The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009)
Sheila introduced the book with an explanation of the situation of segregation laws in the USA, where after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1864, “Jim Crow” laws in the Southern States still regulated racial segregation between black people (“Coloureds”) and white people, until the Civil Rights movements, led and personified by Martin Luther King and Rosa Parkes, resulted in their abolition by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The book is well written on the whole, though sometimes rather laborious. It was a real challenge getting used to the dialect of the Black characters. It made you feel you had got inside the skin of the American black women of the 1960s, with their permanent fear of losing their job, house, and family without any warning. They were only two or three generations on from the slaves. They still had no real freedom – their jobs and housing situations were extremely precarious and they could not vote. Apparently a film is being made of The Help, though some people considered that the time for such a film has really passed – it will not have the same effect as it would have done when its events were still in living memory.
There is a sharp divide between the Black characters in the book, who were all “good” (except Leroy), and the White characters, who were all “bad” (except Skeeter and, in a different way, Celia Foote). The fact is that the whole book focused on just one aspect: black women employed as “home helps” by white women; and in that situation, in the prevailing culture, that was how people acted. Because the set-up was so wrong, it had a bad effect on the white women who were part of it, and conformed to it. We noticed that Stockett could have introduced a “good” white woman in the person of the New York editor, as a white woman not involved in the racial segregation system; but she was Jewish, and so had a different culture of her own (stereotyped to some degree).
The characters are persuasive: full of life, and developing convincingly in the course of the book. Everyone liked Aibileen and Minny; they were strong characters, and the white children Aibileen brought up adored her. They had terrific humour, and good qualities – notably, loyalty to the people they worked for. However, it was felt to some extent that they were also stereotyped, and in that sense a little shallow.
Skeeter was felt, on the whole, to be incredibly naive, in that she risked getting the black women killed by interviewing them and publishing what they said. We discussed what was it that constituted the tipping-point for Aibileen, that made her agree to talk to Skeeter and then persuade the other “helps” to do the same, and realized it was Treelore’s death, plus of course the fact that having no husband or children of her own, she had less to lose than others.
One or two people found Celia Foote, the “poor white”, was their “favourite” character – she was excluded from the white social circle, so not part of the racial-segregation setup, and she didn’t have an ounce of malice in her – she was an “innocent” in every sense of the word. Some people found the relationship between her and her husband Johnny was weird.
Something particularly notable was the way the black women put their hearts into their work of home-making, even though the homes they made were other people’s. Minny was not only a fantastic cook, she was an energetic and effective cleaner, and the handy household tips that Aibileen gave Skeeter, out of her own experience, for her Miss Myrna column are really good.
Everyone agreed that the ending of the book was the worst part of it. Suddenly Minny’s, Aibileen’s and Skeeter’s problems are resolved in a “magic wand” effect, as though the author had got tired of writing and decided to finish it all off in a hurry. The book is overall a good read, but not great literature or world-changing. We talked about where racism “comes from”, whether it is taught or inherited or what. It seems to be ignorance that is inherited, and actual prejudice is taught.
We wound off the evening with a glorious Sri Lankan curry: Ranmali was the artist in charge. Grateful thanks from everyone!
P.S. Interesting footnote, thanks to the Daily Mail>: The real Abilene
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Friday, 29 October 2010
Books we've read so far
Next Club meeting: Tuesday 16th November.
Book: The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
The suggestion was made today that from now on, while everyone comes prepared with their own reactions to the book and their opinions of it, one person will "lead" the meeting, do some background research, and begin with a more thorough presentation of the book that will lead into the discussion. Sheila has offered to take The Help, as she suggested it, and if by any chance she can't be there, she'll ask someone else to do it.
At today's meeting we discussed A Song for Nagasaki by Paul Glynn.
People loved this book, and the sense that you get of Japanese culture and mindset, just enough to make you want to know more.
The astonishing thing was Takashi Nagai's own character, and first of all, the way he was able to find meaning in the atom bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, and specifically on Urakami which was the Christian district of Nagasaki and "Ground Zero" of the A-bomb. Also his determination in dedicating himself to his work and really giving his life to his patients. As he was dying slowly of cancer his "hermit hut" became a real place of pilgrimage for people from all over Japan. It was astonishing not only that he wrote the books he did, in his condition, but that he wrote them "out of his head", without references or research or other resources.
Right from the start, when he read Pascal's Pensees, he was able to bridge the cultural difference and understand it deeply. Perhaps he was in some way prepared for this by his studies of Western medical books and articles. At the same time, he was totally Japanese, not "Westernised" in any way.
His extraordinary sensitivity to the presence of his mother's spirit, her soul, after she died. His conversion to Catholicism took him years, and followed a definite ongoing process that took time but did not stop.
We also looked at the character and actions of his wife Midori, whom he thought of as the "perfect" figure of a wife and woman.
Sheila had also read The Bells of Nagasaki, Nagai's own account of his spiritual journey, which throws more light on him and his approach.
--
A list of the books we've read so far:
The overall theme for books 2008-2009 was “different cultures”.
1. Fasting, Feasting, Anita Desai
Not popular: readers found nothing uplifting or even particularly thought-provoking. Two dysfunctional families in India and the US in the second part of the 20th century. No real depth.
2. Christmas 2008 - January 2009 Kristin Lavransdatter, (book 1: The Wreath), Sigrid Undset
Very interesting indeed; rather too earthy in parts, but well worth reading. Shows how the Catholic faith was part of life in mediaeval Sweden. Makes the country, period and culture come alive as it narrates the childhood, adolescence and early womanhood of Kristin up to her marriage. Undset herself was a fascinating character and worth getting to know about.
3. February-March 2009 Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell
This was written in the mid-19th century. It was hard work getting through it, but the book has a gripping plot, and the picture it gives of poverty among 19th-century Manchester mill-workers, drawn from life, was a real eye-opener.
4. March 2009 The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
Set in Peru in the mid-eighteenth century. Deceptively short and easy to read, but worth spending time on. Two book-club readers who had gone through it quickly decided to re-read it in more depth after the discussion. The plot is rather contrived, but the characters are beautifully drawn and there is not a single superfluous word.
Interesting to compare it with other books such as Nevil Shute’s The Chequer Board.
5. April-May 2009 A Pattern of Islands, Arthur Grimble
The only non-fiction so far, and the least successful read; almost everyone found it hard to get through and several didn’t finish it. The book was written in 1950, and the language and style are very dated, even stodgy. This is a pity, because its portrayal of British colonial administration from the inside, and of the Gilbertese lifestyles, customs and beliefs at the beginning of the twentieth century, is really fascinating. After hearing the discussion by those who had read it, book-clubbers who had not managed to get through it said they would definitely give it another try.
6. June 2009 The Shack, William Paul Young
(We were warned before reading this not to be put off by unexpected developments in this book.) Set in America. Mack, married to a devout Evangelical Christian and father of five, goes through acute trauma and depression after his youngest daughter was snatched, presumably abused and brutally murdered. Four years later he receives a mysterious invitation to revisit the shack, isolated in the backwoods, where the murder had taken place. The shack is suddenly transformed into an earthly paradise, and he meets the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity each in human form.
Over the next two days they work through his depression, anger and rejection of God. The theology is wide-ranging, deep and mostly very sound, presented in simple, straightforward terms with immediate application to Mack himself. Almost everyone got very involved in reading it, though one or two thought the depiction of God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit was “cheesy”, and one was put off by the writing style, which is not particularly good - it is the author’s first novel.
7. July 2009: The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989
Everybody found this a very interesting read and had a lot to say about it. Most of us had also seen the film, either recently or in the past. We all liked the writing style and found it easy to read (though one absolute pedant picked out a couple of phrases which were not strictly correct English). The way the main character’s thought-processes are expressed made it very compelling. The story made Club members realise the necessity of taking notes as they read, since there is too much of real interest to retain otherwise.
Discussion focused on the butler Stevens’ character and behaviour. The keynotes were:
- his dedication to duty, which one person thought really Kantian;
- his non-expression of his feelings, which he clearly thought of as part of his dignity as a butler – but in fact he was either congenitally unable to express them (the question arose of whether he suffered in some degree from Aspergers syndrome or autism), or had become so, or made himself so, in the course of his life;
(both of the above characteristics, it was pointed out, were notably Japanese)
- his idea of “greatness” and “dignity” and the way he strove to attain it.
