by James Frey
Meeting Date: June 30, 2010
Hostess: Barb
For all you nay-sayers who hate James Frey for the A Million Little Pieces debacle, I say ... too bad; if that is what it took for Frey to write Bright Shiny Morning then so be it. Bright Shiny Morning is incredible. It is a great book and if we had to go through the scandal to get to this book, then it's worth it.
All of the group enjoyed the book quite a lot. It was fun, during our discussion, to remember some of the lesser stories that we had forgotten by the time we finished the book. Everyone was great at raising another "remember this" story which prompted another line of discussion (i.e. the trailer park, the African guy with the mini-putt empire, the woman who was raped and bought a gun, etc.). We also speculated on how we thought some of these tertiary stories would/could come back to intersect the primary stories. We did talk at greater length about the main stories: Amberton & Casey, Old Man Joe, Esperanza, Maddie & Dylan. Some of the themes of these discussions were: love and hope; the "American" dream (myth); the need to help someone and do they want the help?; whether the women were strong and independent or not; the reasons for having (or not) children; and the unfairness and inequality in (US???) society.
We also talked at length about Los Angeles and the facts that Frey gives us about the history of the city. We actually had quite an intense discussion as to whether these facts were "true" or not and we were fairly divided on this, some of us never doubting or questioning for a moment that they are, in fact, true (by definition aren't facts "true"?) and others questioning their veracity, primarily because of Frey's epigraph "Nothing in this book should be considered accurate or reliable." Those who did not doubt the facts, took this statement as a kind of 'fuck you' to Oprah after their battle over whether the stories in A Million Little Pieces actually happened to him. In fact, several of us liked Bright Shiny Morning so much that we will now read A Million Little Pieces after all the scandal.
We also discussed Frey's writing style in this novel of a stream of consciousness; omitting punctuation, capitalization and repeating phrases. Some of the group found this a bit annoying, particularly when first starting to read the book, but we agreed that this was a very good technique to give the reader insight into the character's thoughts without having to add extra dialogue or description. A few of us were amused/intrigued by associating Frey's fictional characters with the real life person who we believed they were based on (i.e. Perez Hilton, Tom Cruise).
Finally, we noted that some of us were disappointed with the ending. Not to say that we found it bad or inappropriate for the book but rather that we just hoped for something different.
Unfortunately I am missing the breakdown of everyone's actual rating (in fact, I can't even remember who all was at the meeting besides the first four of us listed below). I do have a record of the overall rating so if you were at the meeting, feel free to add your personal rating if you recall.
Ratings:
Kellie ....................
Barb ....................
Stacey ....................
Lynne ...................9.25
Dannette ..............
Natalie .................
Overall: 9.29
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Meeting Date: May 28, 2010
Hostess: Stacey
We had a new member join our B&B Club for the first time tonight, Rebecca. It was a small group, only five of us, but we had quite a lengthy and in-depth discussion.
Overall this book was well-liked by the group. It was such a unique concept to write a book in the form of letters. Many of us were skeptical at the outset both because of the format of the book and the topic being related to the war. We actually felt that the idea of letters allowed the authors to get to the point more quickly and there was not a lot of description to get muddled up in.
We had a lengthy discussion of how the authors were able to develop characters and make them 'knowable' to the reader, yet without all the added narration of a typical book. From time to time, some of us did note that it was hard to remember who some of the characters were, including some of the more prominent (say secondary characters) in the book, but for the most part it was straightforward and understandable. We also noted that it was clear that some of the letters were missing in the chronology, and we wondered how the authors came to decide which letters to omit.
We discussed the questions included in the book, some of which made for a very interesting discussion, such as: why Juliet would be such a good mother to Kit; whether Juliet and Dawsey would have gotten together without Remy and/or Isola; the discussion about Elizabeth and how we believed we knew so much about her, even though she was not a character in and of herself in the book, but only a a character of other people's thoughts, minds and memories. We talked about being surprised that Sidney was gay; Mark was only about the "show" -- how he looked and he only wanted to do what he wanted for himself. We noted that many of the characters changed throughout the book, and we also noted, interestingly that many of the characters "fell" into their professions without and specific training.
