The Day After Tomorrow

Yes, that is when our next meeting will be held. Bownut is hosting our Vanity Fair event. Please check your email for additional information and bring suggestions for future readings!!
Hope you had the chance to finish reading this lengthy but enjoyable novel!

Vanity Fair

Although this novel could demand much more familiarity with other works of literature, it gets things rolling right away when you discover the saucy orphan Becky Sharp. The story of two women and the surrounding culture and society is the basis of this satirical novel by William Makepeace Thackeray. It's not just a fun and funny novel to read, it can be a means of introspection. Thackeray has a knack for exposing truisms of human nature that even the modern reader may fall into.
William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta in 1811 but his family returned to England while he was still a young boy. There he was educated and fell into his own problems with debt. Although a failure at painting, he found his niche as a writer and wrote for several magazines of the day, notably Punch where Vanity Fair was first published serially. He wrote other works and lived on his success in his day. None of that waiting around posthumously for acclaim for this man!
Thackeray was inspired one night to write Vanity Fair which takes it's name from a fictional place starring in another novel called Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. There are more similarities than just borrowing the name, but you'd have to read that novel to understand more and, lets face it, Thackeray's Vanity Fair is tons more fun to read than the overly moralizing story of Bunyan's. Vanity Fair is written in a modernized (that is, modernized to Victorian England and then back dated 30 years earlier) form of picaresque (think Don Quioxte), a satirical novel following a low born "rogue" who utilizes his, or in this case, her wits to move around in a corrupt society.
So, dig in and we'll see you the second Thursday of November. Yes. That is, next week!!

Questions to Ponder

Book Club Discussion Questions

1. Who was your favorite character? Why?

2. What do you think motivated Hilly? On the one hand she is terribly cruel to Aibileen and her own help, as well as to Skeeter once she realizes that she can’t control her. Yet she’s a wonderful mother. Do you think that one can be a good mother but, at the same time, a deeply flawed person?

3. Like Hilly, Skeeter’s mother is a prime example of someone deeply flawed yet somewhat sympathetic. She seems to care for Skeeter— and she also seems to have very real feelings for Constantine. Yet the ultimatum she gives to Constantine is untenable; and most of her interaction with Skeeter is critical. Do you think Skeeter’s mother is a sympathetic or unsympathetic character? Why?

4. How much of a person’s character would you say is shaped by the times in which they live?

5. Did it bother you that Skeeter is willing to overlook so many of Stuart’s faults so that she can get married, and that it’s not until he literally gets up and walks away that the engagement falls apart?

6. Do you believe that Minny was justified in her distrust of white people?

7. Do you think that had Aibileen stayed working for Miss Elizabeth, that Mae Mobley would have grown up to be racist like her mother? Do you think racism is inherent, or taught?

8. From the perspective of a twenty-first century reader, the hairshellac system that Skeeter undergoes seems ludicrous. Yet women still alter their looks in rather peculiar ways as the definition of “beauty” changes with the times. Looking back on your past, what’s the most ridiculous beauty regimen you ever underwent?

9. The author manages to paint Aibileen with a quiet grace and an aura of wisdom about her. How do you think she does this?

10. Do you think there are still vestiges of racism in relationships where people of color work for people who are white?

11. What did you think about Minny’s pie for Miss Hilly? Would you have gone as far as Minny did for revenge?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

Intro to the Author

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She later attended and graduated from the University of Alabama where she obtained a degree in English and Creative Writing. She pursued a career in the magazine business in New York. She is currently living in Atlanta, Georgia, with her family.
As this is Ms. Stockett's first novel, there isn't really other works with which to compare The Help. That being said, she's made a great break out into the world of published novel writers with a book filled with round and full characters that will endear themselves to you.
Enjoy this novel (quickly) so we can discuss it on October 14th at Ms. S's home!!

September Meeting

After a couple weeks of postponement, Book Club was able to finally start the new Fall Schedule. There was a great turnout with a fantastic discussion. We are also happy to welcome a few new faces and perspectives!
The majority of our discussion revolved around organ donation and a critique of motherhood from many different perspectives. It was interesting to see how the discussion developed as some people were unable to read My Sister's Keeper before the meeting. Due to this, we have voted that if someone has not finished reading the selection, it's fair game to tell the ending so that the discussion can be full and open.
We'd like to Welcome Ms. N and Ms. C and thank Ms. J for hosting (I really need to verify use of people's names on here!). We look forward to the following months and continue to welcome all who would like to join us. We've opted to move meetings to the second Thursday of each month to avoid some scheduling conflicts.
So, get in gear because the next meeting really is just two weeks away!! We are reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Never fear! It's a recent best seller, so the language is easy and it is a compelling and quick read. You'll enjoy it!

