Upcoming show

It looks like Amazon is going to make a series based on The Underground Railroad! I have to be honest, I don't know if I could handle watching it if it follows the book. However, I think its great that this material will get a wider audience.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/27/amazon-moonlight-barry-jenkins-the-underground-railroad-series/

More pertinent info for the Spirits

Hey Spirits,

FYI, there will be a new show about Zelda Fitzgerald coming out. Figured I'd pass on this info since we read a book about her. GUESTS ON EARTH, is that the one?...

https://apple.news/AFgmjNTPDQ3aFI5kTF5IwfA

BOOK DISCUSSION - LIGHTNING ROUND!!

My wonderful, patient, merciful Spirits,

It seems appropriate, with this weekend being daylight saving time, that we hit the reset with our book club's blog which has been long neglected. So, without further ado, welcome to the book summary lightning round:

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE

I'll start with the ratings: Archimedes, Baron, JB - 4.5; Cat, Indy - 5; Deuce - 4.75. As you can see, this book was well liked and, in our opinion, well written. Apparently, we have good taste, because this book won a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, a Carnegie Medal for Excellence, and probably a slew of other awards. What stands out in my memory was the great writing - descriptive without going overboard - and the interwoven stories. The characters were complex and interesting. This is one of those books that stays with you long after you finish it. Unfortunately, I can't give our deep and interesting discussion of the themes, symbolism, and implications of the story their full due in this lightening round, so I'll just say that this complex book made for a great read and an even better book discussion. 

THE CURIOUS CHARMS OF ARTHUR PEPPER

This book had a wider range of ratings: Baron - 5; Cat - 4.5; JB - 4; Deuce & Archimedes 3.2; Indy - 2. Apparently, A MAN CALLED OVE is to blame for Indy's low rating. She had just read OVE before PEPPER, and the writing in PEPPER just couldn't compare. Those who rated the book highly liked the main character's development over the course of the book, the comedic situations he found himself in, and the overall positive message of the book. 

THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN

Apparently we were all a little Grinch-y around Christmas (some more than others), based on our ratings: Diesel, JB, & Cat - 3.5; Deuce & Indy - 3; Archimedes & Baron - 1. No need to re-live what the biggest Grinches didn't like. This was a rare bit of fluff for the book club, appropriate to the Christmas season and everyone's hectic schedules. I think everyone agreed this was Hallmark channel fare, which made us all think about jumping on a cross-country train for an adventure. 

 CATCH 22

This meeting was our first attempt at the new, more standardized rating system (see Baron's meeting notes blog entry): Indy, Archimedes - 4; JB, Cat, Deuce, Baron - 3.5; Diesel - 3. This was a funny book with MASH-like humor. As a veteran, Baron recognized many of the personalities satirized by the story. The group's biggest gripes were the repetitiveness and the treatment of women throughout the book. I, for one, was glad to have finally read this literary classic. 

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

This was another of the Novel Spirit's "greatest hits": JB, Cat, Baron, Archimedes - 4.5; Indy & Deuce - 4. This book was hard to read at times due to the stomach-turning subject matter. It certainly isn't a pleasure read. However, especially in these troubling times, I think it's important to read things that make you uncomfortable from time to time. While this is a fiction novel, it is well-researched and doesn't flinch away from the very real brutality of slavery.  

Thanks for playing Novel Spirits' Book Discussion Lightning Round! I really hate to give such short shrift to our book discussions, especially because almost without fail they make me see a different perspective and think about the book in a different way. Hopefully, now that Baron and I are caught up, we can have a fresh start and will keep the blog up to date. *Fingers crossed* Thanks for your patience and forgiveness. :) 

STILL TRYING TO CATCH US UP ON MEETING NOTES :/

Ok, Spirits, almost there. Let's do this thing! (Ratatouille quote, I'll just get it out of the way right out of the gate). More notes from the plethora of meetings we've had since my last posts, oooops:

Okay folks, here it is; my piece di resistance (said in a heavy french accent btw), my Eiffel Tower, my Rachainoff's Third, my Pieta. This is the Cohibas baby, the Cubans, the Montecristos. (Ironman 2 quote, sorry I can't stop sometimes). I, Baron von Blogger, son of JB, late of Bristol, Commander of Legions... yeah right whatever. So I had a good idea. Perhaps I just over-sold it a bit but here it is. We usually start the meetings around 2pm. But sometimes we can't always make it right on time, which is no big deal but maybe some people feel a little pressure about deadlines. So to alleviate that problem, I figured we'd just say from 2-3pm is the cocktail hour. So you can show up whenever, fashionably late if you wish, so to speak. And the host can just sip wine until we all show up. So in a nut shell: drink wine, no pressure. I call that a Win-Win.

We decided to record everyone's book ratings from now on, in order to have data on everyone's ratings. This way we can possibly see what type of books we prefer over others. And we can try to improve our own individual rating abilities. But I think we also made sure to protect everyone's right to select whatever book they want whatever the consequences. It's each of us's month to be the King/Queen of the book club. I've punished all of you with the likes of 1984 and THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY after all. I loved both but get a slight feeling maybe you all didn't. Call it a sixth sense, this talent I have. Anyway, moving on...

