2020 Butler Women of Wisdom Book Club Annual Newsletter

BUTLER WOMEN OF WISDOM

BOOK CLUB NEWSLETTER

December 27, 2020

By Tammy C. Smith

(Photo: Dawn breaks on Stoneybrook Drive in Saxonburg, December 2020)

Introduction

The flow of time does not stand still. Its journey runs swift without regard for those of us who gasp to keep the pace! Over a year and a half of reading has rushed between us since I last published a book club newsletter. Add onto that, 172 books read in the over sixteen years since our club was founded. All the while, stained upon the pages are the stories of our lives. Simple and humble though we are, our book club is more about us than the books we share. For the hero’s tale is experienced before it is ever written.

Before COVID 19

It’s hard to remember a time before the Coronovirus arrived from China, but those innocent times did exist. Previous to the fateful Friday the 13th of March 2020, it had been months since I had written. My last newsletter was the summer of 2019 when we ended with a book discussion on Beloved at Cheryl and Greg’s house. Tony Morrison said it herself, “Some things you forget. Others you never do” (43). Soon we did forget the recently deceased writer’s haunting book of the unimaginable abuses of slavery. This was all before BLM, Black Lives Matter, and the accusations of white supremacy. Way back then, one of our own, Jody, was in South America helping the poor indigenous communities of Nicaragua.

The terrorist attacks of 09/11 were a distant memory when we read The Day the World Came to Town by Jim Defede that October. The small town of Gander on the island of Newfoundland, a province of Canada, did not think twice in helping the stranded victims of airlines, people from 40 different countries, who were banned from landing their scheduled flights on American soil. We all recalled our own stories of 09/11 after reading the memoirs of kindness, gratitude, hope and despair. How quickly this eventful day became immersed in our own personal history and the history of our nation. We thought little then of our government clamping down on homeland security from schools to airports. Security cameras are now everywhere, and this invasion of privacy has been with us ever since. We never questioned it, as we soon would never question lockdowns and COVID restrictions.

In November of 2019, our little book club of all white women had our eyes opened once again to the abuse of slavery through the novel The Kitchen House. Although none of us condone the suffering caused by those southern elitists, none of us have the ability to turn back time, to change any part of it. Should we feel guilty for the vile acts of others dead and gone? Should we feel less human for the atrocities? Should we atone for crimes we did not commit? After reading Kathleen Grissom’s book, we didn’t ask these questions. We didn’t know we should, but back then, we weren’t aware of “Karen” or the “Karen counter culture.”

January arrived with the birth of another grandchild for the Smith’s. We welcomed our first girl, Marilyn Rose. Not only was she our first granddaughter, but she was the first baby born at Butler hospital for the year and decade of 2020. Her birth had passed before visitors and family were banned from the hospital’s premise, before we knew that the virus overseas in China would reach American shores. As we read the entertaining conflicts of the Plumb family in the book The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, we were unconcerned that the other side of the world would ever directly affect us. Laughing at a dysfunctional group of characters  was as serious as we wanted to venture in kicking off the New aYear. 

Later in the month, our book club met at Eat-n-Park and marked the 60th birthdays of myself, Jody, Kathy, and Sharon with a lovely cake. We celebrated on the precipice of 2020. I remember a premonition I had that day, that something had changed. It was a spark I felt inside, just as sharp and bright as the candles on the cake. When we made our wishes, it did not blow out. 

In February of 2020, although Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, it was becoming clearer that we as a nation were not. While Eleanor was quick to speak her mind in Gail Honeyman’s book, the long arm of social media was censoring ours. The month of February showed how completely perverse our country had become. My post on the NFL’s YouTube channel in abhorrence of the Super Bowl halftime “strip” show featuring exotic dancing by Jelo and Shakira did not remain long. My total defamation of the event was not to their taste, so mine was deleted while those who wrote praising the filthy gestures performed on stage were left open to “likes” and mutually praiseworthy comments. My first taste of censorship fed into the thrumming inclination that I had felt the month before. As I look back now at my journal from that time, I see there a passage from Romans 56, “They no longer have the ability to think correctly, to separate good from evil, or to judge what is right and wrong.”  I added, I feel these are the end times and the sides are being decided - those who are with God and those who are not.

Before our book club would meet again, the world changed. The Chinese virus reached America, and the first deaths were reported as we read March’s book pick, The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian.  Unlike Zadoorian’s two ailing elderly characters, there was no running off to travel the country in the hope of escaping our new reality, a world pandemic. International air travel ceased in an effort to quarantine our cities and our country. Schools and businesses closed and the entire nation experienced for the first time lockdowns, social distancing, and living with the driving fear of contracting a deadly virus. As watching daily press conferences from both our president and our state governor became the highlight of our lives, our fears following the fateful Friday the 13th escalated. 

