Promise Not to Tell

Way back in the lazy days of summer, Booker Babes met on August 10th, at Kim's to discuss Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer Mcmahon.

Part mystery-thriller and part ghost story, McMahon's well-paced debut alternates smoothly between past and present. In the fall of 2002, 41-year-old Kate Cypher, a divorced Seattle school nurse, returns to New Hope, the decaying Vermont hippie commune where she grew up, to visit her elderly mother, Jean, who's suffering from Alzheimer's. Kate has avoided New Hope since the grizzly, unsolved murder of her fifth-grade friend, Del Griswold, 31 years earlier. Kate fears she betrayed Del, a free-spirited farm girl. Did her betrayal cause Del's death? Who killed Del? Another local girl is murdered in a similar manner at the time of Kate's return. Could the killer be loose again? Meanwhile, Jean appears to be possessed with Del's spirit and may have the answers to these questions. As Kate investigates,

she learns stunning truths about many events and people from her youth. McMahon does a particularly good job of portraying the cruelty of school children. (from Publisher's Weekly)

This story lead to the discussion of several topics including:bullying, child abuse, betrayal, and even a supernatural element. Customers on Amazon gave this book and average of 4 1/2 stars out of 5. This was Jennifer's first novel, so I think she should be happy with that, although many of the reviews by professional reviewers gave it poor reviews.

As often is the case, food was a highlight. Everyone brought

something to share.

We even had a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers provided by Karen.

Kim shared the baby quilts she had made in a

nticipation of the arrival of her newest grandchild.

Beth was looking at Susie---always good for a laugh!

Nancy poses pretty for the picture while Karen is still trying to prove a point.

As usual, Susie just doesn't know what she's talking about!

Jan, the "techie guru" has the latest in note-taking tools!

As usual we strayed off the topic a time or two, but all in all we had a great discussion!

Promise Not to Tell was the perfect title for book club! We have the motto, "What Happens at Book Club, Stays at Book Club". So, we do "Promise Not to Tell"!

The Book Thief!

