May and June 2015 Book Clubs "The Rosie Project" by Graeme C. Simsion and "Lost Lake" by Sarah Addison Allen

Hi Everyone,

Vive! Book club is alive and kicking! I’m just behind, apologetically, again on the emails, so May and June’s meetings will be compacted into one.

This is our summer of outdoor book clubs. Since very few venues in our town accommodate patrons outdoors, we agreed to have this season’s meetings at members’ homes on our patios to bask in some fresh air and evening sunsets. Our May club, however, was greeted with a cold snap, so Ginnie, thankfully, entertained us all indoors with over-the-top homemade yummies! Gratefully, the weather for our June meeting postponed the rain just long enough for us to enjoy an evening on my deck for our discussion where I served farmer’s market goodies, a less complicated menu for a reluctant cook.

In attendance at our May book club were Barb K., Cheryl, Ginnie, Lori, Jody, Mandy, and myself. The title we discussed was The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. Using a unique plot, Simsion draws us into the world of Don Tillman, a college professor researching genetics. Combining nerdy with Aspberger’s Disease, Simsion creates a mega antisocial character in Tillman. Simsion’s use of first person narration is great for taking the reader into Tillman’s bizarre brain processing, thoughts that are totally insensitive to social cues. When he carefully concocts the plan to find a wife, we see exactly how much Tillman’s Aspberger’s leaves him socially compromised.  “The Wife Project,” as he calls it, is littered with loopholes and flaws. When Tillman meets a young bartender/grad student named Rosie, he begins revising his project and even putting it on hold as he contrives the inane schemes for what he labels “The Rosie Project” another endeavor that leave us in stitches. Collecting DNA samples from a litany of men who may or may not be Rosie’s father, Tillman steps out of his social comfort zones in an illogical quest to help Rosie, the most unlikely candidate for “The Wife Project.”

This is one book that is perfectly designed for the big screen. Our club members discussed possibilities for acting roles. I would love to see Colin Firth somewhere in this movie. Sadly, though, he is too old to play Tillman, and I don’t know if I want him to play one of Tillman’s only friends and colleague, a sleazy psychology professor by the name of Gene. Gene (a “Rosie Project” clue) is the epitome of a slime-ball who charts a map marking all the countries for women he has blinked!

Tom Hardy from the movie Inception or Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame could both easily be made-over into nerds then back to hotties for the movie’s starring role of Don Tillman. Possibly teaming Radcliffe with his former The Sorcerer’s Apprentice costar Teresa Palmer as Rosie, and we may have a cute combination. Forgoing cute, however, another option is to typecast Rosie as more of a skanky character and feature Lindsay Lohan or Miley Cyrus in the role. Already, however, Simsion has signed with Sony Pictures who is offering an all star staff to get this movie off the ground. Add to this film all the great music noted from the 70’s, and I can’t wait for The Rosie Project to open in theaters and the nerdy Don Tillman to come to life! No joke, this book is shaping up to be my Women of Wisdom pick for best novel of 2015. Loved it!

My favorite quote from The Rosie Project comes after Tillman has reached rock bottom. He must come to accept the consequences of his immoral behavior, stealing DNA had smeared the flawless, saint-like image he possessed of himself. “I could no longer be equated with the Virgin Mary,” he concedes, “I had been corrupted. I was like everyone else. My stone-casting credibility had been significantly compromised (251).” I’m always up for a good, clean Blessed Mother joke, and besides, there’s much truth in Don’s analogy. For most of us, our stone-throwing days have long been over; mine, most likely, were cut off shortly after I was born!

For June’s title we read Sarah Addison Allen’s book Lost Lake. Members in attendance were Barb K., Becky, Cheryl, Ginnie, Lori, Mandy, Jody, and myself. Only read the novel a little more than a week ago, Allen’s plot is already fuzzy in my mind. It follows, we agreed, a standard made-for-Hallmark movie storyline. My husband, who will on occasion sit down and watch these movies with me, always predicts before it starts, “It’s going to be about a woman who loses her husband and has to raise her kid alone or vice versa.” Ninety percent of the time he’s correct, and yes, it is true for Lost Lake.  A young widow, Kate, must reinvent her life after her husband’s fatal bicycle accident. She and her daughter Devin reconnect with Kate’s Aunt Eby, an estranged relative. It seems that providence, in the form of a lost post card, has led Kate to Lost Lake, Eby’s lakeside cabins in Suley, Georgia. There, Kate predictably rekindles feelings she has left for a friend from the summer she spent at the lake as a child. Wes, now a handyman/pizzeria proprietor has never married (of course), as his one encounter with real love had only been with Kate. Surprise, surprise!

            Beyond a few quirky characters like Selma an aging divorcee with six husbands in her wake and Bulahdeen Ramsey, a spunky retired school teacher, our club discussed the Lake’s mute French cook and Eby’s best friend Lisette. Jody, our book club dietician, reminded us of Lisette’s great recipes mentioned in the book: cinnamon pecans, chive biscuits, summer corn soup, carmelized butternut squash, fresh fruit tarts, and top it all off with Lisette’s butter coffee! Really, though, what was up with Lisette’s ghost in the chair and her fetish for sexy silk lingerie, were we to ascertain at the subliminal level that she was entertaining her imaginary specter in other ways unstated? Think about it.

Although Lost Lake was probably one of our least discussed books ever, the fantasy element of the novel was also argued. Some members stated that the fantasy details are not sufficiently woven into the story, while others affirmed that Allen provides just enough whimsy. Like a Hallmark Christmas story, we are satiated with a few “flights of the imagination” cultivating the ambiguity of Santa Claus then it is back to reality. As is the case with the alligator in Lost Lake, appearing only to the young and clearly imaginative Devin (concluded by her mismatched and wacky wardrobe) as a wise and all-knowing creature, are we really expected to believe that the alligator led Devin to the “alligator box?” That the alligator is really Billy, Wes’s brother who died in the house fire Wes had set long ago, and where Billy’s “alligator box” was thought to have burned? That Billy, the alligator, toted the alligator box from the charred remains of the fire to a watery tomb at the bottom of the lake where a letter from Wes to Kate just so happens to have remained perfectly intact and unopened for more than a decade? Couldn’t Allen have come up with a more credible plotline for revealing Wes’s dark secret? Ho, hum!

In summary, Lost Lake did not go without commendations by our book club. We all found the book basted with juicy words of wisdom. Here are a few we especially liked: 

Good line - Jack, the shy cabin guest and Lisette’s suitor, remembers his mother’s words: “The trick to getting through life,” she’d told him, “is not to resent it when it isn’t exactly how you think it should be (64).”

Spot on for those who are grieving: “Eby knew all too well that there was a fine line when it came to grief. If you ignore it, it goes away, but then it always comes back when you least expect it. If you let it stay, if you make a place for it in your life, it gets comfortable and it never leaves. It was best to treat grief like a guest. You acknowledge it, you cater to it, then you send it away (154).”

One of the perks of getting old: “Lisette remembered her grand-mere once holding out her spotted papery fingers and telling her that old hands made the best food. ‘Old hands can hold memories of good things,’ she had said (182).”

My personal favorite: “I always thought that, at any moment, someone was going to tell me to put down my books and get a real job (Bulahdeen, 201).”

More sage words from Bulahdeen: “You can’t change where you came from, but you can change where you go from here. Just like a book. If you don’t like the ending, you make up a new one (254).”

On the same line of advice and Lori’s personal favorite: “When your cup is empty, you do not mourn what is gone; because if you do, you will miss the opportunity to fill it again (Lisette, 284).”

Cheryl will be hosting our July book club at 6 PM on Wednesday, July 22, on her patio. The novel Bloodroot by Amy Greene, recommended by Jody’s daughter, will be the topic of our discussion. I opted for my old-fashioned hard copy over the Kindle version this time and grabbed the last one at Barnes and Noble in Cranberry! They’re hot!

Set in southern Appalachia, Greene reveals some of the dark folklore that haunts this region through her story of Myra Lamb, a mountain girl. If anyone should have a strong background for telling the tales of the Smoky Mountains, it is Greene, she was born, raised, and still resides in the mountain’s foothills. I’m excited about this book; like Myra, I grew up in a family of strong and hardworking women, all surviving on a will that goes beyond understanding, a spiritual sustenance that suspends us, keeps us afloat. Our discussion for Bloodroot is sure to be fueled by our own personal tales, so join us for what may turn out to be our own book club version of the TV series “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” Tell Greg to build a fire, Cheryl; we’ll need it for ambiance!

Yours in our shared wisdom of books,

Tammy