Reading Between The Wines
A Club for Readers
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Meeting review: Still Life with Bread Crumbs
Maureen wrote: Everyone at the meeting liked the book. Each of us could relate in some way to the place Rebecca was in her life. We liked the various characters, and cared about what happened to them. Quindlan touched on many issues that are familiar to us. We don’t often see this in such a well-written novel, and it led the discussion around our various experiences. Victoria shared her artist’s perspective on Rebecca and the art that was produced in the story, and that was particularly interesting to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the session. Oh yeah – we ate scones.
A grim but fascinating book
I recently read Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink. It reconstructs the horrible conditions faced by the staff of a hospital that became an island during Hurricane Katrina. They had no power and no running water, yet still had to care for 180 patients, many of them critically and/or terminally ill. Temperatures inside reached 110 degrees. What actually happened there is still in dispute–but a doctor and two nurses were arrested for murder of 20 people. The grand jury failed to indict them. Was it murder, mercy killing, or administration of comfort care?
Reading Between the Wines Rules
At our August meeting, we discussed how things are going in general and what, if any, changes we would like to make. Here are the thoughts I captured. Feel free to use this as a basis for further discussion.
*We will continue to meet on the fourth Monday of the month, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. No December meetings.
*We will continue to keep the final observations pages and rating system for the books we have read.
*We will continue to allow each member to speak without interruption. However, there is some frustration that it inhibits discussion. We decided that when a member is speaking, she has the option to open the floor to discussion on a particular subject. She can close down the discussion when she feels the topic has been sufficiently explored. For example, in speaking about Room, Mary said she didn’t understand Ma’s suicide attempt and she hoped other members could shed some light on it. In the future, Mary could ask for direct input on the subject.
*We decided to set a maximum membership at ten. Membership is by invitation only. Current members should consult the group before asking someone to join.
*Two people–Peggi Towne and Phyllis Gabler–have been invited to join us. Each has shown interest, but each has conflicts that have prevented them from participating. Through the use of this blog, they can follow along as “correspondent members” until such time as it is possible for them to join us in person.
Submitted by Jackie