October: LaRose by Louise Erdrich

To get our discussion going for this book, we played a version of Jeopardy which allowed us to talk about the characters, the events of the book, and the lives of Native Americans.

Ann was a big fan of the book...until the end, which she was really disappointed in and she was not alone. We did find it curious that the book ends with its focus on a different character than any of the characters which were in the forefront of the novel to that point.

We talked about the violence in the book including Landreaux's shooting of Dusty, Maggie's attacks on boys who were trying to molest her and LaRose's attempt to get revenge on those boys, and Peter's attempt to kill Landreaux. We talked about the weight the children carried - LaRose having to go back and forth between homes, Maggie and LaRose who have to try to keep Nola from committing suicide, Romeo's son who is raised by Landreaux and his wife because his father is unable to raise him.

Interwoven into the current story are the stories of the LaRoses before this boy but we felt that, despite much being made of the importance of these prior LaRoses, only one of them really got any attention. And there didn't seem to be a connection between this LaRose and those.

Despite some reservations about parts of the book, we still had a really good discussion about this book, which is actually the third book in a trilogy but can be read independently.

September: Educated by Tara Westover

This is what happens when you don't keep up with the book blog - I can't remember talking about much this book. Which seems odd because I know we had a good discussion about it.

 We did talk about which of the parents were most culpable for the damage done to their children - the father who was clearly not right minded or the mother who seemed aware that things were wrong but always backed her husband. We talked about Westover's parents always siding with their son who was abusing Tara, making excuses for his behavior. We talked about Westover's mother's business which made her the real breadwinner of the family and how she still deferred to her husband. We were all astonished by Westover's ability to pull herself out of her circumstances and her unwillingness to acknowledge that the Mormon faith was partially to blame for what had happened to their family.

We would definitely recommend this book for other book clubs.

August - Becoming

Playing catch up - time to get August updated before we meet for September!

We had a great discussion about Michelle Obama's book, Becoming. Those of us who listened to it highly recommend the audiobook but we all agreed that it was a book well worth reading. We all learned so much about Ms. Obama's upbringing and were impressed with what her parents were willing to give up to give their children a better life.

We felt that Obama was honest about her relationship with her husband even as she was being fiercely protective of him. We were all impressed with her willingness to step into the world of politics with him even though she really didn't like that world. We talked about how hard it must be to raise children in the bubble that is the White House and how other First Families had managed it.

We did, as we always do, get off topic quite a bit but much of August's off-topic conversation was related to the topics brought up by the book - politics, parenting, getting into colleges. I always consider that we've read a good book when it gets us talking about things related to the book as well as the book and relating things in the book to our own lives.