The Book Thief

Members Present:  See above

Venue:  Terrie's lovely home in Salem.  All German food--including Marie's German fried apples.  One of our best meals ever! Everything was fantastic!

Book Discussion:

- The movie is great and seems to follow the book closely, although no one read the book and saw the movie.  But I'm definitely going to watch it!

- We tried to do the discussion questions but they were boring and too much like English class.  So we basically just reviewed the book for everyone.  No casting discussions because it's already a movie. Marie did not finish it because she was grinding her teeth at night, worrying that something bad was going to happen.  Most of us thought it was told in a fairly light way, given that it was about the Holocaust and it was narrated by Death.

- I swear we talked about the book for about 30 minutes but I can't remember anything particularly profound that was said about it, other than everyone thought it was a good book.  If you are interested in other books about the Holocaust, ask Cindi for a recommendation.

- I wrote a blog post on the significance of words in the Book Thief on my Normal in Training blog.  Not really fitting for the kind of discussions we have, but I highly recommend that you check it out and add to my blog stats!

- Marie is reading some book on US history that may help us find out if parents really didn't stop for their kids when they fell out of the covered wagon.  Stay tuned!

- We did learn that there is a book club at Smith Mountain Lake that is even more remedial than ours. People can read whatever book they want and everyone goes around the room, taking turns talking about their book.  Kind of like Show and Tell.  And they bring the books and exchange them.  We were wondering how that works out since every meeting they would be talking about the same books.  But Marie said they're old so they don't remember what happened in the last meeting.

Noteworthy News:

- Grandbaby updates:  Terrie is going to be a grandmother!  Lauren is having a girl!  We saw the 3D picture of her, and it's a little scary. Also more cute pictures of Teri's granddaughter.  Lots of reminiscing about pregnancy, sleepless nights, and panic when their children first slept through the night.  And about how it's better to wait and take baby pictures until after their heads lose their cone shape.

- Tennis gossip:  Most of us are annoyed that the majority of the captains voted for 8 matches over 12. We speculated on why Jennifer Frye always wants fewer matches, since she lives for tennis.   Also more griping about Steve being a captain.  We all think that's going to lead to more than average drama. Teri is fully integrated into the tennis community in Columbia and is currently playing 3 different leagues.  Several of us are going to Wintergreen tomorrow to sharpen our killer instincts, so watch out if you see us on the court!

- Pet update:  Terrie's dog ate Marie's bratwurst.  Marie changed her cat's name to Ulysses after some cat in some obscure movie.

Hmmm.  It doesn't seem like we talked about that much, but we were there for 3 hours.  I guess we mainly just enjoyed each other's company!

Next book:  The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green.  Sounds similar to Me Before You, which we all loved.  It has also been made into a movie, in case you want to take the short cut.  Marie volunteered to host, and we will schedule it on a day that Teri can make it!