Reading in Spite of COVID 19

The superficial life of Jane Austen’s Emma seemed appropriate to alleviate the stress of COVID isolation. In April, we discussed Austen’s book via our club’s first Zoom Meet. This newly popular form of communication between large groups, I was now using from home to administer remote instruction to my students. Our book club did not fully embrace this platform (or my book pick for that matter), but it was all we had with restaurants closed for public dining and the reluctance we all shared in opening up our homes to those outside of our family. We found ways to lift our spirits, however, especially when our club’s only nurse, Lori, retired from Butler Hospital after 43 years of patient care. We were so happy for her, and her retirement couldn’t have come soon enough as we feared Lori’s exposure to the dreaded virus. 

After two months in lockdown, Governor Wolfe introduced Pennsylvanians to COVID color codes like green for reopening the economy. When our book club finally met for the first time since February on June 4 at Sharon’s house, I was not able to attend. It had been over 100  days since I had last seen my daughter and grandsons, and they were able to finally make the trip from Delaware for our long awaited visit. Ginnie’s book pick Season of Second Chances by Aimee Alexander, however, seemed a relevant title for our first socially distanced meeting. Hope was beginning to return as the positive COVID cases began to fall, families were reconnecting, and a few government restrictions were lifted.  

The story of Lakshmi in The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi, gave our book club insight into the political and social life of India’s caste system. In July of 2020, it wasn’t hard to see how Lakshmi had to maneuver a “system” that was in place only to benefit the wealthy elitists. As the pandemic had begun to reveal the double standards set in our own society, we were beginning to see the evils of the left and their political leaders at work. While large groups were banned from organizing for weddings, funerals, picnics, and community events, it had become acceptable for violent protest groups to organize angry mobs to burn buildings and to destroy historic public icons, all in the name of Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ. But like Lakshmi discovered with Samir Singh, her lusting benefactor, some of us saw through the lies of the fake mainstream media, understanding that all is not as we think and those we trusted, we could never trust again. Our book club was now meeting outdoors, in the private residences of our members. Cheryl volunteered her home for July 28th where some of us came wearing the newly dictated masks and others chose to socially-distance by moving our chairs beyond the defined six-foot limit. We were indeed getting a sampling of Lakshmi’s India.

 July ended with the passing of Becky’s mom. For Becky, she will best remember the day as a celebration of 104 years of living. In describing her mom, Becky called her “young at heart” and a lover of Frank Sinatra. Our book club has felt the passing of many of our moms, and through these events, we have come to understand that after such a loss our lives can never be the same. 

Decidedly a tribute to the influence of mothers, our next book picked by Barb K. was Half Broke Horses. It characterizes the grandmother of one of our favorite authors, Jeanette Walls. In her book, Walls explains the history of her mother’s family before the time of her earlier memoir The Glass Castle. The novel reveals the grit of Wall’s grandmother Lily Casey during an era when, like now, the nation was vastly changing. Just as then automobiles and planes were replacing horses and trains, in recent months, we have seen online learning replace onsite education; working remote replace the brick and mortar workplace; and online shopping make visits to malls and retail centers seem obsolete. And in the midst of change, children are born. Like Lily’s daughter Rosemary, Wall’s mother, who came into the world on the heels of a nation in transformation, Little Claire, Ginnie’s second grandchild, was born on August 13, amidst the tumult of a country in both political and social upheaval. Claire forged an early birth into the pandemonium of a pandemic, on the shooting stars of summer, and on the feast of her patron saint. In our discussion of Wall’s book on August 19 at the Smith condo, we too were trailblazing, as we huddled on my small patio for our meeting. Boldly unmasked, the six of us in attendance defied COVID orders, just as we knew the rumors that were spreading, another “second wave” of the virus was imminent. 

Our last summer meeting of 2020 was hosted once again this year on Sharon’s lovely porch. The book Water From My Heart by Charles Martin didn’t seem so far-fetched as we learned how money and criminal business transactions influence the day to day lives of naive citizens. As the race for our nation’s presidency was heating up for the November finish, we learned how one-sided our mainstream media truly can be. National press coverage continued to push the undeserving, unfit candidate Joe Biden and his far left running mate Kamala Harris onto the American people. As questioning readers and viewers, some of us speculated the obvious, the cutting and clipping of the truth to fit the progress of a liberal-socialist narrative. 