More chastising of Baron and Arhimedes... nothing to see here.

Literary festival on February 25th, its possible we didn't attend that.....

But hey!!! Here's one we haven't missed yet: Literary Festival in Burnsville, NC on September 8,9,10. I didn't miss that deadline!! #winning

Boss has been continuing his "Either extremely loveable or extremely deadly animals" book reading series for us all and he is doing very well. In this month's installment he read about snakes. He has read several books about snakes and he taught Archimedes and I that some Anacondas can eat Jaguars, can you believe that!?!?! Just a little tid-bit for you at your next cocktail party at the country club. You're welcome.

We're still throwing around the idea of doing a club sanctioned painting class. Continue to marinate on that Spirits but remember that food and drinks are allowed!

In an effort to undermine all that is holy and pure in our club, Indy introduced a motion to give people accolades. This is to counteract the avalanche of chastisements we like to do. Seriously though, I think accolades is an excellent addition to our club meetings and thank you Indy for the idea. And she led by example by commending JB on his book selection THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, which won the 2016 Book of the Year award. Also, Archimedes for participating in our American judicial system, and Chief and Boss for participating in the book club by reading or submitting books. Well done Indy!

Lastly, we threw out the idea of getting Chief in on our book selection rotation. He is at a level now where he can certainly participate in our books (in my opinion at least. But I know I'm biased). So instead of maintaining the "Chief's Bonus Book" section of the club, we would just include him in our monthly book selections and discussions. Less pressure on him that way since he was having to provide a book each month, whereas we only have to submit a book every 7 weeks or so. But, just think about that, no pressure. We don't have to if the club doesn't want to.

Okay, well there was a brief, if not concise wrap-up for the business portions of the past two to seventeen meetings, depending on how you keep count.

Hope everyone is doing well. Shout out to Diesel for doing an excellent job on the note taking, miss you. And I continue to thoroughly enjoy this book club. I love hanging out with everyone, and in my own mind at least, I feel like I have become smarter and more analytical (probably more mature) due to book club, so thanks folks.

Baron

MMMMUUNNNIIINNTTEMBERARY MEETING NOTES

Well, hello again Spirits, it has been quite a while hasn't it? So just to get caught back up real quick: Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Birthday Deuce, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday Chief, Happy MLK Jr Day, Happy Birthday Indy, Happy Valentine's Day, Happy Birthday JB, and Happy Presidents Day Weekend! I hope I didn't miss anything. I should really make greeting cards for Hallmark. I can really streamline cost savings and grow their profit margins. It kind of reminds me of the Colonel in CATCH-22 who wrote the same standard letter to every person back at home: Dear Mr. Mrs. Miss. Ms. father, mother, husband, wife...etc.

Well let me try to catch us up on the business portions of the past few months' worth of meetings. Let's see, there was probably some chastisement here and there, some food being eaten, some wine being drunk (drank?), some discussion of books, and some fires. I can remember fires at both Indy's lodge and Archimedes' and my castle (in the fireplaces I mean). Here's a few highlights from the past few months:

Deuce came through in the clutch with a winning spinach dip.

Something about chastisement for Baron and Archimedes for not updating blog. I won't waste your time with all the minutiae about all that. Blah, blah, blah, ciencia, ciencia, ciencia, Grande! Well, now I've certainly diverted your attention away from our chastisement by confusing you with that random quote. So here's the story on that: one day, a long time ago, we decided to watch a movie in which we were very familiar, in Spanish. And we are very familiar with the movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, as we have watched it over 34 times I'd bet. So we just turned it on the Spanish option and watched the movie to see if we could understand anything at all. The answer to that question was a definite "no" but it was hilarious none-the-less. So anyway, to sum up all this ridulocity (not sure if that's a word) I just provided you with a Spanish quote from the movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs in order to distract you from chastising us for neglecting the blog. Ha!

Indy didn't provide us with an "Off the Grid" segment; JB and Cat failed to provide us Italy pictures at some point. Wow Spirits, we are just dropping the ball all over the place.

I see a note that Chief discussed how he just finished POINT BLANK by Anthony Horowitz (same dude who wrote MORIARTY that we read). POINT BLANK was the second book in that series, which is funny because now we are almost finished with the ninth book in the series. My how time flies when you're a lazy blogger right???? Details.

We had a discussion about providing more of a standard to our book rating. Indy, who is always on the ball with reading and preparing, gave a tentative standard of criteria to rate books: 1/3 based on the skill of writing, 1/3 based on the story and characters, 1/3 on entertainment and education/enlightenment.

And here is another legendary note from Diesel, without any alterations: "Baron then attempted to shed in the fire." Classic Diesel? Capital work, simply Capital!! No need for me to try to improve on that at all.

