The Liars' Club by Mary Karr

 

The weather chased us indoors for our July meeting where we discussed The Liars' Club, by Mary Karr. Coming up next for August is Looking for Alaska, by John Green. As a reminder, for the August 8th meeting, we have already reserved the large shelter at Paul Miller Park. If the weather turns again, we'll move the meeting back to the library meeting room and provide a Zoom link for anyone interested in tuning in from home~ we'll be sure to let you all know ASAP if there will be any changes. 

 

To the book!

 

Mary Karr grew up in a swampy East Texas refinery town in a volatile and defiantly loving family- a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at age twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all. In this funny, devastating, haunting memoir and with a raw and often painful honesty, she looks back at life with a painter mother, seven times married, whose outlaw spirit could tip over into psychosis, and a hard-drinking, fist-swinging father who liked nothing better than to spin tales with his cronies at the Liars' Club.

This book was largely received and described as a slog. Our members report that it was hard to get into, hard to to keep our attention, and harder still to want to pick up again after having put it down~ several attendees said they never finished it. This group couldn't relate to the story and really didn't care for any of the characters, with the exception of maybe Mary's father. They cited disjointed, distracted writing that veered off onto a myriad of tangents... and long chapters... and a bizarre ending.

The sparse praise that we could offer for this read was that Karr could craft a setting with good sensory bits folded into it so that one could "feel" the scene right along with her. One member added, "It made me want to clean my house, do the laundry, and take a shower." It was also added that while they didn't necessarily enjoy the book, they were glad they finished it.

In the end, when a handful of members mentioned that they hadn't finished the book and thought they'd decide on whether they'd like to or not after our talk, one attendee said, "There's just too many other good books out there to read." Collective laughter followed.

It was touched on a couple different times during the meeting that a few people questioned whether or not the book was completely accurate, or if it had been embellished here and there in an effort to be more sensationalized, and in turn, sell more copies. To the surprise of some, this practice in memoir is kind of the best un-kept secret of the genre. Apparently, it isn't unheard of in the slightest for memoir authors to exaggerate in their recounting... this was highly disappointing to some. Shouldn't it then be considered/marketed/shelved as fiction?

 

Weigh in below! 👇

 

Would you like to read more books like The Liars' Club? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Running with Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs, Savage Beauty, by Nancy Milford, and The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls. All of these titles are available within the Viking system~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:

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

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"NO" (we were unanimous!!)

Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:                                                      2 stars

 

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

 

Our June meeting was held outdoors at Paul Miller Park! We welcomed a couple new faces and discussed The Bookshop on the Corner, by Jenny Colgan. Coming up next in July, we're reading The Liars' Club, by Mary Karr. As a heads up, it looks like we'll be planning on trying to meet outdoors for the duration of these summer months meetings~ but we'll be sure to let you know for sure either way prior to each meeting~ stay tuned!

 

To the goods!

 

Nina Redmond is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion… and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more.

Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile—a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling. From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like home… a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending.

I think it would be appropriate to say the group agreed that this book was a welcomed, easy read after last months The Sentence. The majority of us thought this was an enjoyable, uncomplicated summer read, however, they agreed with the few naysayers that there were unbelievable places seeped in sap. Those who caught this read as an audio book highly praised, and recommend, that version.  

Those few who were less impressed by the book liked the authors introduction to the book better than the story itself. The read felt like young adult fiction, written by a young adult. They couldn't get past the implausible parts and missing details that lead to the happy, tidy endings for each character portrayed. 

In closing, again, it was said that maybe not every read has to be stellar. Some books can just simply be a welcomed reprieve from heavier material or life stressors. One member thought enjoying books despite all their perceived hangups is a superpower they wish they could wield.... can you guess who that might be? 😉

 

 

Would you like to read more books like The Bookshop on the Corner? Fans of the book also enjoyed, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, by Abby Waxman, Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt, and The Bookshop of Second Chances, by Jackie Fraser. All of these titles are available within the Viking system~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:

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

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"NO" (we were unanimous!!)