Booker Babes met at Jan's on Monday, July 20th. Our book to discuss was,

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

About the book Liesel Meminger is only nine years old when she is taken to live with the Hubermanns, a foster family, on Himmel Street in Molching, Germany, in the late 1930s. She arrives with few possessions, but among them is The Grave Digger’s Handbook, a book that she stole from her brother’s burial place. During the years that Liesel lives with the Hubermanns, Hitler becomes more powerful, life on Himmel Street becomes more fearful, and Liesel becomes a fullfledged book thief. She rescues books from Nazi book-burnings and steals from the library of the mayor. Liesel is illiterate when she steals her fi rst book, but Hans Hubermann uses her prized books to teach her to read. This is a story of courage, friendship, love, survival, death, and grief. This is Liesel’s life on Himmel Street, told from Death’s point of view. A Conversation with Markus Zusak What inspired you to write about a hungry, illiterate girl who has such a desire to read that she steals books? I think it’s just working on a book over and over again. I heard stories of cities on fi re, teenagers who were whipped for giving starving Jewish people bread on their way to concentration camps, and people huddled in bomb shelters. . . . But I also had a story about a book thief set in my hometown of Sydney. I just brought the two ideas together and realized the importance of words in Nazi Germany. I thought of Hitler destroying people with words, and now I had a girl who was stealing them back, as she read books with the young Jewish man in her basement and calmed people down in the bomb shelters. She writes her own story–and it’s a beautiful story– through the ugliness of the world that surrounds her. How did you decide to make Death the narrator of the book? With great difficulty! I thought, “Here’s a book set during war. Everyone says war and death are best friends.” Death is ever-present during war, so here was the perfect choice to narrate The Book Thief. At fi rst, though, Death was too mean. He was supercilious, and enjoying his work too much. He’d say extremely creepy things and delight in all the souls he was picking up . . . and the book wasn’t working. So I went to a fi rst-person narration, a simple third-person narration . . . and six months later I came back to Death–but this time, Death was to be exhausted from his eternal existence and his job. He was to be afraid of humans–because, after all, he was there to see the obliteration we’ve perpetrated on each other throughout the ages–and he would now be telling this story to prove to himself that humans are actually worth it. Liesel has an uncanny understanding of people and an ability to befriend those who most need companionship . Who do you think is Liesel’s most unforgettable friend? For me it’s Rudy, but a lot of people will tell me it’s Hans Hubermann, Max, the mayor’s wife, or even Rosa Hubermann. Rudy is just my favorite character. From the moment he painted himself black and became Jesse Owens, he was my favorite. Liesel kissing his dusty, bomb-hit lips was probably the most devastating part of the book for me to write. . . . I was a mess. On the other hand, I’m also drawn to all of the relationships Liesel forms, even her reading with Frau Holtzapfel, and the return of her son. Even Ludwig Schmeikl–the boy she beats up on the playground and reconciles with at the book burning . . . I think the relationship with Rosa is the most unexpected, though. The moment when she sees Rosa with the accordion strapped to her (when Hans is sent to the war) is when she realizes exactly how much love her foster mother is capable of. Your use of figurative language seems natural and effortless. Is this something that you have to work to develop, or is it innately a part of your writing style? I like the idea that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It’s probably what I love most about writing–that words can be used in a way that’s like a child playing in a sandpit, rearranging things, swapping them around. They’re the best moments in a day of writing–when an image appears that you didn’t know would be there when you started work in the morning. At other stages, it takes time. It took three years to write this book, and some images remained from start to finish, but others were considered and reconsidered dozens of times, if not more. Often, to keep the workday flowing, I’ll continue writing the story and then come back later to develop an image that hasn’t worked from the outset. I might even take it out completely. This book gave us much to discuss, and discuss we did! Death, Nazi Germany, concentration camps, survival, fear, strength,---and many more topics I don't remember. Karen brought her photo albums from her trip to Germany and the work camps and concentration camps she visited. Phyllis shared a new ICCA book that is set in Nazi Germany--Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf which she suggested we might read. What a great discussion! We each brought a salad or something to go with salads. It was yummy! But, as I'm no photographer which I continue to prove over and over, I have a video of the food instead of photos!!

The American Wife

Booker Babes met on June 24th at the newest restaurant in Kalona to discuss the book,

The American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld.

One review is as follows: "While critics couldn’t say for sure whether or not Sittenfeld captures the exact thoughts of Laura Bush, they did agree that she creates a realistic and highly sympathetic portrayal of the (soon-to-be former) First Lady. (The author supposedly based the novel on Ann Gerhart’s 2004 biography, The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush.) Sittenfeld asks provoking questions about marriage, loyalty, and responsibility. But many reviewers couldn’t fundamentally understand why the very decent Alice had supported her husband despite her doubts about his capabilities; Sittenfeld’s pat, unsatisfactory answer i

s that Alice leads a life “in opposition.” That, combined with the author’s obvious contempt for Charlie, brought the reviews down a notch. Still, there’s nothing as titillating as a look, albeit fictional, inside the White House—especially during an election year."

As a group we enjoyed this book, even if we hadn't supported the Bushes. I forgot the camera, hence, no photos!

CHECK IT OUT!!

Several of us have won free books from The BookClub Cookbook web site. I personally have won 4!!!

Our next book is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak We will meet on Monday, July 20th at Jan's--time to be determined.

A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier

A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah was our May book. The book is described below:

A gripping story of achild’s journey through hell and back. 

There may be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s, in more than fifty conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. He is one of the first to tell his story in his own words.

In A LONG WAY GONE, Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a riveting story. At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. Eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity and to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion. This is, at last, a story of redemption and hope.

Deeply moving, even uplifting ... Beah's story, with its clear-eyed reporting and literate particularity—whether he's dancing to rap, eating a coconut or running toward the burning village where his family is trapped—demands to be read.