Deuce proposed downsizing the amount of food that was prepared and brought to the book club meetings. Baron subsequently started throwing furniture, appliances and children across the room in a John McEnroe style tantrum for the ages. If not for the raw strength and cat-like relexes of Archimedes and the rest of the group, poor Deuce may have been seriously injured. However, after Baron was restrained in a straight jacket and Hannibal Lecter-like hockey mask, the group unanimously agreed on the following law: only the host for each meeting prepares the food, a simple, light meal. All the others may bring drinks (that would have been too much for Baron). So it is said, so let it be done.

Since this is getting long, I'll stop this and give you a version 2 for the remaining missing meeting notes. I hope to have us back up to speed by the day after tomorrow. Meeting was changed to Saturday btw, take care now, bye bye then

Baron

The Inevitable.

Dear spirits, it is with a heavy heart that I report I will not be at our next meeting on the 12th.  We will be headed to Indiana to help our youngest son move to his new home.  Quite frankly the meeting would be much more fun but being parents comes first.  The fact that Bruce's 41st birthday is that weekend also plays into it.  I think he may have planned it that way on purpose.  This is the first meeting I have not attended so believe me when I say I will miss not being there for the lively discussion and good food and drink (not to mention the fabulous company).  I will text Laura with my rating for the book.  Just know that I had tons of knowledge to impart at this meeting.  That will keep you in suspense for our next meeting.  See you in April!  Indy

JB PICKED A WINNER

Hey Spirits,

I saw that our current book for this month, THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, won an award for best fiction in 2016. So JB made a good pick. 

http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2016winner_f_whitehead-underground-railroad.html#.WI5HlTw8KaM

Looking forward to meeting and discussing with everyone 

Baron

Greetings from Diesel!

Hello, my dear Novel Spirits!

I regret that I was unable to attend the January meeting to partake in the merriment of discussing Catch-22, delicious food, and of course the always enjoyable company. I did finish Catch-22 even if I could not be there to discuss it. I thought it was well written, but a bit too repetitious for me. I also struggled with keeping up with how certain characters tied into the story. I did, however, enjoy the humor that was throughout the book. I do believe my favorite part was the ending when Yossarian realizes that Orr had been practicing his crash landing and escape from the very beginning. Overall, my rating was three stars.

On another note, I just recently finished a book called The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan. It was in the romantic section of the library, so that should give you an idea about the theme of the book. I really did enjoy it! Though it definitely had that hopeless romantic vibe to it, it was comedic throughout and had heartfelt moments. For me, it triggered a range of emotions from happy, sad, surprised, and annoyed. The characters seemed relatable and the story itself drew me in. It was one of those that you want to keep reading, but don't really want it to be over. There is a bonus chapter, but my book did not include it. I may have to see if I can find it somewhere online.

Anyway, I hear the book for February is The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. I haven't started it but will try to find it soon.

Best of reading everyone! Love and miss you all!

-Diesel

NEAT IDEA

Hey Spirits, Happy New Year!

I found this article just in case anyone is interested....

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/779-want-to-read-more-this-year-join-the-2017-reading-challenge?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=2017-01&utm_content=blog

Hope everyone is doing well. See you soon

Baron 

STRESS RELIEF

Check out what I just found Spirits...

Reading for just six minutes a day can reduce stress by 68%

Have a reduced stress Christmas everyone!

Baron 

SEPTEMBER MEETING NOTES (2nd try, now in December)

Howdy Spirits,

Since it took me longer than expected to weave my lyrical magic in the last post, I'll try again at the September meeting notes post now. Wish me luck. Although it looks like it won't be too long since the notes are rather short. Here we goooo.... (said like Peter Pan)

Old Business:

Deuce has posted some pictures to our Pinterest Board. The secret one, sshhhhhhh.

We must have talked a bit about a previous book, KINGS MOUNTAIN, since there is a note saying that most of the prisoners escaped. I think though that we talked some about how it would be a logistical challenge for the Overmountain Men to maintain so many prisoners during the the trek back home. Having to feed, keep watch over, and travel with all those prisoners would complicate and slow things down considerably. As Sir Toppemhat might say, "You are causing confusion and delay!" On a side note about Kings Mountain: we went to spend Thanksgiving with JB's side of the family out in the midwest. I was talking to my Aunt and found out that she too is in a book club. She started it actually. And the book they are reading right now is Sharyn McCrumb's latest book PRAYERS THE DEVIL ANSWERS so I thought that was a pretty cool coincidence. Book clubs are cool! I'm sure that her club isn't nearly as hard core as The Spirits though. Another side note on our trip out to the midwest. I ran a 10k road race on Thanksgiving morning. Several mistakes with that decision: 1. It was at 8:00 in the morning. That should have disqualified it right there. 2. It was 39 degrees. That should have disqualified it right there. 3. It required running 6.2 miles. That should have disqualified it right there. 4. I had to pay $25 to go run 6.2 miles at 8:00 am when it was 39 degrees. But as my North Carolina real estate agent once said, "Some people got more money than they got sense". Fair enough Horace, you got me.