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

2023-2024 READING LIST

June 13, 2023: The Bookshop on the Corner// Jenny Colgan

July 11,2023: The Liars' Club// Mary Karr

August 8, 2023: Looking for Alaska// John Green

September 12, 2023: Columbine// David Cullen

October 10, 2023: A Fall of Marigolds// Susan Meissner

November 14, 2023: When Breath Becomes Air// Paul Kalanithi

December 12, 2023: The Year of Less// Cait Flanders

January 9, 2024: Fahrenheit 451// Ray Bradbury

February 13, 2024: The Man Who Climbed...// Jonas Jonasson

March 12, 2024: Murder on the Red River// Marcie Rendon

April 9, 2024: Thunderstruck// Erik Larson

May 14, 2024: Harbour Street// Ann Cleeves

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

 

 

Hello May! Boy, are we ever ready for your sunshine and warmer temperatures! For May, we discussed The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich, with The Bookshop on the Corner, by Jenny Colgan up next for June. As a head up, we'd like to mention that we have very limited quantities of June's book, The Bookshop on the Corner, within the Viking System. There are, however, audio book versions available, as well as an electronic version on Hoopla for anyone interested in those alternatives. Otherwise, we encourage you to please get your borrowed copies back to us as quickly as possible so that we can pass them along to the next person in line. Thanks for you help with this!

As promised, we voted in the books for next year's reading list at yesterday's meeting~ yeah! We'd like to thank each of you that participated either in voting either online or in person. This book club wouldn't be the same without you! We are currently busy bee's putting them into a schedule, but are hoping to have that ready for you within the next couple of days. We'll be sure to post it here when it's ready, and we'll also have copies available at the front desk to take home. Happy reading!

 

Onward!

 

A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading with murderous attention, must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.

This book had us divided. On the one side, there were those who really liked it~ gave it 4 stars. They appreciated the writing, found the ghost/haunting bits entertaining, and mentioned that they thought this book might be semi autobiographical in that Erdrich is a book store owner in Minneapolis (a select few of our members said they've even visited her shop!) and that she, and her store, were most likely right in the center of the George Floyd storm and subsequent rioting that ravaged that area. Clearly, she, like everyone else, has been effected by the Covid 19 pandemic, so it wasn't hard for some to understand why these events made it into her book. 

On the other hand, there were those who didn't care for the book~ some couldn't bring themselves to finish it. These members cited an outlandish, unbelievable opening chapter and difficulty keeping up with plot transitions. They found it bizarre and disjointed. This book felt crowded with all the different elements added in~ prison, George Floyd, rioting, Covid, ghosts, Native American rights and rituals, family issues, etc. Were all these components necessary to the story? Did they leave us with anything meaningful? 

 

Which side did you find yourself on?

 

Are you a fan of The Sentence? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, Our Missing Hearts, by Celeste Ng, and Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr. All of these titles are available within the Viking system~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:

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

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

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

French Braid by Anne Tyler

 

Welcome Spring! We had a beautiful weather day for our April meeting where we discussed French Braid, by Anne Tyler. Coming up next in May is The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich. We hope you are enjoying the good reads~ and the warmer weather! 🌞

As a reminder, we will plan to vote for this next year's reading list at the conclusion of our May 9th meeting. If you can't make the meeting, you are welcome to vote online with a link Susan has created here: https://tinyurl.com/2y2n7vns. You can also e-mail your votes into Amanda or Susan, and/or call into the library with your choices. Let us know if you have any questions~ happy voting!

To the book!

The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understand. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts' influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.

French Braid is a stirring, uncannily insightful novel of tremendous warmth and humor that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us, and how close--yet how unknowable--every family is to itself.

With the exception of maybe just one, the overall vibe of this book was that it was just ok~ our members didn't love it, but didn't hate it either. We thought it was a quick and easy read that didn't leave us feeling much of anything by the end. Words like "mundane", "boring", and "tedious" were offered... it felt like taking a long glance in the window of any ordinary families home. It was added that this book didn't have much of a plot to speak of, but rather had a  heavy focus on character development, with the characters all being believable. A few members confessed to reading the book a few months ago and struggling to remember anything about this read.

All that aside, we had a good, long discussion about what Anne Tyler may want people to take away from this book. We hypothesized about possible motives, feelings, and actions of the different characters. We grumbled about all the loose ends, and then considered how real life has ample loose ends. And no plot. We wondered if there could be a hidden deeper meaning within the story that wasn't readily apparent. We talked about if every book has to be a 5-star read, or if these easy, fast, noncommittal books have their place. We marveled at how much we had to say about a book we all generally thought was just ok.

 

Do you have anything to add to the discussion? Give us your thoughts in the comments below!

 

 

Did you enjoy French Braid? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Lucy By the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout, This Time Tomorrow, by Emma Straub, and Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus. All of these titles are available within the Viking system~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:

 

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

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

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

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

 

Hello March! Our March selection was The Winter of Our Discontent, by John Steinbeck, with French Braid, by Anne Tyler, coming up next for April's discussion. Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting~ we are so thankful for our members, and look forward to seeing you every month!

While I have you, we collected a few more book nominations for next year's reading list during our meeting today! If you were unable to attend the meeting and still have some nominations you'd like included, we're asking that you get those in to Amanda no later than by the end of the day this Friday, March 17th. We'll then get started on getting them organized and ready for distribution at our April 11^th meeting~ we plan to cast our votes at the May 9^th meeting, where shortly after we'll get a compiled, finalized reading list put together, and away we go!

For any member who isn't able to attend the April and/or May meetings and would like to participate in voting~ Amanda will be sure to e-mail a final, compiled list of nominated books to anyone not present at the April meeting. We can also print out a copy for you at the front desk if that's easier. There will also most likely be a way to cast votes online via a link on the Perham Library's website~ we'll get the final word out about that as May approaches, but you can also always e-mail your votes to Susan or Amanda, and/or call them into the library if you'd prefer.

Lastly, we plan to stick with the same five dedicated categories that we had last year. Those 5 dedicated categories are: Minnesota Author, Memoir, Mystery, Classic, and Young Adult. The remaining 7 slots will being left open for nominations of any genre. You do not have to nominate books into these 5 designated categories (although some of the nominations may naturally be put into these categories based on their subject material), but you will need to plan to vote for at least 1 title out of the 5 dedicated categories when we vote. If there aren't enough books nominated into the designated categories to offer some good variety, we'll add them in!

 

Without further ado!

 

Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of Steinbeck’s last novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned. With Ethan no longer a member of Long Island’s aristocratic class, his wife is restless, and his teenage children are hungry for the tantalizing material comforts he cannot provide. Then one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take a holiday from his own scrupulous standards.

Set in Steinbeck’s contemporary 1960 America, the novel explores the tenuous line between private and public honesty that today ranks it alongside his most acclaimed works of penetrating insight into the American condition.

It would be fair to say we all wanted to like this book, being it was a shorter read with an interesting premise. And for a select few, it delivered. Those few members said they thought it was an accurate representation of being human. They liked Ethan Hawley, and could easily believe and understand his different choices and reasoning, even if they personally disagreed with them. They thought all the characters, and the story itself, were plausible, adding that they have a feeling that Steinbeck personally is for the underdog, and it reflects in his writing~ we all agreed that was a positive.

For those who felt this book missed the mark, it was cited that the writing itself, just as in Steinbeck's East of Eden that we read in August of last year, was awkward and disjointed. It was repeatedly pointed out that even though this book was a shorter read, it felt long and drawn out~ wordy. These members found themselves waiting for the book to make it's point. Instead, it felt like a mundane glimpse into one man's very ordinary life with nothing of any value to take away from the story. They weren't at all impressed with the ambiguous, clumsy ending and found themselves fairly disappointed in Ethan by the end.... a protagonist who they initially favored.  

