Date: 29 October 2023
Location: John & Marion

News of the World
by Paulette Jiles

We had a cute little cozy group at the John and Marion’s last night. We had a great discussion of the book, News of the World by Paulette Jiles- and of the movie. Two of us had seen the movie, but not read the book. So of course, there were comparisons of the book and movie. Those who had only seen the movie, while thinking that the movie was well done, really thought that the book might be worth reading – differences!

One of the discussions was the difference exemplified by Native peoples all over the world living with nature and valuing nature’s contribution to their lives versus the opposite seen in Western civilizations where nature is seen almost as the enemy that has to be conquered. Of course, we discussed the differences of emphasis between the book and movie on the primary characters. I’m looking forward to watching the movie to be able to appreciate those differences. I do think that the movie can be found streaming on Amazon Prime.

Bookers who couldn’t make the meeting missed a delightful dinner of pork and apples, plus+++. The tables were small which allowed us to keep on yakking about everything and nothing. We enjoyed ourselves. And missed each and everyone of you all who were absent.

We decided to read Centennial Crisis: the Disputed Election of 1876 by William Rehnquist for November. The meeting will be at the Bains’ on November 26th, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. If there are going to be too many people out of town, we can move the date. Let us know if we need to move it by your vote.

Tom Borcher is considering doing a LearningQUEST class for the Fall 2024 term about this election. It has a lot of similarities to the 2000 election with Bush II versus Gore and the Florida hanging chads confusing the entire mess. You’ll feel right at home. Jay finished the book a couple of days ago and recommends it for the bookclub. I read a few paragraphs in the Introduction while we were at dinner last night and we found it intriguing and rather familiar.

— Gina