We also had a discussion of what a "great catch" means to us and how that differs from the prevailing ideas of what women want in a relationship.
We had numerous favourite characters: Isola, Juliet, Dawsey and Elizabeth. Our least like characters were: Mark and Adelaide Addison.
Ratings:
Barb ...................6.75
Stacey .................8.5
Lynne ..................7.5
Rebecca ...............6.75
Natalie .................9.5
Overall: 7.8
Meeting Date: May 28, 2010
Hostess: Stacey
We had a new member join our B&B Club for the first time tonight, Rebecca. It was a small group, only five of us, but we had quite a lengthy and in-depth discussion.
Overall this book was well-liked by the group. It was such a unique concept to write a book in the form of letters. Many of us were skeptical at the outset both because of the format of the book and the topic being related to the war. We actually felt that the idea of letters allowed the authors to get to the point more quickly and there was not a lot of description to get muddled up in.
We had a lengthy discussion of how the authors were able to develop characters and make them 'knowable' to the reader, yet without all the added narration of a typical book. From time to time, some of us did note that it was hard to remember who some of the characters were, including some of the more prominent (say secondary characters) in the book, but for the most part it was straightforward and understandable. We also noted that it was clear that some of the letters were missing in the chronology, and we wondered how the authors came to decide which letters to omit.
We discussed the questions included in the book, some of which made for a very interesting discussion, such as: why Juliet would be such a good mother to Kit; whether Juliet and Dawsey would have gotten together without Remy and/or Isola; the discussion about Elizabeth and how we believed we knew so much about her, even though she was not a character in and of herself in the book, but only a a character of other people's thoughts, minds and memories. We talked about being surprised that Sidney was gay; Mark was only about the "show" -- how he looked and he only wanted to do what he wanted for himself. We noted that many of the characters changed throughout the book, and we also noted, interestingly that many of the characters "fell" into their professions without and specific training.
We also had a discussion of what a "great catch" means to us and how that differs from the prevailing ideas of what women want in a relationship.
We had numerous favourite characters: Isola, Juliet, Dawsey and Elizabeth. Our least like characters were: Mark and Adelaide Addison.
Ratings:
Barb ...................6.75
Stacey .................8.5
Lynne ..................7.5
Rebecca ...............6.75
Natalie .................9.5
Overall: 7.8
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
by Steig Larsson
Meeting Date: April 23, 2010
Hostess: Dannette (at the pub)
Discussion: Dannette introduced the discussion by advising us that the original, Swedish title of the book was "Men Who Hate Women". While a few of us were aware of that, most of us had not heard this before. This generated a discussion as to whether we thought that title was appropriate or not. We agreed that we didn't really find it fit that well with the story; in addition, we agreed that we likely would not have picked up a book with that title.
We discussed the "Nazi" undertones which occur periodically in the novel. Generally, we found them out of place, but again, our hostess having done her research homework, advised that Larsson who previously worked as a journalist and this was a particular topic of interest for him.
We talked about whether we thought Mikael Blomkvist is actually Stieg Larsson's alter-ego and if he saw himself as a 'protector of women' -- which is how we agreed that Mikael saw his role in relationships with women. Clearly, Lisbeth did not need a protector and we found that Mikael didn't really know how to deal with that.
We discussed the ending where Lisbeth sees Berger and Blomkvist together. We discussed whether we thought/hoped it would be Salander and Blomkvist together. In some ways, the relationship between Berger and Blomkvist did not sit right with us. It seemed that Mikael thought he could 'have his cake and eat it too', as it were.
We discussed the role that Lisbeth's trustee played in shaping her feelings about men and her need for control of her own life. We talked about the need for her to get revenge against the men who harmed her as well as her being something of a hero for other women. We also discussed crimes against women in Canada/USA versus Sweden. The rates of violence against women were much higher in Sweden than we expected (and with two criminologists in the B&B Club crime stats are something that we are pretty familiar with).
