Meeting Recap: The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein

Our book for July was THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN, by Garth Stein. Stephanie nominated this book several months ago but it didn't make the cut at that time. In our last round of voting Kara nominated it and was successful.

Bev hosted us on her back porch for this meeting. We enjoyed summer foods including corn on the cob, watermelon, salads, and margaritas. The weather was perfect for this outdoor meeting.

The general consensus was that the book was good. No one at the meeting disliked it, but some did like it more than others. Some of the topics we discussed included:

• gaining appreciation for the human/dog bond, especially for those gals who aren't "dog people"
• Enzo's philosophizing - some loved it, some thought it was a bit "wordy" for a dog, some thought it rather simplistic and obvious (rather than profound)
  
• the ending - some loved it, some thought it was cheesy
• the zebra - we differed in our opinions of what it represents
• even though the book dealt with some hard issues, we agreed it wasn't a depressing book
  

I don't think that anyone felt this book was great literature but we did agree that it was a fun read, and different from anything we've read as a club before.

*** After the meeting I came across an interview with the author. In it he answers some of the questions we raised at the meeting (including the zebra issue). You can listen to it at BookClubGirl.com. ***


*** And here's a link to the recap I wrote for ReadgingGroupGuides. ***

An Author's Passing ...

For those who haven't heard ...

From The New York Times:

Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 78 and lived in Manhattan and Roxbury, Conn.

Mr. McCourt spent three decades as a teacher of English and creative writing in New York City’s public schools. As Eric Konigsberg writes, Mr. McCourt was the first to say that “those years, while depriving him of the time to actually write, were what made a writer out of him.” And his students learned from him that “literature was nothing more — and nothing less — than the telling of stories.”

Our club hasn't read any of his books together but several members read Angela's Ashes for our book report meetings or on their own. The literary world is much poorer without his humor, that's for certain.

Meeting Recap: Little Bee, by Chris Cleave

I completely forgot to post link to the meeting recap I wrote for Reading Group Guides. You can read it here - hope you enjoy it!

And a big thank you to Kara for hosting us on her lovely porch. We all had a great time.

Next Meeting: The Art of Racing in the Rain

Author Garth Stein has lots of fun things available to help promote his book THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN and I'm having a great time checking them all out. Go to this website to find iron-on decals for t-shirts, Enzo's song (!), and images of the book's cover in other countries. I've even been able to create a custom poster for our next meeting - I'll be emailing it shortly so watch your inboxes.

Our next meeting is Sunday, July 19 @ 3pm - hope to see many of you there!

Check out this review ...

In August we're reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. At our last meeting most of you hadn't heard of this book and (of course) thought the title was really odd. I just came across a review that I'd love for you to check out. It is a quick read but it gets to the heart of why this book is getting so much attention lately.

Here's an excerpt from the review:

I couldn’t put it down. It was the kind of book that made me angry at the doctor for running on time so I couldn’t keep reading it. It was the kind of book that made me seriously consider telling the babysitter that the doctor was running late so I could read it.

Sounds great, right?! You can read the rest of the review here.