Discussion and Thought Questions

I apologize for not getting on this sooner, but I thought I would give you the link to Jodi Picoult's own website. The follower are questions that may help you think through what you are reading as well as bring more depth to the way you feel about the book.
Find more at: http://www.jodipicoult.com/

Book club discussion questions for My Sister's Keeper

1. Reread the prologue to My Sister's Keeper. Who is the speaker? Is it the same person you thought it was the first time you read it?
2. What is the metaphorical relevance of Brian's profession as a fire chief?
3. Why is Jesse's behavior so aberrant, while until now, Anna has been so compliant?
4. What might be a possible reason for Brian's fascination with astronomy?
5. On page 98, Kate is being admitted to the hospital in very serious condition. She mouths to Jesse, "tell Anna," but is unable to finish. What do you think she was trying to say?
6. On page 122, Julia says, "Even if the law says that no one is responsible for anyone else, helping someone who needs it is the right thing to do." Who understood better how to "help" Kate, Sara or Anna?
7. Did Anna do the right thing, honoring Kate's wishes?
8. Do you feel it was unfair of Kate to ask Anna to refuse to donate a kidney, even though this seemed to be the only way for her to avoid the lifesaving transplant?
9. On page 142, Brian says that when rescuing someone from a fire, that "the safety of the rescuer is of a higher priority than the safety of the victim. Always." How does this apply to his role in his own family?
10. On page 144, Brian says, "Like anything that's been confined, fire has a natural instinct to escape." How does this truth apply to Kate? to Brian himself?
11. On page 149, Brian is talking to Julia about astronomy and says, "Dark matter has a gravitational effect on other objects. You can't see it, you can't feel it, but you can watch something being pulled in its direction." How is this symbolic of Kate's illness?
12. For what reason(s) did Brian offer Anna a place to stay at the firehouse while the legal proceedings were underway?
13. How does Anna's decision to pursue medical emancipation parallel Campbell's decision to end his relationship with Julia after his accident?
14. Do you agree with Brian's decision not to turn Jesse in to the authorities for setting the fires?
15. Do you feel that it's ethical to conceive a child that meets specific genetic requirements?
16. If not, do you believe that there should be specific exceptions, such as the purpose of saving another person's life, or is this just a "slippery slope?"

To Begin Anew

Hello, fellow Book Lovers! We're about to reconvene as an official club and are changing things up a bit.
First off, our meetings will be held the third Thursday of each month at 6:30. Pay attention to your messages for meeting locations. We will continue to rotate homes and treats as we have done before.
The biggest difference is that we will no longer be exclusive to the "classics" but will be venturing into more current literary successes. In fact, we will begin with Jodi Piccolt's My Sister's Keeper with the first discussion meeting in September.
So, get out your books and let the reading begin!!

Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe was born in Eastern Nigeria in 1930. He was the fifth of six children and raised in a family who converted to Christianity. As he grew older, he rejected the Christian name he was given and went back to his native name. He attended and graduated from a university in Nigeria.
Disgruntled with works depicting Africans, such as those written by Joseph Conrad (and to which I will agree a dislike for), he penned his first novel and found success. Things Fall Apart was published in 1959. Although his target audience are his fellow Africans, it has been loved by people all over the world and has been translated into over forty different languages.
Chinua Achebe has written books, short stories, poetry and articles. He has been an educator as well as being politically involved. Due to a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, he returned to the United States (previously was here to teach at a University) to again teach and receive greater medical care.
Although Nigerian and under some scrutiny, he writes his African novels in English and declares the use of English as a way to allow varying language backgrounds to unify under one language, similar to the way the Euro has allowed a unified currency in European countries.

They Sure Do

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe might be the perfect novel for this point in the club. It seems that no matter how hard we try to shift things to make meetings more manageable with life, other things pop up. I can relate a bit with Okonkwo as he tries desperately to hang on to the way things have been. I'd love for book club to be as heavily attended as it has in the past, but, to quote John Lennon, "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."
So, hang in there, everyone! We'll keep reading and meeting. Make it when you can. Definitely check out this month's read, though!

Gardening

Choosing The Secret Garden for this past month's read coincided with our own vegetable garden growing and flourishing. The fascination with new growth and the anticipation of seeds to appear as plants is so fun, but it is even better with children. They become so excited when they see something come up, but they are also devastated when seeds don't work and never appear.
That powerful emotion of expectation motivates for good changes. Our oldest daughter has become a very healthy eater as she has watched these plants grow. She doesn't want to eat anything that doesn't help her body to grow and be healthy. I think she would have been a good influence on the children of Misselthwaite Manor.
Positive thinking and positive doing are definitely a prescription for happiness and improved living.

