Our zoom book club is currently reading (or listening - some do audio) a classic… Jane Eyre. It is a slog for me. But turns out I’ve not read it, and I have a nice 1943 copy from my mother… interesting drawings - same as this Old Edition of Jane Eyre Should Be New Again | Shelf Talker
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This is exactly what I found annoying about the book.
I just got back from S26’s graduation gift trip to China. I decided to pick books set in China to help me better understand/appreciate the culture. I read “Ghost Music,” a story set in Beijing about a woman who has given up on her dreams of being a concert pianist, and is in a rather distant marriage when her mother in law arrives to live with them. She starts having very vivid dreams/visions of mushrooms, and soon actual mushrooms begin appearing on her doorstep. These mushrooms are from the Yunnan province, where her husband and son are from, and the MIL takes immense joy in cooking them for her son. There’s a good amount of magical realism here, but if you enjoy that and go with the flow, it’s a lovely, quick read. It also paints a romantic picture of the hutongs in Beijing, and I was thrilled to experience them for myself. Great character development on the main character, less so for the others, but I think that’s an intentional choice.
I also read The Tea Girl from Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See. It follows a woman from the Akha minority based in Yunnan, from her girlhood as a member of a poor tea-picking family following very traditional customs to a lovesick teenager forced to give up her daughter to a well-educated tea purveyor who still longs to know what happened to her daughter (who was adopted by an American couple during China’s One Child policy). There was a lot to like here—total immersion in the Ahka culture, a real education about tea (especially Pu’er), a good story/plot. The ending was tied up a little too neatly for my tastes—it seemed like there were connections that were a little too “meet cute.” But very glad I read it while I was in China. And now off to go find some Pu’er tea and enjoy my 70 degree Bay Area weather. 
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They sure don’t make ‘em like they used to - this is so cool!
An early CC Book Club discussion: Jane Eyre + Wide Sargasso Sea: Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre August CC Book Club Selection
Thought it might be of interest. Now I’m going to take a look at the discussion. 2012 was a long time ago.
You have to scroll down quite a way to hit the discussion which starts August 2012.
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Wide Sargasso Sea is one of those books that has stayed with me forever. (I first read it in my late teens)
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Loved that book - great recommendation but I read it years ago on my own and then reread it with my book club earlier this year 
. She’s a great author. I’ve read several of her novels including her new release Kin a couple months ago.
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And I was likely one of the few who didn’t enjoy it and DNF it.
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I’m in that small group with you! I did finish it, but do not understand the hype! The only character whose story line I liked was Meg’s! The rest? Farfetched.
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If it’s a reasonably liberal group, Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng is phenomenal, IMO. It has stuck with me since I read it 3 years ago. Available on Libby.
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I’m about halfway through. I am enjoying the story as well as the writing, but it’s loooooong.
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The Measure is a great for a book club discussion, if you haven’t read it already. Our book club also enjoyed discussing The Many Lives of Mama Love, a memoir. They’re both at least a few years old.
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I second “The Measure”. My book club had a lot of good discussion with that one.
Third rec for the measure. I actually recommended it for our club after reading it (it was on some list) - lots of good discussion.
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Thanks, I’ll check this one out! Definitely a pretty liberal group so that wouldn’t be an issue.
This looks interesting also! Thanks for the rec! I did already read the Lisa See book you mentioned. I’Ve read a lot of her novels and really enjoy them.
I did read The Measure back when it first came out. In fact, I just looked up my notes on it in Goodreads and this is what I said, in part, about it: “Though the writing could have been better, it would be a worthwhile read for a book club as there is so much to discuss.”
So funny! I wasn’t in a book club at the time though.
Thanks for the recommendations. Gives me a few to consider!
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I’m about halfway through Yesteryear and not really liking it. A friend loaned it to me so I will finish it, but I don’t find anyone in the book likable and that is kind of a must for me. I also don’t think it is particularly well written. It’s okay. It’s not terrible, but not really doing it for me.
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The Geomagician sounds really interesting, particularly since we learned all about the real Mary Anning when we hiked the Jurassic Coast in England a few years back. The cliffs near Lyme Regis are full of fossils and Mary Anning made some spectacular and important finds.
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Finished reading “ The Calamity Club” and returned it to the library. It was a good story with good characters, but 600+ pages is a bit much. One my scale of 1-5, I will rate it a 4.
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I finished Land last night. While I didn’t like it as well as Hamnet, I enjoyed it. It’s not as plot driven as many books out there; there’s a meandering as she tells the story. With that said, it’s because of that meandering that the land is a character that feels real and palpable.
I won’t say too much more because of spoilers, but there a couple of questions that begged for answers and I wished for some different outcomes (but not because these didn’t work for the plot, just that I wanted something different for the characters).
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I’ve been having problems last few days getting to our online library portal at .marmot.org. Was worried problems at my workstation, but via a reddit post I learned that there is a general multi-libary issue with marmot (not sure if impact just in Colorado or more widespread). Hope it gets fixed soon so I can start downloading some ebooks and audiobooks for vacation.
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