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!

January "Jewelia"

Our January book club met at Phyllis' home.  She had the table all decked out in snowflakes and candles.

Of course we ate--sloppy joes, tortilla chips and dip, salad, cake, Snickers cheesecake, carmels, and bourbon fudge.  Oh, and Suzanne made this cabbage dish:

I hear it was yummy!

Our book for this month was, The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment That Transformed Their Lives by Cheryl Jarvis.   

We had mixed feelings about this book.  Some enjoyed reading about the friendship that developed between these women who started out pretty much as strangers. Some people thought that the women in the book were just too materialistic.  Some people compared the group of women to our reading group of women!  Most of us agreed that good things came out of this experiment like, fundraising for good causes, and just making lots of people smile.  Overall, I don't think we would recommend the book.

As usual we had some great laughs.

Kim and Phyllis

                                                                  Nancy, Kathy, and Jan

And good discussions.

                                                     Phyllis, Suzanne, and Jill

Also Karen practicing her Grandma skills to get ready for the first grandchild.

We voted for our favorite books so far.  Each person got to vote three times.  Jackie used all of her votes at once while Susie encouraged her!

We had a visiting book club member, Emmitt.  He is getting ready to read our book for next month--The Shack.

Christmas Plaids, Movies, Gifts, & Food

We don't have a book to read during the month of December because of everyone's busy schedules.  Instead we just get together to eat, talk, eat, talk, have a little activity, eat, and talk some more.  It does us good and we usually get those endorphins moving by getting in some good belly laughs!  :)  This year we wore something with Christmas plaid, (well most of us did!), brought something from home to give as a gift, and brought an item to represent our favorite Christmas movie.  (Last year we did books.)  In order to see who our gift was going to Kim read the story of Mr. and Mrs. Right as we passed our gifts accordingly.

Karen F.  always the hostess helps out filling glasses.  You can smile like that Karen because you are well rested after retiring this year!

What a great smile on Jill!  That's because she is our youngest member and a new mother!  She enjoys her wassail while the baby is being cuddled by others.

And there is the baby being cuddled by Suzanne!

Doesn't Phyllis look thrilled with her gift?  And, I love that plaid vest.  You can always count on her to comply with the directions!

Ma Clampet  aka Jackie arrived with her rifle!  Kathy and Jan tried to keep her under control during the evening.  (The rifle represented her favorite movie--The Christmas Story.)

There is Karen B. sitting there patiently waiting to open her gift while Susie steals the limelight.  Doesn't Susie look great in her Christmas plaid?  She is our newest member.  

We actually allowed her to join AFTER we had set our limit at 12.  The "rule maker

s' aka Phyllis and Kim had some sleepless nights over this decision.  After all, a rule was broken AND it leaves us at an unlucky number!  Oh, well, we'll put leave it to Susie to see that we always have something to laugh about!

Oh, Nancy, it's a cute snowman towel!  Hope he looks great in your kitchen.

Now what's so funny Valli?  Was your gift that bad?  Or was it one of the other women?  Probably Susie misbehaving!

Yummy!  Look at the choices Karen B. has as she fills her plate.  Everyone brings such great food to share.

And that was our celebration for December!  I think everyone had a great time!  Now, on to the next book--The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment that Transformed their Lives by Cheryl Jarvis.