December - Let's Party!

Because we all have enough going on already, this year, we opted to not to read a book in December (ok, there's a good chance a lot of us wouldn't have read the book even if we would have planned to read one). Instead, we just gathered to have some cider, wine, snacks, and a lot of time to chat, guilt free.

Prizes were awarded to the people with the most book club points for the year. To no one's surprise, Ann took first place and received a 2019 bookish hardcover planner. To everyone's surprise, Cheryl came in second (even she will admit this was surprising!) and was awarded a bottle of wine. We'll do the points again in the coming year (with a few tweaks) and I'm already thinking about prizes. We finished the night with a cookie exchange.

The reading schedule for 2019 has been posted but, as always, changes are likely to happen and your suggestions will be considered. Bear in mind that our theme for 2019 is "The American Experience" and we'd like to stick to books that can contribute to that in some way.

October and November

In October, we went to see the movie adaptation of Angie Thomas's book The Hate U Give. And boy, did we all like this movie! I'd say it had us on the edge of our seats; but the truth of the matter is we were pulled back in our seats, as if we were trying to pull away from the tension on the screen. But the movie also made us laugh, we liked the family dynamic, and we thought the acting was terrific. Most of all the movie did what the movie and the book are meant to do - it made us think. It opened some eyes.

Unfortunately, we didn't plan ahead to have a drink in the theaters bar after the movie so we would have had a chance to sit down and talk about it. We definitely recommend seeing this movie; and going with a book club is a great idea - just make sure you plan to have time to talk about it.

This month we read The Wangs Versus The World. Linda pointed out that the movie from October and the book from this month give our group of white suburban middle-aged women great glimpses into other cultures. Ann was not a fan of the book; she felt like she would have gotten more out of the book if she had a great knowledge of Chinese culture and history. But the rest of us did enjoy it.

I'd tell you more about our discuss about this book except that we didn't much talk about it. Having just come off an election (in which one of our members was running for office and another had worked election day), we had a lot to talk about regarding that. Plus, you know, the usual catching up with each other, especially since we didn't get much of a chance to talk to each other in October.

Next month we aren't reading a book so that we all have more time to enjoy our families and friends over the holidays. Or try to be less stressed at least. We will meet and award prizes to the people with the most points earned this year and do a couple of other fun things.

September - Killers of the Flower Moon

Well, this month we figured out that switching books only a couple of weeks before the meeting only works if people can get the book from the library. Which, surprisingly, you couldn't do with this book even though it's been out for almost a year and a half. Still, half of those of us who could make the meeting had at least read some of it.

We had to force ourselves to get on track and talk about the book for a while, even so. Those of us who read the book liked it, in no small part because we liked having our eyes opened to something we'd been unaware of before. Cheryl had heard about what had happened to the Osage before - NPR, PBS, one of those places. Even being a room full of women who have their eyes open to the corruption in government and the justice system, we still found the level of corruption at this time and in this place astonishing. While we didn't talk as much about the book as we might have, I think we would all recommend the book.

The book references about two dozen murders but Mary Beth said that when she looked this up, there were references to there having been as many as sixty murders of the Osage people. Which makes it all the more amazing that the government was content to solve about a half dozen cases and call it good.

Now we're all wondering how many more stories like this are out there waiting to be found and told.