The evening fiction book club discussed City of Women, by David Gillham. Opinions on this book varied widely. Some members felt it was formulaic and somewhat trite. Others felt it was a gritty book about an awful time. And still others felt it raised important moral questions that left them wondering what they would do if faced with some of the difficult choices the characters were forced to confront. The one area of near unanimous agreement was that this male author had a hard time creating truly believable, fully developed female characters. Nonetheless, we had a meaningful discussion not only of the book itself, but about war, morality, and the sacrifices people make in fighting for a cause, principle or idea.  

Fire and Rain by David Browne, provided an excellent opportunity to enjoy some of the music played by the subjects of his analysis of changes in the music world in 1970.  Browne paints a broad picture (not always sucessfully) by combining political history, biographies and industry-specific dynamics as they are reflfcted in the work of the Beatles, Crosby/Stills/Nash and Young, Simon and Garfunkel, and James Taylor.  Two questions seemed to haunt our discussion: where was the editor, and what about the Rolling Stones?  These criticisms notwithstanding, the group gave it a 4 out of 5 star rating, noting that it was informative and worth reading.  The content was good, but the presentation could have been improved.

Future Book Club Selections

The morning fiction group chose Sweet Tooth, by Ian McEwan (Anchor Books),  the author of Atonement and Saturday.  It's 1972, and the Cold War is far from over when MI5 recruits Cambridge student Serena Frome.  Her assignment is to help the agency manipulate the cultural conversation by funding writers whose politics align with those of the government--"Operation Sweet Tooth".  But Serena falls in love with Tom Haley's stories, and then she falls in love with him.  How long can she canceal her identity, and must she abandon the first rule of espionage: trust no one?

 The evening fiction book group chose Willa Cather's classic O Pioneers! for August.  This is Cather's first novel.  It's the American story of pioneer life as embodied by one remarkable woman and her singular devotion to the land.  Alexandra Bergson arrives on the wind-blasted prairie of Nebraska as a young girl and grows up to turn her land into a prosperous farm.  In this moving story, Cather conveys the physical realities of the landscape as well as the transformation of the frontier more faithfully and perhaps more fully than any other work of fiction has.

The fiction groups meet on the last Wednesday of each month.  The next meetings are Wednesday, August 28 at 10:30 am and 7 pm.

The non-fiction book club chose Beautiful Souls: The Courage and Conscience of Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times, by Eyal Press (Picador).  History has produced many speimens of the banality of evil, but what about its flip side, what impels ordinary people to defy the sway of authority and convention?  Through these dramatic stories of unlikely resisters, the author shows that the boldest acts of dissent are often carried out not only by radicals seeking to overthrow the system but also by true believers who cling with unusual fiercenes to their convictions.  Drawing on groundbreaking research, this book examines the choices and dilemmas we all face when our principles collide with the loyalties we harbor and the duties we are expected to fulfill.

The non-ficition book club meets each month on the second Wednesday.  Their next meeting is Wednesday, September 11 at 7 pm.