As the election fires burned, the virus began to peak once again in late October. By then we knew that COVID 19 was only one crisis in a multitude that this country was facing.  At the time of our book club on the 21st, the morale around the fire ring at Lori’s house on Bullcreek Road was beginning to plummet. As schools were closing, some never having opened, and businesses were again under duress to shut their doors to the public, the two-faced system of our state’s restrictions became apparent. What was good for one, was not necessarily allowed by another. Mistrust and suspicion had gripped us all. Social media became a hotbed for heated arguments between the left and the right. Like our October book pick Never Tell by Lisa Gardner, Facebook, Twitter, and their ilk are where truth and transparency are all but elusive. Lori witnessed this, the night of October 31, on the blue moon of Halloween when she showed her support at the biggest Trump Rally ever to be attended, lauding it as well-organized and inspirational.  The ghouls of fake news, however, lied to the public (I did my homework) and destroyed the rally’s legitimacy by condemning the red wave and its MAGA followers. Where was this hateful reporting, CNN, when BLM destroyed our cities?   

November passed in complete turmoil, for the 2020 election was stolen as everyone had expected. With mail in ballots falsely signed and corrupted voting machines calibrating votes to favor Biden, the reality that our country is about to be governed by left wing socialists is disturbing in itself without dealing with a second or third wave of the pandemic … I’ve really lost count at this point. 

It is now past Christmas and the holiday was all but deleted as traditional celebrations were cancelled everywhere. No concerts, no musicals, no ballets, no holiday parties, no large family feasts. Although I did see Santas in a few different places, they seemed so unnatural from behind their socially-distanced plexiglass screens. That’s why Where the Forest Meets the Stars is a perfect title for November’s book.  It’s symbolic of the irony of this 2020 holiday season. However, to make the title more fitting for these times  Where COVID Meets Christmas may be somewhat more appropriate. And so as we seem to have hit a wall, to plan a new date for discussing the November book while the pandemic lockdowns are still in effect is senseless. Without a restaurant opened for our meeting, we are forced to wait until our state goes “green,” or whatever they’re now calling it. Our hope, therefore, lies strictly in God’s great mercy and his gift of a vaccine that is now being administered around the country. As first responders, hospital workers were first in line for the shots. Did Cheryl get hers yet, I wonder? 

Once the pandemic is over, we need to have faith that our country can return to a time when family values and love of neighbor were practiced. Our future definitely lies in our children, and recently, Barb and Jim Direnzo added another generation to their family tree as they welcomed their first grandchild into this world on December 8. His name is Alexander David. Pray the airlines start opening up more flights for the new grandparents as they will be making frequent visits now to Monterrey, Mexico! 

In conclusion, and on a positive note, we finished the year with a collection of $250 for our book club charity recipient. We thank Cheryl for arranging our donation to be paid to the Community Food Bank. With so many people out of work and hurting to make ends meet, may God bless them through the beneficence of those who have the means to give. 

Sincerest wishes for a healthy, wealthy, and blessed New Year,

Tammy

P.S.  I have also attached the updated list of book club books.

January to June 2019 Book Club Biannual Newsletter

“PEOPLE DON’T COME INTO OUR LIVES BY ACCIDENT” 

(LISA WINGATE, BEFORE WE WERE YOURS, P 913)

As we approach October and the upcoming fifteen-year anniversary of our book club, I can’t help but ponder the truth of the above quote. I don’t believe the Butler Women of Wisdom are connected by accident. Although through the years, we have lost members and added new members, the vitality of our group, I’ve observed, is inspired by change - new voices adding more substance to our own. We are all unified, however, in seeking a higher level of ourselves, finding enlightenment through the characters in our books and most of all through each other. Our meetings go beyond the books we read and into the most important subjects of our gatherings, simply sharing our lives with one another. While the club has evolved (I was 44 years old when we started!), we have experienced children graduate, go off to college, more graduations, weddings, the birth of grandchildren, new jobs, new homes, trips all over the world, divorces, retirements, health challenges, and grief . . . everything - all the joys and losses of life. As we go forward and continue to discuss and analyze new chapters of our own human journeys, let us remember the powerful wealth of wisdom we have to share because of our commitment and connection to our book club.

Looking back on this year, 2019 has been flying so quickly; with my grandson Grant born in May and another grandchild on the way, I am caught up the world of baby hype. This newsletter will help to review this year of reading from January to June, and as we remember the books and the stories they tell, I know each of us will also remember the months we read them and how the hype of our own individual lives intertwined.

