Book Clubs

Last night I had book club.  I look forward to it every month.  It's a nice night out having dinner with the girls.  We are quite a small club - just three of us.  But it works.  We always manage to find a date that works for the three of us.  We are all busy with kids and work.  I think if we had more than three we would struggle to find a time that works for everyone.  Often people laugh when I say it's a book club of three but it works.

In reality we spend very little of the night discussing the book but the books are what bond us together.  This month we were discussing The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney.  This book has been getting so much publicity lately.  People calling it gripping and a page turner.  We didn't feel it.  For once we all agreed.  It was a good book.  For once, we all finished it in time!  We didn't love the main characters.  We thought the characters could have been more developed.  We did like a few of the secondary characters.  It was a good book, we just felt it was not quite as amazing as some of the reviews have been raving.

We take turns picking the restaurant and the book.  It typically is a bit of a discussion but one person gets final word.  Last night the book clubber choosing the next book wanted to read a classic book now.  The other two immediately shot her down and said we want modern fiction.  Overruled!  This month we will be reading Dumplin by Julie Murphy.

Are you in a book club?  What was your latest read?  What are you reading now?  Tell me about your book club.

Flee Fly Flown by Janet Hepburn

Sometimes the right book falls in your hands at the right time.  For me, that was Flee, Fly, Flown by Janet Hepburn.  I first heard about Flee, Fly, Flown at the Waterloo Public Library's Waterloo Reads event that showcased the 2014 Forest of Reading Evergreen nominees.  It was then selected as my book club's read this month.  Now that I've finished, I have now gone on to submit a suggestion to Canada Reads that this is the book all of Canada should read because it's the book to break barriers.

Flee, Fly, Flown is the story of two elderly ladies in a nursing home that decide to go on vacation and take a break from the routine.  Lillian and Audrey can't remember how old they are, what they had for lunch or whether their spouses are still alive but they are determined to break out of the nursing home and have some fun.  The two head out from Ottawa and have their sights set on seeing the Rockie Mountains - no easy task for two elderly ladies with Alzheimers.

Canada Reads 2015 is focusing on books that break barriers and I think Flee, Fly, Flown would fit that perfectly.  First, it's Canadian and it takes the reader on a road trip across the western provinces.  But most importantly it gives a voice to the elderly.  Lillian and Audrey don't get to make choices any more, everything is decided for them and their days are quite repetitive.  They don't get to plan their days, decide what they want to eat, the daily activities they participate in and their kids have full control of their money.

Throughout the book I couldn't stop thinking of my own Grandma.  At 94 years of age, she has recently moved to a nursing home.  I think she is getting the best of care in her home and I believe it to be the best place for her.  But my Grandma is still of relatively good health and I'm sure her days are long and lonely.  I would be beside myself with worry if she escaped her home and went on a road trip, but part of me kind of wishes her and Audrey would hatch a plan over lunch and go have some fun.  Or maybe I can bring her a pizza, we can talk and give her some choices so she doesn't wind up feeling like a lonely, helpless prisoner.

Flee, Fly, Flown is Janet Hepurn's first novel.  Hepburn lives in Port Dover, Ontario.

The Husband's Secret by Lian Moriarty

My book club read for this month was The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty.  Cecilia Fitzpatrick is an every day normal housewife.  Well maybe not every day, she's a bit of an overachieving do everything sort of Mom.  One day Cecilia stumbles upon a sealed letter addressed to her with instructions to only be opened in the event of her husband's death.  The letter is from her husband and she really can't imagine what it would possibly say.  She has faith in her husband and believes her marriage to be strong.  Yet, what could the letter contain?

The Husband's Secret took many twists and turns that I didn't see coming.  I quite enjoyed reading it and I look forward to discussing it with my book club to see what they thought.  There was one little thing that really bugged me about the story which I can't reveal without spoiling the story.  I want to see if my other book club members felt the same way.  So obviously a great book club choice because I believe it will spark a great discussion.

Without revealing any details of the ending I did find it slightly different that the author really detailed and finalized the story.  There wasn't much left to the imagination (other than imagining how I would personally handle the secret).  Maybe a better way to describe it is that the story felt complete.  There was nothing hanging.  Which isn't always the way I feel when I finish a book.

I always meant to get around to reading Liane Moriarty's other novel What Alice Forgot.  I will try and elevate that book a little higher on my to read list.  She is definitely an author I will look for more books from.