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. 

Books and Meetings in 2023

  This list will be updated as members make their choices.

January 23 - Colette's choice State of Terror by Louise Penny & Hilary Rodham-Clinton, Marg hosts.

February 27 - Betty's choice The Giver  by Lois Lowry, Shirley hosts

March 27 - Michèle's choice Violeta by Isabel Allende , Carla hosts

April 24 - Marg's choice, The Thursday Murder Club  by Richard Osman, Michèle hosts

May 29 - Janet's choice Haven by Emma Donoghue, Linda hosts

June 26 - Beth's choice, The End of the Alphabet by C. S. Richardson, Colette hosts

September 25 - Carla's choice The Blue Castle by Lucy Maude Montgomery Michèle hosts 

October 23 - Linda's choice, Albatross by Terry Fallis, Betty hosts

November 27 - Shirley's choice, The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, Beth hosts

The Lincoln Highway – October 24, 2022

Colette, Marg, Carla, Janet, Linda and Shirley were hosted by Betty for our October book club where we discussed Janet’s book choice The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. Betty had a delicious assortment of cheeses and crackers to munch on with our wine. She also had chocolate covered almonds that make frequent appearances at our meetings and, as per our usual custom, were devoured. With a nod to the book’s character Sally who was known for her strawberry jam, dessert was fresh scones with strawberry jam and whipped cream. 

Janet went above and beyond in researching this book for us. It included a road trip following parts of the Lincoln Highway while listening to the audio book, a playlist including songs named for towns along the highway, and, of course, photo evidence of the plaque at the San Francisco end of the highway. 

The Lincoln Highway is Amor Towles’ third novel and the third one we have discussed in our group. Towles was an investment professional for over twenty years before publishing his first book, Rules of Civility, followed by A Gentleman in Moscow. Towles has a distinct writing style with unusual characters written with a touch of magic realism. This book was easy to read, a ‘good yarn’ as one member described it. 

The Lincoln Highway covers the lives of its characters over the course of ten days and the days are counted down very deliberately. In his Rules of Civility, the time period was exactly one year while A Gentleman in Moscow covered thirty years. This book is told in the voice of the various individuals, each with a distinct voice which was easily understood and which enhanced character development. There remained questions about some of the characters, Woolly in particular, as well as some disappointment in the main character, Emmett, however the book was unanimously enjoyed.

Some members expressed a bit of disappointment that the book did not follow the Lincoln Highway across the U.S. and was left for the reader to decide whether or not the trip would ever be completed. But then, the greatest part of a road trip – or life – is not the destination, it is all the stuff that happens along the way.

Thanks, Janet, for another enjoyable book choice.