All of our books this year depicted the great lengths our characters will go when inspired by passion. To recall, Cheryl set 2019 in motion with the title The Storyteller’s Secret: A Novel by Sejal Badani. Badani’s book took us to India with Jaya a young journalist from New York as she uncovered the secrets of her grandmother’s life and private passions. As always when we read about other cultures, it is often difficult to imagine the way women have been and often still are treated. Jaya’s grandmother, Amisha, had to prove her worth as a young wife by bearing three grandsons, but she was not valued, sadly, for her exceptional talent for writing stories. It was a kind and handsome British soldier who noticed her creative ability and encouraged her to write. However, when Amisha had to make a choice between her two great loves and the safety and welfare of her children, she ultimately gave up her deepest desires as any mother would do.

In its conclusion, this story does have a satisfying ending as Jaya ultimately discovers her true self through her grandmother’s legacy. “I think about my grandmother and the choice she made between love and her life. It was a choice that no person should ever have to make, but she did it with grace and a heart that always thought of others first” (715).

Next up, in February we read Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. This was Kathy’s pick and another book that sends a young woman, Avery, a federal prosecutor, searching into her grandmother’s past to discover hidden secrets. In Wingate’s book, we start out in Memphis, Tennessee, where the story of Avery’s grandmother begins. This piece of the story was based on the real-life adoption scandal that started in 1924 and continued to 1950. Our main character’s grandmother Rill and her siblings were stolen from their home and taken to an abusive orphanage before being sold off to various families. The children were given new names and forced to play by the rules of the home’s superintendent, whose character is based on the accused perpetrator Georgia Tann. Luckily, Rill was adopted by well-to-do parents and given a new name and an upbringing that provided her with the best of everything including social status. However, the loss of her real family was a hurt she held deep inside her throughout her life, keeping it concealed from the man she married and the children she raised as privileged members at the center of politics in Aiken, South Carolina.

As Avery uses her lawyer’s prowess, she follows the leads to discover her aging grandmother’s heartrending past. Like Jaya in Badani’s book, Avery’s discoveries force her to come face to face with her own state in life and the passion that’s missing. Questioning everything, both professionally and personally, she receives a piece of profound wisdom that helps her to reevaluate her choices, “A woman’s past need not predict her future. She can dance to new music if she chooses. . . To hear the tune, she must only stop talking. To herself, I mean. We’re always trying to persuade ourselves of things.”

Moreover, this story is mostly about the love between siblings and its powerful transcendence over place and time.  “The love of sisters needs no words. It does not depend on memories, or mementos, or proof. It runs as deep as a heartbeat. It is as present as a pulse.” I think of my own sisters and understand the words to be true.

Following Kathy’s book, in March we read Marybeth’s selection Where the Crawdad’s Sing by Delia Owens. Through its pages, we continued our visit to the south along the coast of North Carolina in a quiet town called Barkley Cove. Deep in its undiscovered marshes lives our main character Kya. The book spans her harrowing childhood and incredible life of unfathomable loneliness. Abandoned by her mother and siblings, then eventually her alcoholic father, from a very young age Kya must support herself to survive. At times the unimaginable sadness of Kya’s story is gut wrenching as she struggles all alone hiding from the public eye. School was hurtful, as she was teased and bullied, so she learned to outsmart the truant officers. She only allowed a few people into her small self-made world. Luckily, Tate, a boy she had seen once as a young child befriended her and taught her how to read and discover a love for poetry. As the two became close, they eventually fell in love. However, just when Kya had given Tate her trust, he never returned to her after he went off to college, “...loneliness had become a natural appendage for Kya, like an arm. Now it grew roots inside her and pressed against her chest.” Kya finds solace in nature and her ability to record and publish her notes on the wildlife of the marsh.

Although, as a result of her deep loneliness, it was no wonder that Kya fell for the smooth lines of Chase Andrews, the town sweetheart and sports hero. Luckily, Kya was not ready to give herself to another man so easily. She remembered her mother’s advice, “Unworthy boys make a lot of noise,” and the advice she learned from her observations of nature, “males who send out dishonest signals or go from one female to the next almost always end up alone.”  But fighting off Chase turns into the biggest fight of Kya’s life when he is found dead and Kya is accused as the number one suspect in his murder. It is a red ski cap that holds the mystery of Chase’s death and gives this book a very surprising ending. 

Marking the beginning of the Easter season, we read Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan as my pick for April. The book is based on the life of Joy Davidman, an American writer who fell passionately in love with the infamous British writer, C.S. Lewis. Although Callahan’s work is fiction, she vows in telling the story that she stayed as close as possible to the facts pertaining to Joy’s life as she found them in letters, essays, biographies, articles, speeches, etc. The book begins in New York where Davidman struggled with a failing marriage to the American writer, William Lindsay Gresham. In one of her lowest moments when Gresham was missing on one of his frequent alcoholic binges, Joy experienced a profound spiritual revelation, an apparition of the divine. She then realizes that there is a God. After reading the book The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, Joy sought out Lewis for answers to many of her questions about Christianity. Consequently, she wrote Lewis a letter and he responded.