— People

Although this book was hard to read at times, I think most of us would agree with People's review--It certainly does demand to be read.  

Listen to Ismael read an excerpt from the book.

If you want to know more you can visit the website HERE.

If you work in a school, May is a busy stressful month.  There are grades, report cards, end of the year reports, and end of the year activities.  It is for this reason, I think, that we had a small group for book club.

 It is also for this reason that alcohol was on the menu!  This ISN'T normal for us!

                     Karen has a point to make as Jan and Nancy pay close attention!

  Phyllis makes a toast--to Ismael's successful rehabilitation?  Or perhaps to

 the end of the school year?

I think we would all agree that book club serves two purposes--discussions of good books and stress relief.  We have great discussions on other topics and more importantly we LAUGH!  It is good for the soul!  Don't you agree?

How Much Do We Owe the Ones We Love???

The Booker Babes read The Dive From Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer.

After reading many reviews, I think the review from Entertainment Weekly best sums up what our book club would say.  Here's the review:

Ann packer knows how to hook a reader. Four pages into her first novel, a 23-year-old boy dives into shallow water, crushing his neck and spine. He wakes up four weeks later a quadriplegic. Before the accident, his fiancée had already been second-guessing her fixed Midwestern future. With his helplessness assured and her flight instincts charged, The Dive From Clausen's Pier hinges on one rich question: 

               ''How much do we owe the people we love?''

Carrie and Mike met at 14, were voted cutest couple at their Madison, Wis., high school, went to the same local university, finished one another's thoughts, hooked up their families for holiday dinners. But Carrie is itchy, tired of thinking of ''the list of things I loved about him, in case I forgot.''

Packer does a fine job describing the claustrophobic atmosphere that can cloak a hometown. The familiar collegiate strip of Madison, with its ''boys in gigantic jeans cut off below the knee; girls in...tops and dresses that revealed the shoulder straps of black or light blue lingerie.'' The friends who, five years later, still speak endlessly of high school. The limited Friday-night options, and the boredom that leads to beer consumption.

It's to Packer's credit that her portrait, while on target, isn't a sneering one. And Mike, while dealt the blow of paralysis, is treated with similar respect. Unashamed of his small-town fantasies, he remains the moral center of the book. Mature and brave, his character never careens into an emasculated touchy-feely triumph zone.

 When Carrie and his family tiptoe around his broken body, murmuring words of encouragement and assistance, Mike, angry and irritated, yells, ''Stop! Asking me! What! I! Want!...Why do people keep asking me what I want? I want to walk out of here.''

Mike is already a grown-up, so ''The Dive From Clausen's Pier'' is really Carrie's coming-of-age story. ''Sometimes sitting there with him I felt like I was watching myself sitting there with him. Like: Look at her, she's doing the right thing. I felt so distant.'' Sure, the poor girl needs a slap every now and then to knock her out of that self-absorbed shell, but she remains a sympathetic character throughout those early strained hospital visits and her escape to a more anonymous life in New York City.

If only Packer had more confidence in her reader, whom she hand-holds through too many of her novel's metaphors. When guilt gets the best of Carrie, she turns to her sewing machine and the lure of design. ''What was it about fashion?? It was less about beauty than about transformation. Who would I be in a turquoise paisley slip dress and beaded sandals?'' On the significance of names: ''Carrie as in carry...except I guess it's not a canoe you'll be carrying.'' Her boyfriend in New York, cynical and withdrawn (and, despite the hot sex scenes, one of the more irritating characters in recent fiction), is named Kilroy. When the big Big Apple section grows wearisome, and it will, rest assured that a visit back home to Madison is in order.

In thinking about our discussions and of course the book, I asked all book club members the same questions.  Ten members responded.

Did you marry your high school sweetheart? Four of us married our high school sweethearts. Several responded they were certainly glad they didn't!!  

Were you ever engaged to someone you didn't end up marrying?  Who broke it off?  One of us was engaged to someone else and she broke it off. One person's husband was engaged to someone else, but she broke it off.   

