Eleanor Elephant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Month two of Zoom meetings and we all managed to get into the meeting without any problems. Yea, us! This month we welcomed Becky and we managed not to scare her off and even showed her that we can talk about the book when we really try.

The past couple of months we've chosen numbers that correspond to questions as our way to keep on track. This time we'd already answered four of the questions before we even got to the questions with a discussion of the book before we started that part. That's how great this book is as a book club choice.  Some of us figured out the big reveal before we got to the end but most of us hadn't gotten to that. We talked about whether or not we thought Eleanor might have Asperger's or if her behavior was just a result of her upbringing. We all loved Eleanor and the way that Honeyman gradually brought her to the point she could come to grips with what had happened to her and the way friendship made all the difference in her life. We agreed that Honeyman showed how one person who shows kindness can make all the difference.

Conviction by Denise Mina

In March, Omaha had just had their first diagnosed case of Covid-19 and we were not much worried about it yet at that point. We met at Ann's and while we may not have hugged each other, we then thought that washing our hands was going to keep us pretty safe. A month later, it was a whole new ball game. Book club in the time of a pandemic means meetings are held via Zoom. This was our first meeting trying this technology and, for the most part, it went pretty well. We actually spent a lot of time talking about the book and might well have done a better job of not talking over each other as we do in person!

Conviction was recommended by Linda, based on an NPR review. Ann was the first person to read it and she finished it in two days. She was not alone in finding this to be a book to race through. We all liked this one, even though we had a few problems with it, including the fact that we thought the whole conflict of the book ended too easily. I believe only one of us figured out who-done-it before the end of the book which is always the mark of a good mystery. Would we recommend it? Yes. Would we recommend it for a book club? Again, yes. Mysteries don't always make for good discussion but this one had a lot going on with themes including sexual assault, eating disorders, the impact of social media, and remaking yourself.