Books on a Summer's Eve

The group reconnected after 6 weeks with wide ranging discussions on topics of the day, enjoyable conversations on life and politics, and we ultimately launched into our review of the books.

Though Girl on the Train garnered a rating of 3, it was mostly considered thin, less well written, and less interesting than a previous story of the same ilk, Gone Girl. Though it was deemed an easy summertime read, some felt that it was a story which could have remained unwritten.

The Story of a Lost Child was rated 3 and, for our internal purposes, we rated the Elena Ferrante series a 4 overall. You probably wish I would leave the comments there, and I will…almost. Correct me if I misstate this overview: Several were engrossed in the series and could not wait to pick it up from day to day, from book to book. Several just could not get into it. Others thought the series went on too long, rehashed certain events repeatedly, emphasized the youthful stories too much and the mature stories too little.

There was a very nice turnout for our first summer meeting where we started on Helene’s beautiful back patio with fried ravioli, pizza appetizers and white wine, and moveably feasted our way through the kitchen to her lovely dining room, where we had water melon gazpacho, delicious salad, smoked green beans, corn salad, pasta with tomatoes and mozzarella, Italian sausage and white beans. La piece de resistance, which no one could resist, was a wonderful dessert of homemade fruit sorbet, the darkest of chocolate gelato and…da..da! Chocolate dipped cannoli (both delicious and beautiful).

Our next meeting will be on August 13. Host: Maggie Book Picks: Maggie

The next books are: A Man Called Ove and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry: A Novel