Is There Anything Left To Say About The Help?

Yes. I still have things to say about The Help. It is going to take me awhile to run out of things to say about this book. I rated it a 5. I rated our discussion a 4. I can not even imagine where our discussion has to go for it to hit 5. I do not want to imagine.

Tonight's meeting was good from start to finish. We ate at CJ's at the old airport. Fantastic food. Round tables, made our discussion so much easier. The room is large so even crowded it was quiet. Great atmosphere for a classy group like The Page Turners. The food was even pretty to look at. My Girl T really raised the bar tonight.

The Old Lady decided she wanted to announce her book for September tonight. She wanted it to be a big production. I heard her order the book at Barnes but did not pay attention to the name of the book. We place our orders, get situated, have our drinks, drum roll for the announcement.....The Old Lady reads the description of the book. The usual stuff, blah, blah, blah, love story. She announces the book, Twilight. Shocks and gasps, from me. Most of the club has not only read the series but attended the movies.....on opening night. I have not made a secret of the fact that I feel too good for the Twilight Series. GROAN! Big joke on me, The Old Lady announced her real book as, What Remains, A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love by Carole Radziwill. I brought Twilight home with me. No promise on if I will read it. I know I should. I know book club is about stretching our boundaries. That said, I am afraid if I read it, people will lose respect for me, I will lose respect for me.

The discussion about the book was great. One of my favorite questions was which character was our favorite and why. Eight members and we picked several different characters with unique reasons why. That is what book club is about. We all read the same thing and draw something unique to us from the subject. The Bride To Be and I shared a favorite character. We like Aibileen. I liked the fact she was a loving, care giver. I get that. I did daycare and can really identify with that part of her personality. The Bride To Be wins special mention because she made comparison to next month's book. She said Aibileen's core values were based on Eat, Pray, Love. Extra points for pulling a reference on a future read.

The Old Lady wins an award for answering a question and pulling the conversation so far off course we needed Mapquest to get back. There is a book club oath regarding what parts of conversation can be repeated, most of what The Old Lady says is protected by our oath and by-laws.

We had a short discussion on if anyone had gone too far for revenge. The winner, Jersey Girl. Now she has not killed anyone if you are guessing based on stereotypes. That is good news. I will leave it at none of us will purposely make her angry or insult her anytime soon. The Old Lady gets honorable mention in this category too. She was "on" tonight. Rapunzel has a dark side, but we already knew that. In case you have not read the book, I will not say what Minny did for revenge. I will say none of us had dessert tonight.

Each month we open up and enjoy each other more. We are approaching our one year anniversary for the club. I opened discussion on if we want to make any changes in how you pick books or add new members. Absolutely no new members can be added at this time. It appears our little group is starting to feel a sense of elitism. Plus the big fear that we really cannot have The Old Lady just telling her private stuff in front of a stranger or newbie.

Thanks girls for another enjoyable evening. Next month we are reading, Eat, Pray, Love. We are going to see the movie and then go out to eat and discuss book/movie. It is starting to be hard for us to wait for an entire month to meet and book talk. But.....we would never be able to read more than one book a month.

I will work on blog names for the rest of you. I am going to collapse under the pressure of keeping meeting stats and notes, being the leader, and having to blog when I get home from the meeting. I am working on it!