All the Light We Cannot See,  by Anthony Doerr                        2/12/15

Hostess - Betty Rose Gibbs

Rating 4.5 (Overall Enjoyment)

Interest of Topic: 4.5 - we knew alot about WWII, but learned a lot about island of Saint Malo, France and the impact of the radio as the only form of outside communication during the war

Character Development - 5.0 - great character development

Plot Development - 4 - overall good, but some stuggled with the jump back and forth between different storylines and different times

Author's creativity - 4.5 (author's inspiration came from seeing a man on a train who was annoyed with the slow speed of his internet access)

Discussion Generated - 5

We discussed examples of good vs evil in the book.  For example: - Instructors at Werner's school (evil) / Fredrick who refused to abuse the other boys at the school (good).  Jutta also represented good.

We thought that Werner was inherently good, but just in a hopeless situation.  Even if he had defended Fredrick against instructors and other students, he would have been sent back to orphanage to work in the mines (or worse)

The House Girl by Tara Conklin - January 8, 2015

Hostess:  Nan    Attendees:  Cheryl, Michelle, Myra, Pat, Mary Margaret, Jana, Pam 

Some yummy chili on a very chilly night

We all read the book!





We had a guest appearance by Nan's husband, Buddy Hawkins. He pulled up a chair and joined in with us! He was quite entertaining with his comments.

This book was two stories in one – present day and a look back to the time of slavery during the pre-Civil War days. The present day story was about a young lawyer, Lina, who was involved with a reparation case in which she had to locate a descendant from the slavery era. The other story was about Josephine, a slave who worked in the plantation house, who began to paint pictures. (Her mistress was credited with Josephine’s artwork.) The book compared Lina and Josephine’s individual stories.

 The summary of our discussion was that we were interested in Josephine’s story, but not so much in Lina’s story. There were lots of random characters that were not developed fully. Pam mentioned that an English teacher would have said to “go back and fix the story”.

Book Rating: 3



Benjamin Franklin's Bastard by Sally Cabot

Thursday December 4, 2014       Host:  Cheryl

Attendees:  Janna, Myra, Susan, Nan, Amy, Michelle, Lori, Mary Margaret, Pat and Pam

Okay, who read the book this month?   Hands up!! Believe it or not, everyone who attended book club had read the entire book. That makes two months in a row for us so good job ladies!



Pat toasts while raising her hand and Mary Margaret looks incredibly sincere about her hand raising. These ladies definitely read Benjamin Franklin's Bastard.

Here are the happy, smiling faces of Myra, Janna, and Cheryl after eating some food. We are now ready to discuss our book.

Benjamin Franklin's Bastard is a historical fiction book that told the story of Benjamin Franklin and his bastard son, and the women who loved them both. William Franklin was the son of Benjamin and his favorite mistress, Anne. However, the child William is raised by Deborah, Benjamin's common-law wife. The book tells much of Anne's love for her son William and her efforts to remain in touch with him over the years but always from afar and unknown to William as his mother. The book also details Benjamin Franklin's many profession and talents along with his ambitious son's eagerness to rise in stature politically.

In our discussion, we hit upon several agreed-upon points:

• As talented a man as Benjamin Franklin was (author, printer, inventor, postmaster, scientist, statesman, etc.), he was quite the scoundrel and a real lady charmer.
• Class consciousness affected the lives of both Deborah and William (common-law wife/uneducated; a bastard son), so they both had trouble fitting comfortably into their society at certain points in their lives.
• It was hard to really be sympathetic with many of the book's characters except Grissom.
• The last third of the book dragged a bit with William and his political struggles; "writing style went downhill" (Pam).
• The book had way too much sexual detail with Anne's bed partners.
• It was interesting to us that Benjamin considered himself "monogamous but not celibate".

Pam gave us a quote from Benjamin's real "advice to a friend on choosing a mistress". The quote refers to older mistresses from below the girdle (impossible of two women to know an old from a young one): "as in the dark all cats are grey", so the pleasure of corporal enjoyment with an old woman is at least equal. Oh my...thank goodness for that!

Quote of the evening: When Michelle told of her relative who works in a chicken processing plant, and the chicks are no longer receiving antibiotics (so more are dying), Amy replied: "Isn't killing them the idea anyway?".

Our rating: 3.75 out of 5





Me before You

by Jojo Moyes

Attendees: Lori Gilbert, Pam Meyers, Michelle Smith (host), Cheryl Swenson, Mary Margaret Shepherd, Amy Rarick, Janna Atkins

Discussion:  As a group, we really liked this book! It was a quick read. If we had a criticism, it was that Louisa's declining relationship with Patrick was predictable.  