New Business:

On September 24th (2016), there was an Overmountain Men re-enactment at Sycamore Shoals. So if this is the first you've heard of it, I apologize for providing this information just a tippy tap tip tap bit late. At this time please refer to my previous post with a nice little apology song. It's a real catchy tune. :-)

And this month's book, ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE is our 20th book! If I remember correctly, we had cake, food and wine. I know food and wine is standard issue for The Spirits, but the cake was a new addition. So now the question is: how often (brief aside: Chief informed me that the proper pronuncion of "often" is "off-un". The "t" is silent. I've been saying it wrong for as long as I can remember. Ugh) so anyway, the question is: how often should we celebrate a bookiversary? Every 5th time around? So the next one would be 25. We can discuss at the next meeting.

We also discussed doing a private painting class for the club. I think that would be a really cool thing to do. It is fun, the painting turns out much better than you would probably expect, and you can bring food and wine/beer! I mean, "Why in the world would you NOT?!" Sorry, that quote is from one of the super cheezy car dealership commercials on TV. I bet you've seen that commercial too? But the price isn't really that bad either, I think maybe around $50 per person, which we could raid the Spirit Fund to finance.

Soooo, yeah about the Spirits Fund, so I was presented with a foolproof investment idea for which to triple our funds in just a few short weeks. As the club Treasurer, I made a wise, quick, unilateral decision to invest all our funds in this guarenteed money-making opportunity and you can thank me later as the dolla bills are raining down upon us in 2017. Don't worry, I know a guy. Just keep your eyes on the pet spa market. It's getting ready to go through the roof!

Chief told us about a book idea he had: it takes place in the future on another planet. The planet is covered with seas/oceans and there are lots of sea creatures inside them. Hopefully he can continue brainstorming creative ideas and really write a book one day. That would be awesome.

Boss read two books: IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A MUFFIN, and IF YOU GIVE A CAT A CUPCAKE. He's been reading like a champ!

These dudes are the future of the Novel Spirit Empire we are currently building. Until next time Spirits

Baron

SEPTEMBER MEETING NOTES (iinnnnn November)

Hey Spirits,

Anyone seen Moana yet?? Great movie! It's the newest Disney/Pixar movie and we really enjoyed it. In fact here's a brief refrain that can be sang or sung in the melody of Maui's song called "You're Welcome" It's sort of a way to apologize for not posting in so long. Hopefully, these lyrics can fit in with the melody of the chorus portion of the song. Give it a try, or disavow knowledge of me altogether....

Hey, don't agonize or chastise my devotion
I've just been inert or asleep in the rack.

I know this implies I despise locomotion
But at least I can strive to be slack!

So I know I need to say that I'm sorry
I seem to set my goals too high

It's safe to say I won't get my Ferrari
I'm just a mediocre, fairish guy!

So okay, I'm trying to say that I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry!

Well it took me a long time to try to make that rhyme, so I think the actual blog post won't come tonight. I might have to make a whole new song for that too!!!

I just finished THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN btw, and I'm halfway through CATCH-22, so I'll be good to go for next meeting.

Baron

GOOD ARTICLE

Hey Spirits,

I came across this Wall Street Journal article about reading. I enjoyed it, and it is pretty positive and encouraging so I thought I'd pass it along if you all would like to read it....

The Need to Read

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Hey Spirits

We have a new record to set.....

42 years

A man who checked out William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” in April 1974 from the Guilderland Library returned the book last Tuesday. The late fee for such a wait would be $3,106.20, but a man such as this presumably knows to live a life on the run, dodging the law and other library enforcement authorities, and presumably set up the book drop up so they’d be sipping a cocktail on a brach in Zihuatanejo, Mexico by the time anyone was all the wiser to his escape from New York. [NBC New York]

AUGUST MEETING NOTES

Hello Spirits. Dag where did the summer go? I mean its still as hot as George Kellogg's bones inside the giant, boiling vat of butter he got chucked into, but I'm not really referring to the weather. I mean since Chief and Boss are back in school, vacations are complete, I'm transitioning into making fall beers, and we're currently about 23 minutes from September, it feels to me like the immaculate summer wave I've been surfing has just crashed me onto the beach, completely unsympathetic to freshly open wounds filled with sand and shell fragments. After reading all the books from book club, that was my poor attempt at superb metaphorical prose. I'll be a writer one day Spirits, mark my words. Riiiiiiight.

"Who we talking about??" There was your movie quote, from Chicken Little. Chicken Little himself says that a couple times while confused, which seems rather appropriate for me since I spend a considerable amount of my time confused also.

Ok, let's get down to business...."to defeat... the huns!" There's a two-for for you all!! Two quotes in one blog, that one from Mulan. I am on fire today :-)

Okay, enough tom-foolery: to business, "You'll love Biz niss." Sorry, I just can't stop myself, that one was from Muppet Christmas Carol. The big, blue, serious, business bird said that. I've slapped myself on the wrist and now ready for......

