Saturday, August 31, 2019

Meeting: August 8, 2019

Judy hosted our August meeting to discuss Educated by Tara Westover. It was a delightful evening and; therefore, we spent it outside on her deck. The sandwiches, side dishes, and cheese cake were all delicious. Christe, Ellen, Jo, Judy, Julie, and Nanc attended. We actually talked about the book quite a bit, but we did tend to wander off topic, as usual.


Water view from the bottom of Judy's driveway. I meant to take a pic from the deck, but neglected to do so.

Educated -- what a memoir. I couldn't put the book down, amazed at Tara's memories of family, faith, mental illness, and education. She shared the power of family "love" and "education" in the processes of finding inner strength, self, and new awarenesses, that lead her to leave and be educated in ways she never knew possible. Her hunger to learn new things, the challenges of being so lost in such a different world than hers at Buck's Peak, and eventually the faith others (friends, professors, and finally a counselor) had in her, provided opportunities to help make her journey more possible. Yet, throughout her memoir she shared how difficult it was to break the ties with her "exceptional" (as one reviewer put it) family and upbringing.
~Linda Jenkins




Excerpts that stood out:
"You can love someone and still choose to say goodbye to them" she says now. "You can miss a person every day and still be glad that they are no longer in your life" ~ Tara Westover 
"My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs." ~ Tara Westover 
"I am not the child my father raised, but he is the father who raised her." ~ Tara Westover 
"But vindication has no power over guilt. No amount of anger or rage directed at others can subdue it, because guilt is never about them. Guilt is the fear of one's own wretchedness. I has nothing to do with other people." ~ Tara Westover
~ Judy Lee

Next Book: Heartland by Sarah Smarsh
Location: Nanc's
DateSeptember 12, 2019
Time6:30





Future meetings:

October 10, 2019 - Washington Black by Esi Edugyan at TBA
November 14, 2019 - Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard at TBA
December ??, 2019 - No book - Christmas gathering at TBA
January 9, 2019 - America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray at TBA
February 13, 2019 - The River by Peter Heller at TBA and Oscar nominated film at the library?

Other books we are considering:

Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Trees by Conrad Richter


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
April 2015 - The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
May 2015 - The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
June 2015 - The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
July 2015 - Still Alice by Lisa Genova
August 2015 - The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
September 2015 - Ruby by Cynthia Bond
October 2015 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
November 2015 - No book.  Watched To Kill a Mockingbird
December 2015 - No book.  Holiday gathering.
January 2016 - All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
February 2016 - Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson 
March 2016 - Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
April 2016 - Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie
May 2016 - Jewelweed by David Rhodes
June 2016 - One Woman's River by Ellen Kolbo McDonah
July 2016 - Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
August 2016 - Deep Water Passage by Ann Linnea
September 2016 - This Road I Ride by Juliana Buhring
October 2016 - The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
November 2016 - No book.  Watched The Boys of '36
December 2016 - No book.  Holiday gathering.
January 2017 - About Grace by Anthony Doerr
February 2017 - Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates
March 2017 - Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
April 2017 - No book - meeting canceled
May 2017 - Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
June 2017 - The Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier also watched The Girl with a Pearl Earring
July 13, 2017 - Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins
August 2017 - No book - meeting canceled
September 2017 - A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
October 2017 - Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
November 2017 - The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
December 2017 - No book. Holiday gathering.
January 2018 - To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
February 2018 - Wonder by RJ Palacio
March 2018 - Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
April 2018 - My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
May 2018 - Beartown by Fredrik Backman
June 2018 - The Marriage of Opposites by Fredrik Backman
July 2018 - The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony
August 2018 - No book - meeting canceled
September 2018 - In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides
October 2018 - My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
November 2018 - A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
December 2018 - No book - Holiday gathering
January 2019 - The Boy Who Knew Too Much by Cathy Byrd
February 2019 - Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
March 2019 - And Every Morning the Way Home gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman
April 2019 - No book.  Meeting canceled due to a snow/ice.
May 2019 - The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
June 2019 - Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
July 2019 - The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
August 2019 - Educated by Tara Westover





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