He seems to have been left unfulfilled as a person because there was no room for feeling in his view of his own life. His relationship with his father was difficult because it was so mixed up with their shared profession as butlers, which far from bringing them together had worked in the opposite direction. This in spite of the fact that Stevens sincerely admired and even venerated his father, and his father was equally proud of Stevens. (It was interesting, too, to compare this with the other father-son pair in the book, the Cardinals.)
Stevens’ experience of life was very restricted indeed, and it was felt that this lack of social interaction was to blame for his inability to reflect on his own actions, so that the driving-tour at the end of his life is the first time he ever seems to have done so – and he finds himself changing his attitude towards himself and his master progressively as the four days go by.
The book’s ending is, in one way, violently sudden, but in another way it has been prepared for throughout the narrative.
At the end of the session, we listened to an interview with Kazuo Ishiguro which was recorded some years ago. We found to our great amusement that we had missed one of the main points of the book as far as he was concerned. He had chosen to write about a butler to express the relationship of the ordinary person with power – meaning that we do our little job, as well or badly as we choose, for the person next above us in the chain, and have no influence on the way our society or country (and to some extent even our own lives) are actually run, just as the butler in that household was present at gatherings of VIPs but had no say at all in the outcome of events – however much he may think he has contributed.
8. August 2009 The Shadow of the Sun, Ryszard Kapuscinski (2001)
Read during August 2009, discussed in book club meeting on 1st September. Most club members felt that this book was extremely interesting, although not a gripping read or un-put-downable. Kapuscinski gives a fair and convincing view of Africans from many of the different countries on the continent. People felt they had learnt a great deal about African histories, cultures and people. Several people remarked that the book badly needed a list of contents plus an index, and preferably a map of Africa as well.
Specifically, people noted the African concept of hospitality (Kapuscinski quotes the Polish proverb "guest in the house - God in the house" which applies even more in Africa). The loud laughter he describes as necessarily accompanying greetings and introductions, was something people had noticed with Africans in London. His descriptions of animal life, and especially insect life (in the houses, not in the wild) are also worth reading.
Most of all, though, the account of how people lived, especially the poor, the destitute, the refugees and the unemployed, was absorbing and really valuable in changing our own attitudes. The discussions of the history of slavery and colonisation, and their after-effects, also gave readers a lot to think about.
It was noted that although most reviews of this book available online are enthusiastic about it, there were at least two which criticised it quite fiercely. One of these listed various errors Kapuscinski is alleged to have made, - which tribes people belonged to, where they came from, etc. The other accused him, surprisingly, of "racism" because of the way he generalised about "Africans" - e.g. "In Africa, people do this, don't do that, think the other," etc. The review claimed that these generalisations have the effect of distancing the reader and making "the African" seem totally alien.
The question of his factual errors is important, because Kapuscinski himself stresses how essential it is for people to learn the truth about Africa for themselves, since most Westerners are extremely ignorant about it. However, we felt that any errors did not make a real difference to what we learnt from the book, and were simply the result of a non-native speaker who was dependent for his information on the individuals he met and how much he understood of what they happened to tell him.
The question of generalising about "in Africa" and "Africans" is an interesting one, because Kapuscinski makes the point repeatedly that there is really no such thing as "Africa" as a whole - there are a huge number of different tribes with very different traditions, lifestyles and mindsets. At the same time, he does frequently talk about what "people in Africa" do. Given that he is first and foremost a journalist, this is really inevitable. Judging from book club members' comments it does not seem to have an alienating effect, but just the reverse.
A final point raised was the contrast between Kapuscinski's approach, valuable as it is, and that adopted by the "Harambee 2002" campaign (see http://www.harambee-africa.org). Harambee aims to raise awareness of Africa, and support for development projects, by celebrating the various cultures and cultural traditions and stressing the richest resource Africa possesses: African people themselves. With this approach, Westerners are encouraged to provide help and support because they realise there really is hope. Kapuscinski's book tends to make readers feel that the problems are so vast and deep that there is nothing that can possibly be done.