Old Business:

"Shirts - Praise to Baron" I accept your praise spirits and any gifts that may follow...... :\ Yes, we now have club shirts folks! I think they turned out fairly well. I acknowledge that we decided on gray and I actually ordered white, but if you just sprinkle some charcoal in your eyes, squint and look at them at dusk, they will look pretty close to gray. We discussed the major cost difference between ordering white or any other color, so I made an executive decision to go with white. Of course, President Deuce may send the thought police in to haul me off to the Ministry of Love for some reconditioning. My greatest fear is not spiders, I promise.

Or maybe Deuce won't call in the thought police, because this meeting was uncommonly cordial and gracious. I don't think there were any chastisements if you can believe that! Maybe no one had the heart to tell me the shirts were slightly too transparent or my spinach dip looked and tasted more like something that rock guy from the Neverending Story would have enjoyed. So basically, it boils down to pity! The Spirits just couldn't bare to break me down anymore. Well I appreciate it Spirits, regardless of your motivation.

Indy agreed to swap out dates with JB and Cat for hosting the meetings. So the September meeting (September 11th to be exact) will be at JB and Cat's Mountain Retreat. I really hope I got that name right. For some reason I forget everyone's home names every single time! Even mine. Its pitiful I know. I have the memory of a jellyfish. Who we talking about? So Indy now hosts the October meeting at the Lodge.... is possibly its name.

Boss read THE PIGEON NEEDS A BATH which I personally found very entertaining. Those are a pretty good series of books, and Boss and Chief have always enjoyed them.

Confession time: As you all know, my soul is as pristine as an angel. I drink up whatever evil I see in this world and spew out virtue and goodness in return. I am a bad liar. The confession is that I read ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell. Yes its true. I feel like I just ended my grace period of no chastisements. I can't help it, I really like these dystopian, philosophical, political fictions. Perhaps I drink up the virtue and spew out evil. Sometimes I get them mixed up.

New Business:

20th Bookiversary!! Remember when I changed the blog theme and made you wait until the August post? Well here is the big reveal: Our next book ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE is the 20th book the club has read! Cool right? I haven't been around for all 20 but all you original Novel Spirit veterans can toast a drink with pride tonight. And every one of the next 20 nights too, why not? We should celebrate. I have an idea: let's all get together, make good food, drink good wine and just have a good time? I like it. I think its a good idea. I am considering bringing a piniata to the next meeting but that might not be very polite to our hosts. But how fun would that be right?

And Archimedes found a very cool article that I linked below. Here's a hint: reading is good for our health!!

Read more, live longer

BTW, I've got a new batch of Kolsch beer aging in the bottles. I'll bring some to any beer lovers in the group.....(crickets chirping)

Have a good night Spirits, looking forward to our next meeting

Baron

KING'S MOUNTAIN BOOK DISCUSSION

With this month's book we returned to a recurring theme in the Spirit's selection - a book with a local setting. The locations in King's Mountain spanned from Sycamore Shoals in Elizabethton, Tennessee to Abingdon, Virginia to the northwestern part of South Carolina. It really adds another layer of interest to the book to know the area the author is describing. And in this instance, we all got a little bit of a local history lesson. I have been amazed by how many local events surrounding the "overmountain men" and the march to the Battle of King's Mountain I have noticed since we read the book.

JB, who chose King's Mountain, noted that the battleground site at King's Mountain was worth a visit. He visited the site recently with his mom and sister, who has been doing some family history research. JB chose this book and author because of the in depth research of local history and lore the author conducts for each of her books. He highly recommended some of her other books, which are also set in the local area.

One of the things we liked best about the book was its nuanced presentation of characters. Particularly in "war" books, authors have a tendency to present characters on one side of the conflict as good and noble while presenting characters on the other as evil. Real life just isn't like that. I believe Deuce made the observation that it was easy to sympathize with characters in the book, like Virginia Sal, who were just trying to do what they could do survive the war, or others who felt loyalty to the crown. The characters were all believable and relatable characters. There were "rascals" and "heroes" on both sides.

A discussion ensued comparing the Battle of King's Mountain to Pickett's charge. I'm sure many good and thoughtful points were made, but somehow they didn't make it into my notes. Relatedly, we sorely missed Diesel's presence at the August meeting. What can I say, Spirits, battle strategy is not my jam.

One character that had many of the Spirits scratching their heads was Virginia Paul. I think she was a vehicle for tying in some of the local lore about banshees, but it was a little vague. Was she a banshee? Was she the same girl that young Ferguson met in the graveyard at the beginning of the book? I guess it is up to us to reach our own conclusions. Another somewhat supernatural element was the foreshadowing of the fates of Sevier and Ferguson.

We also contemplated whether the war would have turned out differently if Ferguson had taken the opportunity to shoot George Washington in the woods. The consensus was that it probably would have, simply because he was a unique person in a unique time.

There was also consensus that the hangings after the battle were completely arbitrary and offensive to the notion of justice. I will stop myself here or your eyes will glaze over as I launch into a legal diatribe. I will save it for the legal brief that I'll be working on all day tomorrow. :)

I think this may have been our highest rated book since Huck Finn! The lowest rating anyone gave it was 4 stars and it even garnered the ever allusive 5 star rating from Indy! And we know that Spirits don't dole out 5's willy nilly.

