Well hello there Smith book club members. If you're like me, it's hard to believe that the first quarter of 2011 has come and gone. (Who was that masked man?) It feels like just yesterday I was ringing in the New Year with a glass of Martinelli's and a big woo-hoo.
I sincerely hope that everyone enjoyed reading
Unbroken this first quarter as much as I did. What an incredible read! It was by far the best book I've read in years. Reading that book changed my life. (Read more about that in my Unbroken post.) I know many of you have finished the book, a few of you are in the process of reading, and one or two of you are going to read it in the next month. Bravo to you all! Annette and I appreciate your support and hope that you are enjoying this adventure in good reading as much as we are.
The book for the second quarter of 2011 has been chosen. As you all know by now, it is our book club goal to read a book from four genres this year: fiction, non-fiction, classic, and biography.
Unbroken was our non-fiction pick. Our choice for the second quarter is ......ta ta ta dah ........... a classic. Before you even have the chance to go down the proverbial pooh pooh lane, let me tell you how this quarter's book choice came to be. I think you will find it intriquing.
During the Christmas holidays, Annette, Grandpa Smith, Grandma Smith, Jenna, and I were discussing the book club throwing out ideas we thought might make it a success. As we spoke about genres and the idea of expanding our literary comfort zones. we fell into a discussion about the classics. We determined it was a fine idea in theory and that we "should" read more of them, but to put it bluntly, could we really pick one that people would actually get excited about reading and finish? We all determined it would be a challenge.
Fast forward a few months .............
A few weeks ago, I took a mini-vacation, ok, a long weekend, to St. George to visit the fam. It was supposed to be a rejuvenating getaway to a spa like family retreat in the sunny warmth of the St. George redrock. Well, to make short work of the story, it snowed and we used the fireplace every day of my visit but one. I digress.
The first evening we discussed the quickly coming to a close of the book club's first quarter and the need to choose a new book for the second quarter. Annette and I lamented the fact that we'd only received one pick for the upcoming quarter and weren't sure that choice would be appropriate for everyone. We tabled the discussion that evening without coming to a conclusion.
Two days later, as we were sitting in Grandpa and Grandma's living room, Grandpa Smith said out of the blue, "I've got an idea for next quarter's book club choice. It's a classic. The name of the book is
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. It is a book about Ellis Island immigrants. I think it would be a great choice and relevant to our day and age with the immigration issues we are currently facing."
Imagine if you will, Annette's and my jaw dropping to the floor ..........I mean dropping and hitting hard. We rubbed our eyes, looked at each other, then sung out in unison, "Great choice! We agree. We so agree." Unbenownst to our Dad, Patti, Annette and I read
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn when we were in high school and adored every word of it. It's the kind of book you read slower and slower as you pass the 50 pages left mark as you do not want the book to end. And when it did, we read the author's other book,
Joy In the Morning, which we equally devoured and loved. We both thought to ourselves, "Who put a hoodoo, voodoo, book picking spell on our father?" Keep in mind that Grandpa is a history, mystery, biography genre kind of a man.
Try as we might to get our father to divulge how he'd come up with such a fabulous classic pick, we could not get him to confess the matter, even with the threat of selling his golf cart and clubs at below list price on Craigslist. All he would do was give us his little grin, eyes twinkling. Maybe if we ALL promise to read the book, he'll divulge his source. Whatever it is, it's good one. Trust me on this.
So folks, our second quarter book pick is Betty Smith's
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. It's an older book found in every bookstore and library in America. It's easy to find. You will love it. I am already on chapter 9 and am dumbfounded by the fact that I am actually enjoying it MORE than I even remember enjoying it in high school ..........hmmm 5 or 10 years ago. Yeah, that's right.
You know how they say you can't go home again and enjoy things as much as you enjoyed them the first time you experienced them? They lied. You can. Oh lucky me . . . oh lucky you!
And yes folks, there is a bonus. This book was made into a movie. A movie on par with the excellent
It's A Wonderful Life. So be good to yourself this next quarter and give yourself a wonderful present by reading and savoring this gem of a book, followed up by the movie, which will make you cry. You'll be glad you did.
And you can thank Grandpa later. *wink*
Happy reading!
Debbie
