Book Club

When Heidi lived by me we read The Godfather and Nora Ephron's book, I Feel Bad About My Neck, together and held our own personal book club. Last year Roy and I read Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving together, and this year Laurie and I are reading everything together. Not only are we reading but we are laughing it up at Barnes& Noble, too. One of the employees was laughing with us and at us and even asked, "Who are you two?" We could barely sputter out, "We're nobody," because we were laughing so hard.




We have studied The Torah, read up on sleep disorders and recently finished The Gift of A Skinned Knee. I thought I would post some of my favorite parts from these books, and think we should choose a book for The Blog Book Club.

#1The Godfather: I've written about Clemenza before. He is a lesser know character who loved his car, took good care of his car, and spent time sitting in his car. I love to sit in my car, too, and read. It's warm, it's comfortable, and I have pens, notecards, music and everything I need in my car. It's a pretty car and I have a sunroof, but I still miss Betty (little red convertible) . Now I have Snoopy. Tracy named my car. She said it looks like Snoopy, and it does. I love my car but Mallory is even more in love with my car than I am. She thinks it should be hers.

#2 I Feel Bad About My Neck: Nora Ephron has written an entire chapter on how much she hates her purse. "Everything you own is in your purse. You could flee the Cossacks with your purse. But when you open it up, you can't find a thing in it----your purse is just a big dark hole full of stuff that you spend hours fishing around for. A flashlight would help, but if you were to put it in your purse, you'd never find it."
I carry a purse like this. Everything is in it. It's really a security bag-carry on tote-suitcase-and tackle box all in one. It's full of fishing gear in case I go fishing.

#3 Rip Van Winkle: Roy and I had a great time reading this together and laughed and worried about how miserable in marriage Rip is to Dame Van Winkle. Rip referred to married life as being full of "domestic tribulation." Roy laughed at the line, "the yoke of matrimony" and we immediately pictured two-old-tired- oxen yoked together. We both liked the description of Rip: "Rip had a well oiled disposition and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound." There was also a line about the terror of a woman's tongue and, something about how a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use. Roy and I wondered about Washington Irving after reading Rip Van Winkle, so I had to delve deeply into his life to find out if he endured the," yoke of matrimony" and "domestic tribulation". He didn't. He never married but wrote a glowing picture of married life in his story, The Wife. It was nice to know art wasn't imitating life. His own, anyway.


#4 The Gift Of A Skinned Knee by Wendy Vogel, Ph.D.
This is a thoughtful and practical book on child rearing. It uses Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children. I was sold on Jewish teachings the moment I read, "It is forbidden to partake of any food which we find revolting."
It discussed respecting children and their wants and needs. It also discussed gifts and giving as a way to say thank you, the importance of food rituals, different degrees of sins, and how to instill courtesy and respect in children. Some of the chapters include, The Blessing of Acceptance, The Blessing of Work, and The Blessing of Faith and Tradition.

Well, I've been reading on my own since Kindergarten, (or should I fudge and say since I was 3 years old to keep up with Sailor and maintain my dignity) but I love to have a reading buddy and buddies. So, let's figure out what we'll be reading and we'll read it together. Silently, of course, but in solidarity.