, 2019 (replaced January meeting cancelled because of weather)

Our January meeting, held February 4th because of weather, was hosted by Colette.  Present were Betty, Colette, Jane, Marg, Michèle and Shirley.  Colette had a great array of cheese, crackers, a dip and wonderful warm stuffed pastry rolls.  She served a pecan pie for dessert and of course, wine, coffee and tea were also available.

In January of each year we choose the best book of the previous year.  This year A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles presented by Shirley won.  We also awarded the Jolene Bale Award named in honour of our dear friend and original member of the Muse & Views Bookclub who passed away in August 2017.  It also went to Shirley for A Gentleman in Moscow.  Congratulations Shirley!

This month's book presented by Michèle was The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve.  Ms. Shreve was born in Boston in 1946 and died in March 2018.  This was her last of 19 books.  Muse & Views read one of her most popular books The Pilot's Wife in 2002.

We all agreed that this book is an easy read and most of us wished she had given more information about the fires that are a historical fact.  A few of our members enjoyed the book, one member found it to be almost like a thriller.  Would Grace and Rosie survive the fire huddled in the ocean?  Was Gene dead, would he come back? Would Grace find her mother?  Several of our members found the book a bit like a Harlequin Romance and felt that there were just too many coincidences. When the whole village burnt to the ground, Grace's mother-in-law's house survived. When Grace's daughter became ill, she found a job with the new doctor who treated her daughter.  She found the jewels  hidden in the hems of her mother-in-law's glamorous clothing that permitted her to buy a car and help her feed her family.  As Grace's confidence grew, everything seemed to fall in place, even after Gene came home and set her back she found the strength to improve her life.

We discussed the title The Stars are Fire that comes from a quote in Shakespeare's play Hamlet.  Marg had done some research and in a letter to Ophelia, Hamlet begins by saying Doubt the Stars are Fire, Doubt that the sun doth moves... trying to convince her that she should not doubt his love for her.  The title could have to do with the pianist Aidan's love for Grace.

So we had mixed feelings about the story. For those of us who have read several of Ms. Shreve's novels, it is certainly not her best.

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 April 24, 2017

We met at Colette's with Jane hosting to discuss Michèle's book choice Maman's Homesick Pie by Donia Bijan.  Jane provided some lovely cheese, pâtés, olives and very nice dolma.  As Donia made while training to be a chef, Jane made a cherry clafoutis and madeleines.  Of course wine, tea and coffee was also served.

Michèle did not go into great detail about Donia Bijan as author since this book is a memoir, however, she did tell us that Ms. Bijan has written a novel which came out in March called The Last Days of Café Leila.

This book is a memoir that begins when Ms. Bijan has to clean out her mother’s home after her death.  She discovers in a kitchen drawer, her mother's recipes and as she goes through them memories of  her childhood in Iran, her family’s escape when the Shah was overturned, their life in the United States and her path towards becoming a chef come to her and she writes about their life through stories, often related to these recipes.

Her father, a physican in Iran along with her mother who was a nurse, built a hospital in Iran.  They were well known and her father was a well-regarded physician.  They lived with Donia and her two sisters in apartments above the hospital.  Donia describes well their life, their school life and family outings. 

Donia’s mother became involved in politics and campaigned against the revolutionary movement.  During a family vacation on Malta, the  revolutionary movement ousted the Shah.  Donia and her family were not able to go back to Iran and eventually emigrated to the United States.  Donia’s mother who had studied nursing in England adapted well to their new situation.  However, her father, who was unable to practice medicine in the U.S., did not adapt well.  Eventually he went back to Iran and his hospital. 

Each chapter finishes with recipes her mother used beginning with a cardamon tea,  Often in the chapters, Donia tells stories of their life in Iran and when some of the recipes were made.  

Donia’s style of writing was very easy and pleasant to read. Some of us described it as gentle.  We learn a lot about the Iranian and Persian culture.  We get to know her parents and Donia well. 

The book was well liked by all members,  everyone finding it easy to read and enjoyable.  We were saddened by the fate of her parents when eventually they find themselves living separate lives in separate countries.  We were astonished to learn how difficult it is to become a chef, the non-paying jobs, the menial jobs, the long and crazy hours that aspiring chefs, including Donia, have to endure to hopefully achieve success.  The only criticism some of us had about the book was how little we learned about Donia’s sisters. 

Donia describes well her relationship with her mother and this reminded members of others books with mother/daughter relations, What My Mother Gave Me by Elizabeth Benedict and They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson.  Both relate mother/daughter relationships.