Lively discussion! Topics ranged from the theological ramifications of euthanasia, where assisted suicide is legal (Washington, Oregon, Luxembourg), to how Christian Bale will be an excellent Will Traynor in the movie coming out in 2015.

Character Development:  Really thinking about what it would be like to be quadriplegic was one of the greatest lessons that we got from the book. We really liked both the main characters and were rooting for their relationship. Ultimately, we understood why Will made his decision and how his death freed Louisa to do things she wouldn't have done before meeting Will.

Lori (aka, English teacher in a former life) said, "Will changed, but he didn't change his mind."

Our quote of the night came later in the evening and shouldn't be repeated in polite company. 

We gave this book a solid 5 stars: I would recommend this book to a friend.

Our next Book Club is Thursday, September 11 and we'll discuss What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman. Host TBD.

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell May 8, 2014

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell

Attendees:  Cheryl Swenson, Michelle Smith, Janna Atkins, Mary Margaret Shepherd, Pam Meyers (host)

The book takes place in present-day Scotland. The point of view rotates between Marnie (age 15), Nellie (age 11), and Lennie (an elderly gay man).  Marnie and Nelly's parents are dead, and they buried their parents in the back yard. The girls are trying to avoid being put into foster care, so they are pretending that their parents are still alive. According to the author, the title is related to a part of the book, when the girls are talking about bees, "She hasn't mentioned them, but she still thinks about them." The conversation is about bees (literally) but refers to the parents.

Pam heard about the book from NPR's "Fresh Air." The message that the author wants to convey is one of abandonment. This is Lisa O'Donnell's first book.

At the beginning of the book, we were wary of reading it....it's shocking and abrasive at the outset.  The tone of the book becomes more gentle and palatable, partially due to Lennie's influence.

Rating:  Of the four members who read it, two members gave it a 3. One gave it a 3.5 and one gave it a 4.

Book for August: Me before You by JoJo Moyes

Possibilities for future book clubs:
The Goldfinch
Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty
Brewster
The Fault in Our Stars
The Light Between Oceans
Orphan Train
Burial Rites
The Valley of Amazement
The House Girl
Orphan Train
The Bloodletter's Daughter
Pecan Man

The Lowland 
by Jhumpa Lahiri

Welcome back to India! The Princeton Walk book club has read several books set in India - Beyond the Beautiful Forevers and The Space Between Us.

This book is set partially in India.  Subhash and Udayan were brothers very close in age but very different in temperment.  Subhash ends up coming to Rhode Island to go to school. Udayan is killed as a revolutionary in India. His wife, Guari, ends up marrying Subhash and moving to the US.

Jumpha Lahiri was born in London and raised in the US.  She also wrote The Namesake.  (Highly recommended by the book club!) She's a Pulitzer Prize winner.

The theme of guilt is pervasive in the book. Guilt follows Subhash around his life. 

Ratings:
We rated this book the usual 4.5 stars.  Ha! In between "I wouldn't have picked it, but I am glad that I read it," and "I would recommend it to a friend." 

Character Development:  We thought the character of Subhash was well-developed.  Cheryl commented that the character of Udayan was lacking....we weren't sure what led to his development as a terrorist.  

Plot: We thought that the author handled the jumping back and forth between setting and times.  Some times it was hard to figure out at the beginning of the chapter who was talking - we had to read a page or two to figure out who was talking and what was going on.

Themes:  "Parenthood" was a theme.  Subhash was the real parent to Bela, while Guari and Udayan were the  biological parents. There was a lot of sadness, grief and depression in this book.

The Lowland

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Attendees: Mary Margaret (host), Pat, Pam, Nan, Janna, Susan, Lori, Cheryl

For this month's book club, we were back in India. We've read several books in the past set in India - Beyond the Beautiful Forevers and The Space Between Us. 

Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London and raised in Rhode Island. She wrote The Namesake (highly recommended by book club members), and is a Pulitzer Prize Winner. 

Rating:
We rated this book at 4.5, the usual! Ha! In between 4, "I wouldn't have picked this book, but I am glad that I read it," and "I would definitely recommend this to a friend."

Characterization:
We thought that the author did a good job with developing the character of Subhash.  Subhash was the central character and most relatable. With the character of Udayan, we were wanting to understand his motivation....how quickly he escalated into terrorism.  We also didn't really understand Bela; how she could not put down "roots" even though she was a farmer. (Pun intended.)

Plot: 
Sometimes we started a chapter and had to read a page or two to understand what time and what place that particular chapter was about. But, for the most part, we didn't mind the back and forth between settings and times. We did wonder about the ending, though; it seemed a little "out of order." 

Quote of the night:  
From Cheryl - "We've all done that....or something similar...."