Peonies and Wallflowers

Known as Pfingstrosen here in Germany, these beautiful peonies adorned the breakfast table at Daniele's house this morning, where we convened our monthly book club and concurrently celebrated the hostess' birthday with a bottle of bubbly :)

We were a lively group this morning - 10 of us made it out for breakfast and a wonderful discussion of Stephen Chbosky's novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I'm glad I read this modern "coming of age" book, and feel there was ultimately a great moral to the story, but it's a graphic and disturbing depiction of high school life that I know all too well to be quite an accurate portrayal in many spheres, although utterly foreign still to some Americans. There was a film version released a year ago and I think I might try to watch it soon. I don't expect I'll like the film at all, but I'm very curious to see the Harry Potter actress, Emma Watson, portray the complex character of Sam.

I'll leave you with my favorite lines from the novel:

"But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them."
~Charlie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower