Best Laid Plans…

I belong to two book clubs: one nearby attended by the older female patrons of the library that hosts it, and one across town full of raucous, loud, opinionated folks in the prime of their lives who love science fiction–always have and always will.

Today was the longest day of the year, the best time for driving across town and back. The dining out afterward is problematic, as I am a full generation older than the oldest of the group and food must be ingested earlier in the day.

Today’s program was about two books authored by Lois McMaster Bujold, the first and second in a series re-published together as “Cordelia’s Honor”. The Miles Vorkosiegan saga is well known in Science Fiction Fandom, This same book had been the subject of a panel at a recent Deep South Conference, the 50th of that line. Yours truly was drafted to serve on the panel. The author sat quietly on the back row muttering to herself, “that’s not what I meant at all”.

Since then the SF book club (the one whose meeting I went to, remember) had been discussing online the pros and cons on the two books, especially as the first one was her first effort, and the second one was written years later and showed it in more polished prose and story line. In spite of all that we had a lively discussion in the Barnes & Noble bookstore where we meet.

After the meeting, the young folks (the 30s, 40s, & 50s) go out to eat. Josh, who hates Chinese food, was not in attendance so everyone said, this is our chance: let’s go to the Mandarin House on Highway 31. I declined the pleasure because I am blind as a bat after dark and can drive only to those places hard-wired in my brain, like home, for instance.

Imagine my surprise to see it was still daylight… “I’ll surprise them,” I thought, and hopped in the car. Maryanne had said, “If you get to Vestavia, you’ve gone too far, turn around and go back.” I asked directions and was told to go past all the car dealerships and when you see a McDonald’s, look for a strip mall on the left. It’s in a corner of the mall.
This sounds easy enough and savoring the surprise in store for my friends I zoomed down Hwy.31 past all the car dealerships. Looking for a McDonald’s, it came to me that when leaving home I had grabbed my purse and keys. It also came to me that I had changed out of my jeans for dressier pants. Doing errands earlier that day I had put a little fold-up-and-snap wallet containing driver’s license, debit card, credit card and a folded up twenty dollar bill in my jeans pocket. Unfortunately, I had not transferred it back to my purse. The larger wallet, upon inspection, contained Medicare Card, Blue Cross card, and Unrestricted Pistol Permit. Wasn’t sure how much Chinese food I could get for that so I came on home.

Tomorrow I’m taking Jerry out to lunch at this great Chinese place I know close to home, just across from Lowe’s parking lot. I’ll get some General Tso’s chicken yet.

Reach out and Touch someone…

I’ve just been round and round with Amazon.com concerning their ‘free’ E-books to Amazon Prime members. I just now, this evening, got around to reading the Review section of the Wall Street Journal found a couple of books that sounded good. I always check to see if they are available on Kindle

“Night Train to Lisbon” by Pascal Mercier was, and I ordered it. This book is supposed to change everyone who reads it, at least according to old and venerable reviewers. It was only 8 bucks and change so I bought it.

2012 Book Club Selections, 1st six months

Dear Ms. Librarian,

Thank you for your intriguing list. According to my scan through it, there is not a single first time author to be found. Bravo! All of the ones I wanted to read are available on Kindle, which is a real plus, as I have lately been reduced to reading the Sookie Stackhouse series. This is not because of an overwhelming desire to read about vampires, but my granddaughters are caught up in the Twilight craze and I don’t want to seem to be too snooty to read about them, too. I wouldn’t be caught dead reading Twilight. No pun intended. Stephen King said Harry Potter is about facing your fears, finding inner strength and courage to do the right thing; Twilight is about the importance of having a boyfriend.

Kate’s weekend

Our weekend with Kate got off to a rousing start when car trouble necessitated my picking her up at school Friday afternoon. I got there early and parked. The three o’clock exodus took place with buses exiting their route and the line of cars picking up children along another lane. The clump of kids waited patiently for their mom to get to the head of the line.
This is old news to most of you reading this, I know, but I’ve never done it before. We lived close enough that our children walked to elementary, middle and high schools. I had been told to go inside to get Kate as she has been suffering from anxiety lately, poor kid. But the door looked kind of far away, and uphill,so I just got out of the car and leaned on the back fender, waiting patiently. But to my surprise a young woman (I suppose she was a teacher… everyone looks so young to me now) broke away from the pick-up line and called to me, asking who I was waiting for. I told her, and the request was repeated all the way to the school office.
And here Kate came, just fussing and saying I should have come inside to get her. I told her she could walk better than I, it was too far for me.

Thoughts on book club book selections

I want to join my friends Thelma and Louise’s conversation about book club books. Thelma recently said The Help, assigned by her local ladies book club, was one of those books written by white women about black women. She found it strange that people need a novel to tell them about race relations in the South in the 1960s… but if they do, this is a nice novel for it.

