Carol’s Comments (group member since Jun 02, 2011)

Carol’s comments from the Reader's Ink group.

Great! Our New club is called "Hooray for Books and Reading." You will probably find us along the center tab then along the left side of the "Group" title along the top of the web site.

Take care.... Enjoy Patrick. I've read the whole series, and they are delightful.

Hello M.E. I felt terrible when I got your email. We discontinued that book club almost a year ago to my great sadness. We just started a new one about 3-4 weeks ago called "Hooray for Books and Reading". Our first book is "Call the Midwife" by Jennifer Worth, and we will start chatting about it at the end of February. So far we have about 8 members which with another one or two is a perfect number for me. I like them kind of small. You are welcome to join us if you want. I was sad that my group wanted to quit last year, as I love Patrick Taylor and Irish books. I'll let you decide, but that's the scoop. Let me know if I can help at all. Carol

Tough question, but one of my favorites was the woman that trained Viola, liked her.

The fact that Mom leaves her to be with her dad is strange but relationships are strange throughout the book. They seem realistic to me. And her daughter seems able to accept it and becomes a courtesan in training.

Tan's portrait of Violet's dominant, yet emotionally wounded mother Lucia possesses a poignancy that threads the novel together into a piece. Now in trade paperback I hope this is the pointing you mean, I couldn't find another.

YES. the explicitness of the sex the how to's and the profession of the courtesan.

I FEEL terrible. I gave it a two. The dynamics between mother and daughter is odd and uncomfortable to me. I'm not comfortable with the making of a courtesan--probably from my own background. Shanghai, 1912. Violet Minturn is the privileged daughter of the American madam of the city's most exclusive courtesan house. But when the Ching dynasty is overturned, Violet is separated from her mother in a cruel act of chicanery and forced to become a "virgin courtesan." Half-Chinese and half-American, Violet grapples with her place in the worlds of East and West—until she is able to merge her two halves, empowering her to become a shrewd courtesan who excels in the business of seduction and illusion, though she still struggles to understand who she is.

5. WHAT CHARACTER DID YOU LIKE BEST AND WHY?

4. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PAINTING OF THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT IN THIS STORY?

3.DID ANY OF THIS NOVEL SHOCK YOU?

2. THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MOTHER AND DAUGHTER ARE ALL VERY UNCONVENTIONAL. GIVEN THE TIME PERIOD AND THE DYNAMICS OF TIME AND PLACE, DO THESE RELATIONSHIPS SEEM AT ALL PLAUSIBLE? WHY OR WHY NOT?

1. WHAT DO YOU RATE THIS BOOK AND WHY.

These are Cheryl's questions, just helped post them for her,

Folder is ready

Why don't you email them to me at cajonesdoa@juno.com and I'll post them for you.

I was hoping more and different ones of us would like to submit books for April thru October. A series I just love is
"A Dublin Student Doctor (Irish Country #6)" by Patrick Taylor. So I'm going to submit that for April Reading. What books would you like to read?

Diana, do we get to read your comments about this book? I always like to read the pickers thoughts on the book they chose.

I personally was some bothered that Elise was unable to see the letters from Frau Rattelmuller. When we think of the contents of the letters, Elise could have benefited and had a deeper family connection than she did. Kind of sad.

That was one of my favorite parts of the book. Don't really have a clue as to where they are today, but does it matter?

While I was reading this, I'm embarrassed to say I didn't seem to see it as blind obedience. Could be because I was raised in that type of environment, so it felt natural to me. I was in my 20's and living on my own when I came into my own and learned what my convictions were. It interestingly enough caused some riffs in my family that I could suddenly think for myself and didn't live under Mommy's and Daddy's thinking.

In 1945, Elsie Schmidt was a naive teenager, as eager for her first sip of champagne as she was for her first kiss. She and her family have been protected from the worst of the terror and desperation overtaking her country by a high-ranking Nazi who wishes to marry her. So when an escaped Jewish boy arrives on Elsie’s doorstep in the dead of night on Christmas Eve, Elsie understands that opening the door would put all she loves in danger.

Sixty years later, in El Paso, Texas, Reba Adams is trying to file a feel-good Christmas piece for the local magazine. Reba is perpetually on the run from memories of a turbulent childhood, but she’s been in El Paso long enough to get a full-time job and a fiancé, Riki Chavez. Riki, an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, finds comfort in strict rules and regulations, whereas Reba feels that lines can often be blurred. Reba’s latest assignment has brought her to the shop of an elderly baker across town. The interview should take a few hours at most, but the owner of Elsie’s German Bakery is no easy subject. Reba finds herself returning to the bakery again and again, anxious to find the heart of the story. For Elsie, Reba’s questions are a reminder of darker times: her life in Germany during that last bleak year of WWII. And as Elsie, Reba, and Riki’s lives become more intertwined, all are forced to confront the uncomfortable truths of the past and seek out the courage to forgive.