The correspondence between Joy and Lewis continued for many years through the lows of Joy’s marriage until she had taken more than any woman should from her despicable, cheating husband. Through Lewis’ encouragement, Joy moved to Oxford, England, taking her children with her and began a life as a struggling writer. Lewis was always her champion when times grew extremely hard, but he failed to offer her the most important support of all, his undivided love. It was not until Joy was pronounced incurable of metastatic carcinoma in her bones, a painful disease which racked her body, that Lewis realized how important Joy was to him and finally professed his love to her. They married and upon her death, Lewis, a veritable gentleman, continued to raise Joy’s two boys.

Although the story is bittersweet, during Joy’s lifetime of searching in all the wrong places for her own identity, we can learn from her mistakes. Believing her sexuality to be her worth, Joy doubted her value when it failed her in numerous relationships. At the end of her life, she found that her true treasure was inside her all along. In Joy’s letters, we are reminded of a quote from Lewis’ novel Prince Caspian. Aslan the lion says, “You doubt your value. Don’t run from who you are.”  This is a powerful lesson for us all, especially as women.

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewel was Sharon’s pick for May’s read. This book was quite different than the previous four of 2019. In this book, we are faced with the psychotic mind of a hoarder. Jewel presents us with the story of Lorelei, a wife and a mother of three, who seems to have a passion for amassing what most would consider garbage. All the while, her family struggles to keep their own sanity as they watch Lorelei fall deeper and deeper into her obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Like in every dysfunctional family, no one comes out unscathed. Megan, the oldest, struggles with control issues.  Beth her younger sister, strains with failure to launch syndrome and lusts for her sister Megan’s life, namely Megan’s husband. Their younger brother, Ben, who was traumatized from the suicide of his twin brother, follows a path of complete destruction, while Lorelei’s husband picks up the pieces Ben leaves behind and starts his own new life. Even Vicky, Lorelei’s lesbian lover, is not left untouched by Lorelei’s mental disorder. After some pleading from her two children, Vicky finally moves out of Lorelei’s home and lets Lorelei alone, “the master of her peculiar castle.”

In reading The House We Grew Up In, one is inclined to think about our own absurd behaviors and delve into some self-analysis. Why are we the way we are? Do some of our tendencies stem from the way we reacted to a parent’s dysfunction? Regardless, all of us are just trying to live each day the best we know how. As the voice of wisdom in the book, Meg offers her sister some profound advice that is appropriate for everyone, “And things sometimes happen that don’t fit in with how we think the story should go, but we just have to take a deep breath and get on with it, not sit there sulking because it’s not what we were hoping for.”

Lastly, for this newsletter, Ginnie picked the book for June, Remember Reeny.  A local author, C. F. Bellis, AKA Hubba Hipple as most of us from Chicora remember her, has blessed us with a novel that recounts the emotional essence of our town during WWII. Although it was a project of love for Hubba, telling her mother’s story;  it is a tale that captures the tone of an era, a love story of a woman’s passion during the difficult times when the “greatest generation that ever lived” left home to fight a war on the other side of the world. The book is a poignant reminder to us all that because of circumstances of which we have no control, life will continue in ways we never expect.

Our book club was very lucky to have Hubba join us at our meeting. It was so much fun recalling the book’s references to many local sites and citizens. Seeing our town through the lens of the 1930’s and 40’s was a perspective that, I have to say, I never really thought too deeply about before. For one, I now look at all the taverns I knew as a child as places that were vital to our community during the hardest of times. They were utterly important as gathering spots where our ancestors shared their celebrations and losses. Through the book, I visualized the strength of our women, many like Reenie who were mentioned in the book, who struggled each in their own way to maintain the home front during the war.

It was also fun to imagine people whom I thought I knew well like my childhood best friend’s mother Shirley Craig, Reenie’s sister, in a way that gave her even more substance than her role as a wife, mother, and one of the best bakers in Chicora.  Hubba accurately describes her aunt’s vivacious character, something that Shirley has maintained throughout her life.

In addition, it was fun to piece more of a story to the memories from my childhood I had of Reenie and her husband Ross. All I could recall were the parties my family attended at their home and the beauty and Grace of Hubba’s mother. I also remember the talent and musical ability of Hubba and her sisters, but I had no framework for their lives that could have been very different if not for the United States entering the War in 1942. How many futures around the world were changed in the same way as Reenie’s? This is why, the novel by C.F. Bellis, Chicora’s very own Hubba, appeals to all of us and is already worthy as a treasured piece of our local town and country’s history. We were all so honored to have her be our very first author to attend a Butler Women of Wisdom meeting!

