Last Tuesday, Carole and Bonny and I hosted our Read With Us book discussion for . . .
And what a fascinating discussion we had! There were 12 of us on the Zoom, and our responses to the book varied widely. Some of us really liked it, some of us were “glad-I-read-it-but-not-my-favorite,” and some of us didn’t care for it all that much. But overall, the response was quite positive. Yes . . . we all agreed that it was a challenge to figure out what was happening at the beginning. Yes . . . we almost unanimously liked the main character, Maali Almeida (despite his flaws), although perhaps we wouldn’t be all that eager to party with him. And, yes . . . we mostly thought the ending was lovely – and worth the slog through that lake-dredging scene (if you know you know).
The most interesting thing about the discussion was how many of us had read the book . . . more than once. And of the participants who had read the book multiple times, they (hands-down) appreciated it and liked it MORE with the second (or third, in one case) read. Now, I am a frequent re-reader of books, so I can understand this completely (although I wasn’t one who re-read Seven Moons) (yet). Once you’ve read a book once, you can savor it in a whole new way the second time through, and you tend to discover things you missed on the first read — and that certainly held true for our Read With Us readers who re-read this particular book.
In the end, we all agreed that talking about the book helped us appreciate it more. And, really . . . that’s what book groups are all about!
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To close the book Zoom, we usually go around the group (round-robin style), and each of us shares a book we’ve enjoyed reading recently. I thought you all might be interested in the list we came up with at the close of last week’s Zoom session:
- Wellness by Nathan Hill
- Let us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
- Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier
- Day by Michael Cunningham
- The Last Ranger by Peter Heller
- The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
- Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
- The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
- The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
- Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead
- The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
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And . . . we’ll be announcing our fall Read With Us selection on October 10.
Stay tuned!
I’m not sure that “liked” or “enjoyed” would be words I would use to describe my reactions to Seven Moons, but I can definitely see why it won the Booker. I have loads of respect for the author and publisher and all the effort it must have taken to edit it over two years to be more suitable for Western readers. So maybe “admired” and “respected” are better words for my feelings, and I can even see myself reading it a second time (someday). Great wrap-up!
It was just such a “discuss-able” book! Which I just love! I so appreciated Margene’s thoughts… which, I thought, helped tremendously. I especially like discussions when I reconsider my thoughts and think in a way I had not considered! This was all of that! Thank you!
As a child I re-read Little Women five times! But as an adult, re-reading a book just doesn’t interest me at all, although I will watch a favorite movie half a dozen times. Maybe it’s the time commitment involved…who knows. Loved your wrap-up, too!
I am sorry I missed the Zoom even though I did not read the book (I did try, but I could not…). I’m sure I would have enjoyed the discussion. Typically I do not re-read books (too many books, too little time?). I do appreciate the recommendations of recent reads from those who were on the call (some are already on my TBR list).
I know that regardless of my feelings about any particular book we read, I always get more out of every book we read after the discussions. So thank you for keeping this virtual book club going!
Great job on the wrap up, you captured all the important points!
My favorite discussions are just as you described — when there’s a nice wide response to the book! So much more interesting. Glad to hear it was a rich one.
I heard from a few folks that the discussion was great … and I love the round robin list. many of those titles are on my TBR for the next few months – we’ve got a(nother!) great season of reading coming along.