Thank you to our hostess, Angela! She was well prepared with a list of questions to discuss "The Cookbook Collector."
While we didn't love the book, we still had a robust discussion with many points of agreement among the six attendees. The plot was unnecessarily complicated with too many substories that diluted the primary themes and storyline. We had read several reviews that compared this work with Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," and we were at a loss as to where there were similarities, with the exception of the fact that both novels' central characters were a pair of sisters.
Cindy suggested that Goodman's first novel, "Intuition," was well received by both critics and readers and perhaps she was rushed into publishing something to fulfill a contractual obligation.
We spent some time on our upcoming book selections and added a few new items to our "Books We'd Like to Read" list and proposed a December field trip to see the U.S. version of "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." More to come on those plans!
For those in the group with eReaders, iPads, and iPods, did you know you can borrow ebooks and audio books from the library? Check out the selections at http://digital.minlib.net/72BAB638-4DCC-413F-A536-6F76837C60EB/10/531/en/Default.htm. You can create your digital media account as part of your library membership and then use the free software downloads from the site (Overdrive for audio and Adobe Digital Editions for ebooks) to save the books to your device.
Our next meeting is planned for January 24 at 7:30 at Donna M's to discuss "Cutting for Stone."
Happy Holidays to all!
