Sea of Poppies

In February, we read Sea of Poppies by Amitar Ghosh.  We could not meet on March 26th because the Governor of Vermont issued 'Stay at Home' guidelines for Vermonters.  We decided to read the Dutch House by Ann Patchett for this month of April.  However, communication was not well done by this blog author and not everyone got the message about the new book.

We meet via Zoom, a first for the Greater Westford group.  We had everyone except Terry-again, most likely due to my poor communication!  We attempted to talk about Sea of Poppies, which was not fresh in anyone's minds.  I think we mostly liked it, although had a difficult time grasping everything because of the heavy usage of dialect from pidgin, Chinglish, Hinglish, and seafarer's slang. There was a 30 page glossary of definitions and referencing it frequently interrupted the reading flow.  Members also liked having a book that felt original in language and character development and decidedly representative of India,opium and  opium factory workers, American sailors, French runaways, lascars, coolies, convicts, rajas, and sahibs. We liked learning about the Opium wars and found the character development of some characters to be interesting, but had a bit of disappointment in the main character development.  This is the first in a trilogy and just one of us is going on to read the second book.

The Dutch House was warmly received.  Ed had not know about it until a week before and he thought he would read a few pages and then could not put it down.  Mindy also could not put it down.  We talked about how well the dysfunctions in the relationships were described through Patchett's writing.  The house was also an interesting focal point for discussion.  The main character's mother was a source of enigma to most of us with some interesting speculation about her mental status.  Overall, we gave it a thumbs up.

Next month we are reading an Anne Tyler's Redhead by the Side of the Road.  We are hoping to meet at Chrysanne's on June 3rd at 7PM.  If not, Cindy will set up a Zoom meeting!

NY Times Review

Manhattan Beach

January 2020 brought us together to discuss Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Eagan.  We had read A Visit from the Goon Squad and thought we would give her a try with a newer work.  Most of us enjoyed reading this novel.  We thought that she had captured the time and the technical details of diving during the late thirties, early forties.  She covered many of the challenges of that time period post depression and early World War II in New York City.  She wrote about being a woman during that time from the main character's perspective.  Also, living with a sibling with a significant disability and a father who disappears.  Her descriptions of being a single woman and the struggles to assert oneself into meaningful work was excellent.  We all wondered if it was a bit too long, but for the most part, we were glad we read it and had a good discussion.

Next month, we are meeting at Tim's house on a Sunday night, February 9th and we are reading North of Dawn by Nuruddin Farah.  We are meeting at 6:30. 

News Flash
We are meeting on March 24th at Chrysanne's Home at 6:45 for the following Book Club Meeting!

Swimming Home

 In December, we read Swimming Home by Deborah Levy.  Swimming Home is a short novel about a group of friends going on a vacation and encountering a strange person in the swimming pool of their villa.  She is invited to stay and the novel is about how her influence changes the dynamics and relationships between the characters.  We had mixed reviews.  Some of us liked it.  I was fascinated by the changes within the group.  Others of us did not like it at all.  And some of us didn't really get the point of the novel. 

Terry, on the other hand, read another book with the same title which he recommended to those of us who did not enjoy Deborah Levy's work.  We all had a pretty good laugh.  Especially because Mindy is always saying to Terry, "Just look up the title of the book and you will find it.  You don't need the author's name!" 

Next month is Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Eagan at Mindy's on January 5th at 6:30.

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.