Smoke Gets in Your Eyes// Caitlin Doughty

 

💓Happy Valentine's Day!💓 February's read was Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, by Caitlin Doughty. Coming up next for March's meeting is The 7.5 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton. We have a good handful of copies, but we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! If you do not need a copy, and you haven't already let us know, would you please leave a comment below to update us? Thanks so much in advance!

While I have you, it's that time of year again to start getting your nominations in for next year's reading list! We'd like to ask that you turn your nominations into us on or before our March 11th book club meeting. You can email them to either Susan (susanhl@perhamlibrary.org), or myself (amandaschaefer@hotmail.com), or give us a call at the library (346-4892), or leave them in the comments below, or even leave them with us at the front desk! So many options! 

 In an effort to keep our final nomination ballots to a reasonable size, we are putting a limit of 5 nominations total for each of our members. Additionally, we are sticking with the same 5 dedicated categories this year of Young Adult, Memoir, Mystery, Minnesota Author and Classic~ however you do not need to nominate titles into these categories, but you will be required to vote for at least one book from each of these dedicated genres when the time comes. Sound good? Let us know if you have any questions below~ happy nominating!

 

Onward!

 

Caring for dead bodies of every color, shape, and affliction, Caitlin soon becomes an intrepid explorer in the world of the dead. She describes how she swept ashes from the machines (and sometimes onto her clothes) and reveals the strange history of cremation and undertaking, marveling at bizarre and wonderful funeral practices from different cultures.

Her eye-opening, candid, and often hilarious story is like going on a journey with your bravest friend to the cemetery at midnight. She demystifies death, leading us behind the black curtain of her unique profession. And she answers questions you didn’t know you had: Can you catch a disease from a corpse? How many dead bodies can you fit in a Dodge van? What exactly does a flaming skull look like?

This is nothing like what we normally read, and it was a total success! (Man, we all really love it when a book we wouldn't pick for ourselves ends up being a winner.) Some of us weren't sure we liked Caitlin in the beginning~ she seemed a bit cheeky and flippant about what we feel is mostly a delicate and solemn subject, but by the end of the book, she grew on us. It was clear by books end that she was really after trying to make death less taboo, give the reader what felt like some updated information on what some of the end-of-life options are (and advocate for a few more ways to handle death and the dead), and to encourage us to preplan our final wishes, or at the very least, make our loved ones aware of them... preferably in writing.  

We were glad we read it, we all learned something along the way. This book can't help but stir up personal stories of loss, and a good portion of our meeting was sharing those stories with the group. We are thankful that there are people in the world who find their fit working in the funeral industry in one form or fashion, and even more so that there are people like Doughty who want to try to make it a little less hands off~ with more options to choose from.   

The few criticisms we could scrape together would be even though this was a shorter read, it still felt about 50 pages too long... but if you asked us where we'd trim it, we can't be sure. Some of us still aren't sure about Caitlin, we found her to be an intelligent misfit, but maybe a little dead inside.. we think we like her, but we probably wouldn't be friends. Lastly, some of the content was hard to read, but we could agree that was to be expected, given the title.  

 

How did this book leave you? Let us know below! 👇

 

Did you really like Smoke Gets in Your Eyes? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Stiff, by Mary Roach, All the Living and the Dead, by Hayley Campbell, and The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!    

 

 The votes are in!

Would we recommend this to a friend to read?  YES!

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?  YES! 

                                                                                                                                             Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:  4 stars

The Firekeeper's Daughter// Angeline Boulley

 

We braved the super cold weather yesterday afternoon to meet to discuss The Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley. February's selection is Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, by Caitlin Doughty. As always, if you are able to obtain a copy of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes elsewhere, we would encourage you to do so, as our copies are limited. Also, we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! If you don't need a copy of The Firekeeper's Daughter, and you haven't already let us know, would you please leave us a note down below? Many thanks!

 

Without further ado!

 

As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in—both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When her family is struck by tragedy, Daunis puts her dreams on hold to care for her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother’s hockey team.

After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. How far will she go to protect her community if it means tearing apart the only world she’s ever known?

