Busy Gals having Busy Lives

The end of a school year has always been very busy for the members of our book group. Several being teachers with extra responsibilities. Not to mention those of us with kids in school finishing up a year full of sports, music performances, field trips and graduation festivities. As well as taking care of spouses and visiting extended family members. May has been extra busy for me with family visiting, and all the before mentioned activities.

Yet, we still plug along with our book group gatherings of which we have had for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Flowers for Algernon. Both having wonderful discussions. 

It has been a little tricky to manage everyone's schedule and to plan on a meeting time for a discussion and a movie. Thanks to Kris who typically organizes our meeting times. We know that it is always hit and miss. We have tried to arrange a set time each month for the discussions but each time we try we are missing too many people that it has just been working out that we have to go to the old system of gauging the length and difficulty of a book with the schedule availability of the book group members.

For our next book selection we will take advantage of an outdoor performance July 1st of The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare at our town park. It should be a nice change from our usual dinner and a movie. 

Keep watching for the next post and book selection.

Sharon

P.S. The book discussion for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland happened on March 28 and

Flowers for Algernon was May 16.

Around the World in Eighty Days and Two book group events

To those who might be checking in on this blog and are curious as to how we pick a book...well, we try to pick our next book before the end of our book discussion evening. If we don't, we have a text group where we bring up a couple choices or we discuss among a few of us some books we have placed on an active list. Our group is very agreeable to what is selected. 

The Saturday after our last discussion I sat down at my laptop and looked up several popular current classic book lists. From there and my memory of books our group has been reluctant to read along with eliminating the books we have already read on those lists I compiled a short list that I placed at the bottom of this blog page. If a book was listed on multiple lists that we had not read, that was older than 50 years old and that we as a group had thrown out in the past I included it. There were many books that I didn't include. Other members of our group are encouraged to submit books that I will include on the list. The list is changeable. After a little more future exploration of the book list, I may move them to the right side where we may decide not to read them so we don't forget that we put them on the do not read list.

We like to watch a movie of the book after we discuss. There are usually several versions to chose from. The one we settled on for Around the World in Eighty Days was a three part series with Pierce Brosnan playing the main character of Mr. Fogg. While that version didn't follow the book half the time, we still enjoyed it. Also, each episode of three was around 1 1/2 hours so we watched part one with the discussion night and scheduled a second night with snacks while we finished with parts 2 and 3.

We always love the good food provided at our discussions. Several of our members were able to make it to at least one of the group discussions.

From our recollections around the table of having watched the Disney movie in our past, we were all surprised when we read the book to find there was no hot air balloon nor a dirigible as a form of transportation. Speaking for myself and a few others in the group, I found the book to hold my interest quite well and was quite action packed. It reminded me of the works of Edgar Rice Borough, who is the author of such works as the Tarzan of the Apes book series and the John Carter of Mars series and many more.

I particularly liked the character of Passportout. I'm sure I'm not alone in liking this character. He was quite the problem solver and a huge asset to the success of the mission of traveling around the world in 80 days.

Phileas Fogg came across to me as a social introvert and possibly on the spectrum, not picking up on social ques and having a gaming addiction similar to what young men have now days with his extreme liking of the game whist (similar to Spades). Mr. Fogg being a creature of strict time schedules seemed contrary to the Mr. Fogg who was able to transition into a calm traveler when faced with the challenges of his planned travel schedule having some unforeseen gaps, delays and obstacles, not to mention the challenges of an ever changing mealtime schedule. This also gave the character of Mr. Fogg a unique personality that intrigued me.

I liked the subtleness of the growing love of Aouda to the man who rescued her from her impending demise. It makes sense that she would have love for the man who cared for and protected her.

Detective Fix was a wild card for me. I never could predict if he was going to soften to the good character of Mr. Fogg or continue to be the pursuer.

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I found the two chapters (25-26) about which Jules Verne portrayed Mormons to be the standard mixture of truth, myths and misinformation that continue to be spread by people who think they know about the church but are not informed practicing members of the church. However, colorful characters and practices of polygamy did exist in the time frame of this story. The church has not supported the earthly practice of polygamy since 1890, roughly 134 years. I do find it interesting that many authors find the church to be interesting subject matter to include in their works.

All in all, the book, the food and the association with the ladies in this group is always enjoyable!

Sharon

PS. This post was written prior to March 1, 2024. Book group meeting dates were February 16th and 23rd.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Greetings readers! This selection was inspired by Kris' husband Chip, who is a big fan of the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

All the group members were encouraged to wear PJs, bathrobe and bring their towel, because you should always know where your towel is when hitchhiking the galaxy.

As always we enjoyed amazing food. Peggy Ann brought out the French onion soup, one of my favorites I like to get from Applebee's. A lovely charcuterie board was presented by Kris. Others brought loaded Deviled eggs, bacon cheddar muffins, orange muffins, twice baked potatoes, chips and salsa and hummus, eclairs, fruit cocktail cake, cream cheese with pepper jelly and crackers. We love to have yummy food, it is a main draw for our discussions.

As we have over the years had book group members come and go, one will be leaving us in a few months but maybe not. She could always come back since she won't be too far away considering we are in a large state and are used to driving a bit, others may consider it too far. With the possible loss of a member, coincidentally we have gained a new member and are very happy to have her join our group. Welcome Nancy! Our group of regulars hovers around 8, give or take a few when the schedules infringe or permit attendance.

Our discussion seemed to be a mix of 'you really liked the book' or 'you weren't too crazy about it'. I had seen the movie before reading the book, but it had been a while since I had watched the movie. For me the names created by the writer were a little difficult to keep straight, but even a Charles Dickens novel gives me the same problem. The British humor also may have missed the target. We learned that a Ford Prefect was a car. Who would know that unless they were British?

It was interesting how the idea of the book title came long before the actual writing of the book and that there was a series before the book. And even more twisted, the movie is great but still quite different from the book in ways. So, if you are one who tends to get tired of the same thing over and over then you should be fine reading the book after you see the movie.

One of the many things I didn't know was that there were multiple books. After some guidance from Chip we figured that just reading book one of the five or so books would be sufficient and leave reading the rest up to us individually.

I was a little heart broken to learn that the author passed away relatively young, I am sure he had a few more interesting things to do with his career. Apparently, writing books wasn't his number one interest.

The characters in the book are interesting and creative all seem to be equally yoked in importance to the story and are highlighted with their own story.

Forgive me if I forget something of interest group members, you can always add a comment about something you found interesting.

At this book discussion we had our postponed gift exchange since several of our members were not going to be able to attend our book group Christmas party. It was a $15.00 max and themed 'favorite things'.

For our next book it was suggested by Lorraine, since she accidentally read Around the World in  Eighty Day by Jules Verne instead of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She then had to hustle to finish HGG in time for the book discussion. 

I don't have a problem with it since I have been lobbying for a Jules Verne for quite a while. This will be a quick read so we will have a discussion very soon. Feb 15th?

Thanks for reading the classics with us.

Sincerely,

Sharon