What a wonderful year of book selections we have had so far! Get ready for our next book if you haven’t already read it. We will be discussing Jody’s pick The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister at 6 PM on August 21 at the Hardwood Cafe. It sounds like another invigorating read based on the texts coming in, so remember to join us next Wednesday for our discussion!

Finally, along with this newsletter is an updated version for your records of our club’s book list.  I have also added the member’s name who selected each book in the emailed version of the list because we sometimes have a hard time remembering who is next! (What does that say about the median age of our group!) Consequently, as we continue in alphabetical order by our last names, Barb Direnzo will be picking our next title for September's meeting. Heads up Barb!

Your sister in reading for wisdom,

Tammy

May - November 2018 and January 2019 Book Club Newsletter

Volume 2, Issue 1 - January 2019

BUTLER WOMEN OF WISDOM

SEMI-ANNUAL NEWSLETTER
By Tammy C. Smith

Introduction

Time is flying by, everyone! We now begin another year of reading as a group, Butler Women of Wisdom, and as the family we have grown to be. It has been fourteen years since we read our first book. Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees was the start of our journey through what amounts now to just over 150 books! Quite a feat, I must say, both for the duration of our commitment to reading and, most of all, for our commitment to each other.

The Best Book Club Christmas Party Ever!

No one can deny the fun we all had at this year’s book club Christmas party which took place on Saturday, December 8! Thanks to senior member Lori and her husband Doug, we enjoyed their hospitality in their beautiful home. The party went on well into the evening, and for some of us, well into the night as there was so much fun and laughter afoot. Charades were played (remember Kathy’s diaper changing!) while wine was drunk. Including spouses and “future” spouses (Marybeth and Mark), not one reveler left without a full dose of holiday spirit! This year’s party has certainly set a standard for future book club Christmas parties. It was such a great time, I vote that we plan a summer event, a mid-year blowout! The warm friendship we all share should be celebrated more than once a year!

Six Months of Reading in Review

Now to business. Since my last newsletter in April of 2018, we have read 8 great books!

January 2019:  The Storytelller’s Secret by Sajal Badani

November 2018: The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters by Sam Kashner

October 2018:  Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

September 2018:  Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict

August 2018:  One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

July 2018:  Ordinary Grace: A Novel by William Kent Krueger

June 2018:  That Month in Tuscany by Inglath Cooper

May 2018:  The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen

Each book, in its own right, was deserving of our time. Most importantly, we traveled to new places, acquired historical facts, and learned life lessons through the 2627 pages we read since the month of May (an average of 328 pages a month)!

In recollection, we traveled to India, affluent New England, the White House, Tuscany -several times, the wild west, twentieth-century Pittsburgh, and the 1960’s in Minnesota and Mississippi. As for historical facts, they encompass various eras and cultures. We learned about the Hindu culture, the Native American Indian culture, the Civil Rights Era and the lifestyle of the filthy rich.

Most notably, we were introduced to the unbelievable challenges of women during different periods of history. The Storyteller’s Secret, The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters, Carnegie’s Maid, Whistling Past the Graveyard, and One Thousand White Women all feature strong characters who graced our stories. In this group of books, all of our main characters were women who had to overcome odds in whatever their situation. I especially was fond of the character of May Dodd in One Thousand White Women. Her dynamic mix of vulnerability, kindness, and tenacity endeared her to all the people with whom she met before and during her time married to an Indian chief. The narrator’s sarcastic wit and flourish with the written word lifted this book a level above other books that we have read. In contrast, in this book list's only biography, we learned more about the famous Bouvier sisters. Primarily, they were fashion icons and pillars of social decorum; other than that, I cannot say I hold any further respect for the two celebrity sisters. However, the fictional character in Carnegie’s Maid, posing as Clara Kelly only to secure a deserving position of employment, earns a medal for her performance; and the character Jaya’s conviction in The Storyteller’s Secret, to give up the love of her life so that her children would never have to endure the shame of their mother’s affair, is an act of pure selflessness. These are the compelling characters who inspire us. For those books we are thankful that we live in better times where women are starting to earn respect. As 2018 was the year of the popular “Me Too” movement, a celebrity led movement against the sexual harassment and sexual assault of women, we were right in there, ladies, reading books that featured women of courage! Woo-hoo!

Notable Quotables!

As for the valuable insight and life lessons we learn through our reading, it is insurmountable considering the excellent quality of books we choose to read. Every year, I like to create a list, a few quotes from each book. The list below are taken from the books listed above:

“To find peace in that moment, you have to cede control of life”  (The Storyteller’s Secret).

