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Sometimes, especially during 2020, we need to focus on comfort.  As I write this, I’m watching “Pride and Prejudice” (2005) for the umpteenth time because I wanted something in the background and it brings me joy.  (Do not at me with your images of a graying Matthew MacFayden, he’s graying, I’m graying, and it’s FINE, but I don’t have to acknowledge it.  Also, I was today old, unless I forgot, when I realized that Isobel Crawley and Mrs. Gardiner are the same actress, Penelope Wilton, which makes it even more joyous.)  

Book club is also a comfort to me.  Sassing Ashley on Facebook, appealing to her competitive nature to ensure she finishes the book with more than hours to spare, and seeing your beautiful faces to talk books and life (yes, we are a typical book club, in case you were wondering)!  It makes it better for me that each time our book club has met, we’ve had folks from at least two time zones, and once we even had people from four states!  Maybe we’ll meet in person one day, but for now, I’m comforted by the familiar, reading and talking about books with bookish people.  THANK YOU from the very bottom of my heart to each and every person who has participated in our Virtual Book Club.  If you haven’t yet, here is our schedule for the rest of 2020.  If you don’t see a book that appeals to you, make a suggestion in the comments, or DM us to chat about it.  If Friday evenings just do not work in your life, DM us with some days/times that might work and we’ll consider it (no promises, but we’ll check the planners and get back with you).  

Those are the reasons that I adore book club, but what did we talk about other than the dumpster fire that is back to school 2020 (it’s not really that bad, but it feels like it)?  OH, yes, the book, we did discuss The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray.  I don’t remember knowing what this book was about, although I’m sure I read the marketing copy before Ashley and I selected it.  When I got into it, I wasn’t surprised about the comparison to An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, as both are about the effects of incarceration.  HOWEVER, the main themes of An American Marriage are racial injustice, incarceration, and class differences.  Family is the main theme of The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls.  You all know I adore a good family saga, and this is no different.  We join this family as one of the four adult siblings, along with her husband, have just been sentenced for crimes they actually committed.  This pair have twin, teenage girls who are living with one of their aunts in the home their mother grew up in.  Throughout the story, we learn about the struggles resulting from Althea and Proctor’s crime and incarceration, and how and why their sins became public knowledge.  We see each of the sisters in this family (although not their brother) struggle to respond to this situation and how those responses are impacted by their family of origin issues, which are many and varied.  Just as with Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Yellow House, the way these three women grew up impacts how they parent these two teenagers who are struggling because of their own family of origin issues and their parents’ crimes and incarceration.  

We discussed this in book club, and I want to bring it to your attention here too.  I’ve already shared that I do tend to judge a book by it’s cover.  This one is gorgeous and ingenious.  Initially I thought the yellow was a bird and was envisioning something akin to the scene in “Forrest Gump” where Jenny wants to fly away, but upon repeated viewing, the yellow blob has four faces on the edges.  I do love a good cover, and I love one with layered meaning even more (see also The Last Romantics).  

I give The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls four enthusiastic stars and highly suggest it.  I do not anticipate rereading this story, but I am very interested in seeing what else Gray shares with us.  The writing is quietly beautiful and the story is tragically layered with life.  I wanted more of an epilogue because I do want a happy ending for this family, but even without it, I’m satisfied and don’t feel like it needed more, just that I want another few pages, perhaps a decade or so in the future.  

Dear readers, what titles do you think should visit book club in 2021?  We’re already thinking about it and would love your input.  If you didn’t join us, but did read along, what are your thoughts on this title? 

~Nikki 

What do we do at book club? Well, we start with getting situated. That looks a little different each time and is certainly different than being at an in person meeting.  For virtual book club, it usually starts with logging onto the meeting platform and watching patiently as I struggle with laptop placement so that I can see and be seen by the other participants. (Oh, the struggles of a laptop screen that doesn’t work except at a VERY inconvenient angle which also makes the fluorescent overhead lighting of the RE/MAX office blinding to everyone trying to look at my picture on their screen.) We also get comfortable with our beverages of choice, or even a refill, before we get down to the business of discussing life, and then of course how our book club pick entwines in our own lives.

We would really love it if you will join us next time, planned for Friday, September 18, 2020, at 7:30 PM Central Time where we will be discussing the YA Fantasy novel Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin.  We would really enjoy seeing your face on our screens, please register HERE. (I promise no blinding fluorescent lights in September, my home internet gets installed on THURSDAY! Just in time for a H.W.B. blog post!)

It’s really great when we can re-connect with our friends by talking about how Viola has a midlife crisis, buys a car her wife didn’t approve of and they don’t need, and talking about the cars that are sitting in our driveways and the cars we’ve experienced with each other through our lives. Nikki currently has 3 in her driveway including a Jeep Cherokee that’s for sale, and two more of us talked about the Jeeps in our driveways! We talked about our first cars, my 2003 Honda Civic that died in 2016 with almost 300,000 miles on it, compared with my former roommate’s 2003 Toyota Corolla that just passed over the 100,000 mark. We purchased them in the same month and that math means she’s been driving that same car for 17 years. I was holding out for its 20^th birthday in 2023 without it having hit the 100k milestone. Then we talked about the last cars we’ve been the primary driver of that had less than 100k miles when we started driving it…mine was that Civic and we joked about how I probably hit 100k in 2004 – but it was probably 2005. I think we’re all coming up on that midlife crisis Viola had in the book and wanting to get new rides that have a little more swag, if you know what I mean. (I’ve got this really pretty Wrangler on my vision board…)

Sometimes at book club you get deep, and talk about family of origin stories, and how you can relate to some familial theme that flows through the book and where it touches your feels the hardest. Or how you found a great new podcast (shoutout to my finding Michelle Obama’s new podcast on Spotify) and how you can see the real life issues discussed on a listening platform reflected in the book club pick. And then, yes, we talked about the cover of The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls and what the symbolism of the four faces may be. I at first thought that it could be the 4 Butler siblings Althea, Viola, Joe, and Lilian. Or it could be the Cochran family, Althea, Proctor, Kim, and Baby Viola. And now, upon further thought it could be Viola and Lilian with their nieces Kim and Baby Vi. Who knows for sure, but there’s color symbolism in the cover, too. Did you find that in the book as well?

Don’t forget to click here to find out what’s on the Virtual Book Club docket for the remainder of 2020. We’ll let you know if any of the books go on sale via our social media accounts in the interim, but get on your library’s holds list ASAP, dear readers!

~Ashley