I am still working on All the Light We Cannnot See (so no spoilers!), but I can tell it will be a "spirited" discussion.  Get it?? "Spirited"??  HAHAHAHAHAH, I crack myself up. On that corny note, I will bid you a fond adieu. See you soon!!

SON OF THE WILDERNESS: THE LIFE OF JOHN MUIR

Let's reflect on the halcyon days of July, when we had a lovely outdoor meeting at Deuce's "home place." The patio reflected the festive season, with star spangled banners and red, white, and blue tablecloths. The food was delicious, the wine was refreshing, and the Novel Spirits gathered to fellowship and discuss the biography of Mr. John Muir.

As the conversation turned from old and new business (see Baron's previous post wittily discussing same), things took a turn to the more confrontational nature that lies just beneath the surface of the jovial Novel Spirits. Cat, who submitted the book that was the topic of discussion, very thoughtfully emailed a crossword puzzle about John Muir's life in advance of the meeting. A brief awkward moment passed as the Spirits confessed one by one that each had not completed the assigned task. Fortunately, the tension was broken as Cat herself confessed that she, too, had not completed the crossword puzzle. (JB gets a gold star because I believe he was the only one to complete the puzzle. Cat also gets a gold star for thinking outside the box for a book discussion tool!)

The next note I have is "hated sheep (hoofed locusts)." It looks like Diesel had been taking note-taking lessons from me. If I recall correctly this comment refers to John Muir's hatred of sheep because of the damage they do to the land.

JB and Cat shared some photos of visiting John Muir's childhood home in Scotland. This led the discussion to how harsh John Muir's father was because he forced his children to work the farm and went through phases of barely feeding them. Luckily, John had his sister, Margaret, who was his best friend and who helped him pursue his interests. JB and Cat also visited John Muir's Wisconsin homestead, and in 2012 they visited his Northern California home.

Speaking of his Northern California home, we discussed how John Muir married rich, but wasn't comfortable managing his father in law's orchard business, even though he was very successful at it. Instead, he brought in his brothers to help with the business. Today a trail, a mountain, and a forest are named after him. Chief also shared with the group that John Muir appears on the California quarter.

From an early age, John Muir did not like being indoors. Some of his earliest encounters with nature were walks with his grandfather in Scotland when he was 2 years old. John's grandfather was much gentler and more tolerant that John's father.

We discussed many of John's early inventions - clocks, thermometers, and the bed that was displayed at the fair. An important turning point in John's life occurred when he feared he might lose his eyesight due to an accident that occurred while he was working at a sawmill. This led to John's most notable contributions, which were arguably his explorations of uncharted wilderness. He was an integral part of Yosemite becoming a National Park, and he was the first person to discover that Yosemite was formed by glaciers. John wrote about many of his discoveries and explorations, but, interestingly, writing did not come naturally to John, and he struggled to perfect his writings.  A rift formed between John and one of his once close friends (whose name I have now forgotten, about the role of National Parks and how best to preserve the land. The other guy was in favor of preserving the land, but using it to benefit the people, by allowing animals to graze or by harvesting the timber, while John believed it should be preserved in its natural state without interference from mankind.

Somehow, over the past two months, I have misplaced the star rating that the spirits gave, but I think we all agreed that it was an interesting book about and interesting man. There was a bit of discussion about some of the criticisms that have been leveled at the biography, namely that the biographer was influenced by John Muir's family to write the biography in a flattering way and that she relied upon oral accounts with no corroboration. In my opinion, the book did seem a bit heavy on hero worship, but was an interesting read nonetheless.

JULY MEETING NOTES

Howdy Spirits,

It seems like I have to apologize for "this late post" every single post so in order to avoid more of the same verbose, repetitive, wordy, excessive, useless, superfluous, tautologous redundancy, I just won't apologize this time. I spoil you. Note: I had to refer to a thesaurus for all those fancy words. The business portion of this meeting was short, therefore this post will be short as well. Just one more gift for you from the generous benefactor Baron.

Old Business:

Club President, and local business judge Deuce came in with her verdict of the shirt printer dude which has been giving us grief. The verdict: GUILTY!! No second chance for him! Reasons she gave for coming to her decision included: poor service (i.e. did not ever fulfill the order and just gave excuses for several weeks) and no offer of a discount after the poor service. He apologized and asked her for her business again. But IMHO, that's not nearly enough. He sent a message that our little club and little shirt order wasn't important enough for him to get to like all the other more important groups with more important money. So an apology must come with a discount and promise not to disrespect us in the future. So in the end he lost our business. Our unworthy money will go to another business, along with all our future plans like bags, trophies, gold watches, iPhone cases, hats, beer labels, wine labels etc. But after all the stress and heartache Deuce endured up to this point, it was best that Archimedes and I were given the task of getting the shirts done (at a different location of course. Of course). There was my movie quote from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. And I'm 73% sure I've used that one already. Oops. Duece may not have tolerated anymore stress from the shirts. More on the shirts in the August post FYI.

