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.

March - To Kill A Mockingbird

I must admit, we were a chatty bunch this month. Lots to talk about besides the book. CoVid19, upcoming theatrical performances both related to and not at all related to books we've read, new jobs, and kid updates. So we may not have given this book it's fair due as far as discussion was concerned.

 We started by going around the room and talking about whether or not each person had previously read the book or not. If so, we wanted to know how this reading compared to their first reading. If not, how did they think they experience differed from what it might have been if they'd read it when they were younger. Only one person had never read the book before; Lisa W was reading it for the first time. Everyone else had different perspectives about the differences on reread. Grace had thought she might not need to actually reread it but in flipping through it, realized how much she'd forgotten about it.

 We talked about Scout and her precociousness. We wondered about a girl who was raised to be, and acted in public, so polite, who didn't hesitate to question the authority of her teachers. We talked about how Lee didn't seem to care much for teachers as a whole; she portrays them as rigid and unaware. As we talked about the racism in the book, Ann brought up that kids are products of their upbringing and to an extent can't be blamed for their actions and words. We wondered how, then, so many of them grow and change and when in their lives does that happen. Grace had some really interesting stories to tell about her experience as a very young girl dealing with racists and being acutely aware that it was wrong.

 We talked about the movie adaptation of the book and Cheryl and Mary Beth were of two minds about how good of an adaptation it was. Mary Beth felt that they had left out much of what makes us understand the actions of the characters. Lisa and Ann had differing opinions about how Jem was affected by what happened in the book. We don't always have really different opinions about the book and it was kind of interesting to have points we weren't necessarily ready to concede.

We all felt that Gregory Peck was the perfect Atticus and made that character even more of a man to be idolized. Lisa S pointed out that Harper Lee had based Atticus on her own father (the trial piece of the book is based on a trial where he defended two black men wrongly accused). That led us to wonder if the Atticus in this book was more accurate to her father or the Atticus in Go Set A Watchman which Lee actually wrote before this book and in which Atticus is definitely not the saint he is here.

We're eager to see the Broadway adaptation when it comes to Omaha next April and see what changes Aaron Sorkin made to the story. Hey, it turns out we did get a lot of discussion in about the book, after all!