Nov. 22, 2014 Meeting

some delicious food, some great discussion...another typical meeting of our incredible book club.

we again came to our ratings from very different angles.we pretty much split on orphan train, with three who really like it, and four who didn't. i think we agreed that the book covered an interesting and not well-known phenomena in our country in the early part of last century, but we diverged on how the author chose to tell that story. some felt it was authentic while others felt it was predictable and contrived. three stars.and while most (not all) thought girls from atomic city also provided a glimpse of american history not known to many, the author's portrayal was too tedious. but there were a couple in the group who felt the story was both enlightenting and engaging. two stars.we tried something a little new...we each described the books using one word as an entry point into our discussion, and kathy asked some prepared questions, which we thought was a nice way to explore the book from an angle outside of our personal opinions.just realized we didn't do the gift exchange...guess no one is quite in the holiday mode yet.

next books are 10,000 saints (eleanor henderson) and the luminaries (eleanor catton). we picked two, in case luminaries become to odious.

carol, you are more than welcome to come with some prepared questions (kathy mentioned a website where she got hers). but if you'd rather not, that's fine too.

hilarie is hosting the next meeting on jan. 3, and julie is the selector.