Sept-Oct 2009 The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Oct-Nov 2009 Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis
Dec 2009 - Jan 2010 We Need to Talk about Kevin, (Ms.) Lionel Shriver
Feb-March 2010 Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
Discussion of 'Wives and Daughters' was interesting. It's not a controversial book, and people generally agreed that it's an enjoyable read rather than a gripping one. The plot is fairly slow-moving - the book was, of course, written in episodes for a magazine - especially compared with Mary Barton which we read last year. The style is fairly pedestrian (unlike We Need to Talk about Kevin, whose style is very well-crafted, sometimes obtrusively so).
The most interesting aspects of the book are the characters, which are well-drawn, and which really do evoke people whom one knows. They encourage one to think about what the right course would be in this or that circumstance, and whether one would be able to live up to one's principles, and when one should or shouldn't keep a secret one has been entrusted with.
Mrs Gibson the Second is an Awful Warning, and Molly Gibson is almost, but not quite, too good to be true. The relationship of Squire Hamley and his wife was much discussed, and also the reason why Dr Gibson had made such a mess of his choice of second wife. The loyalty and affection of Osborne and his brother Roger, Osborne's real love for his secret wife, and the very loving relationship between Molly and her father even though Dr Gibson had no time for affection or any emotions, make it a rewarding book to read.
We also talked quite a bit about reasons for reading a book, and reasons for coming to this book club.
March-April 2010 Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
April-May 2010 Life of Pi, Yann Martel
May-June 2010 Esther’s Inheritance, Sandor Marai
July-Aug 2010 Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
Aug-Sept 2010 “Babette’s Feast”, Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen (short story in Anecdotes of Destiny) http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/BabetteWW.htm
Sept-Oct 2010 A Song for Nagasaki, Paul Glynn
Book: The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
The suggestion was made today that from now on, while everyone comes prepared with their own reactions to the book and their opinions of it, one person will "lead" the meeting, do some background research, and begin with a more thorough presentation of the book that will lead into the discussion. Sheila has offered to take The Help, as she suggested it, and if by any chance she can't be there, she'll ask someone else to do it.
At today's meeting we discussed A Song for Nagasaki by Paul Glynn.
People loved this book, and the sense that you get of Japanese culture and mindset, just enough to make you want to know more.
The astonishing thing was Takashi Nagai's own character, and first of all, the way he was able to find meaning in the atom bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, and specifically on Urakami which was the Christian district of Nagasaki and "Ground Zero" of the A-bomb. Also his determination in dedicating himself to his work and really giving his life to his patients. As he was dying slowly of cancer his "hermit hut" became a real place of pilgrimage for people from all over Japan. It was astonishing not only that he wrote the books he did, in his condition, but that he wrote them "out of his head", without references or research or other resources.
Right from the start, when he read Pascal's Pensees, he was able to bridge the cultural difference and understand it deeply. Perhaps he was in some way prepared for this by his studies of Western medical books and articles. At the same time, he was totally Japanese, not "Westernised" in any way.
His extraordinary sensitivity to the presence of his mother's spirit, her soul, after she died. His conversion to Catholicism took him years, and followed a definite ongoing process that took time but did not stop.
We also looked at the character and actions of his wife Midori, whom he thought of as the "perfect" figure of a wife and woman.
Sheila had also read The Bells of Nagasaki, Nagai's own account of his spiritual journey, which throws more light on him and his approach.
--
A list of the books we've read so far:
The overall theme for books 2008-2009 was “different cultures”.
1. Fasting, Feasting, Anita Desai
Not popular: readers found nothing uplifting or even particularly thought-provoking. Two dysfunctional families in India and the US in the second part of the 20th century. No real depth.
2. Christmas 2008 - January 2009 Kristin Lavransdatter, (book 1: The Wreath), Sigrid Undset
Very interesting indeed; rather too earthy in parts, but well worth reading. Shows how the Catholic faith was part of life in mediaeval Sweden. Makes the country, period and culture come alive as it narrates the childhood, adolescence and early womanhood of Kristin up to her marriage. Undset herself was a fascinating character and worth getting to know about.
3. February-March 2009 Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell
This was written in the mid-19th century. It was hard work getting through it, but the book has a gripping plot, and the picture it gives of poverty among 19th-century Manchester mill-workers, drawn from life, was a real eye-opener.