 Have you every had to be the caretaker of someone who was handicapped or very ill?  Three people have been caretakers for someone very ill.  Several have had short times of care-taking for someone who recovered.

Did you ever leave your husband/parents/school without telling anyone where you were going?  Several of us responded that we have done this, but only for short times.  One person was sad that no one came after her!!

I think from the answers we can be certain that this book touched a familiar part of each person in some way----even if it was in a "Bodice Busting" way!!

  

Nancy's home was our meeting place this month.  The

 table was set with flowers, nuts, and candy and a springy green tablecloth!  

   She was a very gracious hostess, but she DIDN'T share her alcohol with us!!

                                The food was delish as usual!

Many of us use our hands (click here for a great art show of hands) to talk, especially when we're very involved in our topic

 and book club is no exception!  

Jan and Kathy are listening attentively to Jackie and Phyllis!

                 Karen makes sure she has her facts straight before speaking.

As usual we had a great discussion!  What a wonderful way to relieve stress.

Before leaving we chose our next TWO books--A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a

 Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah  and American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld.  

Stay tuned !

Potato Peel Pie??

Wednesday, March 18th found our book club dining in downtown Kalona at The Tuscan Moon.  

We visited as we ate, but saved our book discussion for later as we retired to Valli's lovely home for---what else but pie!  No, not potato peel, but yummy sweet potato, cherry, and apple.  Unfortunately the cameras stayed at home or in purses!

Our book for this month was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.  

One reviewer wrote:  The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton (nom de plume Izzy Bickerstaff) writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. When Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams finds Juliet's name in a used book and invites articulate—and not-so-articulate—neighbors to write Juliet with their stories, the book's epistolary circle widens, putting Juliet back in the path of war stories. The occasionally contrived letters jump from incident to incident—including the formation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while Guernsey was under German occupation—and person to person in a manner that feels disjointed. But Juliet's quips are so clever, the Guernsey inhabitants so enchanting and the small acts of heroism so vivid and moving that one forgives the authors (Shaffer died earlier this year) for not being able to settle on a single person or plot. Juliet finds in the letters not just inspiration for her next work, but also for her life—as will readers.

Check out this link for a video by the co-author Annie Barrows.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m11VE8SJPO1SPZ

Many of us had not heard of Guernsey before this book.  

Guernsey and the other Channel Islands represent the last remnants of the medieval Dukedom of Normandy, which held sway in both France and England. The islands were the only British soil occupied by German troops in World War II. Guernsey is a British crown dependency, but is not part of the UK. However, the UK Government is constitutionally responsible for its defense and international representation.    

Our discussion centered around the lost art of writing letters, sacrificing for our children, and the casualties of war.  We enjoyed the book, but would not put it on the top ten list just yet!

Where Would Your Shack Be?

The Shack by William P. Young--The Product Description from Amazon is as follows: Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness.  Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.  Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into hs darkest nightmare.  What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.  In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?"  The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him.  You'll want everyone you know to read this book!Last Wednesday found our book club eating at a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Washington. We had margaritas, dauquaries, and sodas and enjoyed the tasty Mexican fare.  Following the meal we journeyed to Susie's lovely home.  The Shack by William P. Young was our book to discuss and discuss we did!   No matter the rating we gave the book we all agreed it led to a great discussion.  

This book was Jackie's suggestion and she led the discussion.  We tried using the bear help keep us from speaking all over one another, but our enthusiasm got the best of us and the bear went by the wayside.

Many times some we  were deep in thought.

There were a few tears, but a lot of laughter too!

Susie always shares her thoughts. :)

And we rated the book on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.

HEY, WHAT'S FRANK DOING IN HERE???  HE'S NOT A BOOKER BABE!  Ahhh, but he did read the book and discussed it with many of us in the lounge.  So, for this month he is an honorary Booker Babe!!  Just wait until we read a juicy one, Frank!