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!!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
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!
So, hang in there, everyone! We'll keep reading and meeting. Make it when you can. Definitely check out this month's read, though!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, April 19, 2010
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!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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?
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?
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