The Locale: Susan's
The Book:
National Book Award winner Richard Powers’s twelfth novel is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of—and paean to—the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.
www.pulitzer.org/winners/richard-powers
Susan's Summary:
Earlier in the week, there was a meme on FaceBook, which read that friends don't care if your house is messy as long as there is wine. I wondered if the same applied to book club friends. Today, I learned, in a modified version, it does. Turns out, book club friends don't care if your kitchen is a mess, if your cake is a mess, or if you are a mess, as long as there are margaritas.
I took my fate in my hands today, making not one, not two, but three new recipes today for club. 😬 Margaritas, King Ranch Chicken casserole, and Key Lime Pound Cake, the latter recipes from Southern Living. And WHO knew there was such a thing called a pound cake pan? Not me, which resulted in pound cake batter oozing out all over the bottom of my oven. I also became impatient and did not let the cake cook, resulting in a cake that fell apart. Fell a-part!
But thanks to the flexibility and patience of dear friends, and some tasty margaritas, all ended well.
Since we had a small group, only seven of us today, we sat at my oval dining table, making for a cozy conversation. We had a few who never made it past the first third of the book, the short stories. We had a few who listened to the book, and we had a few...or one who finished it...and a couple of us who still have about 40 pages remaining. And, as is often the case when a book isn't necessarily a favorite, this one too, lent itself to great conversation--which characters we liked, which we didn't, recycling, repurposing, overpopulation, the power of nature, and the greed of man.
Even though we only had seven at the meeting, every one sent in a vote. The winner was The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede.
Lori needed to change the date of the next meeting in her home. Instead of June 9th, we will be meeting June 23rd to discuss Hero of the Empire by Candace Millard.
The next person to present @ Lori's is Jana.
The Vote: Gina presented...
- Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Anna Burns
- Dear Evan Hansen by by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benjamin Pasek
- The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede WINS!!
Up Next: Hero of the Empire by Candace Millard @ Lori’s on June 23th.
Next to Present: Jana
Then:
- Susan H.
- Sarah
- Jessica
- Kristine
- Holly
Tassy Jolynda - Brenda
- Susan
- Gina
- Jana
