| SEPTEMBER |
| Hi All, Our book group meeting was a wonderful way to start this busy week. We discussed Love in the Time of Cholera, which gave us many themes, ideas, and tid-bits to share. Love, death, elderly sex...this book had it all. And we discussed them all. Why did the book open with a suicide seemingly unrelated to the rest of the story? Why did GGM go into such detail in describing the elderly couples' bodies? Did Fermina love Dr. Urbino? Why did she decide to marry him when she was so appalled by him in the beginning? In the end, lots of different perspectives and interpretations on what was written made for a lively discussion. The loudest cheerleader for this book was definitely Dina, who will be waiting for her Florentino when she's 75 :) I was not the only one who was not taken in by these characters. I found them unlikable, for different reasons, and because of that, think I missed some of the charm of the book. Florentino was referred to as "pathetic" on more than one occasion, but Dina took to his defense valiantly. I would say that overall the book was well-received. The writing is a definite draw. Interestingly, of the several members who've also read 100 Years of Solitude, I recall that we all preferred Solitude to this book. We all wondered what it must be like to read this in Spanish and decided probably much more romantic. As usual, the food and wine were overwhelming. Except for Julia, who felt that Italy was "close enough" to Spain (prosciutto/cheese thingies), we had different types of Spanish-ish food. I say "ish" because some of it was definitely with a California flair. Joanne made a wonderful mushroom tapa dish that Michael was dreaming up other uses for...omelet's sounded best. And Jill's sangria was gone before we even had dinner...yummmmy. I can't recall who else brought what, but the table was overflowing. I made chicken fajitas and was so thankful folks had room for those after the appetizers. Okay, book club business: 1) Our Sept-Oct selection is The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas. Novel by Alexandre Dumas pere, published in French as Les Trois Mousquetaires in 1844. A historical romance, it relates the adventures of four fictional swashbuckling heroes who lived during the reigns of the French kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV. At the beginning of the story D'Artagnan arrives in Paris from Gascony and becomes embroiled in three duels with the three musketeers Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. The four become such close friends that when D'Artagnan serves an apprenticeship as a cadet, which he must do before he can become a musketeer, each of his friends takes turns sharing guard duty with him. The daring escapades of the four comrades are played out against a background of court intrigue involving the powerful Cardinal Richelieu. Dumas wrote two sequels that concerned D'Artagnan and the three musketeers: Vingt Ans apres (1845; Twenty Years After) and Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou dix ans plus tard (1848-50; The Vicomte de Bragelonne; or, Ten Years Later). 2) Our Oct-Nov Selection: My Antonia, Willa Cather. 3) Nov-Jan: Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand 4) New Members: Robbie and Kim 'n Russell Welcome!! 5) Hosting: next month, Christy. November, Bernadette. 6) Website being updated as we speak...check it out in about a week. I'll remind you :) Thanks to all of you for contributing to the wonderful evening!! See you next time and dig into Dumas!! Michelle HOME |