Photos from our 2021 weekend retreat

 

Must have cheese

Book of the year 2020

 Our list of books in 2020:

 

Fierce Attachments, Vivian Gornick

Extra credit: Belonging, Nora Krug

Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier

Small Fry, Lisa Brennan Jobs

The Book of Delights, Ross Gay

Fascism, Madeline Albright

What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty

Hot Milk, Deborah Levy

The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabelle Wilkerson

Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi

Amateur, A Reckoning with Gender, Identity and Masculinity

Deacon King Kong, James McBride

It's a rare year where we have twelve (eleven if we remove the extra credit book) books to choose from.   Many of these titles were loved and there was a lot of discussion about possibly choosing a favorite fiction and non-fiction this year.  

We tried to each list our favorite two titles, and it went south pretty quickly.  

H: 1) Deacon King Kong
2) Warmth of other Suns

B: 1) Warmth of other Suns (woos)

    2 a) Amateur

        b) Rebecca

       c) Fascism

        d) Deacon King Kong

M 1) WOOS

     2) a) Rebecca

         b) Amateur

A: 1) WOOS

     2) Rebecca

T) Transcendent Kingdom

     Fascism

D) WOOS

      Fascism / Rebecca

Clearly the Warmth of Other Suns wins hands down as the favorite read for 2020, but then the debate about number two evolved into a great discussion about how Deacon King Kong, Fascism and Rebecca were superb reads.  That brought up the love for the Book of Delights.

We agreed that there were no stinkers this year, but that there were a couple that might not have been worth the time during this crazy busy year.  One was described as a "written for the planned Netflix adaptation."   2022 edit:  What Alice Forgot (still not a Netflix movie.)

Then we did something that we've never done, we discussed our favorite "worst" character.  We decided that descriptions of real people disqualify as they might have been just terrible people.  The overwhelming love was for the dastardly evil and malicious housekeeper at Manderley,  Mrs. Danvers.  

Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson, actress)

Deacon King Kong, McBride

Our last discussion of the final 2020 book.   Books selected in the year are in the running for Book of the Year even if the discussion happens in January.

Meeting on zoom isn't as much fun as being in person, but there is a bit of charm to it.  We get to see and hear all the happy dogs, spouses pop in with food and beverages, and every once in a while we get to wave to a teen coming home from wherever teens go during a pandemic.

We've been together for so long, that now the babies are off to college.  Well, with the exception of the two late starters - we're navigating elementary and middle school and can see the look of relief on the faces of our fellow bibliophiles that they are past the pre-teen stage. 

Last night we discussed Deacon King Kong, by James McBride.   Our discussions are always pretty short when everyone loves the book and last night it was a very short love fest.   McBride weaves a funny story and creates memorable characters who you can clearly see in your mind.  More than one comment was made that this book will be a great movie it's actually being worked on as a TV show.  Thankfully McBride is part of the script writing team, which means the show will be delicious. 

I'm thankful for an author who doesn't need to wrap every loose end up in a tidy bow.  Life is not always like that, and a bit of wonder is good for the soul.   

Prediction:  this one will rise to the top of the heap for 2020.

One last meeting for 2020

 It's winter solstice, the shortest night of the year.   The Seattle weather people are predicting unusual weather.  It was 57 degrees at my house at noon, and now, at 4 it's 49 and raining like a boat will be floating by shortly.   The kid thinks that she heard about "low land snow". 

So, it's dark, rainy, and there's also a pandemic.  Best have a book club outside!  We are hearty northwestern ladies so that's exactly what we'll do.  Melinda has a tent and heaters.   We have rain gear, blankets, and face masks.   It should be fun!

 I'm happy to report that even though the year was not as expected, we managed to keep up our reading schedule and actually accelerate it for the last two months of the year.   I mean, it's not like we had to commute for hours each day.

Think dry thoughts! 

So behind...

I updated the book list with the books I can find that we've read.  The order is wrong and some are missing, so I'll get with our unofficial historian for her lists and make the updates.

We had a vote for our favorite books for 2019 and The Overstory came out on top with Half of a Yellow Sun a close second.   We were all impacted by the brutality of Friday Black as well.

The Testimates didn't sit well with us, which was disappointing because The Handmaids Tale felt so relevant.   One comment was that this followup novel felt like a way for Ms. Atwood to get some creative control over the television series and move the narrative in a direction that she wanted. 

Meeting in the time of Covid-19

We're still going strong, but...

who has time to blog anymore?

We've read some great books in the last year and are currently reading two for our meeting this Wednesday.  

Our favorite book for 2018 was "Pachinko" with the "Late Homecomer" and "Sing Unburied Sing" coming in strong.

A horse walks into a bar and The Gathering did not resonate with us.

Other titles in 2018 included "The Power", "Less", "Musicophelia" and "The house of broken Angels"

So far in 2019, we've read "An American Marriage" by Tayari Jones and "Leadership" by Doris Kern Goodwin.

Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye is on deck as well as "The Fucks you give".