Meeting on February 6th

DISCUSSION OF THE BOOK BORROWER

Spoiler Alert: Don't read these notes if you have not finished the book yet.

Most of the discussion of this book revolved around the author's seemingly skewed view of female relationships. Those present for the meeting agreed that there were some strange sexual boundaries between the women in both stories that didn't really fit into either plot. The beginning seemed a bit choppy and was difficult to get used to. The lack of quotation marks or at least some sort of distinction between dialogue and inner thought was also distracting. But once we did get used to it we enjoyed the Trolley Girl storyline even more than the story of Toby and Deborah's friendship. Although overall, we agreed that it was sort of hard to form an attachment to the characters in the book. For example, no one at the meeting really expressed any kind of emotional outpouring over the death of Deborah. We didn't really see it coming that Deborah was having an affair and we weren't sure if we believed it to be true. We discussed the question: Was Toby a good friend to Deborah? We ended up distinguishing between their workplace relationship and the rest of their friendship. It didn't seem as though Toby handled their friendship well at work, but that otherwise they seemed to be fairly loyal to each other. We wondered if they were just still friends out of habit or did they ever really resolve their initial conflict at the adult school? We all expressed a desire to have learned of how they came back into contact with each other after that. Overall reviews of the book were that it was historically interesting, somewhat disturbing, and definitely unique. Grades given were: A-, B+, B, C.

MOVIE OF INTO THE WILD

Jenny has the movie based on Into the Wild. Are we still interested in watching this movie? Any volunteers to host? Jenny can host, but it would have to be an evening event with a start time of 8pm for the movie. (I have to wait for Jillian to go to bed!) Oh yes, and I do live in Tehachapi which is about a 45 minute drive. But I'm up for that if you are. If that doesn't sound as fun as an afternoon viewing in Bakersfield, then who would like to host? Please respond either by comment to this post or by email to the group.

RSVPs

Our next meeting on March 6th will be at Country Rose Tea Room. Camilla will be making reservations as the date gets closer. We will need a pretty firm head count to make that reservation. Please be sure to let us know either my email or phonecall whether or not you will able to make it. Thanks for your help on this!

READING LIST/SCHEDULE

• Mar. 6th at 12:15pm: Meet at Country Rose Tea Room to discuss The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
• Apr. 3rd at 12:15pm: Meet to discuss The Necklace by Cheryl Jarvis
• May 1st at 12:15pm: Meet to discuss Carolina Clay - The Life and Legend of Slave Potter Dave by Leonard Todd

If you would like to add to our reading list,
please bring your title suggestions to the next meeting.