“I have always taken my material trappings for granted, but now, seeing Ravi’s pride in the little that he has, I’m ashamed to admit I can’t remember a time when I fully appreciated them” (The Storyteller’s Secret).

“If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do matters much” (The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters).

“The first time you marry for love, the second for money, and the third for companionship” (The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters).

Whistling past the graveyard - that’s what Daddy called it when you did something to keep your mind off your most worstest fear… “ (Whistling Past the Graveyard).

“Some of the best things in life come when you’re not planning on them. It’s important to see them for the gift they are” (Whistling Past the Graveyard).

“The world of books is still the world (Carnegie’s Maid).

“I knew Catholics weren’t exactly revered in Pittsburgh” (Carnegie’s Maid).

“All this party-going is beginning to remind me of the Chicago social season with dinner tonight at the ‘Alights on the Clouds’ residence, it’s akin to Mother and Father being invited to the McCormick estate” (One Thousand White Women).

“By spoiled I mean that in giving the Red Man gifts - rations and charity not earned by the sweat of his own brow - our government has never accomplished anything other than to encourage like a dog fed scraps at a table, to beg more gifts, rations, and charity” (One Thousand White Women).

“They’re never far from us, you know. . . The dead. No more’n a breath. You let that last one go and you’re with them again” (Ordinary Grace).

“I’m sure that each of us has memories that for reasons of our own we don’t share. Some things we prefer remain lost in the past” (Ordinary Grace).

“Don’t ever put yourself in the position of vulnerability. Bad people look for opportunity” (That Month in Tuscany).

“How can prayers be answered if you do not call upon the saints to help? God is obviously too busy to do everything alone” (The Tuscan Child).

In Closing

The year ahead looks promising. With the Storyteller’s Secret leading off and already a hit on book club group text, we hope to expect other great works of literature to follow. See you at the next meeting to discuss Badani’s novel, Cheryl’s pick. We will meet at 6 P.M. on Monday, January 14. To those of you who are not bailing out on another depressing winter in “S-Hole” (Lori’s classic nickname for our glorious city of Butler),  join us at our winter location, Napoli’s Pizzeria!

Sincerest wishes for a healthy, wealthy, and blessed New Year,

Tammy

P.S.  I have also attached the updated list of book club books.

January thru April 2018: Where'd You Go Bernadette, Little Fires Everywhere, Moloka'i, and The Rock the Road and the Rabbi

Volume 1, Issue 2 - April 2018

BUTLER WOMEN

OF WISDOM

QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER

Greetings, Women of Wisdom!

Happy Mother’s Day!  Hope you all enjoyed a May day of showers with flowers or some other sweet indulgence.

As the year picked up its momentum, I quickly found myself way past my own quarterly deadline for this newsletter. Luckily, I have no editors hounding me for words only you my readers who have forgotten that the book club archivist still pens the minutes of our meetings.

Looking back, this newsletter includes summaries of the Butler Women of Wisdom’s discussions from books we have read from January 2018 to April 2018. The books include Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste NG, Molokai by Alan Brennert, and The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi by Kathie Lee Gifford.

Starting the year with Lori’s choice, our January’s read Where’d You Go Bernadette provided us with comic relief from the “blah” days of January. The story, a documentary novel, takes place in a Microsoft town in Seattle where Semple plants an eccentric family in the middle of an upscale neighborhood of Craftsman built homes. The mother, Bernadette, once an award winning architect, ironically does little to mask their own home’s dilapidation amid the classic designs. While thorny blackberry bushes grow up from the floor, the home is where Bernadette is the wife to her Microsoft celebrity husband, Elgin, and mother to her genius daughter, Bee. Among the letters, emails, and notes which construct the novel’s plot, it segways between various points of view, leading the reader to wonder whether Bernadette is indeed crazy. Her inability to perform even the most menial of tasks and giving up her personal ID to a veritable virtual stranger is a sure sign that Bernadette may have bats in her belfry. As her problems surmount due to the meddling of a conniving neighbor, the scamming virtual assistant from India, and her husband’s adulterous co-worker; Bernadette frees herself from a forced stay in a mental institution by fleeing with her daughter Bee on Bee’s planned family trip to the South Pole.

Semple incorporates so many fun one-liners as the chronicled events in Where’d You Go, Bernadette progress. It heats up with humor from the very beginning with sardonic lines like “Chihulys are the pigeons of Seattle. They’re everywhere,” and  “You know what it’s like when you go to Ikea…, and even though you may not need a hundred tea lights, my God, they’re only ninety-nine cents for the whole bag!” We had a good time discussing Lori’s hilarious book pic and look forward to the movie coming out this year which will star Cate Blanchett as Bernadette!

