Good Afternoon!
We had a wonderful meeting last night up at Fred and Rayna Bunker's home in Cloverdale. Our discussion about, The Once and Future King was very compelling. T.H. White wrote the book on the eve of WWII and included some thinly veiled references to Fascism, the horrors of war and other current themes within the context of the Arthurian legends. As we began to gather the music from Camelot was playing and Fred even set out figures of a small medieval king and a knight! None of us had actually finished the book but left the meeting wanting to have another go at it!
Our next selection will be Out of Africa , by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). This is her autobiography spanning the years she lived in what is now Kenya from 1914 - 1931. Blixen lived in what was called British East Africa during the colonial period out side Nairobi. It is a beautiful read, published in 1937. This will be the second "favorite book" chosen for the group. It is available in all formats via Amazon, the Library and Levin & Co.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, June 4th from 7:00 - 8:30. If you would like to host us please let me know!
always,
Linda
Good Afternoon Readers!
We had a great discussion last week after reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. If the book left you wanting more... no worries, there is more to come! Hulu has broadcast the first 2 seasons of the TV show based on the book. Ms Atwood is a collaborator on the series. Season 1 basically follows the book. Season 2 tells the story after the book leaves us with a cliffhanger, very compelling! Ms Atwood has also announced that she is working on a sequel to THT which will be set 15 years after her book ends.
On a lighter note: our next selection will be The Book of Joy, written by the Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu. It isn't in paperback yet but is available at the Library and used copies are on the Amazon website.
As of now, we will be meeting up in Cloverdale at Fred and Rayna Bunker's home on Tuesday February 5th. We will carpool from the church at 6:30.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
always,
Linda
Greetings readers!
I am so sorry I wasn't able to join you on Tuesday evening. I did hear that you all had a wonderful conversation regarding autism and the effects it has on children and their families. I am hoping to share this book with my own cousin who has a son with autism. What a joy it would be to be able to communicate with him!
So, it looks like you all were very organized with getting our book selections lined up! This is the list I received from Ellen:
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood ~ December 4th Meeting at Linda's
The Book of Joy by his Holiness, the Dalai Lama & Archbishop Desmond Tutu ~ February 5th
This is also our Bishop's selection right now!
The Once and Future King by T.H. White ~ April 2nd
Our next selection, The Handmaid's Tale is available at the Library and in all formats. I will ask Aaron at Levin & Co. to put a few on our shelf. It should make for a lively discussion...!
If you would like to host our group please let me know.
all the best,
Linda
ECW Rainy Day Readers Book Club
Hello Readers!
Our book set has arrived! There is a box in our parish Library labeled Rainy Day Readers. There is a sheet for you to add your name when you check out a book. Please make sure you do include your name so we can keep tabs on all of these!
The book is also available on Amazon, Kindle and I can ask Aaron at Levin to put a few on our shelf for those who like to own the books and write in the margins!
Linda
Good Afternoon Readers!
I am sorry to be so delayed in getting our next selection to you. Linda Selover is arranging for 12 copies of the book to be reserved for our group and I wanted to wait until I knew when they would arrive. The book set should arrive this week.
We have chosen from the book group book set list from the Library, The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida. He is a 13 year old boy with autism who has told his story through his lens with which he views the world. So many of us know or are acquainted with individuals on the autism spectrum and this book with its unusual perspective comes very highly recommended. The book is only about 200 pages long so this late info shouldn't be a problem...! It is also available on Amazon if you would like to own your own copy.
We will meet on Tuesday, October 2nd. If you are interested in hosting, please let us know!
always,
Linda
Hello Readers!
Good Afternoon!
We had a wonderful time discussing Hidden Figures on Tuesday evening up at Ellen and Marty's home. This story about the African-American women working for NASA has only really come to light thanks to this book and the movie that was made from it. The movie is wonderful and we do plan on showing it at a movie night one evening this summer. The book however, goes much further into depth about segregation, those who fought it and those who refused to abide by the newly made laws to end it. If you haven't read it I highly recommend it!
We are also going to host a movie night in the parish hall to watch "Hidden Figures" which will be open to all.
Stay tuned for more details! Our next selection will be, A Story Like the Wind by Laurens Van Der Post. " Van der Post’s incomparable knowledge of Africa illuminates this epic novel, set near the Kalahari Desert, about a boy on the verge of manhood, his experiences with the wonder and mystery of a still-primitive land, and his secret friendship with the Bushman whose life he saves. The narrative of A Story like the Wind continues in A Far-Off Place." (description from Amazon page)
Meg and Linda S. have both read it and loved the writing and language used to really place the reader in the heart and soul of Africa.
