Thank you, Lori, for your notes about our meeting.
For our November 1st meeting, we had brunch at Mary Jo's, and discussed "The
Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins. This book was a best seller that
had been widely described as the next "Gone Girl" by the media.
Everyone in our group had finished the book, and it was described as
an "easy read" by most, even by those that didn't really like the
book. Of those that didn't care for the book, the major complaint was
with the main character, who was not always sympathetic. The main
character had a severe alcohol abuse problem and low self esteem,
which led to very destructive behavior. Although some in the group
found this annoying, others thought it was interesting to use this
character as a vehicle to unfold the story. Most found the other
characters in the book unsympathetic as well. In any case, the
characters provided interesting discussions about alcoholism, trust,
abusive relationships, enabling relationships, and recovery. Although
by and large people enjoyed reading the book, most felt the book
wasn't as good as "Gone Girl", which was much more engaging, and had
more surprises.
Brunch was absolutely delicious, and as always, fun was had by all.
The brunch included Mimosas, Bloody Marys, egg dishes, french toast
casserole, many wonderful breads and breakfast cakes, fruit plates,
roasted vegetables, and Marlena's shrimp (please forgive me if I've
forgotten any one's dish- I just remember that EVERYTHING I ate was
wonderful).
The next meeting will be on Sunday, Dec 6th. We will meet at 11:00am
at The Six Burner Bistro. We plan to be in the same room as last year,
and will have our annual holiday party. This year we will exchange
gently used scarves in a Yankee swap. The book to be discussed is
Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.
After the new year we plan to return to having our meetings the last
Sunday of the month. The first meeting in 2016 will be Sunday, January
31st (did we decide on a place? I can't quite remember). The voting
was very close, but in the end we decided to read "Plainsong" by Kent
Haruf for the January meeting.
