April and May

April's turnout was the biggest turnout we've had in a long time and everyone there had even read the book. Huzzah! Apparently we need Paulette Jiles to start writing books faster? Of course, this was the only meeting I've missed in a year; fortunately, I was able to call in to talk to everyone about New Of The World. It was a great discussion. We talked about the writing, the characters, what we were expecting to have happen as we were reading (some of us were certain of a happily-ever-after and some of us were expecting the worst). This one was definitely a hit with the club, in no small part because we all really liked the relationship between the main characters. Plus, there were plenty of surprises, new things to think about (none of us had ever heard of traveling news readers), and we found a link to the cowboys in the story.

In May, we had the inverse - only three of us were able to make the meeting (sorry, Mary Beth but thanks for the great spread). Luckily, we'd all read the book so we had a good time talking about the book, what we had expected versus what we got, and how it seemed to tie into current events. We'd all definitely recommend The Women In The Castle for book clubs in no small part because of the way the rise of the Nazi party seems to parallel much of what we seeing now regarding nationalism. We found the ladies interesting and thought Shattuck had done a good job crafting unique individuals of each of them. We all remarked that this book touched on a part of the World War II era that we had not previously read anything about and it was interesting to see how the disparate factions began having to live with each other again.

Wonder what kind of a group we'll end up in June now that summer travels have begun? We should have a lot to talk about again with Little Fires Everywhere!