Meeting: March 19, 2015

We met at Nancy French's house and enjoyed the sunlight still streaming through the windows as we looked out at an open river.  We had a small group for this month's meeting with Ellen Bowes, Kathy Day-Carey, Nancy French, Annie Larkin, and Jo Smith in attendance.  

For those that haven't been checking, the CBS mini-series The Dovekeepers will be airing on March 31st and April 1st from 8:00-10:00pm both nights.  Nanc has set her DVR to record both nights and will save the recordings should anyone need a place to watch it.

As many non-attending book club members mentioned via e-mail prior to the meeting, Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne was difficult to sit down and read in long stretches.  It was easier to read in bits and pieces.  The book was a harrowing read, with all the brutality inflicted by both sides.

Nanc didn't like the way the book was organized and would have preferred the story be told in a more linear format. 

Ellen and Nanc felt like S.C. Gwynne used condescending language when describing the Comanche.  This is one such excerpt:

Thus the fateful clash between settlers from the culture of Aristotle, St. Paul, DaVinci, Luther, and Newton and aboriginal horsemen from the buffalo plans happened as though in a time warp -- as though the former were looking backwards thousands of years at pre-moral, pre-Christian, low-barbarian versions of themselves.

In addition, Gwynne writes of the atrocities against the white settlers, but didn't seem to judge the actions of the white settlers and their actions in the same way.

Kathy pointed out that Gwynne has received reviews that his work is an unbiased account. It appeared; however, that all of his references were from white settlers and military, with no accounts from Comanche sources.  It doesn't seem appropriate that the book was written entirely through the settler's lens.

Annie read an excerpt from Touch the Earth by T.C. McLuhan which gave a wonderful native american perspective.

We were lawless people, but we were on pretty good terms with the Great Spirit, creator and ruler of all.  You whites assumed we were savages.  You didn't understand our prayers. You didn't try to understand.  When we sang our praises to the sun or moon or wind, you said we were worshipping idols. Without understanding, you condemned us as lost souls just because our form of worship was different from yours.

We saw the Great Spirit's work in almost everything: sun, moon, trees, wind, and mountains.  Sometimes we approached him through these things. Was that so bad?  I think we have a true belief in the supreme being, a stronger faith than that of most whites who have called us pagans ...  Indians living close to nature and nature's ruler are not living in darkness.

Did you know that trees talk?  Well, they do.  They talk to each other, and they'll talk to you if you listen.  Trouble is, white people don't listen.  They never learned to listen to the Indians so I don't suppose they'll listen to other voices in nature. But I have learned a lot from trees: sometimes about the weather, sometimes about animals, sometimes about the Great Spirit.

Our book for April is The Orchardist, by Amanda Coplin.  The April meeting details are listed below, along with books selected for May and June.

April meeting:

Book: The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
Location: Julie Howard's
Date: Thursday, April 16, 2015
Time: 6:30 pm

May book: The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

June book: The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom


Books we've read so far:

January 2014 - Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
February 2014 - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
March 2014 - Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
April 2014 - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
May 2014 - The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
June 2014 - Breaking Free by Marilyn Sewell
July 2014 - The Orphan Train by Kristina Baker Kline
August 2014 - The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
September 2014 - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
October 2014 - The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
November 2014 - The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
December 2014 - No book.  Holiday gathering.
January 2015 - No book.  Watched The Book Thief
February 2015 - The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
March 2015 - Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne