Book Club Recap 10/2/14

Attendees: Alissa, Denise, Julie, Lisa, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania, and me via Google hangouts.

The book that we were discussing was The Ghost Month by Ed Lin

The book had some mixed reviews from the group.  We thought that the main character, Jing-nan, was a bit immature for his age and a lot of what he did didn't seem believable especially in his romance and how he reacts when his house burns down (only caring about his Joy Division collection).  We thought that there was a lot of history in the book and it was nice to learn some things about Taiwan and that culture.  Some of us thought that when the history was told in the story it didn't really relate well with the story that was going on and kind of just thrown in there.  The ones that finished the book felt like the ending was wrapped up quickly and could have been better.  Denise did explain to us a lot about Chinese and Taiwan culture and how everything is so very different there.  Someone mentioned that this book seems more like a book for men and many of us agreed.  The book was an easy read, but the subject matter was something that I wasn't particularly interested in.  I also liked his book This Is A Bust more than this book.

As a side note, Denise is good friends with the author and we read one of his other books before and he came to book club to talk about it.  Ed is a really nice guy and I think that when reading this book I found myself picturing Ed as the main character.  Denise said that Ed's Chinese name is Jing-nan, just like the main character in the book, which was an interesting fact.

After the book discussion we talked about the following in no particular order:

1-Sketcher shoes.  I guess that there are some really comfy ones that Rhonda and Julie got.
2-Wizard sleeves.  I'm not sure how we got on this topic again.
3-School and the new Common Core curriculum in math
4-Rhonda's niece and nephew
5-The Squatty Potty , pooping in holes in foreign countries, and always having wipes when traveling.
6-Dogs

Rhonda got some Chinese food for book club and made pumpkin bread.  I REALLY miss the food!  It also looked like there was a lot of wine consumption going on :).

There is a 5K/10K coming up at the end of this month and book club wants to form a group and raise money for it in support of Julie's husband.  Rhonda sent out an email last night.  If you didn't receive it please just let her know.

Here are the details for book club next month:
When: Monday November 17th at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: Beneath A Marble Sky by John Shors

I miss you guys!!

Heather

p.s. Rambo, Alissa asked Denise if you were Japanese too and we all had a good laugh!