September 25, Meeting at Claire's Mountain House

Submitted by Lori.....

Last Sunday (Sep 25, 2011) we were treated to the pleasure of a warm,
balmy day, near peak foliage up at Bretton Woods, and time discussing
books with wonderful friends while sitting out on Claire's deck. We
discussed "The Girl Who Fell From the Sky" by Heidi W. Durrow. The
general consensus about the book was best described by Joy, "It was an
easy read with many layers of complexity". Most liked the book
(although thinking back, I don't think people expressed overwhelming
love for it- mostly because of the difficult subject of a mother
killing her children). There was one person vocal in her dislike of
the book, feeling that it engendered too many stereotypes. We
discussed the topic of racism, the status of mixed marriages (are they
more accepted today?), and the motivations and options for the
characters with a lively discussion towards the end as to whether the
main characters were doomed or had potential to make good lives for
themselves in the end (we were roughly split on that).

To add to the discussion I had also read "Passing" by Nella Larsen
written during the Harlem Renaissance in the late 20's. Nella Larsen
was a hero for Heidi Durrow (both were of Dutch and African American
descent). It was interesting to compare the contemporary story written
by Heidi Durrow to Nella Larsen's story set during segregation.

Our next meeting will be held on Sunday, October 30 at Mary Jo's where
we will be discussing, "The Bells" by Richard Harvell.

We decided on a book for our Nov/Dec meeting, "Kindred" by Octavia
Butler. As in previous years, the Nov/Dec meeting will be held in
conjunction with the Polar Express/Elf weekend, Dec 4th, 2011. The meeting will be at Pembrook. We will enjoy our annual Yankee Book Swap.

We had a fairly small group last weekend, and as always, those of you
that couldn't make it were very much missed.

Mary Jo sent pics from September 25, 2011, book club meeting.

To see photos, go to:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1948237996136.2088116.1548160769&l=4a29c2588f&type=1

Marlena's Suggestions for December Book

The following books were recommended by Marlena as our December 4, 2011 read:

Kindred by Octavia Butler Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stays grow longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin. Homer and Langley by Doctorow Homer and Langley Collyer are brothers—the one blind and deeply intuitive, the other damaged into madness, or perhaps greatness, by mustard gas in the Great War. They live as recluses in their once grand Fifth Avenue mansion, scavenging the city streets for things they think they can use, hoarding the daily newspapers as research for Langley’s proposed dateless newspaper whose reportage will be as prophecy. Yet the epic events of the century play out in the lives of the two brothers—wars, political movements, technological advances—and even though they want nothing more than to shut out the world, history seems to pass through their cluttered house in the persons of immigrants, prostitutes, society women, government agents, gangsters, jazz musicians . . . and their housebound lives are fraught with odyssean peril as they struggle to survive and create meaning for themselves. Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks Once again, Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure. The narrator of Caleb's Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the island's glistening beaches and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a tentative secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia's minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the tribe's shaman, against whose magic he must test his own beliefs. One of his projects becomes the education of Caleb, and a year later, Caleb is in Cambridge, studying Latin and Greek among the colonial elite. There, Bethia finds herself reluctantly indentured as a housekeeper and can closely observe Caleb's crossing of cultures. Like Brooks's beloved narrator Anna in Year of Wonders, Bethia proves an emotionally irresistible guide to the wilds of Martha's Vineyard and the intimate spaces of the human heart. Evocative and utterly absorbing, Caleb's Crossing further establishes Brooks's place as one of our most acclaimed novelists. The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve "I wonder this: If you take a woman and push her to the edge, how will she behave?" The question is posed by Jean, a photographer, who arrives on Smuttynose Island, off the coast of New Hampshire, to research a century-old crime. As she immerses herself in the details of the case--an outburst of passion that resulted in the deaths of two women--Jean herself enters precarious emotional territory. The suspicion that her husband is having an affair burgeons into jealousy and distrust, and ultimately propels Jean to the verge of actions she had not known herself capable of--actions with horrific consequences. Everywhere hailed for its beauty and power, The Weight of Water takes us on an unforgettable journey through the furthest extremes of emotion.