The Omaha Bookworms met last night to discuss Allegra Goodman's
The Cookbook Collector. Sadly, the picture is not of last night (although I had every intention of taking a picture and just forgot). That picture is from last summer when Mari ( of Bookworm With A View) was still with us in body as well as in spirit. The plan last night was to be on the patio but the weather just didn't cooperate. At least it was better than the night before when there were 23 tornadoes in Nebraska and the sirens went off here, sending the crowd at the College World Series game scrambling for cover. But I digress...
We were a small group last night--just five of us. Three had finished the book, one was about half way done and one hadn't read it. Ellen, who had recommended it was probably disappointed that the rest of us weren't nearly as enthused. I was happy to learn that neither of the other two who finished the book had foreseen what happened on page 329, which we couldn't discuss because we didn't want to ruin for the person still reading.
We talked a lot about the time period this was set in -- Ellen's of an age where she knew a lot of people who were young enough to really get caught up in the dot.com hype. We talked a little bit about what you would do if you found yourself as suddenly wealthy as many of the characters in this book did. One member has a friend that leaves in a big house they got cheap because the owner had lost all of their money in the dot.com bust.
Even though not all of us loved this one, we would all agree that this makes a good read for book clubs.
Ahh... Jun 22, 2010 we had book club at my house. Remember we were surrounded by boxes and sat on mismatched furniture. I miss you guys.
ReplyDeleteI have found that some of the books I have struggled the hardest with personally come out to be the best books for discussion when it comes to book clubs. Looks like that is what happened here!
ReplyDeleteIn our club, we don't censor the conversation around those who haven't finished it. It's just known that if you didn't finish, you will probably hear a spoiler at some point. It encourages folks to finish the book.
ReplyDeleteI've thought about starting a book club but just haven't been motivated to it. The photo has inspired me!
ReplyDeleteMy Goodreads Women and Books group already picked their reads for July and August or I would have nominated this one. It looks like my style.
ReplyDeleteThis is on my wishlist and it sounds like a good book to discuss with a book club. I'll keep that in mind for my book club. My club is like Ti's and we don't limit our discussion for those who haven't finished the book. We all know that the intent is to read the book and we'll hear spoilers as the rest of the group who have read the book want to discuss it. I've been on the side of not finishing the book a few times and it was fine with me as it was my fault for not finishing it:)
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