The Correspondent

We had riveting conversations about The Correspondent. Such a varied take on the book, the characters and the issues touched on. Each one of us had an interesting perspective based on our own lives and experiences.

Crystal found Sybil very relatable due to her own eyesight loss. Crystal used to journal and while she still does electronically there's just something different about being able to put pen to paper.

Sybil came full circle doing things she never would have done in the past. She made herself miserable out of guilt. We wish she could have been able to forgive herself.

Jennifer thought we were being too harsh on her when some of us mentioned seeing her as having narcissistic tendencies and found her to be a very disagreeable, unpleasant person we would not care to be friends with. The good people in her life, such as the neighbor Theodore Lübeck are saints in our eyes.

We loved how even when she was angry she always ended with "what are you reading?"

Her ability to apologize to the best of her ability is admirable. We talked about how many of us carry variations of the phrases "everyone is doing the best they can with what they have" and the great Maya Angelou's “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." Everyone's best can be quite different.

We loved the switch from animosity to advocacy with the College Dean.

We think Diana Galbadon would have howled at the letter Sybil wrote to her. I'm sure someone has shared it with her and wish I had been there for her reaction.

This led to a tangent about how brilliant the Outlander series is with history and the ingenuity of Claire to use medicines and techniques that had not been discovered yet. She had to be careful to not expose the time travel or get hanged as a witch. Which led to other historical fiction that some of us found fascinating and really loved such as Clan of the Cave Bear series. We were amazed to learn of some of the books like this (800+ pages) that Mary Fran has actually read.

Louisa found the Goodreads list of all the books mentioned in The Correspondent. Perhaps we can choose from this list for our next chosen read. Remembering that December is a free read for us.

Christine told us about The Nurse's Secret by Amanda Skenandore. Christine's description had us all wanting to read this book right away but, sadly, it looked like the library only had it in ebook format but the library website is difficult and frustrating to navigate on mobile. Now that I'm on desktop I see they have it in Hoopla audio, ebook and three physical books. We will def revisit this recommendation.

The Theo of Golden fan club keeps growing. If you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for? LOL!

Nancy finished Beartown by Fredrik Backman. Not her favorite Backman book but she's glad to have read it. We do love us some Backman.

We talked about Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry - this is a 960 page tome that Mary Fran has read! It's mentioned in The Correspondent and we talked about how we haven't read a lot of books about the west and those settlers.

We talked about how scandalous the true Little House on the Prarie story is. Some of us knew about this and some of us didn't. It was a very interesting conversation. I have recently come across this playlist and haven't watched much of it but according to those in the know last night, it's very interesting history and worth a dive into for those of us who don't know the whole story.

Laura Ingalls wilder said the most fascinating thing she witnessed in her lifetime was the advent of air travel. She went from traveling by covered wagon to flying in a commercial airplane. Jennifer thinks cell phone is probably her thing so far.

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper got five stars from Michelle. That's mighty high praise right there! Sold by her mother. Enslaved in Pompeii's brothel. Determined to survive.

Homeseeking by Karissa Chen is another five star read by Michelle. It follows separated lovers through six decades of tumultuous Chinese history. Excellent characters, research, historical atmosphere, and story development.

We discussed The Four Winds, The Emperor of Gladness, The House Maid and The Last Mrs. Parrish - I did not take notes on these so I can't remember what we said but it definitely wasn't "don't read these books."

Louisa has recently discovered Moloka'i, the historical fiction about the leper colony in Hawaii. This was a book club pick before Louisa joined us so we were quite excited that she found it because we also loved it.

She also told us about Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. This one sounds like a fascinating read about a gene that passes through three generations and Calliope who has to learn to live with being born hermaphrodite, though that term is outdated and no longer used for humans.

Middlesex takes place in the 70's and Atmosphere takes place in the 80's and both are classified as Historical Fiction. We're not sure how we feel about that.

TV Shows we're loving - Reacher - stil and

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe

Michelle has an upcoming tent camping trip so, naturally, I asked if she had a body bag from the murder aisle of Amazon. (She does not and we're all kind of relieved)

You learned that I start my day with murder recaps from Gossip, Rumor and Innuendo. Here's the Mary Poppins Murder Bag episode we laughed about.