Thirteenth Meeting: Frankenstein

This Month's Book:

Frankenstein

by

Mary Shelley

-176 pages-

Few creatures of horror have seized readers' imaginations and held them for so long as the anguished monster of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." The story of Victor Frankenstein's terrible creation and the havoc it caused has enthralled generations of readers and inspired countless writers of horror and suspense. Considering the novel's enduring success, it is remarkable that it began merely as a whim of Lord Byron's.

"We will each write a story," Byron announced to his next-door neighbors, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley. The friends were summering on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland in 1816, Shelley still unknown as a poet and Byron writing the third canto of "Childe Harold." When continued rains kept them confined indoors, all agreed to Byron's proposal.

The illustrious poets failed to complete their ghost stories, but Mary Shelley rose supremely to the challenge. With "Frankenstein, " she succeeded admirably in the task she set for herself: to create a story that, in her own words, "would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror -- one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart."

Discussion Highlights:
Not many people came to the meeting. A lot of different things have been going on with schedules and mainly the club leader's health. This will be the last meeting until we are able to work schedules out and the club leader gets better. Everyone liked this book. The letters at the beginning are a little dry though so it was dull for us to get through those. The story picked up once it started. We enjoyed learning how this story became to be. We loved learning that Mary Shelley created the Science Fiction genre by writing and publishing Frankenstein. It is amazing that a female started a genre mainly geared towards males. Her symbolism to the way society was about women, religion, and science during her time is beautifully expressed.


Next Month's Book:

Me Talk Pretty One Day

by

David Sedaris

-272 pages-

Our 14th monthly meeting will be on

Twelfth Meeting: Long Walk to Freedom

This Month's Book:
  
                                        

Long Walk to Freedom

by

Nelson Mandela

-314 pages-

Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality. 

Long Walk to Freedom is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela tells the extraordinary story of his life--an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph.

Discussion Highlights:

There wasn't much of a discussion because some people were unable to attend and none of us really finished. School and work schedule changes after the holidays is kind of hectic. We have enjoyed what we have read so far, we admire this man who went through so much to make a positive change for his country as a whole, to become the leader of his country.

Next Month's Book:

Frankenstein

by

Mary Shelley

-176 pages-

Our 13th monthly meeting will be on March 22, 2014! See you there!

Eleventh Meeting: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

This Month's Book:

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

by

Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

-400 pages-

The world will end on Saturday. Next Saturday. Just before dinner, according to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies written in 1655. The armies of Good and Evil are amassing and everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist.

Discussion Highlights:
Everyone absolutely loved reading this book! Although you can tell who wrote what parts, Good Omens doesn't disappoint. One of the funniest satires we have ever read.

Next Month's Book:

Long Walk to Freedom

by

Nelson Mandela

-314 pages-

Our 12th monthly meeting will be on February 26, 2013! See you there!

Second Hard Mode: Another Fine Myth

This Month's Book:

Another Fine Myth

by

Robert Asprin

-200 pages-

Skeeve was a magician's apprentice--until an assassin struck and his master was killed. Now, with a purple-tongued demon named Aahz as a companion, he's on a quest to get even.

Discussion Highlights:
We were all so-so about this book. The humor is great and the story did get better eventually. It dragged on at first though and Skeeve's ignorance was annoying. He was constantly asking what something was because he had never seen the object or heard of the object which is fine but not when every other sentence is "what is that?".

*This is the last Hard Mode until further notice.