Stop That Girl October 9, 2008

This was a special book club because it was the first one where the author attended! We met at the Kaspar's home to discuss Stop That Girl, by Elizabeth Mckenzie. This was Ruth's book. It was very fun to be able to ask the author lots of questions and it became quickly apparent that the book was extremely autobiographical. The author had originally written up separate episodes from her life and eventually put them together in this book. The setting was California and Santa Cruz in particular so that made it more relevant to us. The main character was Ann Ransom and we followed her life from age 8 to adulthood. Other characters included her mother, Helen, step father Roy Weeks, grandmother Dr. Frost and poet Allen Ginsberg. This book felt to some of us like it was written for young readers, although it could have just been the cover that gave that impression. We had a side discussion about the "shooting incident" and had lots of laughs about it. We have decided on Monday, Dec 15 for our annual book club dinner. The next meeting will be at Kathy's on November 13 and we will read Jill's book People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks.

Shantaram September 11, 2008

We met at the Thompsons to discuss Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. The book was 936 pages long--our longest book so far! Jennifer had been to India recently and shared slides of her trip on her laptop. It turned out that most everything in the book actually happened to the author. The events were real, but the characters, dialogue and settings were fictional. It was generally felt that the book took a wrong turn when it shifted to Afghanistan and that the story became disparate and darker at that point. The first two thirds of the book were delightful and we all laughed about the "outer underpants." Some of the main characters were Lin, the Australian, former heroin-addict, prison escapee, Prabaker, the guileless tour guide, Karla, the mysterious love interest and Abdel Khader Khan, the Indian Mafia Benefactor. A movie of this book is scheduled to be released in 2011, starring Johnny Depp. The author is currently working on a sequel to this book.