In preparation for our next book, Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger:
Author's Website might be of some interest. Along with discussion questions from here and here.
Also, take the Wine Challenge Quiz and we can compare results at our next meeting.
Happy Reading,
Jennifer
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
July Meeting Notes
Books ‘n’ Wine Club,
Well we had another wonderful meeting. Thank you to Allison for being such a gracious host. We are grateful to her “help” (husband, Tom) for supplying us with a fantastic southern menu of pulled pork, beans and slaw…yummy!
Topics for the evening were again vast and varied:
1. Mammograms – Yes, can you believe we went there again? Ellen and Marrie are now conducting a poll to see if women from a certain era remember the GPS metal Band-Aid devices. Results to follow next meeting.
2. Appendix – We are glad to learn that after the last meeting Karin’s evening pains were not related to the chicken salad, but rather appendicitis. Happy to report Karin is well after a painful experience. Glad you’re better Karin!
3. Dogs and the hunting camp – There was some discussion related to dogs and mice…yuck! Charli’s husband wants her to line the cabinets at the hunting camp. General consensus…let him do it himself!
4. Bugs – Again…YUCK! We discussed the annoying fruit flies (Charli seems to have gotten this under control) and some silver bugs (not silverfish) that Sara has discovered in the basement.
5. Formulaic – Yes, it is a word! Authors such as Danielle Steel, Nicholas Sparks, Mary Higgins Clark would be considered formulaic.
6. Recipes – After enjoying a lovely homemade salsa from Allison, we decided to post recipes from our evenings on the blog.
7. The book – We spent some considerable time discussing The Help. Some questions we delved into were: Favorite Character – overall winner was Aibileen. Would Mae Mobley become racist like her mother? We hoped that the teachings of Aibileen would remaim despite her young age and that growing up in the times of the civil rights movement would make her more like Skeeter and less like Hilly…at least we hope! Jenn’s favorite scene: The naked man at Celia’s. I loved how Celia came to help Minny and for that brief moment Celia was strong and not the pathetic character who has been so beaten down by all the miscarriages. Ellen wondered if Skeeter would have been like the other white women if her character wasn’t different from the others (well groomed and socially adept)? We debated whether Skeeter exploited the maids for personal gain. There was a feeling of yes and no on this question. We delved into the other characters: Minny, Elizabeth, Stuart, Johnny, Skeeter’s mother.
8. The author – We chatted about the controversy of a white author writing in the voices of black characters. The other conflict facing Stockett was her use of dialect for her black characters, but her failure to provide the southern white women their linguistic quirks. Finally, we discussed Kitty’s inexperience as an author and we wonder if she’ll be a one hit wonder (only time will tell…as we await her next book). Marrie appreciated Stockett’s writing style as she was able to take the reader from beginning assumptions about characters (and situations) to provide further depth as she progressed. For example, the reader was under the assumption there was something to fear about Johnny as Celia kept Minny a secret, however, we later learned that Johnny was a caring husband.
9. We missed Susan and look forward to her return next month…darn that traffic!
10. Our next meeting will be at Marrie’s to discuss Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger…another epistolary!
Happy Reading,
Jenn
Well we had another wonderful meeting. Thank you to Allison for being such a gracious host. We are grateful to her “help” (husband, Tom) for supplying us with a fantastic southern menu of pulled pork, beans and slaw…yummy!
Topics for the evening were again vast and varied:
1. Mammograms – Yes, can you believe we went there again? Ellen and Marrie are now conducting a poll to see if women from a certain era remember the GPS metal Band-Aid devices. Results to follow next meeting.
2. Appendix – We are glad to learn that after the last meeting Karin’s evening pains were not related to the chicken salad, but rather appendicitis. Happy to report Karin is well after a painful experience. Glad you’re better Karin!
3. Dogs and the hunting camp – There was some discussion related to dogs and mice…yuck! Charli’s husband wants her to line the cabinets at the hunting camp. General consensus…let him do it himself!
4. Bugs – Again…YUCK! We discussed the annoying fruit flies (Charli seems to have gotten this under control) and some silver bugs (not silverfish) that Sara has discovered in the basement.
5. Formulaic – Yes, it is a word! Authors such as Danielle Steel, Nicholas Sparks, Mary Higgins Clark would be considered formulaic.
6. Recipes – After enjoying a lovely homemade salsa from Allison, we decided to post recipes from our evenings on the blog.
7. The book – We spent some considerable time discussing The Help. Some questions we delved into were: Favorite Character – overall winner was Aibileen. Would Mae Mobley become racist like her mother? We hoped that the teachings of Aibileen would remaim despite her young age and that growing up in the times of the civil rights movement would make her more like Skeeter and less like Hilly…at least we hope! Jenn’s favorite scene: The naked man at Celia’s. I loved how Celia came to help Minny and for that brief moment Celia was strong and not the pathetic character who has been so beaten down by all the miscarriages. Ellen wondered if Skeeter would have been like the other white women if her character wasn’t different from the others (well groomed and socially adept)? We debated whether Skeeter exploited the maids for personal gain. There was a feeling of yes and no on this question. We delved into the other characters: Minny, Elizabeth, Stuart, Johnny, Skeeter’s mother.
8. The author – We chatted about the controversy of a white author writing in the voices of black characters. The other conflict facing Stockett was her use of dialect for her black characters, but her failure to provide the southern white women their linguistic quirks. Finally, we discussed Kitty’s inexperience as an author and we wonder if she’ll be a one hit wonder (only time will tell…as we await her next book). Marrie appreciated Stockett’s writing style as she was able to take the reader from beginning assumptions about characters (and situations) to provide further depth as she progressed. For example, the reader was under the assumption there was something to fear about Johnny as Celia kept Minny a secret, however, we later learned that Johnny was a caring husband.
9. We missed Susan and look forward to her return next month…darn that traffic!
10. Our next meeting will be at Marrie’s to discuss Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger…another epistolary!
Happy Reading,
Jenn
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