Ladder of Years

Tonight was our Page Turner Meeting. We ate at a Mexican Restaurant. Food was good. Drinks were great. We had nine members at the meeting. That makes for a great discussion. I think the book ended up with an average rating of a 3. Once again, fantastic discussion.
Here is the interesting things. Most, if not all, of us did not like the main characters. We found them weak. Especially, the leading character. Delia is a wife and mother that while on vacation walks away from her life. Just goes for a walk and keeps going. She goes to a new town, starts a new life. I know what you are thinking, who hasn't thought of that fantasy. Delia acts on it. There are quite a few characters in this book. Most of them are weak. Most of the members did not like the ending. We did not like many of the characters. We did like the book. We considered it well written.
It brought out many different emotions from all of us. The Old Lady was angry. Wonder why I love reading so much? Someone can read a book and feel angry about a make believe character in a make believe story. That is amazing. Every meeting we start discussing a book and we can relate it to things in our own lives.
We had a discussion about what we have done alone. What we feel comfortable doing alone. Have you sat down in a restaurant (more than a McDonald's, less than a 4 star) and eaten a meal alone? Have you gone to a movie alone? Driven yourself on a trip? Flown?
This is a story about the different rungs of life. How we face them? If we face them? If you grow from the rungs of life.
I do not want to give too much away. It is not going to be the best book you read. It is a good book. Gives you some food for thought. It is well written. It starts up slow and builds. If I have to give the book a color, I would have to go with grey. Not a feel good. Not a little romance. More a book about little things. I was going to say it is about how people handle things in life. In this case it is more how people do not handle things. What happens when you do not take charge of your life. What happens when you react instead of being proactive.
I would not put this book as the number one book on your things to read. If you are looking for something different, interesting, this is a good one.
Now let me talk about The Page Turners. We took a group of co-workers. Some of us were closer to each other than others. Age from early 20's to late 50's and ages in between. Our common thread is we like to read. We did not even read at the same levels. Some people did not read very much. Some of us are major league readers. Once a month we spend two hours together. A good, quality two hours. It is two hours of what we think, what we like, what we feel
, what we have experienced. Two hours of personal feelings and emotions. I would love to write a book about it. How each meeting we evolve. We get to know each other more. We all share the passion of reading and discussion. I hope this club lasts a long time. We will end having relationships with each other like nothing we have with other people in our lives. We spend two hours opening up to each other. Total honesty. It is like counseling through book discussions. I feel like we are part of something special. I hope the rest of you do too.