Meeting of April 25th 2016

Beth, Betty, Carla, Colette, Jane, Janet, Jolene, Linda, Michèle, Shirley were all present, all members of our Book Club were with us. Jane hosted and we had some wonderful cheese, a nice variety of crackers, wonderful compotes and jellies.

Our book this month was The Memory Chalet By Tony Judt, Michèle's choice.  Tony Judt was born London in 1948 of secular Jewish parents who were British Citizens.  He did a B.A. at  Cambridge, then a year at l’École Normale  Supérieure in Paris and then obtained a Ph.D. in History from Cambridge in 1972 specializing in French History.  He taught at several colleges and universities in England and the U.S. before settling in New York in 1987.  He is known for his academic books, essays and he was also a frequent New York Review of Books.

In early 2008 he was diagnosed with ALS and he died in late 2010,  two years after being diagnosed. The Memory Chalet was published after his death.  The book is a memoir,  some saw it as a diary, of his most vivid memories of childhood and life as a student and a young professor. Since ALS robbed him of the ability to write or even type, he would during the night write whole stories in his head and "park" them in one of the rooms of a Chalet he had been to with his parents as a child. In the morning he would retrieve them and dictate them to an assistant.  The idea came to him from Jonathan Spence's book The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci in which Spence describes a method used by European scholars for centuries. Matteo taught the Chinese the Western memory technique which was to associate ideas with images and locate those images in fixed spatial relation to one another.  Hence the Memory Chalet with different rooms that could be filled with memories. 

Most liked the book and found Judt's excellent writing allowed us to visualize the experiences he was describing such as his neighbourhood Putney; Paris as a student in the late 1960's when students were protesting everything and anything; his experience in a kibbutz and his reflections on the positive and negative impact on his life.   He was very honest about and insightful about his life and experiences. We were impressed by the detail of the information he was able to provide, all from memory.  We felt that the preface was just long enough to allow us to understand ALS and how it affected him and then he barely mentionned it through out the chapters describing different aspects of his life.  He finishes with a reference to trains, his favourite mode of transportation.

"We cannot choose where we start out in life, but we may finish where we will. I know where I shall be going nowhere in particular on that little train, forever and ever."

Several of us reflected on the idea that it was his way of seeing eternity. Trains were his favourite place to be.

Meeting of April 27, 2015

Muse & Views Bookclub was hosted by Jane at Colette's home. Present were Carla, Colette, Jane, Janet, Jolene, Michèle and Shirley.  We had a nice array of hors d'oeuvres, sausage, vegetables and cheese.  Jane served a very nice lemon tart.  

This month's book is Michèle's choice,  Ru by Kim Thùy. 

Kim Thùy was born in 1968 in Saigon. She left on a  boat with her family for Malaysia in 1978 and spent 4 months in a refugee camp before coming to Québec.  Her family was sponsored by a group from Granby in the wave of Boat people who were given refugee status in Canada.  After a year in Granby, her family moved to Montreal. She studied literature and law and practiced law for a few years. She also owned a restaurant.  

Ru was first written in French in 2009 and then translated in to English. It has since been translated into 15 different languages. It has won several awards including the Governor General Award for best french language fiction in 2010. It also won the CBC Canada Reads competition in 2015 as the book that can break barriers.

Comments from members were both positive and negative.  The writing style can be difficult to follow. There is no plot or development of characters. It is a journal of recollections, experiences of boat people from Vietnam – Each page recounts a memory of an incident.  In each, a word or phrase brings up another memory that is recounted on the next page.  Some of the recollections are personal, some are stories she heard from others in her family or other boat people she met.   

Several found the writing style difficult. They felt that the stories were not complete, that we could not get a good grasp of the persons in the story.   It almost felt as if you were sitting with a person who was telling you small doses of their experiences and going from one story to another without quite finishing the last.  Others found the style interesting, a bit like telling a person's life in almost Haiku style.  It is certainly a book that does not have to be read sequentially but could be opened almost at any page and read here and there.  

Until next time...

Books by Alice Munro - February 24, 2014

A selection of her books

Alice Munro

We tried a different format for this meeting and decided since Alice Munro is the 2013 winner of the Nobel prize for Literature to each read different collections of her short stories and discuss the short story format and Ms. Munro's style. Michèle presented the author.

It is the middle of winter and several of our members have escaped the wind, snow and cold so we were only six. Beth, Colette, Jane, Jolene, Shirley and Michèle were present. Jane prepared a nice feast using almost only Ontario products, cheese, cheeseballs, a lovely meatloaf with Ontario meat and Chapman's ice cream that is made Markdale, Ontario not 100 km from Wingham where Alice Munro was born.

