Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

 Friday, September 29th we met at Kris's home for a discussion and movie of Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.  We were particularly pleased to be able to have our resident equestrian expert, Peggy Ann, present to share her knowledge and insight about horses and their care to help us understand the book better.

Here's a brief overview of the book from Wikipedia (which we all know is 100% trustworthy. Right . . .)

Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she was bedridden and seriously ill. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but having lived long enough to see her only novel become a success.With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time. 

Black Beauty was Anna Sewell's first and only book.  She wrote it more for adults than children, as she was hoping to change the minds of the people of her day and culture to be more caring about animals and more particularly horses. She was successful in this as Black Beauty ended up being a very influential book. Today it is generally read as children's literature.

There were 7 of us present: Stephanie T,, Stephanie R, Peggy Ann, Merri, Kris, Lorraine, and Lorraine's mom, Joan. As usual, we had plenty of food! - chicken salad sandwiches, Swiss Barley soup, fresh melon, eclairs, relish tray, chocolate mousse, potato wedges, spinach artichoke dip. (I probably missed something.)

We watched the 1994 movie which got the best reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. We recognized a lot of the actors from other British TV we have watched so we did spend some time looking up all the other shows people were in on IMDB - a very worthwhile endeavor to help keep some of us awake.  I am happy to report that neither Merri nor Kris did not fall asleep!

Agatha Christie's The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

 As a place marker I will say we did have a book discussion about The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side and watched the movie. I think we had the book discussion on May 19th. 

Lorraine brought slider and French Macrons, Sierra made them they were strawberry with cheesecake middles, Kris did a special tossed salad and a pan of Rice Krispy treats. Merri brought fresh pineapple and I brought some kind of dessert.

Kris de-catified her basement for the allergic Lorraine who attracts cat hair like a magnet.

As usual we enjoyed the food a long with a book discussion. Once again I have waited too long for my memory to recall any points of our discussion.

This was the second time I have read this book but it had been a long time between readings so it was almost like I had never read it before though I did know the basic story.

In recent news there was some discussion of the text of Agatha Christie's books to "rework to remove potentially offensive language"(The Guardian). So we thought we should read one while they were still original to the author. I don't know if this selection was on the reworking block.

The next selection is Emma by Jane Austin.

Discussion of The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

 We held our discussion for this book on April 7th.

I forgot to make a post for this selection. Wow, if I don't do it right away I forget any details of the discussion which is sort of what happened this time.

If any of the members feel inclined to make a mention of this book discussion you are welcome.

I thought the book itself was a worthwhile book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the subject matter of the Holocaust and the stories that came out of that history.

At the time I was reading of Corrie Ten Boom's arrest/capture when she was sick in bed, I also was very sick with a bad cold and could imagine how she felt at that time and how hard and uncomfortable she was. The book was one miracle after another, even the fleas were a miracle by being so infested that the guards avoid coming to their barracks which allowed the scriptures studies possible. The changes in the women living together in close quarters from contentious to kind to one another because of the bible studies.

Being currently in the age range of Corrie, I wondered how she was able to withstand the trauma, torture and hard work required of her in the encampment. A story of sheer will to live and help when the costs were so high.

The next book selection is The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie.

Holes by Louis Sachar Book Discussion

 The snow was coming down like big heavy cornflakes, when the Busy Gals Classic Reading Society gathered to discuss the book Holes by Louis Sachar. By our meeting March 10th our book group has pretty much had enough winter and the weather conditions described in this book couldn't have been farther on the weather spectrum. Another winter storm was setting upon our area and one member 'on call' would have to miss due to an emergency delivery when a coworker saved her a two hour trip which allowed her to join our discussion. Our numbers were a skimpy three after I showed up and eventually rose to max out at five with the return of Stefanie (on-call) and Peggy Ann who had family circumstances keeping her away for several months. 

Warm and inviting as always our host Kris has been sharing her home the last few times. She once said she prefers to host because she doesn't have to go out in the winter weather.

Great food as always and a small celebration for Lorraine's upcoming birthday sparked off our evening of catching up and discussing the book.

Our birthday girl, who is always an interesting source of information shared the importance of a good first line in a book. And as a librarian, has found there are games that test her student's knowledge.  Also, demonstrating the important aspects of drawing a reader into the story by the first sentence of the book. She also alerted us to the importance of an accurate description of the book's expected contents in order to make a decision on whether to read it or not.