What are your thoughts on ambiguous endings? Do you like to be left to fill in the blanks on your own, or do you prefer clear, concise finales? Weigh in down below!  👇

 

Were you one of the ones who really enjoyed The Winter of Our Discontent? Fans of the book also enjoyed: For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway, The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy, and Mad at the World, by William Sounder. All of these titles are available within the Viking system~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion 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? 
"NO"
Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 
3 stars

The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner

 

Happy Valentine's Day! Is there a better way to spend the holiday than among friends, having a warm discussion about a good book? What if I said one of our members even brought along a beautiful bouquet of flowers to boot? Tough call! 

February's book selection was The Nature of Fragile Things, by Susan Meissner, with The Winter of Our Discontent, by John Steinbeck coming in next for March. We had a great turn out at the meeting, and welcomed one new face!

 

While you're here, immediately following the book discussion, we announced that it's that time of year again to start getting in any book nominations for next year's reading list! We ask that all nominations be submitted to Amanda, preferably, (in an effort to keep all the nominations in one place), but if it's more convenient for you to submit them to Susan and/or drop them by the library, that will work too! We'd like the nominations to be submitted on or before our March 14^th meeting so they can then get organized and ready to distribute to everyone at our April 11^th meeting~ we plan to cast our votes at the May 9^th meeting, where shortly after we'll get a compiled, finalized reading list put together, and away we go!

For any member who isn't able to attend the April and/or May meetings and would like to participate in the nominations and/or voting~ Amanda will be sure to e-mail a final, compiled list of nominated books to anyone not present at the April meeting. We can also print out a copy for you at the front desk if that's easier. Regarding voting, there will most likely be a way to cast votes online via a link on the Perham Library's website~ we'll get the word out about that as May approaches, but you can also always e-mail your votes to Susan or Amanda, and/or call them into the library if you'd prefer.

Lastly, we plan to stick with the same five dedicated categories that we had last year. Those 5 dedicated categories are: Minnesota Author, Memoir, Mystery, Classic, and Young Adult. The remaining 7 slots will being left open for nominations of any genre. You do not have to nominate books into these 5 designated categories (although some of the nominations may naturally be put into these categories based on their subject material), but you will need to plan to vote for at least 1 title out of the 5 dedicated categories when we vote. If there aren't enough books nominated into the designated categories to offer some good variety, we'll add them in!

 

Onward!

 

Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin's silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin's odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn't right.

Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything she once loved. The fates of these three women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear.

 

We opened the meeting with questions and opinions about where the title for this book came from and what it might mean. We sort of mashed all of our suggestions together to come up with a final analysis: We believe the title refers to women, especially in the era the book is written, being largely considered "fragile things". However, the reference to "the nature" of fragile things is believed to refer to mostly the opposite. This group of lead female characters banded together with support, encouragement and whatever resources they had amongst themselves to get to the other side. So in a way, the title is a kind of scoff at women being thought of as wholly fragile beings. We liked this conclusion very much.

In fact, come to think of it, you could just as easily say we all liked this book very much. We very much like Meissner's writing, we thought the characters and plot lines were well developed, thought-out, and believable. It's not an entirely moving or deep tale, not likely something you'll be thinking about a week after you've read it~ but a good story well told, with no regrets in the time it took to read it. 

We continue to find that we like real world history presented in this way... wound into stories with plausible, relatable characters that make you "feel" right along with them~  you can't help but appreciate the time, places, and circumstances depicted... and in turn, you can't help but have some sort of lasting, beneficial take away at the books end. 

If there was any criticism to be found, it would be that while we all liked, and believed the female protagonists, there was a speculation mentioned about if this same group could come together and walk through all they did and not have any sort of conflict amongst themselves. Would it be possible for any group, male or female, to weather together what these women faced, without any falling out of any kind?

 

Do you have any critiques we might have missed? Any questions about next year's reading list? Leave us a comment below!  

 

 

Did you love The Nature of Fragile Things? Fans of the book also enjoyed: The Forest of Vanishing Stars, by Kristin Harmel, Surviving Savannah, by Patti Callahan, and Eternal, by Lisa Scottoline. All of these titles are available within the Viking system~ reserve your copy today!   

 

At the conclusion 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 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 
4 stars