What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it's all About???

Book Club Bliss

So, on Sunday we had the 5th official meeting of our Book Club and discussed Tom Robbins' "Jitterbug Perfume." Since I was the person who presented the 4 choices of books last meeting, I hosted the meeting and led the discussion.

First, allow me to set the scene: we met at my grandmother's place and lounged comfortably in her garden for a relaxing afternoon of good food, friends, and, oh yes, very deep discussions about life, death, and the historical and literary implications of Robbins' choice of the "beet" as a symbol of life everlasting...but, as with most book club discussions, the most interesting topics arose in our tangential side-conversations!

One thing that struck me at this meeting was how books can be useful/enjoyable on so many different levels, and how these levels don't necessarily intersect or overlap...for example, I LOVE reading Robbins' intricate and creative metaphor-packed sentences and enjoy how his overall themes make me think about the big questions in life (why are we here? what happens when we die? why are beets so damn tasty?), yet I don't think his type of book provokes the best conversation.

If we're judging books by how well they provoke conversation, I'd generally say that the books people like the least can often provoke the best conversation, because people tend to be very passionate and specific about their dislikes (while we're generally vaugue about our likes...isn't that funny? i mentioned this a bit on my post about bad movie reviews).

Anyway, we did end having a pretty good conversation about the book, but my favorite part was just relaxing and chatting it up with the ladies...my main link to the girls in the club is Angela, one of my dearest friends from high school. The rest of the girls are either friends or family members of Angela, and it's been really great getting to know people with different perspectives on life from me! We have a really diverse group personality-wise, but we share three common loves: laughter, food, and, of course, books (in that order? not sure!)...looking forward to reading the "book thief" for september's meeting!

Pictured below are Angela and Jaqui with the lovely brie and bread plate; me posing with the book (tee hee); and, finally, angela looking pretty as a picture in the garden!




  | posted by Cheryl, 8/28/2006 03:03:00 PM