The overwhelming majority of us really liked this book. We liked the writing, and mostly found the characters and the plot believable. We liked learning a bit more about Native American culture, and a few members mentioned they were glad they listened to this book via an audio book, so they could hear the narrator pronounce some of the language. It was said that there is a kind of sequel to this book, entitled Warrior Girl Unearthed (also available in Viking), and a select few said they wouldn't mind reading it. 

On the other hand, it was generally felt, to varying degree's, that this book was about 200 pages too long. If you asked us where we'd trim it, the best we can come up with was to cut out some of the teen drama woven in throughout the book. We generally liked Daunis, but we also found her wearing. Almost everyone thought she represented a realistic 18-year-old well (except for a couple unbelievable parts), but following along with her choices, and subsequent emotional tours, got tiresome. We also found it predictable and wondered about the predictability of the YA genre in general, noting that we may have felt this same way about previous YA books we've reviewed as well.

How did this book leave you? Let us know below! 👇

 

Did you enjoy The Firekeeper's Daughter? Fans of the book also enjoyed, The Women, by Kristin Hannah, The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon, and The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!    

 

 The votes are in!

Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"YES"
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"                                                                                                                                    Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:                                                         4 stars

Untamed// Glennon Doyle

 

Happy Holidays! On a cold and blustery December afternoon we met at the library to discuss Untamed, by Glennon Doyle. Up next for January is our YA selection, The Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley. As always, if you are able to obtain a copy of The Firekeeper's Daughter elsewhere, we would encourage you to do so, as our copies are limited. Also, we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! If you don't need a copy of The Firekeeper's Daughter, and you haven't already let us know, would you please leave us a note down below? Many thanks!

Onward!

 

Ya'll, the consensus among the 9 attending book club members when we closed the meeting was that this was thee best book club discussion we've had in years! With the exception of only two, this book, to varying degrees, was liked and well received. We liked the flow and the pace of her writing. We liked her honesty and respected her bravery in telling her story. Several members said they wish they would have had this book when they were starting their adult lives, and that some of them knew a young woman in the here and now that they planned to gift the book to. Those same members said they would be buying a copy for themselves to highlight and mark all the good nuggets they found in it's pages. We wondered at the "what might have beens" in her life, like: How much harder could this lifestyle transition have been for her if she wasn't incredibly wealthy? And: If her ex-husband had not have had a previous affair prior to Glennon leaving the marriage, would he have been as gracious as he was about the divorce? 

On the other hand, more than just two could agree that Glennon could be exhausting at times. She is clearly an over-thinker and seems to struggle with her self-esteem periodically. It felt at times like there was a little too much "girl power" being spouted, and we weren't fans of her repeated declarations of "I'm my own #1 and I'll never betray or make myself uncomfortable for anyone else-- ever." How do you lovingly and effectively parent within these parameters? How does a marriage survive? Or a friendship?

In the end, we were able to have respectful conversations about what can be very polarizing topics and still like each other by the meetings end. What a testament to the caliber of our members! Good on you!

How did this book strike you? Keep the conversation going with your insight(s) down below! 👇

 

Did you love Untamed? Fans of the book also enjoyed, You are a Badass, by Jen Sincero, Daring Greatly, by Brene Brown, and Becoming, by Michelle Obama. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!    

 

 The votes are in!

Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"YES"
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"                                                                                                                                    Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:                                                    3.75 stars

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store// James McBride

 

Hello friends! For our November meeting, we met at the library to discuss The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride. Up next for December is Untamed, by Glennon Doyle. As always, if you are able to obtain a copy of Untamed elsewhere, we would encourage you to do so, as our copies are limited. Also, we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! If you don't need a copy of Untamed, and you haven't already let us know, would you please leave us a note down below? Many thanks!

 

To the read!

 

Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served the neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated the town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming that the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents—roused by Chona's kindess and the courage of a local black worker named Nate Timblin—banded together to keep the boy safe.

As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. 

With the exception of a small few, the group liked this one. They really loved McBride's writing, specifically how intricately he would describe a character, or a scene. They appreciated learning something new about Jewish culture, mixed in with sharing a community with people of color. In the end, they were inspired to read more of McBride's work.

