2016.06.27 Meeting Notes

Hello Crime & Beyonders,
Since we meet next week, I will start with a few announcements for our first book club at the new library. Then I will cover the June meeting notes from our meeting at Kim’s house.
We will be meeting on Monday, July 25th at the new location at 6:30pm. The new library is near Target & Lone Tree Arts Center on Lincoln. The address is 10055 Library Way, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Our room is right near the entrance. When you come through, make an immediate right and we are in the room that will be straight ahead: The Morgue. Well, they seem to want to call it The Studio, but I think we all know the real name. The book we will discuss is The Promise by Robert Crais.
We have chosen the August and September books, but will need to choose 3 more to round out the year. We will vote at next week’s meeting for the October, November and December books. There will be no email vote, so you will need to be at the book club in order to weigh in. I will bring the short list and pass them out for everyone to do a quick read of the synopsises, synopsi (what the heck is the plural of synopsis?). While we’re snacking on Kim’s delicious baked goods and either praising or ripping the new room to shreds, I’ll have you mark down your 3 choices. I will tally them and tell you the winners right away.
Ok, I think that’s all of the logistics. Now to Jack Reacher. Yes, we read Lee Child in June, much to some people’s disappointment. The book was Make Me and it was the 20th in the Jack Reacher series. We will be planning a fall field trip to see Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, the 2nd Reacher movie to hit the box office, starring... sigh... tom cruise (lower case to match his shortness of stature). We enjoyed the first movie, so I think it will still be good, despite the choice of leading man. The movie comes out October 21st, so I will send some date choices when it gets closer and everyone is welcome.
We had some pretty medium to low scores for the book. For those of you who feel the need to continue to wonder aloud why we keep reading Lee Child, I will again answer with “don’t vote for him if you don’t want to read him!!!” He gets voted in, so we read him. It’s really a simple math equation. But I will point out to you something that Pat said to me the other day. She told me that she wasn’t crazy about the last book and she’s decided that if we read him again, she’s going to pass on it and just skip that book club meeting that month. I think it’s a good point that she makes and I completely understand when a book isn’t your cup of tea. As much as we love having everyone come, we would understand a skip. Sometimes I see people come and not read the book (I’m sure it’s for the snacks rather than my witty banter, but I’ll take it). That’s ok too, anything goes with this crazy group. We are pack.
So the scores were: three scores of 5, one 6, four 6.5s, one 7, one 7.5, Two 8s and a 9 (yeah, that was Jeff, he loved the book and thought that the old Reacher was back). Some of the positive comments (oh hush, there were some) were: fun to read, suspenseful, and unexpected ending. Many of us liked Chang and clearly, Reacher did too. There seemed to be even more room sharing going on than normal (sorry Kryss). It was definitely a bizarre premise at the end with the snuff films. A few expected organ selling. A few liked the setting too, Mother’s Rest. I personally liked that people traveled there by train. One of our favorite characters was the little old lady who called the cops on Reacher when he was at McCann’s apartment. We thought Betty White would play her in the movie. This book was different in that Jack was injured. He is usually unstoppable but this time, he suffered a concussion and so he’s either getting old or is just showing he’s not unstoppable. Or maybe he needed Chang to look after him.
Some of the negatives were: Janine thinks Jack is OCD, Dave compared the book to a western (although that might not have been a negative), and Sharon Klein just wanted it to be over with at page 109. Not 100 and not 115, specifically 109. Chris K. is tired of Reacher and thought the ending was sick (which it was). Bruce thought it was a bit long winded. Amy thought it was inconsistent and repetitive. Some agreed that there was a lot of “gratuitous implausibility” going on. Which is kind of Lee Child’s M.O.
We will see if the 21st book gets voted in or not.
File:JuneMeetingSnacks.jpg
File:JuneMeetingSnacks2.jpg
File:JuneMeetingPeople.jpg
File:JuneMeetingPeople2.jpg
Thanks again to Kim for hosting us, making crack cookies, and providing beverages. She really has such a comfy living room for our meetings. The food was great and thanks also to Amy for bringing a pile of books for us to choose from. Books are the hand-me-downs that I will take anytime.
See you on the 25th.
P.S. This made me think of our club and our lock picking class.