The Sellout

This month of October 2019, we read The Sellout by Paul Beatty.  We were missing Chrysanne and Ed, but had everyone else plus Shira.  Most of the members thought that this was the funniest book they had ever read.  It was poignant, clever and enlightening all at the same time.  The author was able to uncannily reach deep into the subject of racism and white supremacy and invite the reader to reflect on how absurdly we inadvertently discriminate.  We did have one voice of questioning what exactly this novel was getting at and wasn't there another way?  These questions helped us to dig deeper into the book.  We all agreed that we most likely would not have picked up this novel or read it to finish were it not for Book Club!


 We also celebrated Tim's 25th and Terry's 30th Book Club Anniversary!!  This is a photo of all the books Tim still owns from Book Club all organized into one bookcase!

Next month on 11/20, we will read Swimming Home by Deborah Levy.  We will meet at Alan's House.  Lexi will be making dinner and we will meet at 7.

Rules of Civility

On a lovely summer evening in Vermont, we discussed  August's book,  Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  The majority of members loved the novel, with only Lexi and Tim not enjoying the novel.  This was surprising coming from Tim, as his mother was a quintessentially New York!  Chrysanne was besotted with the description of time and place and repeated several times that she wanted to go back and live in the late 30's post Depression in New York City.  Ed could identify with the rules Tinker and Katey attempted to learn and follow to fit into the 'old money' crowd in New York.  We loved the struggle between Tinker and his brother, Hank as they both tried to resolve their father's actions of losing what they had and struggled with their places in their lives.  We found that Washington's long list of Rules was a bit hard to connect other than the fact that the main characters were dependent on the rules in order to find their places.  NYTimes Review


Next month we are reading Paul Beatty's Booker Prize winning novel, The Sellout.  We will meet at Cindy's at 7 PM. 

The Immortalist

In July we read the Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin.  We had a great discussion about self fulfilling prophecies.  Did each of the characters allow the predictions for the future dictate their destinies?  We had a great discussion around each story and which stories spoke to us personally.  We all loved Varia's story the best of all the stories.  We wondered if knowing the date made a difference. 

Next month we are at Terry's at 7PM on August 19th, reading Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.

An American Marriage

In June we read An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.  I missed this meeting because I wrote the wrong date done and because I was also late on writing the blog, I missed the book club.  Reportedly everyone liked the book.  I will update this when I can.

Next book will be The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin.  We are meeting at Ed's House at 6:45.

Where the Crawdads Sing

In May, we read Delia Owens' novel Where the Crawdads Sing.  Our group celebrated Delia Owens for the story of Kya living in the Southern marshes off the North Carolina coast.  Albeit the story is at times hard to believe.  How does Kya survive alone in the wilds?  How does she escape going to school and how does she actually carry out the major (spoiler alert) crime, given the fact that she is not a frequent traveller.  Also, we love that she became successful, but is this plausible?  That and other questions were tossed about at our book discussion.  Mindy had done a bit of research and enriched our discussion with some background information about the author and her intention to write a novel about living in isolation.



For June, we are planning to read An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.  We are planning on Tim's house on June 4 at 6:45.

Milkman

In March, we read Milkman by Anna Burns.

We think Ed finished reading the novel.  And he sent a message that he loved it.  We know Tim and Alan read the entirety and that he was glad he did because of how unique and memorable the message was.  Chrysanne, Mindy, and I did not finish, mostly because of time constraints, but also because it was difficulty to hang in there.  The novel is written in a very uniques style with many universal truths that the reader can relate to around family relationships, interpersonal relationships, small community dynamics and being a minority.  The writing was beautiful.  Tough to hang in there on the very long eloquent sentences. We were, overall, glad we read what we did.

We will meet at Mindy's and Chrysanne will host on May 1st to discuss our next novel: Where the Crowdad's Sing by Delia Owens.

Washington Black

In February, we read Washington Black by Esi Edugyan.  We had mixed feelings.  Most thought that perhaps the novel was too long and wandering.  Some of the surrealism was a bit of a stretch for some of our members, for others, it was read as a tale.  The relationship between Titch and Washington was unusual and provided good material for discussion!

“There could be no belonging for a creature such as myself, anywhere,” Wash says, “a black boy with a scientific turn of mind and a talent on canvas, running, always running, from the dimmest of shadows.”



In March, we will read Milkman by Anna Burns.  Cindy will cook and serve at Chrysanne's on March 20th!