Alice Munro was born Alice Laidlaw in July 1931. Her father was a mink farmer and her mother a teacher. She was raised in Wingham, Ontario, and in 1949 won a two year scholarship to the University of Western Ontario where she studied English and Journalism. She met both James Munro and Gerald Fremlin at University.  While at university she published three stories in the University magazine Folio. In 1951 when her scholarship money was finished, she left university marrying James Munro. They subsequently moved to British Columbia.  During this time Alice sold several of her stories to CBC radio for the Robert Weaver program Canadian Short Stories.  She published her first collection of short stories in 1968 - Dance of the Happy Shades and went on to publish a total of 14 collections along with many short stories in the magazine The New Yorker and other literary magazines.

In 1972 Alice Munro left her marriage and British Columbia and moved back to Ontario.  She married Gerald Fremlin in 1976 and lived in Clinton until his death in 2013.

Alice Munro won three Governor General's Awards, two Giller Prizes and several other awards, the most prestigious being the Nobel prize for Literature in 2013.

The great majority of her stories take place in small town Ontario and she has been able to describe in concise prose small town life and the Ontario landscape allowing us to easily imagine the surroundings in which a story takes place.  She has often taken her own and other family member experiences as the basis of her stories. Some people in her hometown of Wingham, sometimes felt that her characters and stories were a bit too similar to reality and she was sometimes criticized in local newspapers.

Many of Ms. Munro's stories have dark story lines and linger on the unsavory parts of her characters leaving them with few endearing qualities. A couple of her collections, notably Runaway have stories that are brighter. Several of our members decided they preferred a novel to short stories.  They sometimes felt as if there wasn't quite enough in a story to satisfy them. However all were pleased to have had the opportunity to read and discover Alice Munro's works.  The short story format pleased some who have a very busy life, allowing them to read completely one story in a sitting.

Several Canadian authors began writing short stories, Margaret Atwood, Morley Callahan, Roch Carrier, Lyn Coady, Robertson Davies, Margaret Laurence and most notably Mavis Gallant who died recently. Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant both wrote exclusively short story collections and have an international reputation.

Meeting of April 22, 2013

We met at Colette's home with Jane hosting.  She offered wonderful cheese, sausage with chutney, small white onions, olives and french cornichons and a lovely chocolate mousse.  Present were Beth, Carla, Colette, Jane, Jolene, Linda, Michèle and Shirley.  We discussed Rules of Civility by Amor Towles presented by Michèle.

We welcomed back our "snow birds" Linda and Michèle who enjoyed the Florida sun for the last three months.

Michèle was very pleased that all enjoyed the book and found it to be a page turner!  The plot rolled along very well and we had a good feeling of the atmosphere of New York in the 1930's, the classes, how people dressed, restaurants, club such as the Russian jazz club.  With short descriptions such as katey's polka dot dress, the flapper coat that ended up Eve's closet, Towles manages to give us a picture of the styles from the era.  With just a couple of scenes of Katey meeting up with friends from her neighbourhood we get an impression of class difference.

Many thought the story had the flavour and atmosphere of books such as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerlad, Breakfast at Tiffany's the novella by Truman Capote.  There was also reference to many books in the story.  Katey reads a lot of  Agatha Christie that pleased one of our members in particular and Tinker had a copy of Walden by David Thoreau at his cottage.

Several members felt that the characters were not particularly sympathetic.  Certainly Eve's character created tension in the story.   Many of us thought that Katey took advantage of opportunities she had to improve her social status. She aspired to belong to the "all American" Manhattan life.  Tinker Grey however, lived by the 110 Rules of Civility  written by George Washington.  It is the reason that he took care of Eve after the car accident.  It is interesting that the men such as Tinker Grey, Wallace, and the man Katey eventually marries, Val, are the only characters that give an impression of sincerity.

Everyone agreed that the story is about life choices we make that can easily change the course of our lives.  On his website, Mr. Towles in a reading guide asks the following question:

Please don't answer this last question until the wine glasses are empty and the waiters are waiting impatiently to clear your table: In the Epilogue, Katey observes that "Right choices are the means by which life crystallizes loss" What is the right choice that you have made and what did you leave behind as a result?

It is certainly worthwhile to consider the question and if any of you care to share, you may wish to add a comment.

Meeting of January 23, 2012

Our host this month was Michèle.  Present were Beth, Betty, Carla, Colette, Jolene, Michèle, Shirley and briefly via skype, Linda.  Canapés, cheese and grapes were served along with a vanilla cranberry cheese cake.

