The Transit of Venus

A transit of Venus across the sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth (or another planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2012 lasted 6 hours and 40 minutes).  Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena. They occur in a pattern that generally repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. The last transit of Venus was June 5th and 6th 2012, and was the last Venus transit of the 21st century; the prior transit took place June 8th.  The previous pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882. The next transits of Venus will be December 10–11, 2117, and in December 2125.


This month we read the Transit of Venus, or should I say, most of us attempted to complete the very complex and ornately written novel.  acceptance of larger patterns beyond the individual's fate.  The title implies an While we found Shirley Hazzard's sentences to be each a piece of artwork, the reading was tedious at times.    We all appreciated what an incredible novelist Shirley Hazzard is, having spent 7 years writing the Transit of Venus, however, it was, nonetheless wanting for many of us.  We had difficulty identifying with or being taken in by the characters.  While the romantic intrigue kept some of us going, most of us had difficulty understanding that at the end, Carolyn and Ted actually do become a couple, albeit for about an hour.  I think it is safe to say that we all agreed that Shirley Hazzard's novel was a great piece of literature-just not a preferred style of writing by our members.  But in the wise words of Mindy, this is why we love The Greater Westford Literary Society Bookclub-the choices of novels sometimes stretches us to read books we would not have reached for on our own.  We are all glad to have met Shirley Hazzard's prose and are duly impressed. 


For next month, Ed suggested a classic adventure novel, The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper.  We are anxiously looking forward to a venison stew or perhaps one of Ed's famous Lasagnes on February 13th.  Since it is over 500 pages, I am on it already!

Update!!!  We have moved bookclub to the 18th at Ed's due to some very important legislative activities for Tim.   Now that I have finished the book, I am really hoping that Ed does not serve raw deer meat!