July's reading selection was A Woman of No Importance, by Sonia Purnell. Following a suggestion to host this month's book club meeting outdoors, Susan reserved the picnic shelter at Paul Miller Park (thank you Susan!) just outside of town, and the people came! O, what a joy it was to see so many warm, familiar faces! In fact, it went so well that we have decided to do it again for August's book club meeting on the eleventh~ we hope to see you there!
Speaking of August, the book pick for that month is This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger, with Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates to follow in September. As previously mentioned, we will continue to try to get both the current book club selection and the following month's read out to our members in tandem in an effort to cover as many bases as possible. Please continue to feel free to accept or decline as the books become available according to your preferences.
Without further delay~
In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." This spy was Virginia Hall, a young American woman--rejected from the foreign service because of her gender and her prosthetic leg--who talked her way into the spy organization deemed Churchill's "ministry of ungentlemanly warfare," and, before the United States had even entered the war, became the first woman to deploy to occupied France. At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was still strictly forbidden, Virginia Hall came to be known as the "Madonna of the Resistance," coordinating a network of spies to blow up bridges, report on German troop movements, arrange equipment drops for Resistance agents, and recruit and train guerilla fighters. Even as her face covered WANTED posters throughout Europe, she refused order after order to evacuate. Virginia Hall was one of the greatest spies in American history, yet her story remains untold... until now.
Here again, we found our group of book club members almost exactly divided straight down the middle regarding this read. About half of us thoroughly enjoyed this book and thought quite highly of it. On the other hand, the other half of us weren't nearly as taken with it. The good new is, everyone present agreed that Virginia Hall was an amazing individual. Adjectives like "selfless", "courageous", "determined", "driven", "humble", and "incredible" were all offered on her behalf while the group sat in collective awe of her, and her contributions to the war effort. The trouble for some, was that it was an intense read, on many levels. Some mentioned the disturbing violence depicted as hard to stomach. Others said the regular citing of names and specific dates, times, and places was confusing and hard to keep straight, giving the read a more journalistic, and less personal, feel. Others still commented on it being hard to get into and stay interested in. Interestingly, it was asked by show of hands who in attendance knew of, or had heard of, Virginia Hall before we read this book~ it was unanimous~ not one! It was then briefly discussed how many other historical figures and/or events had been left out of our early education. The Sioux uprising (Abercrombie Trail) comes to mind, along with the establishment of the FBI (Killers of the Flower Moon), and the pioneers of aviation (The Wright Brothers) to name a few. If you're like us, and find yourselves curious about these titles~ they are all available within the Viking system~ thank goodness for libraries!
At the end of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"
Would we recommend this to a friend to read?
"YES"
Rate the book 1-4 stars with 1 being the lowest rating:
3.5 stars