On the other hand, those in favor of the book could agree that there were far too many plot lines and characters to keep track of (even though reading the descriptions of some of the characters was fun). It was said that McBride would go to great lengths to describe a character, then use them for a brief moment in a brief scene, only to never mention them again. We also weren't sure that some of the plot lines were even clear, or necessary. Lastly, a few of us weren't crazy about the ending, it felt rushed and thrown together, unlike all the time and attention McBride gave to the rest of the book.

 

What did you think of the read? Let us know below! 👇

Did you enjoy The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store? We've heard good really good things about McBride's book, Deacon King Kong. Fans of the book also enjoyed, The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters, The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon, and Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!    

 

 The votes are in!

Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"YES"

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"

 

Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 

3.5 stars

 

 

 

Frankenstein// Mary Shelley

Hello fall! For our October meeting, we met back at the library in the meeting room. It was kind of nice to be back, and we will plan to meet there for certainly the duration of this year's book club meetings. Up next for November is The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride.

As always, if you are able to obtain a copy of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store elsewhere, we would encourage you to do so, as our copies are limited. Also, we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! If you don't need a copy of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, and you haven't already let us know, would you please leave us a note down below? Thanks!

One other thing while I have you, as we are now moving into the colder Minnesota months, we'd like to see if there is interest in the library setting up another recurring Zoom meeting for our monthly book club meetings. If you happen to know that you will be traveling, or will be out of town, or cozy in your house and would rather join the discussion via Zoom, please let us know fairly soon and we will work to make the necessary arrangements. Otherwise, we'll be seeing you in the meeting room from now until the weather warms back up again next Spring/Summer!

 

Without further ado!

 

Shattered by grief, the unstable Victor Frankenstein conducts a bizarre experiment, using electricity to shock inanimate matter and create an enormous man-like monster. Terrified by his own actions, Victor abandons his creation to the wilderness. Years later, the intelligent and hideous Creature finds his creator and demands his right to happiness. A tragedy of murderous rage and the fatal consequences of revenge quickly ensue. 

Yet again, it would seem like we were all on mostly the same page with this book. No one loved it, or was inspired to read any more of Shelley's work, but no one passionately hated it either. We found it entirely too wordy and monotonous, a noticeable effort needed to be made in order to get through it. We thought the ending was disappointing and absurd. 

On a more positive note, we were impressed that Shelley was just 18-years-old when she started writing Frankenstein, and 20 when it was published. A couple of us were glad to have read it in the end, regardless of our lack of enthusiasm for the read, as it seems like one of those classic novels that feels good to know you've read. Most of us thought Victor Frankenstein had a good soul (though it was mentioned we always thought the monster was named Frankenstein, not the scientist who created him), but found him wildly irresponsible and negligent, lacking all common sense, to create this fierce creature (though he wasn't altogether fierce at the onset) and then run away to let someone else deal with him. To additionally then also not arrange for protection of his family and new bride, especially after clearly seeing the monster's vengeance, and threats, against him firsthand.

A small few could also empathize with the monster's longing for companionship and his subsequent insistence on having a female fashioned. We tossed around the idea of Frankenstein making him a female, without reproductive capabilities, and letting them live out their days in some far off, uninhabited place (like the monster promised to do). We wondered why Frankenstein didn't kill the monster himself, or hire a mob to do the job, if he couldn't bring himself to slay his own creation.

 

 

Overall, this was a miss for us. What did you think of Frankenstein? Please let us know in the comments below! 👇

 

 

Did you love Frankenstein? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Dracula, by Bram Stoker, The Picture of Dorian Grey, by Oscar Wilde, and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!  

 

Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"NO"

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"MAYBE"

Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 

2 stars

Grandma Gatewood's Walk// Ben Montgomery

Yesterday we met again at Paul Miller Park to discuss Grandma Gatewood's Walk, by Ben Montgomery. It was so nice to meet outdoors, for very possibly the last time this year~ and we welcomed a new member to boot! Up next for October is Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.

As always, if you are able to obtain a copy of Frankenstein elsewhere, we would encourage you to do so. Also, we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! 

 

To the book!

 

Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, having survived a rattlesnake strike, two hurricanes, and a run-in with gangsters from Harlem, she stood atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin. There she sang the first verse of “America, the Beautiful” and proclaimed, “I said I’ll do it, and I’ve done it.”

Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called her, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity and appeared on TV and in the pages of Sports Illustrated. The public attention she brought to the little-known footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction. 

I think we all liked this one too. No one declared their ultimate love and devotion to the read, but no one claimed to hate it either. A few mentioned they went into the book just sure they weren't going to like it, but were pleasantly surprised that it wasn't a chore for them to get through it. 

We liked Emma Gatewood (other than the part where she fled her abusive husband and left her children behind with him). We thought she was humble, and courageous and inspiring in her own right. We marveled that she walked the Appalachian Trail, in it's entirety, three times, with so little gear, in her 60's. We liked that she didn't seem to complain, ever, and that she kept a positive attitude. It was neat to read about her first hike, what the terrain was like, who she met, how she got by, etc. A highlight for us was at the very end, when the book tells of an abusive husband whose one request on his death bed was that he could see his ex-wife (and victim of his abuse) one more time... she refused. "Good for her!"

On the other hand, there were those that found the book repetitive with too much detail about the terrain and who she met and how she got by~ it felt like reading the same things page after page. We also got a sense that this walk wasn't really all that difficult for Gatewood, and we wondered if that was really believable. One member mentioned the bugs alone must have been just terrible at times, and there was only a mere mention of them, once. We also felt like the book was about 50 pages too long, with those side tangents regarding the auto industry and the like accounting for much of the problem. We didn't think much of Montgomery's writing one way or the other, however, no one was inspired to read anything else of his.

 

 

What are your thoughts on the book? Please let us know in the comments below! 👇

 

 

Did you enjoy Grandma Gatewood's Walk? Fans of the book also enjoyed, A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson, The Appalachian Trail: A Biography, by Philip D'Anieri, and Wander, by Ryan Benz. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!  

 

Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"YES"

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"

Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 

3.5 stars

The Guncle// Steven Rowley

 
For our August meeting, we met again at Paul Miller Park to discuss The Guncle, by Steven Rowley. It is lovely to be able to meet outdoors when the Minnesota weather allows~ we are planning to try to reserve the large shelter again for our September meeting as well, where we will delve into Grandma Gatewood's Walk, by Ben Montgomery. We'll be sure to get the word out about final arrangements when the date gets closer~ stay tuned!

As always, if you are able to obtain a copy of Grandma Gatewood's Walk elsewhere, we would encourage you to do so. Also, we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! 

Speaking of efficiency, lastly, if you don't need a copy (and you didn't already let me know), would you mind leaving a comment down below to let us know? Thanks!

 

Onward!

 

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is honestly a bit out of his league.

So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting—even if temporary—isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.

Most of us liked this one. We thought it was an easy read, with a healthy, balanced mix of both lighthearted and heavy material. We believed, and liked, all of the main characters, except maybe Clara, Patrick's sister, who was determined to take the kids out of his care. We also weren't fans of Greg, Maisie and Grant's father, who immediately following Sara's funeral checked himself into a 3 month rehab program, handing the kids off to Patrick during what had to be the darkest time in their lives. We suspected the kids must have felt a lot like orphans, at least for a time. 

It was specifically mentioned that Grant's lisp, and Patrick's nickname of "Grantelope" was a particularly favorite part... along with the cake and wishes celebration on Sara's birthday. A small few of us were inspired to read his followup novel, The Guncle Abroad, and those who did liked that one too.

The few criticisms we scraped together were some of us thought it was boring and repetitive, though they had trouble citing where and when these offenses occurred. A small few mentioned they started the book and just couldn't pick it back up~ it wasn't that they didn't like it, it's just that they couldn't get into it. It didn't bother anyone that there was homosexual subject matter, but having the "JED" throuple right next door, and the nonbinary play director in the end, was a little too much LGBTQ+ content for just one fun little book of 326 pages. 

Mostly, this book got us talking about our own uncles~ recalling and sharing fun childhood memories of favorite male relatives, but also talking about current relationships our children, and our grandchildren, enjoy in the here and now.

 

Did we miss anything? Do you have a beloved guncle? Let us know below! 👇

Did you enjoy The Guncle? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Funny Story, by Emily Henry, The Paradise Problem, by Christina Lauren, and Just for the Summer, by Abby Jimenez. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!  

 

Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"YES"

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"

Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 

4 stars