As is our tradition, in January we award a prize to the member whose book in the previous year was most popular.  The Academy Award 2011 goes to Shirley  for Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda that received four votes.  This is the second year in a row that Shirley has won. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Gordon and Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie came in second with two votes each.  Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson and Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks each received one vote.  The variety of books we read in 2011 is clearly a reflection of the eclectic interests of our members!

The book choice this month presented by Michèle is The Mark of the Angel by Nancy Huston.  Ms Huston is a Canadian writer who has lived in France for several years.  She has published 45 books of which 13 are fiction written originally in French and self-translated into English.  She has also written 14 non-fiction books in French of which only two have been translated, the most recent The Tale-Tellers - A Short Study of Humankind in 2008. 


The Mark of the Angel is a story about a young German woman Saffie, who has immigrated to Paris in 1957 and the two men in her life, Raphaël her husband and Andràs her lover.  It is obvious from the beginning of the story that Saffie's troubled past and the demons she lives with impact on her actions and reactions to others. She shows little emotion with Raphaël and none of the emotions usually felt by motherhood.  She changes significantly when she meets Andràs, a Hungarian who lives with his own demons.

Several members enjoyed the book though found it a dark and tragic story. A couple of members did not enjoy the book because there is no hope of happiness or even of a better life in the story.   Generally we felt the characters were well developed.  Raphaël is self-absorbed in his professional career as a musician, has a love-lust relationship with Saffie.  Andràs, who we meet a little later in the story, is a spirited revolutionist and Saffie is immediately attracted to him.  Saffie lives a double life and her personality changes with each man. She is Raphaël's wife in their rue de Seine apartment, orderly, quiet and bourgeois.  She crosses the Seine by the Pont des Arts and becomes Andràs' lover in a life filled with disorder and unpredictability.

The story takes place during the Algerian's quest for independence from France and though there are several descriptions of demonstrations and France's reaction, it does not impact on the story.  There does not seem to be connection except as a vehicle for Andràs' revolutionary beliefs.

There are no characters in this story that we can become attached to, like or find endearing.  Some felt sorry for Raphaël and believed that he truly loved Saffie, enough to refuse to visit his mother if she did not accept his wife.  All felt sorry for Saffie and Raphaël's son Émil who was used by his mother as a foil in her relationship with Andràs and tragically also used by his father Raphaël, blinded by Saffie's betrayal.

A resumé of our reflections on this story cannot be complete without one member's very dramatic reaction to the story.  She was furious and frustrated by the characters and the story.  She felt that we did not get enough about the characters' backgrounds to understand their actions and reactions to each other, especially Saffie.  She wanted to learn more about Mme Hortense Trala-Lepage, Raphël's mother who stays in the background.  She felt that the story was incomplete.

For those who might think of reading other books by Nancy Huston, be forewarned that characters in her stories rarely have endearing qualities and she does not write stories with happy endings.

Meeting of February 28, 2011

Our host was Betty and this month's book was Michèle's choice, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  All members were present including Linda via Skype.  Betty provided lovely hors d'oeuvres mini egg rolls and mini spanakopitas.  We were also treated to a lovely cake with strawberries and blueberries.

Half of a Yellow Sun is a story of several persons of the christian Igbo group in Nigeria, a young servant boy named Ugwu, Odenigbo a mathematics professor, twin sisters Olanna who lives with Odenigbo and Kainene and her white lover Richard.  There are also many other characters in the tale. Their stories become intertwined as the civil war evolves.

Many members found the story a difficult read, and some felt a sense of dread as they read it. As the story progresses we find out more and more about the cruelty and conflict that caused death and famine.  Several members pointed out the difference between the Igbo people represented by the young servant boy Ugwu and the "elite" represented by Odenigbo and his university friends.   The contrast is very evident and the naivety of the educated stands out in the discussions about independence in Odenigbo's dinner parties with friends, and the reality of civil war as it takes its toll .

We discussed how Ms. Adichie is good at describing the atmosphere and the importance of food whether it is in Odenigbo's home and his dinner parties or in Ugwu's mother's home in his home village.  We noted the importance that food has in the story from the abundance available before the war began to the famine the lack of food created.  She created in both circumstances a sense of place and what life was about in both worlds.

We also discussed Kainene and Richard's relationship and all felt that Richard was a weak man.  There was consensus that Kainene was a strong woman who had chosen a weak man.  We also discussed why Richard was in Nigeria, why had he moved there and many felt that we don't find out much about his political views or thoughts.