A suburb of Cleveland is the setting of February’s read Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Cheryl’s pick, this book contrasted two very different lifestyles. When the wealthy suburbanite Richardson family becomes interested in the unconventional lives of their tenants Mia and Pearl Warren, conservative lines are crossed. Through this story of high profile parents raising the perfect family in their perfect home on their perfect street, dark secrets are divulged and their superficial life begins crumbling. As always in the worlds of those who hold themselves above others, it is the little person who pays in the end. Mia, a starving artist, and her daughter Pearl are drawn into the drama of the Richardson’s heart and home only to be tossed out by Mrs. Richardson, a controlling white collar socialite.

The value of this book lies in the endearing mother and daughter relationship between Mia and Pearl. As Pearl is now grown up, Mia misses the occasional embraces of her daughter. “It was like training yourself to live on the smell of an apple alone, when what you really wanted was to devour it, to sink your teeth into it and consume it, seeds, core, and all.” Mia understands the essence of parenting, “To a parent, your child wasn’t just a person: your child was a place, … a vast eternal place...You could see it every time you looked at her. It made your head spin. It was a place you could take refuge… And each time you left it, each time your child passed out of your sight, you feared you might never be able to return to that place again. Ng’s writing becomes very intense in some passages as if she is trying to say what no other writer has ever articulated about motherhood. It is a theme that is just too transcendent, it is love in its highest form.

Making the list of the top ten best books I have ever read is not easy, but Moloka’i by Alan Brennert now holds that honor. First, the book is historical fiction, my favorite genre. Second, the setting includes a priest and a convent with nuns; and third, it relates a richly factual story of American oppression using a child’s innocence to support the message of social injustice. Brennert’s novel is an epic which spans a lifetime of drama of one character, a leper.

In Moloka’i, we meet the main character Rachel Kalama a happy and loving five year old living on the Hawaiian island of her birth, Honolulu. When she succumbs to leprosy two years later in 1893, she is torn from her parents by the American board of health, never to return. Young Rachel soon finds herself on the shores of Moloka’i, a remote island used for the banishment of leprosy victims. The direction of Rachel’s pathetic life seems bleak, but Brennert is able to shine light in the darkness of her internment. Taken in by a convent of nuns as a child, Rachel is protected from the paganism of the rest of the island. She grows into a young woman able to find love amid so much loss, “I’ve come to believe that how we choose to live with pain, or injustice, or death . . . is the true measure of Divine within us. . . It is in our mortality that we are most Divine” (307). This passage expresses the timeless theme of Moloka’i, my fourth reason for placing this book on my list of top ten novels of all time. A deep undeniable message makes the time spent reading worthwhile.

April’s meeting to discuss my book pick, Kathy Lee Gifford’s The Rock, the Road and the Rabbi was so well attended! It was more of a book “party” at Natilie’s Pizzeria than a book club. Such a gathering it was, Vince Tavolerio himself, the locally re-known owner, graced our table for a short chat. Ten of our eleven members were in attendance. Even Jody was back from her travels to God knows where - and He knows because He is usually the one who sends her there. It was a good discussion about the enlightening explanations of scripture from the viewpoint of a Messianic Jew. Learning about the Jewish culture, we now understand is vital for truly understanding the Divination of Jesus Christ, His heritage, and the customs He observed.

I am now confounded by the symbolism which is everywhere in Biblical text. Every number, every food, every animal, every name holds so much meaning. How do we think we can truly know what the Bible is saying without understanding the language of Hebrew and the numerous other Biblical languages? We all decided, it would be beneficial if we could all be like Kathy Lee and just have our own Messianic Jew on hand for instruction. It’s never too late to learn. At the age of 82, Frank Gifford, Kathy Lee’s husband, finally learned. He found his stone, his sense of peace and purpose in this life. With or without an understanding of Hebrew, Kathy Lee’s book encourages us all to pick up our stones and just throw them on the road that Christ has prepared for us. On page 147, Kathy’s Rabbi Jason quotes Jeremiah 29:11, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” Consequently, Kathy Lee’s exuberance throughout the contents of her book is contagious. In sharing with us an understanding of the Jesus of His time, it can only deepen our relationship with Him.

The meeting to discuss our next book The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen is soon approaching. This time we will meet at Ann Marie’s Restaurant in East Butler. The date is set for Wednesday, May 23, at 6 PM. Our second historical fiction novel of the year, The Tuscan Child reports those who have started reading it are loving it. The title, selected by Sharon, takes us to Tuscany during WWII and transports us thirty years into the future to an English countryside. With that description, I can’t wait for my own reading journey to start!

I’m looking forward to seeing all of you on the 23rd!

Sincerely,

Tammy