The Dinner Discussion

Hey everyone.  It’s Lisa from Lisa’s Yarns!  I’m taking a turn at coming up with some questions for our latest book club read, “The Dinner” by Herman Koch.  This book had actually been recommended to me by a co-worker so I had already bought it on my nook before it was selected for our book club.  I read it in the span of days, which says a lot these days since I am pretty busy between work and studying.

 

Without further adieu, here are some discussion questions!

 

1. How did you experience the book? Were you engaged immediately, or did it take you a while to "get into it"? How did you feel reading it—amused, sad, disturbed, confused, bored?

 

2. Do the main characters change by the end of the book? Do they grow, or come to learn something about themselves and how the world works?

 

3. Let’s talk about the book’s structure.  The author jumped around from present day to past time and back again quite a bit and the flashbacks at times seemed superfluous.  Did you like the structure of the books?  Or did it confuse or distract you?

 

4. The characters in the book, for the most part, are not very likeable.  Do you need to like the characters in order to like the book?  Or can you like a book despite not liking the characters?

 

5. Were you surprised by how far the parents were willing to go to protect their children?

 

6. What were your overall thoughts on the book?  Is it something you would recommend to others?

 

Here are my responses!

 

1. I was engaged early on and had a hard time putting this down as I wanted to find out what happened next.  It was disturbing to read at times.
2. The characters don’t change, but our opinion about them does as we learn more and more about them (they became less and less likeable for me).
3. I liked the structure of the book.  Sometimes I wondered where the author was going with these stories, but I think by moving back and forth in time, and sometimes sharing what seemed like insignificant or weird details, the author was showing us what the mind of the main narrator was like.
4. Typically, my answer to this is no.  But I enjoyed this book and “Gone Girl,” both of which had characters that I did not like at all.  It used to ruin the book for me if I didn’t like the characters, though!
5. I don’t have children so I don’t know how I would feel…  but I can’t imagine that I would overlook a horrible crime, or try to justify it as they did in this book.
6. Overall, I really liked the book and it was an engaging read.  But it was rather dark and disturbing, so I would be hesitant to recommend it broadly as I think it takes a certain reader to enjoy it.

Thanks Lisa!! I really enjoyed this book too and when I started reading I read it quite quickly as well.  I would read another book by this author. ;)

June Group Read is...

Beach Music by Pat Conroy!

I used random.org to pick.

Description: PAT CONROY, America’s preeminent storyteller, delivers a sweeping novel of lyric intensity and searing truth–the story of Jack McCall, an American expatriate in Rome, scarred by tragedy and betrayal. His desperate desire to find peace after his wife’s suicide draws him into a painful, intimate search for the one haunting secret in his family’s past that can heal his anguished heart.

Spanning three generations and two continents, from the contemporary ruins of the American South to the ancient ruins of Rome, from the unutterable horrors of the Holocaust to the lingering trauma of Vietnam, Beach Music sings with life’s pain and glory. It is another masterpiece in PAT CONROY’S legendary list of beloved novels

Per my last post, I will post one full discussion on June 28th! Hope you join us this summer!

Group Read Updates

So umm.. yeah.. I never posted a first discussion for May's book because I have not even started the book yet.  And I've been thinking about this for awhile and sadly I have to announce that I am going to have to go back to only posting one discussion a month.  I'm in over my head with life right now and who knows, perhaps things will change over the summer, but for now, blogging/books are not at the forefront.  Which makes me sad, but it seems like I only have like one night a week to catch up on a weeks worth of someones blog and then I never feel like blogging about what I have to say and ugh.. yes.  So, I will post a discussion on The Dinner, but not until the end of the month and I do apologize.

 I am open to different ideas and if someone would like to host the a discussion on their blog one month or do one of the group discussion posts and keep us at two a month that would be awesome too.  Let me know what you think.

Also? While you are in this post leave a suggestion for June. ;)

And I've only finished one book since the last one I wrote about and it was a collection of short stories and it kind of sucked and wasn't really my type, but it's something I was picking up while Isla was playing in the basement.  They were all set in England and it was just ehhh.. too much happily ever after for me. ;) 

Hope all is well with you all!

What We Are Eating for Dinner this Week.

I planned out a delicious week and I'm pretty excited! As I am writing this, I even have our breakfasts for the week baking in the oven! Yummm.

Monday - Taco Salad

Tuesday - Pork Tenderloin, Roasted Broccoli and Baked Potato
I'm going to cook the pork in the crockpot all day with carrots, onions and garlic. Yum.

Wednesday - leftovers

Thursday - Out because we are going to the zoo!!!

Friday - Crockpot Hungarian Pot Roast
I found this recipe on pinterest and I am going to give it a shot!

The yummy smelling breakfast I am smelling is a batch of egg muffins.

Recipe is sweet and simple:

12 eggs
cut up veggies of whatever (I did orange pepper, onions, tomato)
some turkey deli meat
1 cup of cheese

Whisk the eggs, combine the rest and in a greased muffin in or use liners, pour until they are 2/3s full.  Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes!

What are your dinner plans for the week?

The End Of Your Life Book Club - Final Discussion

I may have giggled at the name of this post.  I have an inappropriate sense of humor. ;)

Um and confeession, while I have started and am liking this book, I am so not done.

1.  Does this book have a central theme? What is it?

2.  Will is amazed by his mother’s ability to continue her efforts to fund the library in Afghanistan even while facing a death sentence, until he realizes that “she used her emotions to motivate her and help her concentrate. The emphasis for her was always on doing what needed to be done. I had to learn this lesson while she was still there to teach me.” (page 194) Did Will learn? What makes you think so?

3. Why did Mary Anne become so intent on certain things happening: Obama’s election, David Rohde’s safe return? Will talks about his own “magical thinking” several times in the book—what form do you think Mary Anne’s took?

4. We’re all in the end-of-our-life book club, whether we acknowledge it or not; each book we read may well be the last, each conversation the final one.” (page 281) How did this realization affect Will’s final days with his mom?

5. After she dies, Will looks at Mary Anne’s copy of Daily Strength for Daily Needs, next to the bed. He believes this quote from John Ruskin was the last thing his mother ever read: “If you do not wish for His kingdom, don’t pray for it. But if you do, you must do more than pray for it; you must work for it.” (page 321) How did Mary Anne work for it throughout her life? Do you think Will found solace in this passage?

6. Several times in the book, Will talks about eBooks versus their physical counterparts. Why does he prefer one to the other? Does Mary Anne agree? If you read this book on an eReader, how do you think it affected your experience?

7. Which of the books discussed by Will and Mary Anne have you read? Which do you most want to read?

Have a great wekend!!

May's Group Read

is The Dinner by Herman Koch!

Description: An internationally bestselling phenomenon: the darkly suspenseful, highly controversial tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives -- all over the course of one meal.

It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse -- the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.
Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.
Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner promises to be the topic of countless dinner party debates. Skewering everything from parenting values to pretentious menus to political convictions, this novel reveals the dark side of genteel society and asks what each of us would do in the face of unimaginable tragedy.

Discussions will be on the 17th and 31st.

Also, for some reason the poll has been acting up for the last two months.  I am proposing that instead of voting we all still give suggestions and then I will put them into random.org in the order they were suggested and see what it picks. \

How does this sound? Any other suggestions? Who plans on joining?

The Great Gatsby

Ahhh.. I read this back in college and I remember at the time learning so much more from our class discussion than I had picked up when reading it alone.  I will be the first to admit I am not a close reader.  I don't always catch the symbolism/hidden meanings unless I know what I'm looking for.  So many hidden things in The Great Gatsby that make it such an interesting novel.

I'm sure most of us were forced into reading it at some point as required reading for some class.  Some enjoyed it, some detested it, some just did it to do it and some were just blech.  I rarely re-read, but this one was fun to re-read for our Books & Bars April book.

What was most fun, was meeting up at local establishment with the same name as the book. ;) We will also be catching the new movie when it comes out next month and I'm pretty excited  Hopefully, it won't be completely horrible since I rarely like movies made from books I like.

So, let's talk about the characters in The Great Gatsby...

Daisy - Such a horrible horrible girl.  So shallow.  I really feel that as a girl, she must have loved Gatsby fiercely, but only like a teenager girl can blindly love someone she really hasn't spent time with.  When it came to picking him or her husband she would have maybe gone with him (yay, he's rich) until she found out HOW he made his money.  Regardless, I think Gatsby would have treated her better and been a better 'partner' than her stupid evil husband.

Gatsby - Ahh.. I feel for him, but he's also kind of a stalker.  He buys a house where he can SEE the light at the end of the dock of a girl who he was in love with over a decade ago and whom he's structured his life after so he can win her even though she's married?? Yeah... money can't buy everything old sport.

Nick - One of the most unreliable narrators in any book written.  He so isn't as good and kind and helping as he tries to make himself out to be.  He treats Jordan like crap.  He treats his 'fiance' out west like crap and should have done more to save Gatsby and well so much more.

Tom - A douche.  Seriously.  I get that it was a different time period, but he had his own apartment to screw his girlfriend and yet, how dare Daisy act on her feelings??? And way to just get rid of your competition in such a cruel spiteful evil way. 