Louise recently joined a breakfast book club and a retired ladies book club. She read the same Wall Street Journal article that I did, stating the vast majority of people who read have given up reading serious books. She said, “As the WSJ analyzed it, even people who make time to read are mostly fried from work and family responsibilities, so all they want is something that will distract them with as little thought as possible.” She was not so kind in her assessment of the clubs’ selections, referring to them as dreck.

Game, Book, and Movie

I just finished watching “The Holiday” and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ll say right at the start that this is a girl movie, not a guy movie, so you guys can stop reading right now. It’s a romantic fantasy featuring two lovely, blond, slim, young, career women who have become bogged down in their love lives. They impulsively decide to vacation far away from home and with a little help from the internet, swap houses for two weeks. One lives in a huge L.A. house and the other in a cottage in a village outside of London.

Billed as a charming comedy, that’s exactly what it is: Charming. It is Charming to the extent that even though I had a huge problem with Jack Black as a romantic lead, I could live with it. Jude Law I had no problem with. The two women, played by Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslett, were finally able to shelve their emotional baggage and get on with their lives.

It had everything: two cute little girls, a shaggy dog, and a sweet old man. This movie about women was written and directed by a woman, Nancy Meyers, for women to enjoy.

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Serious Fiction, Seriously…

Brooklyn: A Novel                                         Serious Fiction by Colm Toibin

This novel, set in the 1950’s, is a story in four acts. Part One introduces us to Eilis Lacey, her sister Rose and her widowed mother, residents of a small town in Ireland. Their brothers are all grown and have left home, working at various jobs in England. Rose is the perfect big sister who earns enough to supplement her mother’s pension, who plays golf and who serves as a buffer between the shy Eilis and her overbearing mother. Eilis has studied bookkeeping and is looking for work but can find only a shop assistant position.

An opportunity arises, through the efforts of the parish priest, for one of the girls to go to America. There is a job opening at a department store and she is assured of a room in a boarding house run by a good Irish woman in the same neighborhood. Eilis assumes Rose will go, as befits the elder and more deserving, and that she, Eilis, would stay at home with her mother. But Rose insists that Eilis will go. Part One is spent in describing the stable, happy, loving home and community that surrounds, protects and insulates Eilis. She has mixed emotions about leaving, but seems caught up in the swift progression of events. In the end, she is put on the boat, suffers rough seas and seasickness the first night and after six days, arrives in New York. Her bunkmate on shipboard, Georgiana, gives her tips on dress, behavior and makeup, the better to be ‘American’.

Part Two concerns itself with Eilis’ adaptation to her new life. She is met by Father Flood, the local parish priest, and taken to her new home. Mrs. Kehoe, who owns the boarding house, rules the roost and the mealtime conversation much as Eilis’ mother had. Eilis adapts to her new job. The reader (that’s me, folks) is continually amazed at how innocent Eilis is and how few prejudices she has. She has been raised to be the quiet, compliant Irish girl, doing as she is told. That stands her in good stead in her new job where strict rules of behavior apply. (Smile at everyone, and send their money in the tube to accounting with paperwork. Smile and give change when it comes.)

SF Book Club Selection for May

I chose the SF book club’s May selection: “Doomsday Book” by Connie Willis.  The first question of the evening will be directed to me, to defend my choice of books.  The more I think about it, the more I have to say in its favor.

Defend your choice: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

I began reading Science Fiction with the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. G. Wells and the Groff Conklin anthologies—all that were available in my small hometown library.  We were just emerging from the Age of the Machine and approaching the frontiers of micro-miniaturization, electronics, computers, waldos, robots, space travel, deep space telescopes and laser technology. These things, and more, threw open the doors of our imagination and Science Fiction enjoyed its Golden Age.

SF Book Club: William Gibson

This month’s book was William Gibson’s “Pattern Recognition”. I  liked his work 20 or 30 years ago but sometimes when reading an old favorite author or books I used to love I am sorely disappointed in them. The books are the same so it must be me that has changed. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book was just as fascinating to me as his previous ones were.

They are all purported to be SF, and they *seem* to be SF, but they are actually written about the decade in which the author is living at the time. Therefore, some of his early works seem dated. This, a recent publication, felt futuristic because, as Ray Bradbury once said in my presence, “The future is now!”

Library Book Club, April meeting

This month’s meeting was special.  This month was Alabama’s “Big Read”,  wherein all libraries in the state encouraged their patrons to read Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer”.  Many copies were available for checking out and condensed versions were handed out for readers to leave in public places when they had finished them, for others to pick up and enjoy. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Samuel Clemens’ death.

Our book club was especially fortunate to have Dolores Hydock, local actress and story teller,  present our program.  When she was invited to take part in the Big Read, she had checked out every fiction, non-fiction and biographical source she could find.  Her problem, she said, was extracting a 45 minute program from this wealth of material.