The Parkside Book Club in Coeur d'Alene met yesterday and we had a good discussion about Breaking Blue by Timothy Egan.  It was chosen partly because of CdA's close proximity to the settings in the book and also because Timothy Egan is a favorite author of many of the members including me.  I know WWBers also like him.  However, this particular book was not a favorite of mine.  I was in the minority - most of the other gals really liked it which is why I'm mentioning it.  The story is about an unsolved murder that happened in the 1930's.  The killer was a cop and cops don't rat out cops.  Eventually the truth came out due to a modern-day sheriff's graduate thesis work.

Two books were mentioned at the end of our meeting:  

Healing Wounds:  A Vietnam War Combat Nurse's Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington D.C. by Diane Carlson Evans

Mika in Real Life:  A Good Morning America Book Club Pick  by Emiko Jean

Happy Reading!  I miss you.

Deb

 Ken and I have been on the road for a few weeks, so lots of time for reading.  I am working my way through Harry Potter again—grandkids are reading it and I wanted to share with them.  I am currently on book 4, “The Goblet of Fire”.  It is so fun to re-read all of these.  I have forgotten lots of the story and now I am getting refamiliar with old friends.  I have also read our book club books, “My Dear Hamilton” and am waiting for “Sold on a Monday”.  I read “Cemetery Road” which had been recommended by a friend of mine.  It was a page turner novel full of interesting dysfunctional people interspersed with enough normal people that it was compelling.  Long, but satisfying.  I also just finished “Everything I Never Told You”, by Celeste No (author of the later “Little Fires Everywhere”).  A difficult topic of suicide is deftly told with insight and compassion.  I’m not sure that I would recommend it...by the nature of its subject it is difficult emotionally, but the characters—while not necessarily likable—were consistent in their inconsistencies.  

Test blog

 Deb—thanks for the guidance.  It took me a minute, but looks like I have access again.  Please let me know if you can see this...

BB

 I might be late coming to the party but was just nosing around on the Internet and found an interesting website - Colorado Virtual Library.

https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org

I also noticed they have a list of books with links to discussion questions if interested.

https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/resource-sharing/co-book-clubs/discussion-questions/

I managed to read two books outside of book club – a remarkable feat given that I can barely read two pages without falling asleep.  Both books were at some time recommended by readinggroupguides

#1. Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane –  Lisa See,

 Rich and incredibly well researched look at the tea culture of Yunnan province in China and the Akha people who cultivate this remarkable product.   The story revolves around Li-yan, born into the ritualistic culture of the Akha who is able to use her limited education to move forward into the 20^th century. Along the way she has a baby with a man her parents deem unsuitable. Forced by the mores of the village, Li-yan leaves her baby on the steps of a government orphanage.  Over the years she aches to know what happened to her daughter and, in California, her daughter, adopted by loving and sensitive parents,  yearns to know who her birth mother was and why she was abandoned.

Great read covering the Akha people (I promise you will want to Google them) and the culture of tea, serving as the background for Li-yan’s journey from village to city to the United States and her daughter’s search for her birth mother, both using Pu’er tea as the vehicle of discovery.

 

#2. Girl on the Block – Jessica Wragg

Memoir based on Wragg’s life in the business of butchery.  Her career began as a teen in central England, working weekends and learning the trade sometimes begrudgingly, from butchers, most all of whom were men. Wragg pursues her passion as a butcher, developing skill in the many cuts of beef, lamb and pork that foodies require, while attending college to prepare herself as a writer.  Wragg includes some recipes, especially one for creamed spinach, that sounds wonderful, along with her life story from partying teenager to partying college student, to staff at the “Ginger Pig” one of London’s top butchers.  Very interesting peek into an industry that is tough, messy, sexist and elite.

Wine Women & Books December 2019 Luncheon

Group started in 2002 and still going strong!

OUR DECEMBER LUNCHEON
2018