Plans for Spring

Hi everyone,



Thanks to everyone who came and participated in our Wednesday Letters night! It was a lot of fun and I think we all gained a few insights on the book. Sorry about the scheduling conflicts for those who read the book but couldn't make it. Hopefully, we'll have better luck next time picking a good day.

Speaking of which, continuing on our theme of women and their wild ways, our next book, which we'll be discussing the first part of May, is Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.

From Amazon: For this novel of French bourgeois life in all its inglorious banality, Flaubert invented a paradoxically original and wholly modern style. His heroine, Emma Bovary, a bored provincial housewife, abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair. A succès de scandale in its day, Madame Bovary remains a powerful and arousing novel.

Amy Harris is leading the discussion and the meeting will be held at Charis Call's house, possibly May 7th or 14th (both Thursdays). However, it's looking more and more like Thursdays are not as good for everyone, so if you'd prefer we tried a Tuesday in May (the 5th or the 12th) please leave a comment or let me know.

Finally, sometime soon we also want to schedule a book club meeting to discuss The Hundred Dresses, our theme for our Relief Society service project, which will probably be a big meeting. We'll plan a few fun things for that in addition to discussing the book--I'll keep you posted.

Happy reading!

The Wednesday Letters

Current plans for this month's meeting are:

Thursday, Mar. 26th

7 pm

Emily Robertson's house

We'll look forward to seeing you there!

Plans for March

First, thanks a ton to all who came and participated in our last meeting about dear Martha Ballard and her many adventures as a early colonial midwife. As usual, the book sparked lots of great conversation topics (some of them more relevant to the book than others but all of them great)! Thanks to April (and Breanna) for opening their home to us and for the amazing spread of food. It was lots of fun!

Once again, we're going to make a slight deviation from our previously posted calendar and squeeze in a shorter read before we launch into Madame Bovary--New York Times bestseller The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright. It's readable in an afternoon or so and is a very enjoyable book.

I think it will be a nice change of venue as we've been reading many wonderful but also intense AND LONG books the last several months. And if you haven't come for awhile because you don't have much time to read, then this is the perfect month for you to join us!

The Athens Library has two copies and most of the area libraries have at least one copy. Also, Deseret Book is clearancing it out for $1.99 and I'm sure there's plenty available for cheap at Amazon and the usual places. Also, there may be a copy or two among our members if you'd prefer to just borrow one.

I'm also looking for a location and possibly a discussant for this if anyone is interested. Otherwise, you'll be driving to the southern recesses of Oconee County to join me at my place, which I'll be more than glad to have you do! :)  If you are planning on reading this book and coming to the meeting for it, please either email me or leave a comment about which Tuesdays and Thursdays you'd be available to meet this month.  As far as I know, only Mar 19th is for sure not an option (RS Birthday Enrichment).

Happy reading!

New Plans For the New Year

Discussion of A Midwife's Tale: The Story of Martha Ballard, based on her diary and other books on midwifery

Pick any of several currently popular books about midwives and we'll discuss their stories and common themes we find at our next meeting.

Feb. 5th at 7pm

Location and discussant yet to be found! Please let Emily know if you're interested in either/both!

Some great poetry...and now onto Tolstoy

Thanks to everyone who helped out with and attended our poetry night. We all had a really, really great time! Shelley and Katie--your presentations were terrific! I think we all learned quite a big about poetry and about Cummings and Yeats that we didn't know before. I thought it was really fascinating--from the balloon man to the "heart's deep core" to "anyone's any was all to her." Love it! Thanks so much for opening up those poems to us. And Katie, the posterboard with illustrations?! Talk about amazing, girl! Plus, we all know it was a good night if tears were shed by more than our usuals. :) So thanks everyone for helping us have such a nice time.






And can I even say enough about the crepes? Although I didn't try the clear winner of the night, peanut butter and chocolate, I thought they were the perfect treat. Let's definitely have them again sometime.


Now onto November...


I hope all of you have had a chance to get started on Anna Karenina. It is a bear, but I think many of us are finding it more enjoyable and entertaining than we'd anticipated it being. It's no Twilight, but it's not one of those classics you trudge through and have to really be committed to reading. Plenty of late nights spent reading are going on already.


If you haven't gotten started yet, there's still time--particularly if you want to read an abridged version or listen to the audio book, as many of us are. Our book club meeting for Anna Karenina is scheduled for Nov. 6th at Amie Dunford's home. It's not very far away. There's a chance of pushing it back a bit if we need to, but let's try to have it done by the 6th if we can.


There's also some talk of having a movie night sometime after the meeting to watch one of the many film adaptations of the novel. That will also be something fun to look forward to.


Please let me know if you have any questions. Happy reading!

Poem Selections for Yeats

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.


When You Are Old

WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face among a crowd of stars.

Poem Selections for cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town
e.e. cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain


in just-
e e cummings

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

(More excellent cummings poems can be found at http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/cumming1.html)