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.