The Pinterest Recipe board is up and running. Everyone please continue to post the recipes that you made for each meeting, with one big exception: spinach cheese dip. There seems to be a pattern forming of failed spinach cheese dip recipes. Although, Indy's wasn't bad IMO. She will say it was too dry but at least it still looked and tasted like a proper cheese dip. That sad creation I made at the August meeting was more like a mixture of a mulched grass omelet and those crispy rice cake things. I'm not even sure if it is supposed to be a cheese dip or more like a quiche. And I have no desire to ever find out. That is something that would be a colossal waste of my not very important time. I would even read a T.C. Boyle book or make a phone call into my bank's call center before I try that recipe again, if that gives you any perspective. But now I'm wondering if one of us should try a new spinach cheese dip each meeting now until we find a winner. It's almost on the verge of joke status. Will we ever find the right one? But anyway, back to the original point, we have our Pinterest recipe board and we can continue to pin our recipes to it.

We also created another Novel Spirits Pinterest board, this one for pictures. It is private board to be shared only with members since it has pictures of our actual identities and faces. "Keep it secret, keep it safe." That was Diesel's quote, I don't want to try to steal credit for her stuff. So maybe she is getting in on the book/movie quotes too. Well done Diesel.  I just had an idea regarding our secret identities etc: wouldn't it be funny if we were a group of super heroes in a comic series? We could be like the Avengers or Justice League or Watchmen except we would be hilarious. We'd have super powers and still save the day and all but we'd just take a very round-about, totally unnecesary, crazy and funny way to get there. I'm sure hilarity would ensue.

Deuce changed her second book submission to The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick. As of July, we are down to four books until we all resubmit again. And I have a special surprise bit of news for you all but it will have to wait until the August post. But I'll give you a hint, it is related to the new theme I changed the blog into. Suspense!

New Business:

None. Well dag.

By the way, the club is all out of money now. Take care now, bye bye then

Baron

GO SET A WATCHMAN BOOK DISCUSSION

I'll start out by saying that I, personally, was very happy that this book was one of the submissions. I was also a little relieved. Here's why: I was having an internal ethical conundrum about reading this book, but the book being selected for book club took the pressure off of me to decide since I "had" to read it for book club. The source of my internal struggle was the shady origins of this book. Harper Lee has only published one book, the very successful and famous TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, which I really enjoyed. Since that time she has purposefully avoided the limelight and has not published any further works.  Then, suddenly, when she was in her eighties and reportedly (possibly) suffering from cognitive deficits, she supposedly decides to publish the "sequel" to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, which was written before TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and served as its source material. Something definitely seemed fishy about this reverse of course after a lifetime of refusing to publish ANYTHING, let alone a book that dealt with the beloved characters of her iconic novel. Long story short, I just wasn't sure if Harper Lee ever wanted the world to see GO SET A WATCHMAN, so I really had a hard time deciding between giving into my curiosity and reading this book or respecting what may or may not have been the author's wishes and not reading it. Another problem solved by the Novel Spirits.

This book turned out to be perfect book club material (in my opinion) because there was plenty to debate and discuss. Indy had some great book club questions, none of which were fully recorded due to the absence of our note-taker, Diesel, but I got the gist of the conversations in my notes, at least. We talked about how Maycomb's isolation affected the viewpoints of the characters who lived there in contrast to the views of Scout, who had lived in New York. Cat brought up the Mark Twain quote: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." The residents of Maycomb put a lot of stock into an individual's family history rather than the merits of the person themselves (i.e. Aunt Alexandria's view of Hank), however, when someone lives outside of a small town, they realize how unimportant these preconceived ideas really are. 

The relationships in the story, and their evolution throughout the book, provided plenty of fodder for discussion. Scout's relationships with Hank, her uncle, and probably most significantly her dad, Atticus, evolved through the story. Scout idolized Atticus at the beginning of the book, but their relationship shifted when she realized that he was not "perfect," but had prejudices and shortcomings that she had not previously detected. 

Some points of at least near unanimity: we all seemed to enjoy Scout's "flashbacks" to being a young girl in Maycomb and the hijinks she and her brother and friends got into.  These were lighter points in the book, and may not have served much purpose in furthering the story, but they were enjoyable. We were also all in agreement that Scout's uncle slapping Scout toward the end of the book served no real purpose and seemed gratuitous. Finally, I think we all were disappointed in the end of the book, in which Scout seemingly "caves" to the points of view of her father, uncle, and Hank, and seems to acquiesce that she was the unreasonable one for being upset about seeing her father and Hank at a "council meeting" that was all about keeping black people from "rising up." 

Which brings me to our discussion of whether Atticus was condoning the views of Mr. O'Hanlon, the racist, by presenting him as a speaker to the council. Although Atticus never outwardly approved of Mr. O'Hanlon's message and argued that he was just allowing him to speak, I, personally, think that in those circumstances, Atticus was tacitly approving of his message.  He certainly would not have showed the same courtesy to a speaker from the dreaded (in his view) ACLU.  

