2021.07.26 Meeting Notes

I hope you are all enjoying our August read, The Bone Jar by SW Kane. Kelly was the recipient of a copy as a prize win and she’s informed me she is almost finished and should be done by Monday (which still gives you a week to read it). She’s willing to lend it to another member, just let her know if you’re interested. Maybe reply-all here so that everyone sees and knows it’s taken. That way Kelly doesn’t have to field 14 emails.
If anyone would like to volunteer to bring a snack, we’ll need one for the next 4 in person meetings, please email me. We’re not sure how the library budget will go, so we’ll go back to our usual program of me bringing water and a member providing a snack. The snack may or may not coincide with the book – no pressure, but I can’t wait to get back into some creative snacks. Of course vanilla, double-stuffed Oreos are also always appreciated.
Our July meeting was IN PERSON and it went really well. Nicole managed to create a perfect set up for the remote attendees. We had a laptop in the corner that was trained on everyone in the room, and then she had another one in the center for sound. Sharon, Tammy, and Pat Zoomed in and could hear and see us, and we could see them on a large projector screen. Thank you so much Nicole!!! You are a whiz. We promise not to let your hidden AV skills leak or you might be called on to handle complicated technology for everyone at DCL.
We had our book discussion and Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger was pretty well received. The guys in the group especially liked it (even though it was claimed that Lisa Unger must hate men) and defended it against some of the lower scores. It received one 9, six 8s, five 6s, one 5, and three 4s. That’s an average score of 6.5 (the only time I will allow a fraction). So not the highest rated book we’ve ever read, but not the lowest. It lost 1 point from Jeff’s score because of the whole man-bashing theme.
Those who liked the book thought that the characters were complicated (in a good way), loved how the complicated beginning points came together, and the book sucked them right in. We liked the character development but not the characters (this second part was seen as a negative to some of the lower scoring members). The characters’ actions were understandable given their circumstances and some of the subjects were very true to life. We liked the twists and turns. Many of us will read the author again. 
NOTE: this is one of those authors who does not always write within the same book scheme. Meaning that some of her other books are very different from this. It’s not like Lee Child where you know what you will get. Some will be hits but others will be misses. We’ve read Unger several times and found this to be true.
Some of the negatives were that people were confused by all of the characters, specifically that our main character had 3 names. We weren’t quite sure of the timeline and this made it hard to get into. Some would have stopped reading if it weren’t a book club book. Others were expecting the book to be a Strangers on a Train type criss-cross deal and it wasn’t at all, so that seemed to be a disappointment. We had a lot of comments, started by Janice, that went: “It was a fine book….” and as you can imagine, the next word was “but…”
I think we all agreed with Allie’s observation that Graham was a man baby. In that vein, we voted that we wanted to slap Selina (for so many reasons) but we wanted to kick Graham. Or short of that, find some Legos to throw at his head.
Welcome to our new member Lisa, who attended for her first meeting. It was also great to see some members for the first time in person, since they joined while we were still remote. We will continue to meet in person and take it month by month as we see what the Delta strain is doing to Colorado.
We will meet at the library to discuss The Bone Jar on August 23rd at our new time of 6pm. The Zoom for remote members is the usual one, I set that up as a recurring event so it’s always available.
August and September will be regular meetings. We will be choosing books for 2022 in October and will also have our annual costume contest and Halloween Party. Extra points always go to those who coordinate with one of our books. I have 4 copies of the Christmas book to giveaway, so dress up!
If you have a book you want to put on the list for a 2022 read, log into BookMovement and add it under “possible club selections.”
See you on the 23rd.
Kerry