Christmas Cheer

Instead of selecting a book by votes this time, please enjoy one or more of the holiday-themed books, and share your thoughts and feelings about the book with the rest of us. This might seem odd, but my 94-year-old mother-in-law told me this is how her book club operated all of the time. Each member would read a book and do a report on the book each month.

After the holidays, we will return to our usual format.

Let's begin discussion about our books January 9.

Happy holidays.

Time to Vote!

Amidst the confusion and joy of Thanksgiving, we had a somewhat abbreviated discussion about The Lost Wife, which everyone seemed to like in varying degrees.

But enough about the Holocaust. Time to bring on Christmas cheer.

Here are our December choices:

Lost December, by Richard Paul Evans
1225 Christmas Tree Lane, by Debbie Macomber
The Puppy That Came for Christmas, by Megan Aix
Comfort and Joy, by India Knight
A Chistmas Blizzard, by Garrison Keillor
Christmas Homecoming, by Anne Perry

I know there are a lot, and we'll see how it goes. Since I'm not anticipating that there will be a lot of intense discussion about a holiday novel, maybe we can pick a couple, and people can just discuss the one we each read. I don't know -- I'm making it up as I go! Bec and I found these all at Barnes and Noble. Some might only be in hardcover, but they are all very inexpensive at B & N and Amazon.

Please vote by Sunday the 4th

A Different Look at Love

I hate books that make me cry. I hate movies that make me cry. I hate when life makes me cry.

I dislike crying at a book so much that I have been known to glance at the ending of a book that I suspect might end sadly to see if the main character is still living and breathing. Nothing makes me feel more cheated than having a character of whom I have grown fond die of some deadly disease at the end.

Having said that, I must tell you that I LOVED this book. I simply couldn't put it down. I would walk around the house reading it. I took it with me to the bathroom. If my hands weren't otherwise occupied, I was reading this book.

And obviously it wasn't because I wanted to see what happens next. I know how the Holocaust ends. And besides, they tell you in the first chapter that Lenka and Josef find one another.

I found Richman's writing to be hauntingly beautiful. I reread passage after passage just because I liked the way the words sounded.

The story was about love. Through all of the atrocities, in the end, the story spoke about the love people had for one another. Not just Lenka's and Josef's love, though that was intense. The love of Lenka for her family. The love of Lucie for Lenka's mother and her whole family. Even the love that Lenka and Josef had for their respective spouses.

I thought that the love displayed by the people in the concentration camps for one another was amazing (though there were some disturbing stories of people stealing from each other, but given the circumstances, it's not surprising). But what about when Theresa (the artist who could paint with such detail that Lenka thought she had gotten ahold of gold leaf) made that flower for Rita so that she had something beautiful to wear when she married? That almost took my breath away.

The stories about life in the concentration camp will haunt me for a long time. But I loved the will that people had to live. I particularly loved the idea that Lenka's mother kind of came out of her shell while teaching the children at Terezin.

I cried and cried and cried while reading this book. It scares me to think that there is a possibility of people forgetting that this happened or pretending that it didn't once all of the survivors have died.

I loved Richman's use of color to describe people and situations. I guess that probably tied in with Lenka being an artist. It made me sad to think that she was unable to make art after life in Auschwitz. But I was very happy that she found happiness (or some degree of happiness anyway) in her life with Carl

Didn't you just love Carl? The passages describing how Lenka stayed with Carl as he died were so touching and probably made me cry as hard as any other part of the book.

How did this book impact you? Did you learn anything new about the Holocaust?

While I think it's probably high time we read a more cheerful book, I have to say that this is one of my favorite books that I've ever read. Five stars in my opinion.

October/November book selection

The book chosen for our next discussion was The Lost Wife, by Alyson Richman. Discussion will begin November 20, 2011.

Enjoy your read!

It seems as though we all enjoyed The Paris Wife, and learned a lot about the era following World War I, and about Ernest Hemingway.

Randomly, several of our choices for our next read are about the period surrounding World War II. I am offering five books this time because I bet some of you have already read Room.The last book was on our list for last time, and came in a close second.

Our choices are: The Well and the Mine, by Gin Phillips; Wildflower Hill, by Kimberly Freeman; The Lost Wife, by Alyson Richman; Room, by Emma Donoghue; and State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett.

Please email your selection for our next book club read to kzmclain@comcast.net by Sunday night.

The Paris Wife

From Beckie:

I'm glad we voted for The Paris Wife, because I really liked the book.  Many of you know that I'm a former English teacher, and I think the time between the two World Wars is one of the most interesting literary periods.  I don't care for Hemingway's writing, so I don't know too much about him.  I'm assuming this book is well researched, and, if so, then I learned a lot about both the time period and Hemingway himself. 

 

I've never understood why so many of the great American authors of that time became ex-patriots, often living in Paris.  World War I was horrendous, and it left its mark on every man who fought.  I'm not sure why these Americans would go to Paris, when France was the site of much of the worst fighting.  Hemingway (at least as he's portrayed in this novel) never shook off the horrors he experienced.  He was such a macho guy, and it must have been humiliating for him to be haunted by those nightmares.  It seemed like he was running from his memories, trying to experience one over-the-top adventure after another, to erase what he had experienced.  I suppose this turned him into a better writer, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted him for a friend. 

 

I didn't find Hadley to be a very sympathetic character, etiher.  She put up with a lot from her husband, but she also drove me a little crazy.  When he needed to travel because of his work, she was so clingy.  She was definitely set up to be a contrast with the "modern woman" who was emerging at the time.  There's nothing wrong with relishing the role of wife and mother, but it caused her to lose her identity and independence, at least for a while.  I did sympathize with her toward the end of their marriage.  The social code of their friends made her feel that she was somehow an old-fashioned prude if she didn't turn a blind eye to Ernest's infidelities. 

 

Despite not finding either of the main characters especially likeable, I enjoyed the interplay between them.  Their relationship was complex, and it definitely reflected the time period.  They lived a wild life, overindulging in everything...food, alcohol, sex...  As a reader, I watched them spiral more and more out of control.  I honestly don't think the end of their marriage was so much from his other relationship as it was from the effects of their social circle.  The need to constantly out-do each other in terms of drinking, adventures, and even putting up with bad behavior created intolerable pressure.  It's hard to see how any marriage could withstand that.

 

Finally, I enjoyed the insight into the creative process of an author.  Obviously, there are many ways to approach writing; Hemingway's work schedule and determination were admirable.  I enjoyed tracking his progress as a writer and his struggles to get his work published.  He wasn't a pleasant man, but he took his writing seriously and had incredibly high expectations for himself.

 

With that, I'll throw the discussion out to the rest of you, with just a couple of minor questions:

 

What was your reaction when Hadley lost all of Hemingway's manuscripts on the train?  I literally groaned out loud.

Was anyone else annoyed with the nicknames? I found it maddening, especially Hadley and Ernest calling each other Tatie.  Tatie???

And the winner is....

It was a very close vote this time. We will be reading The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain. Discussion will begin Wednesday, September 21.

Enjoy your month in Paris!