The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn// Mark Twain

 

 

Hello March! 🍀

 

Up next for April is James, by Percival Everett. We have several copies, but just in case you don't need a copy and you haven't already let me know, would you please leave me a quick note in the comments below so we can keep the call list updated? Thank you for your help!  

 

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 me on or before our April 14th book club meeting. You can email them to amandaschaefer@hotmail.com, or give us a call at the library (346-4892), or even leave them with us at the front desk! 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 switching up the dedicated categories this year, and paring it down to 4. They will be Young Adult, Classic, Non-fiction, and Historical Fiction~ 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?

Immediately following our April book club meeting I'll be a busy bee getting the nominations organized and the ballots back out to you to look over. We will plan to vote at the May 12th meeting and away we go into a new year of reading!

One last thing, we also decided, with the hustle and bustle of the holidays, to use December's meeting as a time to come together to have a discussion about good books we've read (inside or outside of book club) and get some good recommendations from each other. With that in mind, we'll only vote in 11 books for next year's reading list, and we won't have a book club book to read for November 2026, but will get back to the reading list in December. Sorry if that's confusing~ please let me know if you have any questions!

 

Onward!

 

Thirteen-year-old Huckleberry Finn has had enough of "civilization." Tired of rules, manners, and suffocating expectations, Huck longs for the wild freedom of the Mississippi River. When he escapes his abusive father and encounters Jim—an enslaved man fleeing for his freedom—Huck embarks on a journey that will change his life forever. Together on a raft, they navigate the mighty Mississippi, facing dangerous waters and even more dangerous people. From cunning con men calling themselves the Duke and the King, to feuding families locked in deadly rivalry, each encounter tests their survival and challenges Huck's understanding of right and wrong. As their friendship deepens, Huck must confront the prejudices of his upbringing and make a choice that will define who he truly is. 

This book really averages out to be just "Meh" for us. One person really enjoyed it, five or six of us thought it was just ok, and a handful really didn't enjoy the book~ commenting it was hard to want to pick it up and get through it. One member said it was easier to listen to, rather than read (and wouldn't have finished it if they had attempted the printed book), and another confessed they read the abbreviated juvenile edition and still struggled to stay interested. 

Deciphering the dialect tripped us up a bit, and it wasn't all that easy to find a character (outside of Jim) we liked throughout the book, Huck included. In the end, our conversation broke off into many different tangents about all sorts of different things, a pretty good sign that this book was just ok for the group.

   

Did Huckleberry Finn have a greater impact on you than it did us? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below! 👇 

 

Did you love The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Fans of the book also enjoyed, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, James, by Percival Everett, and A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. 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?  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

The Boys// Ron Howard and Clint Howard

 

Hello February! 💘

Looking ahead to March, we have a few extra copies coming in of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but just in case you don't need a copy and you haven't already let me know, would you please leave me a quick note in the comments below so we can keep the call list updated? Thank you for your help! 

 

To the book!

 

With the perspective of time and success—Ron as a filmmaker, producer, and Hollywood A-lister, Clint as a busy character actor—the Howard brothers delve deep into an upbringing that seemed normal to them yet was anything but. Their Midwestern parents, Rance and Jean, moved to California to pursue their own showbiz dreams. But it was their young sons who found steady employment as actors. Rance put aside his ego and ambition to become Ron and Clint’s teacher, sage, and moral compass. Jean became their loving protector—sometimes over-protector—from the snares and traps of Hollywood. By turns confessional, nostalgic, heartwarming, and harrowing, this is a dual narrative that lifts the lid on the Howard brothers’ closely held lives. 

We unanimously like the all the Howards, especially Rance and Jean. We commend the parents for being positive, present figures in their son's lives. For being dedicated advocates for them and for not helping themselves to their paychecks. We liked reading about a Hollywood family that loved and functioned in a healthy, wholesome manner~ it was refreshing and in stark contrast to most Hollywood memoirs. 

The majority also felt like while the style in which the book was written was neat, the book itself was too long~ all the intricate moving parts of each of Ron's acting jobs was really not necessary. We thought Ron could get a little long-winded and by the end, some of us thought the parts about Clint were too few. And it lacked any real talk of what married life has been like for Ron and Cheryl, and maybe a mention of how they have handled their own children's journey into acting and directing. To a handful, this retelling was a little too "squeaky clean" and they wondered if the whole truth might be a little more stained. It was also said that people who grew up watching "Happy Days" might enjoy the book a bit more than those who missed the hype. 

 

What do you think? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below! 👇 

 

Did you really like The Boys? Fans of the book also enjoyed, In Pieces, by Sally Field, Cher: The Memoir Part 1, by Cher, and Being Henry, by Henry Winkler. 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?  No

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?  No

                                                                                                                                             Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:  3 stars