A Little Break

After getting through The Count of Monte Cristo, we figured we needed something a little less intense. So, we are going to be reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett for the month of May. We are also changing back to the third Tuesday at 6:30pm as our attendance has declined the past couple of months. Hopefully that will help people out, sorry for anyone it inconveniences. We'll also be meeting at Kim's new abode, so don't forget to check Facebook for further details!

Political Change

A little background in French history may help in understanding Dumas and his world in The Count of Monte Cristo.
The area we now know as France wasn't truly established under one rule until Louis XIV (en francaise, it sounds so nice) who ruled for over fifty years. This man was quite the social magician and truly established France to become the most fashionable country as well as a country governed by an absolute monarchy. He united France by cultivating the arts and establishing the culture and standard at Versailles. In his efforts to delight and dazzle, he maintained an incredible control over his peers as they vied for his attentions and honors. In fact, rumor has it that this is the time when the phrase "faux pas" began, as Louis XIV had such regimented procedures and dances, that no one wanted to be accused of a "false step" which would land them outside of Louis XIV's favor.
After Louis XIV died in 1715, there were already great social tensions that would lead to the French Revolution. There was constant politicking for ruling and favors among the nobles who basically saw the peasantry as lesser beings. This, the lower class of people, did all the work on the lands and yet were only given the smallest portion (estimated at about a tenth of the revenue from the harvest) to starve on while they watched the upper crust dine on extravagant lifestyles. Eventually the unrest culminated in the French Revolution which also gave rise to the ideas of enlightenment, nationalism and inalienable rights, as well as setting the stage for a reformer such as Napoleon.
Napoleon was loved by the people while despised by the nobles. He made himself known through his military prowess and eventually scraped himself into the First Consul (sort of dictator-type role) and then voted as Consul for life and next emperor by the people, demonstrating his ability to lead the common man, conquer Europe and cultivate the arts. He thrived on conflict and lead his army into many wars. He wounded not only the army, but his own reputation back home with the disaster in Russia (he kept pushing forward, Russian retreated and burned everything behind them, leaving Napoleon's army to dwindle and diminish due to starvation and famine). He was ousted through his own abdication of the crown and exiled to the Isle of Elba (where Edmond encounters Napoleon and all Dantes' troubles begin). Napoleon is able to secretly enter France and take back the throne for just under one hundred days before again being exiled, this time to St. Helena, a small, rocky island far into the Atlantic.
The ensuing century is full of unrest and change. The working and middle classes gained power and position due to the benefits of the industrialization. These ideas and economic changes enable the lower classes to maneuver and politic for position and power granted to the nouveau riche (newly rich) and implied in the characters of such friends and foes as the Danglars and the Morcefs.

What's It About?

I hope by now you have all realized how incorrectly the movie follows the plot of the book. The world Dumas describes in The Count of Monte Cristo is so extremely different from the one portrayed in film.
So, what is the novel about? What is Dumas trying to get at? What is his purpose in writing?
There are several answers to these questions, and each one of them correct in their scope. For me, the overriding theme was vengeance and justice. What is the difference between these two? Is there a difference? Is one right and the other wrong? And, if this is the case, how does one become socially acceptable over the other?
The concept around vengeance is to enact a reprisal against one who has done wrong to you. Justice, on the other hand, seems to follow a specific line of ensuring the retribution from one who has done wrong. Truly, the difference seems to lie in the hands of whom is enacting the punishment. For vengeance, it is the individual who has been wronged whereas justice is through a society determined process.
Within this definition, it appears that Edmond is strictly performing out of vengeance. But, is he? Can a person be enacting justice without filing formal complaints and leaving it in the hands of the "justice" system? Is there a higher power that determines this ability? To whom is Edmond accountable?

An Introduction to Dumas

Alexandre Dumas had a big appetite for living large and luxurious, and found himself constantly making and spending fortunes as well as creating beautiful historical fiction and other works of literature.
Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was born in 1802 in Picardi, France, to Thomas-Alexandre Dumas and Marie-Louise Élisabeth Labouret. His grandfather was a marquis who fell in love and had a son (Thomas-Alexandre) with a French-Creole woman in what is now known as Haiti. Falling from grace with Napoleon as he served in the military, Thomas-Alexandre lost his pension and later died, leaving his family destitute. Marie-Louise Elisabeth found herself struggling to provide not only an income for her family, but also an education for the young Alexandre. Not having any interest in education, but having beautiful handwriting, Dumas was able to find work as a notary and eventually found himself in the literary world.
Dumas came on stage with melodramatic plays and historical fiction novels which were first published serially in newspaper journals. His flare for the dramatic and colorful scenes quickly made sales rise and put money in his pockets. His work was assisted through the use and collaboration of other assistants and writers, though each work was reworked in his own hand. His prolific work of 250 books was aided through his varied use of 73 assistants. He was also inspired by historical and current events, especially in the case of The Count of Monte Cristo, which was inspired by the account of a shoemaker similarly imprisoned by jealous men.
The success Dumas was endowed with brought many female admirers and lovers. He sired at least three children out of wedlock, namely a son of the same name who also would become a great writer. To differentiate these two, the titles Alexandre Dumas, père (our writer of The Count of Monte Cristo) and Alexandre Dumas, fils are used. These terms are the French form of "father" and "son" respectively.
Alexandre Dumas built his own Chateau de Monte Cristo which he quickly could not afford and escaped to Brussles to avoid his creditors. He died in December 1870 after suffering a stroke and was buried in Villers-Cotterêts, his birthplace, but was exhumed in 2002 and placed in the Panthéon of Paris. He was writing up to his death, leaving a novel unfinished by a few chapters (The Last Cavalier).