4. March 2009 The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
Set in Peru in the mid-eighteenth century. Deceptively short and easy to read, but worth spending time on. Two book-club readers who had gone through it quickly decided to re-read it in more depth after the discussion. The plot is rather contrived, but the characters are beautifully drawn and there is not a single superfluous word.
Interesting to compare it with other books such as Nevil Shute’s The Chequer Board.
5. April-May 2009 A Pattern of Islands, Arthur Grimble
The only non-fiction so far, and the least successful read; almost everyone found it hard to get through and several didn’t finish it. The book was written in 1950, and the language and style are very dated, even stodgy. This is a pity, because its portrayal of British colonial administration from the inside, and of the Gilbertese lifestyles, customs and beliefs at the beginning of the twentieth century, is really fascinating. After hearing the discussion by those who had read it, book-clubbers who had not managed to get through it said they would definitely give it another try.
6. June 2009 The Shack, William Paul Young
(We were warned before reading this not to be put off by unexpected developments in this book.) Set in America. Mack, married to a devout Evangelical Christian and father of five, goes through acute trauma and depression after his youngest daughter was snatched, presumably abused and brutally murdered. Four years later he receives a mysterious invitation to revisit the shack, isolated in the backwoods, where the murder had taken place. The shack is suddenly transformed into an earthly paradise, and he meets the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity each in human form.
Over the next two days they work through his depression, anger and rejection of God. The theology is wide-ranging, deep and mostly very sound, presented in simple, straightforward terms with immediate application to Mack himself. Almost everyone got very involved in reading it, though one or two thought the depiction of God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit was “cheesy”, and one was put off by the writing style, which is not particularly good - it is the author’s first novel.
7. July 2009: The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989
Everybody found this a very interesting read and had a lot to say about it. Most of us had also seen the film, either recently or in the past. We all liked the writing style and found it easy to read (though one absolute pedant picked out a couple of phrases which were not strictly correct English). The way the main character’s thought-processes are expressed made it very compelling. The story made Club members realise the necessity of taking notes as they read, since there is too much of real interest to retain otherwise.
Discussion focused on the butler Stevens’ character and behaviour. The keynotes were:
- his dedication to duty, which one person thought really Kantian;
- his non-expression of his feelings, which he clearly thought of as part of his dignity as a butler – but in fact he was either congenitally unable to express them (the question arose of whether he suffered in some degree from Aspergers syndrome or autism), or had become so, or made himself so, in the course of his life;
(both of the above characteristics, it was pointed out, were notably Japanese)
- his idea of “greatness” and “dignity” and the way he strove to attain it.
He seems to have been left unfulfilled as a person because there was no room for feeling in his view of his own life. His relationship with his father was difficult because it was so mixed up with their shared profession as butlers, which far from bringing them together had worked in the opposite direction. This in spite of the fact that Stevens sincerely admired and even venerated his father, and his father was equally proud of Stevens. (It was interesting, too, to compare this with the other father-son pair in the book, the Cardinals.)
Stevens’ experience of life was very restricted indeed, and it was felt that this lack of social interaction was to blame for his inability to reflect on his own actions, so that the driving-tour at the end of his life is the first time he ever seems to have done so – and he finds himself changing his attitude towards himself and his master progressively as the four days go by.
The book’s ending is, in one way, violently sudden, but in another way it has been prepared for throughout the narrative.
At the end of the session, we listened to an interview with Kazuo Ishiguro which was recorded some years ago. We found to our great amusement that we had missed one of the main points of the book as far as he was concerned. He had chosen to write about a butler to express the relationship of the ordinary person with power – meaning that we do our little job, as well or badly as we choose, for the person next above us in the chain, and have no influence on the way our society or country (and to some extent even our own lives) are actually run, just as the butler in that household was present at gatherings of VIPs but had no say at all in the outcome of events – however much he may think he has contributed.
8. August 2009 The Shadow of the Sun, Ryszard Kapuscinski (2001)
Read during August 2009, discussed in book club meeting on 1st September. Most club members felt that this book was extremely interesting, although not a gripping read or un-put-downable. Kapuscinski gives a fair and convincing view of Africans from many of the different countries on the continent. People felt they had learnt a great deal about African histories, cultures and people. Several people remarked that the book badly needed a list of contents plus an index, and preferably a map of Africa as well.
