The Literary Cupcake

Date: December 4, 2009

Time: 7:00pm

Host: Malinda Lane

Attendees: Meg, Lina, and Melissa – who was the newest member our group. She had not read the book, but joined us at the meeting!

Snack(s): Cheese (Blue and smoked gouda) and tangerines with a balsamic glaze. I think I am forgetting something!

When we met in December I had not finished reading the book, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 pages! Malinda had not finished either, but she had previously read the book and therefore already knew the ending. Despite her negativity in an e-mail to the group in mid-November, Meg finished the book, reading something like 200 pages in 2 days, Amazing! Since I had not completed the book and fully intended to (because I was really enjoying it) the majority of the meeting involved Meg and Malinda talking in code so that they did not ruin anything for me. That must have been a quite challenge!

A Prayer For Owen Meany is a story of faith, friendship, and love. It is the story of a small boy with a strange voice, whose fate as an “instrument of God” is sealed when he kills his best friend’s mother. If you are not a believer in God, do not let that statement turn you off to this story! It goes beyond clear cut faith in God; you do not have to believe to love this story.

This book was a surprise for me. I was not sure in the first few pages that I was going to be all that interested in this story. However, by the end of the first chapter I was hooked I had to know what was going to happen next. Even with Irving’s extensive foreshadowing we all agreed that it somehow made us want to keep reading. He foreshadowed just about every major event without ever really giving anything away.

In the meeting, Meg and Malinda discussed the major theme of “armlessness” throughout the story. Having been introduced early in the book with the account of the Indian chief who had sold his land to the Wheelwright family, and continuing on through the armadillo, the dressmakers dummy, and Owen’s swaddling in the Christmas pagent, I had already been able to recognize this developing theme. What they alluded to, but did not ruin for me, was the continuation of this theme and the ultimate example of armlessness that was to come.

The question was raised about whether or not Johnny Wheelwright (the narrator) was gay. In the book he is referred to as a non-practicing homosexual. I think we were all agreed that Johnny loved Owen, but that we did not believe he was gay.

Finally, we discussed the nature of faith. Owen Meany believed that true faith left no room for doubt, that you had to believe fully even in the absence of proof. While the Reverend Lewis Merrill believed that his doubt was integral to his faith. Malinda asked which type of faith we all identified with. Meg raised the question, if Owen’s faith was so certain, why was he trying to change his dream by attempting to remove Johnny from it? Perhaps he and Rev. Merrill had more similarities then Owen would have liked or admitted.

Ultimately, the three of us really enjoyed this book. Meg and I, having never read John Irving before, are now fans.

Next Endeavor:

Because Meg and Malinda are both expecting new additions to their families at the end of December and the beginning of January, we decided to skip January and allow the Momma’s time to adjust to their new bundles!

The next book chosen for our is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver.

Lina (that’s me!) is the host for that meeting, on February 19, 2010 at 7pm.

Date: November 7th, 2009

Time: 7:30pm

Host: Meg Lyman

Attendees: Malinda, Lina, and Jenn

Snack: Homemade Pumpkin pie, made with fresh pumpkin.  Quite tasty!

Our book this month was A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.  This is a young adult novel and was a fairly easy read.  It is the first in a series of three books.  Everyone was able to get through the book in the month without a problem, some of us even got on to the second and third books.

This book is set in England in the late 1890’s.  It’s the tale of a girl with the “power to attract the supernatural”.

Overall it seems that most of us found that the book was just OK.  The plot was fine, the story was a bit slow and very predictable, and the historical aspects felt forced or haphazard.  Perhaps reading this book on the heels of a book actually written in the 1800’s (Dickens) added to the obvious modern feel to the book.  It was very easy to forget that this book was set in history, until the occasional mention of a corset or the way a woman was expected to behave.  The girls in this book went so far out of the mold for the time, we found ourselves questioning whether  it could actually happen.

Jenn and I both read past the first book. I read the second and Jenn read all three. While I felt the story improved in the second book in that I found myself wanting to know what happened next, the writing, the modern feel, and predictability did not. I found myself constantly wondering, would they talk like that then? Would that happen then?  Jenn seemed to enjoy the way the series what wrapped up, but I will let her tell you for herself, if she feels inclined.

Ladies of the club, please feel free to add your comments and let everyone know what you thought of the book(s)!

Next Time:

Malinda will be hosting our next meeting, which will be held Friday, December 4th at 7pm.  We are reading A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving.

Have a terrific month!!

Date: October 4, 2009

Time: 1:00 pm

Attendees: Malinda, Meg, and Lina

Host: Jenn

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens was the topic of this month’s meeting. Although almost everyone got through the book, I attended the meeting 40 pages shy of the ending. (Yes, I am the founder and slacker of the group!)

We discussed many things about the book and  I invite our members (and others who have read along) to share their thoughts and opinions with us.

Jenn mentioned a difficulty in getting through the antiquated language in the book. Finding that some words were just so unfamiliar to her that she needed to refer to several dictionaries as she read.  Meg had a copy that contained some notes to help with comprehension and she found that useful once or twice.

Here are some topics we discussed:

How did you feel about Pip and his relationships in the book? (i.e., with Joe, Herbert, Estella, Miss Havisham, the convict, Orlick, etc.)

What are your thoughts on Miss Havisham?

How do you feel about Mr. Jaggers?

What is your overall feeling about the book?

Can you draw any comparison to this story (written in 1860-61) and our lives today?

How did you feel about how nicely/neatly the stories came together and were wrapped up at the end?

Please share any thoughts or  feelings you may have.

I believe that overall our group enjoyed the book. We found some humor in the characters and the situations Dickens wrote about.

Next Meeting/Book

On choosing the next book we discussed that we could either choose a book as we did last time, by drawing from our top choices, or by choosing a host and allowing the host to choose the book.  Meg quickly volunteered to host, as she was very excited with her book suggestion for next month!

We will be reading a young adult novel, A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.

The next meeting will be hosted at Meg’s house on Friday November 6th, at 7:30pm.

Happy reading everyone!

Date: September 11, 2009

Time: 7pm

Host: Lina

Attendees: Malinda, Meg, Jennifer

Favorite Snack of the evening: Chocolate cupcakes

Meetings will be held once a month on the second Friday of the month.  This is flexible depending on schedules.

The meeting began with a discussion of hosting and it was decided that everyone in attendance is willing to host a meeting.  Hosting will be rotated, the host for the next meeting will choose the next book, provide snacks, and lead the discussion.

No advanced schedule will be set. At the end of each meeting the next book will be decided in case someone thinks up a great book idea in the month between meetings.

There will be no genre restrictions. Everyone is open to reading new books. This did make it hard to decide what to read first though! There were requests for no horror/supernatural thrillers and no sci-fi.

There are no rules against books on tape, for those who are busy and have long commutes. We don’t discriminate, books on tape are still books, you just don’t have to do the work of flipping the pages.

The holiday schedule will be discussed and decided at the November meeting.

Our whole group is new to book clubs and quite excited about getting started.  Everyone is laid back, we have no strict rules.

Some book suggestions included:
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
March by Geraldine Brooks
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

The options were narrowed down, four suggestions were placed in a cup.
The books that made it into the cup were:
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Twelfth Night Shakespeare

The winner was: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Due to scheduling issues the next meeting has been set for Sunday, October 4th, at 1pm. Jenn Sullivan will be hosting.

Get your copy of Great Expectations from your bookshelf, your local library, or the book store and read along with us!