Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles, takes its title from a book by the same name by George Washington, actually rules to live by...if you happened to live 200 years ago. For a change, almost everyone had read the book, although several of us had read it so long ago, it was difficult to recall specifics about the book. Our two far flung members who joined us on speaker phone, our two new members and the regulars who had read the book, all enjoyed this one. We had a good conversation about the book, including the type of girls Katey and Eve might have been, living as a single woman in the time period the book was written in, Agatha Christie, and a man writing from a female point of view. We were all impressed with Towle's chutzpah at choosing a female narrator and with his ability to carry it off.
We had great fun discussing the actual rules of civility as well. We will probably bring up cleaning your teeth with the table clothe at every meeting from now on!
Our book for August is Maria Semple's wildly popular
Where'd You Go, Bernadette? which made a lot of "best of" lists in 2012 and will be a much different read from anything we've read recently.
In September, we'll have our second annual multi-generational read. Last year's choice, Laura Hildenbrand's
Unbroken was a huge success and we had a wonderful discussion. I've chosen Lily Koppel's
The Astronaut Wives Club for this year's book, sticking with a non-fiction choice We read Koppel's
The Red Leather Diary a few years ago and enjoyed it and this one is getting excellent reviews.