Do to vacation schedules our next will be meeting on Thursday, August 2nd. We will meet at Linda M's house so that Pat Peyser is able to participate. Aaron will have a few in Levin & Co. in about a week and a half. It is also available on Amazon, and for those veering away from Amazon, eBay is another option. I didn't see that it is available on Kindle but those of you who use Kindle may be more clever than I!
all the best,
Linda
Sally's+ selection, The Power and the Glory led to a very different type of discussion. Some of us loved it, some of us were lukewarm and a few admitted staying with the book and finishing it, like yours truly, just to cross the finish line!... The little whiskey priest was certainly unlike any other character we've encountered before! Many thanks to Ginger for hosting us at her charming house overlooking the river 😊
Our next selection will be Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. This is the true story of the African American women employed by NASA to generate the calculations and formulas for the launches and reentries of the vessels of the space program in the early sixties. It was also made into a movie 2 years ago. It is available in paperback from Amazon as well as electronic formats. I will also ask Aaron at Levin & Co to put a few on our shelf in the store.
Our next meeting will be on June 5th at 7:00, at Ellen's house. We will meet at the church at 6:40 to carpool up to her house.
I hope you are enjoying Hidden Figures. I know I will when I get started!...
All the best,
Linda
Greetings Readers!
We had a wonderful discussion on Tuesday, "unpacking" our last selection, Interpreter of Maladies a collection of short stories written by a London born Indian woman. The stories touched on themes of acculturation, assimilation, Indian vs western traditions and customs. Oddly, we did not discuss the stories in the order the author presented but as we were moved and touched by them. We did spend time on each one though by the end of our conversation. Many of our readers shared that they are not such fans of the short story format but were glad they read the book!
I am including Ellen's wonderful synopsis of our next selection, Our Southern Home. How much fun it will be to talk to the author himself!
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, July 5th at Elaine Rock's home. She lives off Arata Lane on Brooks Road, very easy to find. We will have a carpool leaving from St. Paul's at 6:30 for our Healdsburg friends.
Please contact Ellen about ordering a book. She is the Amazon Prime "mastermind!"
all the best Rainy Day Readers!
Linda
Good Morning Readers!
I hope you have all been enjoying the rain and our new book selection, At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen. When I checked in at Levin & Co. there were 3 or 4 copies of the book in our slot on the book group shelf. To our new members, please ask anyone at the counter if you need help finding it.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 1st at 7:00 pm. I am happy to host here at my house. As always, if any of you would like to have us meet at your home just let us know!
all the best,
Linda
Good Morning Rainy Day Readers!
Our November book was, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. It has been recommended by our own Shelley Bermudez and Katie Murphy. I've just started it and am already drawn in. On the back cover is a review by Abraham Verghese, the author of Cutting For Stone. He says, "This jewel of a story is put together like a vintage timepiece, it's many threads coming together so perfectly. Doerr's writing and imagery are stunning. It's been awhile since a novel had me under its spell in this fashion."
We met on Tuesday, November 3rd.
395-0365
Linda Maxwell
ohmax2010@gmail.com
ECW Book for August was: The Woman Behind the Collar: The Pioneering Journey of an Episcopal Priest, by Joy Carroll Wallis, one of the first female priests in England. It's out of print and not yet in digital form.
We had a wonderful meeting/discussion last night about Joy Wallis, the author of The Woman Behind the Collar. It is such great fun to gather and talk about a shared book. We all have such different experiences and take aways from each of our choices.
We found 2 major differences between the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in the US: In England, it is the main church of each neighborhood, so it automatically has a lot more people and action going on, while in the US, we are competing for parishoners between a variety of different styles of Christian churches. Also, the churches are funded differently. In the UK, money goes into a central pot, then churches are paid what they need for their programs, whereas in the US, each church is responsible for raising their own money, for the most part, so that you see huge differences between rich and poor parishes.
ECW Book for June 29th was: A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki. Linda Maxwell hosted us at her house for our discussion. She specially ordered a "Hello Kitty" cookie cutter and made us sugar cookies. We discovered a lot of differences between the Japanese and American cultures that account for the ways that we communicate with each other, and within families.
The ECW Book for April 7th was: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
We had a very enjoyable evening discussing the book, while hosted by Colleen Householder.
On January 27th, we had a very interesting and fun discussion of our 2nd book choice,
Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd and how it relates to issues of history, race, women, the church, and our present day lives.
On a dark and stormy night, we ventured out on Westside Road to Bishops' Ranch. We had a fun evening discussing our first book, The Dog That Talked to God by Jim Kraus and the ideas and life experiences that it brought to mind.
Linda Maxwell supplied cookies in the shape of dog biscuits in colorful dog bowls.