The Harlem Renaissance in Brief

Zora Neale Hurston was one of the acclaimed writers that came to the forefront during the Harlem Renaissance, an interesting point of growth in African American culture.
The New Negro Movement, later titled the Harlem Renaissance, began in the early 1920's and continued into the 1930's. African Americans, after migrating to northern communities, began finding power in numbers with the influence and production of literature, art, and music. The goal of the New Negro Movement was to improve social and political relations in the United States. They desired to demonstrate the equality of humanity in the black culture with that of the white culture. However, there was some dispute over certain ideas of what was desirable to display in art, especially in the form of literature. The intellectual side wanted a more educated and "civilized" portrayal of their culture. Hurston found disfavor from some of her Harlem associates due to her use of the vernacular in her writings.
For more information about the Harlem Renaissance and other faces of the movement, give yourself a tour of Harlem.

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston's life seemed full of up's and down's. Born in 1891 as the fifth child in a family of eight, she enjoyed the privileges of living in Eatonville, Florida, which was the first integrated all black community in the United States. Here, blacks were able to exist without the prejudices of the age and area. Zora, thusly, portrayed much of her characters and their outlooks from this vantage point.
Although a participant in the Harlem Renaissance, she later found disfavor for her portrayal of black dialects in her writings. As an anthropologist, she remained true to this recording and has preserved some of this language. Reading books such as Their Eyes Were Watching God, you feel the power of utilizing this language instead of changing it to the "proper" English form. The rhythm and flow is uninterrupted through Zora's pen in this manner.
She eventually found herself becoming a resident in St. Lucie County Welfare Home and later died of hypertensive heart disease.

The Official Word

Since this is the "official" blog for The Great Works Book Club, I thought I would clarify the changes/decisions that were voted upon last night.
By popular vote, we will continue to hold meetings at 6:30pm every third THURSDAY of the month. We will reevaluate our meeting time in May. So, if this doesn't work out the best for you, it will only be for a few months before we can change.
The next meeting will be February 18th at 6:30pm at Loretta's house. If you need directions, please email or call me. We will read and discuss Zora Neale Thurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. It's a fairly short book, but get reading now so you have time to think about it and get ready for discussion!!

We have a little debate on the books for the next few months. Please talk to me about your preferences and questions!

Meeting Information

Our next book club meeting is just around the corner!! I hope you have enjoyed this month's selections and have some ideas and opinions to share.
There have been some changes to meeting times and such, but we still need to refine this so everyone has equal opportunity to make it to the meetings. In the meantime, our next meeting will be held at Jennifer's home on THURSDAY, January 21st, starting at 6:30pm (a half-hour earlier than it has been held). For further information, please remember to check the Facebook club page.
Until Thursday!!

Similarities

The future is always looked to with hope and expectation of technology and other advances. However, dystopian literature points out how good things can go drastically wrong (although The Giver isn't typically categorized as such, there are enough similarities to qualify it). There tend to be many similarities that authors put into their novels. The trash receptacles is one example. In both Fahrenheit 451 and The Giver (as well as other novels), there is a wonderful trash receptacle readily available to keep the society clean and orderly. This seems like a great concept and somehow you get the impression that this is the solution for our waste issue (go green!). Aside from the fact that burning actually releases toxins and other pollutants into the atmosphere, there are downfalls to such a simple system. Blindly, the civilians in Fahrenheit 451 promptly destroy materials without thinking, to the point that books have become prohibited. In a similar manner, the father in The Giver simply follows his directive and not only places but pushes the body of the infant into the receptacle. Although I am not promoting littering, it seems to be when the choice is removed, individuals no longer think about what they are doing. Habits are hard to break, but become impossible without thinking about it. The trash receptacle was created in response to littering and to break the bad habit of littering. Yet, the true issue would have been correcting the way people think about trash in the first place.
What other symbols and tools are repeated in the novels? Why? What are the pros and cons of each?