ANA Book Club?

[sgerrard]

I'm still done.

Steve

[Kaybo]

whew!  that is good to know, Steve....I was afraid you had regressed with the amount of time it is taking ME to finish this book!    I am on the hair...

K    *reading in between INSANE schedule*

[another NY postie]

I'm done and book returned to the library so my memory will probably be faulty but I will just blame that on my recovery!

[NancyMc]

Page 100 but go ahead without me.  I have to haul firewood, change the oil in the tractor, clean the furnace heat exchanger and try to fix the humidifier all weekend.  Back on Monday.

[sgerrard]

Monday? That's enough chores to last me to spring. 

I'm asking Hanna to do a restoration job on my copy of People of the Book, it has been lying around collecting dust for ages. 

Steve

[saralynn143]

I had to take the copy I was reading back to the library as somebody else had it on hold. I hope I will remember all of the names . . . so many characters.

Who starts the discussion this time?

Sara

[Kaybo]

Wasn't Steve the original "suggestor" of this book?  I should finish by tonight....what about Clarice?

K   

[CHD63]

Still not finished ..... kids here this week-end ..... go on without me ..... I won't look at the discussion until I finish, hopefully by tomorrow night.  Sorry Steve!   

Clarice

[Sue]

So the ONE time I read one of the books, I'm done like a flash and now I won't remember anything!! 

I was waiting for the book girl to eventually be related to the original maker of the book.  Or was she?  I forget! ha 

Sue in Vancouver

[sgerrard]

Okay, I'll pose a question, in the manner of a high school English teacher. Which historical segment was your favorite, and why?

I'm going with al-Mora, the girl/woman who started it all by painting the images. I'm not sure I believe that anyone could paint a polo match on a grain of rice, but I found this story somehow enchanting, despite all the violence that occurs along the way. I think I liked the fact that the setting was an era I know little about, and that somehow makes the violence seem less troubling. I certainly did not know much about what Seville might have been like in 1480. Emirs and Persian eunuchs and a room full of slaves making paintings all sounds exotic and mystical, a part of Islamic history in Spain that could just as well been classical antiquity, for all I know about it.

Steve

[Kaybo]

I think that was my 2nd favorite - i liked about the Jewish girl and the family that took her in & tried to help her...for me, that was the story that really drew me in & started me really liking and wanting to read the book...

K 

[Sue]

I think I agree with Steve.  The further back it got, the better I liked it.  Was happy to get through the Spanish Inquisition part though. eeeeeeeeeeeek   Totally delighted me to find out the artist was a girl.  I thought the author did such a great job of taking the known facts of the real book and putting it into a novel.  Of course, I'd never heard of the real book before, and now I'm totally fascinated with the whole mystery of the it.  I think this book appealed to me because I like genealogy and I've done our family history and every generation back is a victory, so that's what I felt with this story.  Each story back was more interesting to me than the previous one.

Good choice!!

Sue in Vancouver

[NancyMc]

I'm still not done, Steve, but the chores are, and we even threw in a hike.  Back to the book now while Dave cleans up the trilobites he got in Ireland.  Just love the diversity of the characters and contexts.  Can't tell you my favorite yet; I'm in Vienna at the moment.  Carry on without me.

[another NY postie]

I liked the young jewish character that I think was called Lola.  (I don't have book anymore-back at library and finished it a couple of weeks ago so detalis are a bit fuzzy).  The one whose family was rounded up and she climbed out the window with the younger girl who was a sister of one of the rebels.  She was a survivor and I particularly liked when she went and lived with the Muslim family who protected her and that is when she saw the book - the man's character was so good and noble and I liked the way he treated his wife and her as intellectual beings- a far cry from most of the rest of the book in terms of women's treatment/positions.  I also liked the al-Mora part when she was disguised as a boy but that section and the inquisition were a bit brutal for me to stomach.

[cindyj]

Yep, I'm with you, Sue!  Every story that went further and further back in the history of the book was better and better for me.  My favorite was indeed al-Mora.  Although, I really did like all the characters who had anything to do with saving the book.  Loved how the author blended, if you will, the three religions...

cindy