 Despite the difficult background of the Nigerian civil war members  enjoyed the book and as with several books this year, the historical side of the story was much appreciated. In North America, we knew this war as the Biafran war and it was associated to famine.  This book has given us the chance to learn more about the conflict and its impact on Africa.

Those who would like to read more from Ms. Adichie, can read her first novel, Purple Hibiscus or her book of short stories, The Thing Around Your Neck. 

Meeting of January 25, 2010

This month's meeting was at Michèle's home. In attendance were Betty, Colette, Jane, Janet, Jolene, Michèle and Shirley. As Framboise made in her creperie called Crèpe Framboise, Michèle made some galettes bretonnes served with a confit d'oignons and a goat cheese served with a fig jam. For dessert, a clafoutis aux pommes et abricots secs as was described in Mirabelle's book.

The first item of our meeting was awarding the "Academy Award" prize for the most well-liked book in 2009. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which was Colette's book won hands down. Colette gave her prize to Jane since she had originally recommended the book.

This month's book, Michèle suggestion was Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris. The Book Club read Chocolat by Joanne Harris in 2001. Joanne Harris is a British author born of a French mother and British father. Many of her books are set in France. Five Quarters of the Orange is the last of three books with a food theme, Chocolat and Blackberry Wine are the other two books. She says on her website that this was one of her favourite books to write because of Framboise, the main character. You can read her comments on this link of her website.

Many members commented on the excellent character development in this book. Both Framboise and her mother Mirabelle are quite believable and easily pictured. Though both are not particularly "charming" characters, we were still drawn to them. Mirabelle did not seem particularly "motherly" however it became quite obvious that she did everything to keep her children fed, clothed and safe during the German occupation in WW II. Ms. Harris also described scenes and places well keeping your interest in the story.

Members also found the descriptions of the German occupation quite believable and interesting to see how the WW II affected the parts of France where there was no fighting but German soldiers everywhere. Michèle points out that in almost all villages in France there is a memorial to those who died during WW I both not much to honour those who died in WW II. There are some memorials to honour the those who were in the Resistance only.

Some members commented on the mother/daughter relationships in this book, Framboise and Mirabelle, Framboise and her daughter. The book Mirabelle created writing her thoughts and recipes helped Framboise better understand her mother and brought her closer to her own daughter Pistache.

Jolene, who always brings something a bit different and interesting to the discussion saw in the description of "Mother" the Pike as similar to pighead on a stick in Lord of the Flies.

All , in all, everyone enjoyed the book. Michèle suggests those who particularly enjoy Joanne Harris' writing might want to try Holy Fools and The Lollipop Shoes.

Meeting of November 17th 2008

Our meeting was held at Michèle's home and the book discussed was "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini. This is the second book by this author that we have read. Almost all members were present, Betty, Carla, Colette, Janet, Joan, Jolene, Linda, Michèle and Shirley.  

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul in 1965. He left Afghanistan with his family in 1976 when his father,  a diplomat was posted to Paris. Because of the communist coup in 1978, they were not able to return and immigrated to the United States, specifically California in 1980.  He went on to Medical School at the University of California in San Diego and graduated in 1993. He wrote "The Kite Runner" while still practicing medicine. Even though he was no longer practicing when he wrote "A Thousand Splendid Suns", it took him longer to write this book. He had difficulty writing from a woman's perspective until he decided to just write in their characters simply as people.   

The book was well liked by all members of the Book Club who were present.  Many members felt that the strength of the book is its character development and the family interactions. Mr. Hosseini himself says that his books are about families.  

Many members found that the book was a very sad story but that there was almost always a tiny light of hope. Miriam in particular touched many members, the sacrifices she made, the humiliation she must have felt when Laila arrived, a second wife and the courage it must have taken to help protect Laila and her children.  

We had a discussion about the war in Afghanistan and Canada's involvement. Many members felt that the world could not abandon this country especially because of the plight of women and children under the Taliban.  

We also talked considerably about a woman's situation in a muslim community, the restrictions she must endure such as the veil or burka, the lack of support for education, the lack of respect.  Many members had stories of women they knew and their experience. 

We had a short discussion about the title of the book. The phrase "A Thousand Splendid Suns" comes from a poem by 17th century Persian poet Saib-e-Tabrizi and is titled Kabul. The phrase taken from the poem is: 

"One could not count the moons that shiver on her roofs

And the Thousand Splendid Suns that hide behind her wall"

The whole poem can be found on Wikipedia.  Some members wondered if the suns represented the women hidden behind walls. Some thought it might be hope.

It was a great discussion as usual including not only the book and storyline but also politics and current issues.