And I wasn't there! Alas, I was on vacation last week, so missed my book group meeting. I was very disappointed, as I really loved Saturday and was looking forward to talking about it. But lucikly we have a report from Ellen (thank you Ellen!) who was that night's hostess and is also the one who keeps us all organized and scheduled (she also keeps the master list of books we've discussed, without which that section on the bottom right of this blog would be very empty). In any event, onto her report.
Given that it was a vacation week, we had a small group of 7 present, and believe it or not, 1 conversation! Group dynamics are fascinating. Only 3 of us had read the book and luckily one of them was JH, who was able to illuminate some of the book themes in a literary fashion. I thought her best insight was when she compared the power struggle between Henry (the rich and powerful) and Baxter (the powerless) to that of the US and the terrorists of 9/11. Although no one loved the book, we were all glad that we had read it.
In terms of choosing the next book, the only real contenders (from the below list) were Family Matters and Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult. Family Matters won by a vote, probably because no one had read a book by Rohinton Mistry. The other books voted on were:
Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison
The Girls' Guide to Hunting & Fishing by Melissa Bank
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Here are resources for Family Matters: the reading group guide, about the author, excerpt, praise
Rohinton Mistri's "A Fine Balance" is truly amazing. It's my favorite from all his books.
Posted by: Kori | February 29, 2008 at 10:40 PM
The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing is a good book, I really reccomend it for a future choice!
Posted by: Denise | March 05, 2008 at 10:20 PM
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Posted by: | July 09, 2009 at 08:03 PM