Dog-Tired...

..of wearing a ridiculous hat! 

As usual, I forgot to take photos of us people doing our book club thing and I will regret that when I start putting my 2023 photo yearbook together...but Lacey, our host's dog, agreed to stand in for the rest of us this time and at least provide me with a blip.

Poor Lacey...who always joins our book club meetings when they are held at her house...was not her usual self this time - what with the hat and all - and our lively discussion did nothing to perk her up. We sure missed her greeting us at the door, cuddling up to us on the sofa, and nudging us for more petting; it just wasn't the same without her usual "happy-happy-dog" presence. We gave her lots of sympathy and even some treats...but that could not make up for the hat. She did, however lie down and quietly listen....

The book this time was The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek which three of us really liked and one did not. ( It is a small book club) Two read the book; two listened to it as an audio book. Sometimes I wonder to what extent the medium makes a difference in how one responds to a book. How important is the narrator in an audio book? What advantages or disadvantages does the print version have? Does an audio version include the addendum? Can we come away with a different opinion based on how we "read" the book? These things keep me up at night...not! ... but they do make me think.. and one day, maybe that could be a topic for our discussion? 

Later when I went home and finished reading the sequel to this book, I noted and was very impressed by the material included in its addendum eg: actual historical museum photos of the real Pack Horse Librarians on horseback and the scrapbooks they created for their clients, photos also of the traveling nurses and the women who worked underground in the coal mines - all of which were referred to in the book. Those photos brought those characters to life for me. Also included were pages of information by the author - why she chose to write these two books, what she hoped to convey, details about the issues and the laws of the time, as well as some words about her childhood growing up in those same mountains - which helped reinforce to me that she knew of what she spoke!  I also thought that the list of discussion questions at the back were more useful than the usual ones we find online and going over them before taking the book back to the library, helped me to take a moment and think about what I had read. I could see that they would have stimulated a lot of discussion if this book had been the one we were reviewing. Of course, this type of book lends itself to that type of addendum; others would not. But in this case, that addendum really made a difference for me; it was worth reading...I would not want to have missed it..

Oh..and another thing..Two of us really liked using the Book Club Journal I handed out at Xmas.. Two did not. It was a gamble..but I figure that two out of four ain't bad!