We discussed the book Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
I was the only one that finished reading the book and I had only finished it the night before! This is book three in a series about friends Lila and Lenu. Right now both of them are adults and are at the beginnings of their family lives. All of us thought that there were a lot of characters in the book and we all kept referring to the glossary at the beginning of the book with the list of the characters and who they were. We thought that if we had read the first three novels we would have been more familiarized with who everyone was and we wouldn't have to keep turning to the beginning of the book. We all agreed that Elena Ferrante is a good writer and Tania said that she was reading the book in Italian and the writing was better and flowed more than the English version (I was wondering if there was anything lost in translation and it seems like there was). Tania also talked about how bad of a place Naples is (this is where the two main characters grew up), which is something that I didn't know.
How the book ended I was actually curious to see how it would continue in the next book. I think that the majority of the group that did not finish the book plan on finishing it. I think that is about it for the book. We didn't talk too much about it because most of us didn't get far.
Tina told us a hilarious story about her neighbor's niece Melissa! Tina, I hope that she comes over again so that you have another funny story for us :). We talked about Cotton Candy Grapes. They are delicious and so expensive, which led us to a conversation of how some fruit is really expensive and how some of us have spent way too much money on fruit before. We also talked about shitty family members.
As we were trying to come up with a date for our next book club we came into a lot of hurdles! Rhonda is going on vacation and is gone basically until November. I am going on vacation in September. Laura is going on vacation in October. We decided that we would read two books and meet in November. If the group wanted to meet between now and then someone would set something up (you can email the group or just let me know and I can email the group).
Here are the details for the next book:
When: Tuesday November 10 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's House
What We Are Reading: To Kill A Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
If you want to buy a hard copy of these books you can get a great used deal, or even the mass market paperback of To Kill A Mockingbird . I saw that Costco had both of these books and they were the cheapest for Go Set A Watchman (hard copy). The Kindle version is still just a tad cheaper than the hard copy.
Michelle B. it will be your turn for the November book club and by then the book will be out!
I hope to see everyone in November!!
-Heather