We also talked about the sending of the flowers to Henrik Vanger by (spoiler alert) Harriet to her great-uncle every year. Of course, once Harriet is located and revealed as the person who sent the flowers, the author tries to convince you that she did it to let her great-uncle know that she was fine and alive. In fact, we found that it did the exact opposite; it tormented and taunted Vanger for thirty years. It was a mystery that he could no longer handle. Furthermore, we agreed, that had Harriet really wanted Henrik to know she was alive and doing well, there would have been occasions for her to contact him and let him know.
Overall, we all really liked the book. It is complex and there are a lot of sub-plots, secondary and tertiary characters so there were times when it was a bit hard to figure out who is who. We unanimously agreed that Lisbeth Salander was our favourite character; she was strong, independent and exceptionally intelligent. Mikael Blomkvist was also a favourite character. Many of us went on to read the other two books in Larsson's Millennium Trilogy and some of us saw the movies as well.
Ratings:
Kellie ..................7.5
Lynne ...................8
Stacey ...................9
Stephanie ..............9
Christina ...............9
Barb ......................9
Dannette .............7.5
Overall: 8.4
Meeting Date: April 23, 2010
Hostess: Dannette (at the pub)
Discussion: Dannette introduced the discussion by advising us that the original, Swedish title of the book was "Men Who Hate Women". While a few of us were aware of that, most of us had not heard this before. This generated a discussion as to whether we thought that title was appropriate or not. We agreed that we didn't really find it fit that well with the story; in addition, we agreed that we likely would not have picked up a book with that title.
We discussed the "Nazi" undertones which occur periodically in the novel. Generally, we found them out of place, but again, our hostess having done her research homework, advised that Larsson who previously worked as a journalist and this was a particular topic of interest for him.
We talked about whether we thought Mikael Blomkvist is actually Stieg Larsson's alter-ego and if he saw himself as a 'protector of women' -- which is how we agreed that Mikael saw his role in relationships with women. Clearly, Lisbeth did not need a protector and we found that Mikael didn't really know how to deal with that.
We discussed the ending where Lisbeth sees Berger and Blomkvist together. We discussed whether we thought/hoped it would be Salander and Blomkvist together. In some ways, the relationship between Berger and Blomkvist did not sit right with us. It seemed that Mikael thought he could 'have his cake and eat it too', as it were.
We discussed the role that Lisbeth's trustee played in shaping her feelings about men and her need for control of her own life. We talked about the need for her to get revenge against the men who harmed her as well as her being something of a hero for other women. We also discussed crimes against women in Canada/USA versus Sweden. The rates of violence against women were much higher in Sweden than we expected (and with two criminologists in the B&B Club crime stats are something that we are pretty familiar with).
We also talked about the sending of the flowers to Henrik Vanger by (spoiler alert) Harriet to her great-uncle every year. Of course, once Harriet is located and revealed as the person who sent the flowers, the author tries to convince you that she did it to let her great-uncle know that she was fine and alive. In fact, we found that it did the exact opposite; it tormented and taunted Vanger for thirty years. It was a mystery that he could no longer handle. Furthermore, we agreed, that had Harriet really wanted Henrik to know she was alive and doing well, there would have been occasions for her to contact him and let him know.
Overall, we all really liked the book. It is complex and there are a lot of sub-plots, secondary and tertiary characters so there were times when it was a bit hard to figure out who is who. We unanimously agreed that Lisbeth Salander was our favourite character; she was strong, independent and exceptionally intelligent. Mikael Blomkvist was also a favourite character. Many of us went on to read the other two books in Larsson's Millennium Trilogy and some of us saw the movies as well.
Ratings:
Kellie ..................7.5
Lynne ...................8
Stacey ...................9
Stephanie ..............9
Christina ...............9
Barb ......................9
Dannette .............7.5
Overall: 8.4
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