"There is no lake at Camp Green Lake." This is the first sentence of the book Holes. I bet you knew that. The five of us at book group loved this book. The characters are more colorful than the scene set at camp Green Lake. The movie is very close to the book. It should be, it's own author was part of the cast. Louis Sachar as Mr. Collingwood, from the Katherine Barlow scenes at Green Lake when there was a lake.

I got it wrong. I thought he was one of the lawmen. With the author on set it only seems right that he  would have had oversight on how the film was produced.

I thought it was a great story that connected the past with the present in an ancestral/genealogical way. I always enjoy a book that fills in the gaps with an extra story that helps to foreshadow what a reader hopes might come to light later on in the book.

I liked how Stanley genuinely seemed to care about Zero and really didn't seem to blame Zero for his incarceration at Camp Green Lake, forgiving without a second thought. It made forgiving a lot easier because of the humble nature of Zero and his willingness to make amends even before the truth about the shoes came out.

Our next selection is a book we have been talking about reading almost since the beginning. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom.

The Witches by Roald Dahl Discussion

 In November the group selected The Witches by Roald Dahl to read but as the Christmas season was fast approaching we put that book aside to instead read a few short Christmas stories of our own choosing. Go around the table and do a short review and just plan to have a book group Christmas party. Some were The Little Matchstick Girl by Hans Christian Andersen read to the group by me (Sharon), Kris shared The Old Shoemaker by Leo Tolstoy. She shared that the shoemaker prayed to see the Christ and during the day different people in need came to his home and he fixed their shoes, gave them food and helped them.

It was suggested that rather than doing our usual Christmas white elephant gift exchange that we select a book that we would like to re-gift or purchase a new one and have a random wrapped book gift exchange. Then the giver of the book share why they love it or what they liked about it. Some of the books that were exchanged were a large volume of all the Jane Austin books which I got, yeah thanks Kris! Merri brought The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery, Karen brought The Hiding Place by Corrie Tin Boom, Stefanie shared her fabulously illustrated Princess Bride book and I gave a volume of Agatha Christie: Five Complete Miss Marple Novels and Lorraine brought A Train to Potevka by Mike Ramsdell. Make note of The Hiding Place and A Train to Potevka as possible future selections. 

We had this party on December 17th. I remember it being a great time with food and a game. I can't remember if there was a movie.

Last night, 1/27/2023, we did have our book discussion which included 7 of our members. A fine number for a good discussion. As always, our discussion seemed to turn to the topic of appropriate books, what is going on in the world of those books and how they view the subject matter under the current opinions and standards verses the original creation and intention - to entertain and not set out to offend certain groups or ideologies. Also, how the author may have liked or disliked the way the movie was made from his book. In this case we found that he did not like the first movie and considered removing his name. Many of us had already watched the first movie (1990 version) that had Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling and Rowan Atkinson in it. So, we opted to watch the new 2020 version which didn't get as good of ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. Still it had some noteworthy actors such as Octavia Spencer, Ann Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Kristin Chenoweth to mention a few.

As always we enjoyed some lovely food before our discussion. We had come to realize that we must have at least one healthy offering and it is a must to have a dessert or two or three. We do have quite a few good cooks in the group and the others are lovely buyers of delicious treats to share. A well rounded reflection to accompany our discussion. From memory we had Sausage Tortellini soup with focaccia bread, veggie tray and dip, green salad, Cobb salad, apples with dessert cheese ball (recipe below) and caramel dip sauce, pizza rolls like dinner rolls not the frozen square kind - so good, and Lorraine's famous Trifle, strawberry this time I think. I hope I didn't forget anything.

I brought something I have not tried before. A sweet dessert style cheese ball. When I told my husband what it was he didn't think it sounded good. I told him I thought the ladies would enjoy it. They did! Here is the link to the recipe some members asked for. Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Cheese Ball I did not take a picture of it but if you can imagine a large grapefruit sized mudball rolled in peanut butter chips with sliced apples piled around on a plate then there you go. Definitely better than mud!

I did look at Kris' daughter-in-law's food blog The Food Charlatan for a recipe like it but she didn't have one. So, challenge to her to come up with a sweet version of a cheese ball for her blog. There are many other sweet/dessert cheese balls on the net of course and I am up for trying another one. Lemon would be another flavor I would be really interested in making.

Our group is open to offering fashion advice as well. Wink wink.

Our next selection is Holes by Louis Sachar. Published in 1998 and likely on school reading lists which is a qualifier for this book groups reading parameters.