Educated Resistance

We gathered around Hilarie's table for some great wine, cheese and crackers while catching up and sharing recent news. Then we moved to the dining room to enjoy yet another wonderful meal with stimulating discussion. A perfectly grilled flank steak was accompanied by a lemony pasta and fresh salad and the meal was capped off with a delicious chocolate mousse. Hard to do better than that!

Discussion of our books was surprising. The much touted Educated, by Tara Westover, was not a hit with three of the five readers. Some thought it too superficial. Some thought she skirted the depth of her experience, making it somewhat boring and redundant to read. The minority who thought that Tara was reporting on a life that we simply couldn't imagine and perhaps didn't have the wherewithal to understand herself, yet alone describe, her horrendous life experience still reported an amazing story. The ranking came in at a dismal 2.

Only three of us completed our second book, "A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II" by Sonia Purnell. I found the book to be fascinating. How this young American, Virginia Hall, made her way to France, connected with British Intelligence, and nearly independently built and lead the French resistance movement is astounding. Her fearlessness, spycraft and cunning made for a riveting story. Others again found this book somewhat repetitious and hard to sink in to. It did, however, end up with a ranking of 3.

We will next meet on Saturday, November 9 at Kathy's house.

Lonnie will be the book picker.

Our next reads are: Sing, Unburied, Sing and There, There.