I like this book and really want to spend more time this summer reading more of Fitzgerald's stuff and perhaps re-reading, Ragtime.  Did you read The Great Gatsby? Anything else by Fitzgerald? What other books set in the 1920s do you recommend?

Don't forget to vote on the side bar for May's Group Read!

Little Children

I read this book by Tom Perrotta last month and enjoyed it.  I didn't loooove it, because it was kind of a darker book about emotions and parents in a suburb and a pedophile was involved.  Also, the ending left me wanting a bit more.  However, I'd definitely recommend it.  It's an interesting look into suburbia and how different people react to life situations.

Sarah is married to Richard and is a feminist trapped in a suburban stay at home mom's life.  She doesn't feel like she fits in with the other mothers and her marriage is a bit shaky.  Richard is on his second marriage and repeating his mistakes from his first.

Todd, is known around the playground as "The Prom King," and is a stay at home dad while his wife works.  He is supposed to be studying to pass the bar exam but since he has already failed twice he isn't too keen on studying and feels like maybe he doesn't really want to be a lawyer.

Mary Ann, is the ring leader of the mothers and thinks she knows everything and has life alllll figured out.  She has everything planned to the minute, even her sex life.  Her and Sarah butt heads a few times over infidelity issues and parenting choices.

Ronnie, is a pedophile who was recently released from prison and is driving the community crazy, especially Larry a retired cop who is obsessed with him to the point he harasses and stalks him!

It's a dark look at suburbia and all the mundane day to day things that go on.  There is a lot of irony written in and there aren't really any characters you will love, but it does keep you interested.

I will say the ending had me thinking it would end in a different way and I think perhaps I'd like the ending in my head rather than the blech ending it had.  But, it kind of went with the mundane lives of the characters anyway.

Have you read anything by Tom Perrotta?

Currently...

Stolen from Lisa ;)

Current Book - I'm currently a few pages into Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, a few pages into The End of Your Life Book Club and a few hundred into Bedroom Stories which is a collection of short stories.  It's a book I grab when I'm in the basement with a few extra minutes or walking on the treadmill.

Current Drink - Crystal Light Peach Tea yummm

Current Excitement - Hopefully a zoo trip on Thursday and books & bars on Friday to discuss The Great Gatsby!

Current Love - Sun! I saw it on Tuesday!!!!!!!

Currently Pondering - What my job will be in the fall. 

Current Mood - Tired.  Toddlers and preschoolers are exhausting

Current Outfit - I've been wearing a gray cardigan with a fuschia colored shirt and dark jeans a lot lately.
 
Current Peeve - That my preschoolers are in a naughty phase and I'm pretty exasperated by it.

Current Song - Boys Around Here by Blake SHelton.  I love him.

Current Triumph - My kid is pretty darn independent and that was a goal of mine.

Current TV Show - Mad Men is back!!! And THE VOICE!!  I spend a lot of time watching DVRed tv each night while multi-tasking.

Current Wish-List -  New flipflops, summer clothes and running shoes

Currently Delaying - Taking away my kids night time pacifier.  I'm holding out til her 2nd birthday/my summer vacation.  As it is now she only gets it while sleeping and I'm weaning her down from needing three in her crib to 2 of them and then we will be at just one and then when she's 2 it has to go to other babies because 2 year olds don't use pacifiers! ;)  Hopefully, she is receptive to this hahahaha.


What's one of your currents?  Don't forget yesterday's post on suggesting a read for May!

Suggestions for May

Well, as I was writing the title I typed May instead of April.  Whoops.  Time is flying by me and I feel like a tool because I say that every month but it's the freaking truth! Life is so busy and crazy and tiring right now.  I have lots of posts that sound good when I'm in the shower at night but I never seem to get them typed out.  Hopefully, this summer.  I also have about 3 book reviews that never made it here.  Ooops.. SO without further rambling...

Books we have already read....

The End of Your Life Book Club

Still Alice 

The Song Remains the Same

Those Who Save Us
We Are All Welcome Here
Gone Girl
Prisoner of Tehran
The Wednesday Sisters
Looking for Alaska
Cutting for Stone
One Summer
The Year of Fog
Winter Garden
The Violets of March
Rebecca
State of Wonder
The Invisible Bridge
The Postmistress
The Scent of Rain and Lightning
Still Missing
The Sandalwood Tree
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Something Borrowed
The Blue Orchard
Sammy's Hill
In the Woods
Shanghai Girls
The Weight of Water
Water for Elephants
The Color Purple
The One That I Want
The Secret Garden
House Rules
American Wife
Firefly Lane
Middlesex
The Reader
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
The Awakening
Pride & Prejudice
I See You Everywhere


What do you want to read in May? I will put a poll up on Friday!