June Book Club - June 30

Hey ladies! Book club will meet at my house next Thursday, June 30, rather than this Thursday. The book is Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. My address is 6416 Shadowood Ln, Memphis, TN. See you then!

May Selection

Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

Jacob Jankowski says: "I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn't always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn't a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn't write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison.

Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob's life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the "menagerie" and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and... he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August's wife. Not his best idea.

The most interesting aspect of the book is all the circus lore that Gruen has so carefully researched. She has all the right vocabulary: grifters, roustabouts, workers, cooch tent, rubes, First of May, what the band plays when there's trouble, Jamaican ginger paralysis, life on a circus train, set-up and take-down, being run out of town by the "revenooers" or the cops, and losing all your hooch. There is one glorious passage about Marlena and Rosie, the bull elephant, that truly evokes the magic a circus can create. It is easy to see Marlena's and Rosie's pink sequins under the Big Top and to imagine their perfect choreography as they perform unbelievable stunts. The crowd loves it--and so will the reader. The ending is absolutely ludicrous and really quite lovely.

The Next Few Months!

Hey Everyone! Watch out!   Book club is getting organized!   We got together last week and decided to just pre determine the books for the next few months instead of month by month.   We also decided on a schedule for the next few months.   So go ahead and stock up now!   Here's the plan: May (Heather's House) - Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen June (Lindsey's House) - Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua July (Angela's House) - Look Again by Lisa Scottline August (Allison's House) - Lit by Mary Karr September (Restaurant TBD) - Whistling Dixie in the Nor'easter by Lisa Patton (Memphis Author!) October - Virginia's House - Book TBD November - Restaurant, Book TBD December - Meredith's House, book, TBD Remember, book club is the 4th Thursday of every month at 7 pm, except for when it falls on holidays! Happy Reading Everyone! Heather

February Selection

The book selection for February is one of my all time favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.  I hate to admit it, but I actually never read this as a teenager.  However, I did read it recently mainly out of guilt (how can you consider yourself a lover of books and NOT read To Kill a Mockingbird?) and it did not disappoint.  I hope you will enjoy it if you were in my boat, and if you were like the majority and did not miss out on this classic, I hope you will enjoy it again.

Same Kind of Different as Me discussion questions

I hope many of you are planning to attend Book Club Thursday night, but for those that can't (or those that want a head start on the discussion), I'm posting this month's discussion questions. Please comment with your thoughts about the book or discussion questions!

In addition to the questions, there are a couple websites that you may want to check out. 

http://thecontributor.org/main/ - When I was home for Christmas my parents' introduced me to this newspaper that homeless people sell on the side of the road for $1. They write the articles, then purchase the papers and sell them for profit. People have used this to get off the streets, and I thought it was a really neat concept. I also read a couple articles in it that changed my perspective on homelessness. So I thought I'd share it!

http://www.samekindofdifferentasme.com/ - more about the book. 

On prejudice - 

1. What are some modern examples of prejudice? Other than racial prejudice, what other kinds of prejudice are common today? 

2. What are 3 things you can do to combat your personal prejudices? 

3. Read Micah 6:8. What does this verse say about the attitude we should have toward other people?

On homelessness - 

1. What is your initial reaction to encountering a homeless person or someone who is in serious financial or personal need? 

2. Other than give money to social service agencies, what are things you can do to provide ministry to the homeless people in your community? 

On forgiveness - 

1. Is it easier to give or receive forgiveness? Why? 

2. Why is it so hard for us to grant unconditional forgiveness? How can your faith help you become a more forgiving person? 

On faith -

1. In Chapter 44, Denver said, "Our limitation is God's opportunity." How has this statement been authenticated in your life. 

2. With Deborah in critical condition, the object of ministry (Denver) became the source of ministry. Denver had been through a lot and was equipped to provide for Ron's needs. Through what experiences has God worked to equip you for ministry? How has God used you to meet the needs of others?