Specifically, people noted the African concept of hospitality (Kapuscinski quotes the Polish proverb "guest in the house - God in the house" which applies even more in Africa). The loud laughter he describes as necessarily accompanying greetings and introductions, was something people had noticed with Africans in London. His descriptions of animal life, and especially insect life (in the houses, not in the wild) are also worth reading.
Most of all, though, the account of how people lived, especially the poor, the destitute, the refugees and the unemployed, was absorbing and really valuable in changing our own attitudes. The discussions of the history of slavery and colonisation, and their after-effects, also gave readers a lot to think about.
It was noted that although most reviews of this book available online are enthusiastic about it, there were at least two which criticised it quite fiercely. One of these listed various errors Kapuscinski is alleged to have made, - which tribes people belonged to, where they came from, etc. The other accused him, surprisingly, of "racism" because of the way he generalised about "Africans" - e.g. "In Africa, people do this, don't do that, think the other," etc. The review claimed that these generalisations have the effect of distancing the reader and making "the African" seem totally alien.
The question of his factual errors is important, because Kapuscinski himself stresses how essential it is for people to learn the truth about Africa for themselves, since most Westerners are extremely ignorant about it. However, we felt that any errors did not make a real difference to what we learnt from the book, and were simply the result of a non-native speaker who was dependent for his information on the individuals he met and how much he understood of what they happened to tell him.
The question of generalising about "in Africa" and "Africans" is an interesting one, because Kapuscinski makes the point repeatedly that there is really no such thing as "Africa" as a whole - there are a huge number of different tribes with very different traditions, lifestyles and mindsets. At the same time, he does frequently talk about what "people in Africa" do. Given that he is first and foremost a journalist, this is really inevitable. Judging from book club members' comments it does not seem to have an alienating effect, but just the reverse.
A final point raised was the contrast between Kapuscinski's approach, valuable as it is, and that adopted by the "Harambee 2002" campaign (see http://www.harambee-africa.org). Harambee aims to raise awareness of Africa, and support for development projects, by celebrating the various cultures and cultural traditions and stressing the richest resource Africa possesses: African people themselves. With this approach, Westerners are encouraged to provide help and support because they realise there really is hope. Kapuscinski's book tends to make readers feel that the problems are so vast and deep that there is nothing that can possibly be done.
Sept-Oct 2009 The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Oct-Nov 2009 Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis
Dec 2009 - Jan 2010 We Need to Talk about Kevin, (Ms.) Lionel Shriver
Feb-March 2010 Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
Discussion of 'Wives and Daughters' was interesting. It's not a controversial book, and people generally agreed that it's an enjoyable read rather than a gripping one. The plot is fairly slow-moving - the book was, of course, written in episodes for a magazine - especially compared with Mary Barton which we read last year. The style is fairly pedestrian (unlike We Need to Talk about Kevin, whose style is very well-crafted, sometimes obtrusively so).
The most interesting aspects of the book are the characters, which are well-drawn, and which really do evoke people whom one knows. They encourage one to think about what the right course would be in this or that circumstance, and whether one would be able to live up to one's principles, and when one should or shouldn't keep a secret one has been entrusted with.
Mrs Gibson the Second is an Awful Warning, and Molly Gibson is almost, but not quite, too good to be true. The relationship of Squire Hamley and his wife was much discussed, and also the reason why Dr Gibson had made such a mess of his choice of second wife. The loyalty and affection of Osborne and his brother Roger, Osborne's real love for his secret wife, and the very loving relationship between Molly and her father even though Dr Gibson had no time for affection or any emotions, make it a rewarding book to read.
We also talked quite a bit about reasons for reading a book, and reasons for coming to this book club.
March-April 2010 Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
April-May 2010 Life of Pi, Yann Martel
May-June 2010 Esther’s Inheritance, Sandor Marai
July-Aug 2010 Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
Aug-Sept 2010 “Babette’s Feast”, Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen (short story in Anecdotes of Destiny) http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/BabetteWW.htm
Sept-Oct 2010 A Song for Nagasaki, Paul Glynn
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