2010.09.27 Meeting Notes

2010.09.27 Meeting Notes
Mystery Lovers,
We had a smaller group than usual Monday night, but had a great time. We organized the tables in our usual pentagram shape, which was appropriate as an ode to the devil worshipers in Gillian Flynn's book Dark Places.
The consensus was that the book was pretty darn good. We had two people who didn't care for it and one who wasn't impressed enough to give it more than a 5 out of 10 (although no popcorn was mentioned). We did have many scores of 10, though. Anne was not willing to go higher than a 9.5 because of the ending, so we need to have Jeff rewrite that to make it better and then she'll consider a 10. Anne definitely gets the best sport award for the night. She made the mistake of admitting that she couldn't remember much of the book and that caused a lot of teasing by the club members, oh alright, it was just me. Thanks for the laughs Anne, I've had several people tell me what a fun meeting it was and I give the credit to you. I'm just glad we all have a great sense of humor.
We discussed how surprised we all were that there were two different murderers who were there on the same night. Some thought this too coincidental and some loved the twist. Sue, who only attended by email, likened Libby to Lisbeth Salander for her flawed nature and we discussed that, comparing and contrasting their characters. Most thought Gillian Flynn to be a great writer and her jumping around between characters and time frames flowed very well. 
It was a shame that Judy was unable to attend because she would have liked our discussion of the author and her dark side. I am including the website (it's not a link because I don't know how to do that) of an essay that Gillian wrote for Powell's Books. It explains her childhood and how truly disturbed of a person she is. It's very good, considering that we all love disturbed people. Definitely read it if you weren't at club.
Essay found at: http://www.powells.com/essays/flynn.html
Speaking of disturbed people, I did learn something about myself Monday night. Roxanne pointed out that I am sassy when I wear a skirt. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it has been noted and I challenge all of you to agree or disagree with that. 
Many of us are going to read Gillian's first book, Sharp Objects. If you can hold off, though, I think we should vote and see if we might choose it for next year's reading. Gillian's website says that she frequently calls into book clubs and I think she would be interesting to hear from. If Sharp Objects is voted in, I will try and organize this. Which brings me to book selections for next year. I plan to bring a list to October's meeting so we can vote. So please email me authors and/or books you'd like considered and I will put together a list.
The vocabulary words that were emphasized this month are as follows:
Superfluous -being more than is sufficient or required; excessive; unnecessary or needless. As in: Kerry's role at leader is in NO way superfluous.
Culpable - deserving blame or censure; blameworthy. As in: Kerry is culpable for the teasing of Anne.
Lessons we learned from Dark Places:
1. If you're part of a tragedy and start receiving checks from well wishers, milk it for what it's worth because you will soon fade out of the scene.
2. If you're going to hire someone to kill you, make sure your kids are out of the house or at least sound asleep at the time.
I leave you with one parting comment.........boob, bottom, static, static, boob! (This may be important in December, hint hint, so I suggest you all learn it.)
Your sassy leader,
Kerry