The majority thought that the title referenced Scout's role as one who was there to document the turmoil in Maycomb regarding the changing nature of relations among the races. In other words, Scout was the "watchman." I think I was the only one who viewed the title as a reference to the watchman as Scout's conscience. In my view, Scout had always seen Atticus as the voice of her conscience, but when she observed him doing something that was against her own conscience, she had to readjust and discovered that she had her own independent conscience that was no longer tied to Atticus's views. 

We talked about the scene involving Calpurnia, and how sad it was that Calpurnia had witnessed all the "good" people of Maycomb show themselves to be racist bigots, so she assumed Scout was like all the rest.

We discussed the history and questionable origin of this story and wondered how much was written by Harper Lee and how much was changed or added by editors.  Did Harper Lee never want this story to be read because of the similarities to her own life (Harper Lee's father was a lawyer) and she did not want it to negatively reflect on the character of Atticus, and thus by extension her father?

The book ratings were on the high end, with a low of 3.5 and a high of 4.5, which is good for the tough Novel Spirits crowd.  

I look forward to our next meeting and discussing Son of the Wilderness.  I hope everyone has been staying cool and having a great summer! 

JUNE MEETING NOTES

First off, I must apologize for my terrible grammar. Sometimes I look back through my posts and comments and realize how bad I am at writing. My posts are like the candy corn of grammar: made too quickly, cheaply and sold for way too much. Sorry Spirits. I'm sure you'll find some errors even in this very post.

Old Business: "Stinkin T-shirts". Oh dear, the T-shirts. I feel like the subject of the T-shirts deserves its own blog post. Its starting to become like a soap opera. Like the sands of the hour glass, so are the days of our lives without T-shirts. The Bold and the Beautiful, yet non-existent T-shirts. The So Young They're Not Even Born Yet and the Restless. I could go all day but you get the idea. Word on the street is, the owner of the printing place was trying to woo Deuce back into his web of deception with apologies, yet no offers of discounts. We'll see what happens in the next exciting episode. Will she go back to the unsatisfactory printer?? It's almost as if Deuce is a candidate for political office right now isn't it?? "I support my local screen printer!" "I no longer support my local screen printer!!!" Well what is it Deuce? You are flip flopping on issues that are important to the American people!! Here's another bomb you dropped on all of us poor, hard working Americans: "I have committed to one book for my book club submission!".........."No wait, I don't want that one anymore, I'm still deciding, I'll get back to you......." I don't know Deuce, it doesn't look like your numbers will be so great in the next public opinion poll. I can't wait for the next episode of As the World Without T-Shirts or Book Submissions Turns.....

ANYWAY. Dues are paid. We are all paid up to what we owe and the club now possesses $159 or maybe its $157. I'll give you a range of 157-159.

New Business: We decided to start creating a Novel Spirits Cookbook. Cat was tasked with being the OIC (Officer in Charge) of that project. May the Force be with you Cat. The final product at some point down the road will be a physical, bound cookbook to sell on Amazon, get put onto Oprah's book of the month club, become the New York Times #1 Bestseller, make the Novel Spirits richer than J.K. Rowling and Warren Buffett combined, and become THE Big Brother of the New World Order!!!! Muhahahaha! Or not, we'll see how it goes. But for now, we'll start up another Novel Spirits Pinterest board specifically for food and drink recipes. I guess for now, we can pin the ones we've already made up to this point, and continue with ones we think are really good. And no mediocre recipes go on this board Spirits!! Remember who we are, REMEMBER!!! There was my movie quote from THE LION KING. Alternatively, you can email or text recipes to Cat.

And our resident T.C. Boyle Fandom president, JB, once again gave some of us an eye twitch. He just won't let us push T.C. Boyle down into our subconscious with all other traumatic emotional experiences. I don't keep bringing George Orwell back up into your heart JB!!! Leave my poor damaged heart alone!!!! Apparently, Boyle wrote another book called A FRIEND OF THE EARTH, which is about climate change and how it could affect the Earth long term. If I were ever to delve into another Boyle book, this could be the one. I do like reading about the topic of climate change, BUT its still Boyle, so we'll see. But I am but the selfless messenger to all the Spirits, so please don't let me stop you from subjecting yourself. Enjoy.

Sharyn McCrumb was another topic of discussion. Someone mentioned that McCrumb likes to conduct research and set books in northeast Tennessee rather than her home of Kentucky, since she knows this area better. It is a memorable place so who are we to argue?

JB read GHOST RIDERS, which is set in and around Grandfather Mountain. Nothing follows.

Indy read THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway. Nothing follows. Note: Diesel did not do the note taking this meeting.

I, Baron, read NIGHT by Elie Wiesel. "Depressing". That about says it all. True story written by one of the most important Holocaust authors about his own experience as a holocaust survivor. Incredibly sad story and really opened my eyes to that time period. Puts things in perspective I must say.

Next meeting is at Deuce's Home Place, Sunday July 3rd at 2pm (unless flip-flopper Deuce needs to change the time)

Looking forward to seeing everyone again

Baron