Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill

Generally speaking, most of us leaned towards liking the content of the book, if not the writing style. Some highlights:

• Gave a couple of us nightmares! powerlessness, being trapped
• Intriguing topic
• Interviews on youtube more interesting than Jenna’s personal story
• Tough to get through all the childhood torture and brainwashing
• Scientology is like multilevel marketing
• From book, it was hard to figure out why adults would get into scientology
• Many of us thought that the origin of the church’s teachings, e.g., the “mind over matter” idea in Dianetics, sounds interesting; could be useful if it hadn’t turned into a cult
• Book could have been condensed into a few articles
• Lack of real information about scientology was disappointing
• Why haven’t more deserters written books?
• Reading the book left us with more questions than answers
• Paul Haggis doesn’t regret being a scientologist – there are benefits, just like in any religion
• Would have been nice to hear from Jenna’s parents
• Her aunt has been MIA for years

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

• Positive but depressing
• Reminded some of “Slumdog Millionaire”
• Makes you appreciate what you have
• Contrast between the hotel and slums interesting
• Kept forgetting it wasn’t fiction
• Better to support local, rather than global, charities
• Characters were survivors
• Amazing how people carve out niches for themselves
• Lots of suicides
• Animals and children are helpless

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

What a fun meeting last night!!   Tarot cards, raffle tickets, black & white decorations/food, a ball-throwing game, prizes…SO FUN!!

Everyone really enjoyed this book.  I think the opinions ranged from “liked it” to “loveloveloveOMG.”

Some highlight of our discussion:

• Can’t wait to see the movie version of this!
• Some thought the competition aspect was lame or just didn’t like it, or didn’t think it was the focus of the plot
• Skipping around on dates could be confusing, but was that done to intentionally mirror the non-linear circus itself?
• Unusual that it was written in 2nd person
• Descriptions are so beautiful
• The audiobook reader is very good
• Very visual – felt like you were seeing it
• What is your favorite tent – Ice Garden? Wishing Tree?

TV:
Scandal

Books:
The Wasp Factory (again)
Geek Love (as usual)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Overall, the group liked the book–some more than others.  We all agreed the author did a wonderful job letting us into the mind of an autistic boy and we found the perspective fascinating.

Some highlights:

•  The ending was believable and satisfying, given the situation.  Add it to our Sad Book Pile.
• Most of us sympathized with both parents and the strain they were both under.  Some thought they could have handled it better, such as not abandoning one’s child, not killing a dog, etc.
• The illustrations and graphs added a lot to the story and helped show how Christopher’s brain works.
• Compared Asperger’s Syndrome to autism.
• Jacquie had just seen Temple Grandin in person!  Temple said she is often frustrated by how many kids with autism don’t  ever realize their full potential. Some use their label or diagnosis as a crutch.
• It was easier for Christopher to forgive his mother over his father.  His view is very logical, black and white.  Dad killed dog=Dad will kill me.
• We wondered why the father kept the letters from Christopher’s mother.
• It was interesting (and disturbing to some) that Christopher’s favorite dream was to never be around anyone, yet he loved animals so much, especially Toby.  Animals much simpler creatures, easier to read than humans?
• Exhausting for those with autism to try and decipher emotions, sarcasm, etc.
• To Christopher, home was somewhere familiar with all his things, rather than a place representative of love.
• The Life Skills course and others like it at Christopher’s school sounded great and something that should regularly be taught in our schools in the U.S.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Though some thought the beginning was a little slow, and some didn’t like the ending, most of us really enjoyed the book.

Some highlights:

• Was it actually about burning books?  Or was that just a symptom of the bigger problem?
• The characters were in a bubble, brainwashed
• Were people already seeing this trend in the 50s?  Or was Bradbury just that forward-thinking?
• Originally published in a magazine
• Bradbury wrote screenplays that changed some details to give readers what they wanted
• Montag was working out how to get out of the culture
• Wife was there but not really there
• Were all the literary quotes real?
• Freaky how modern it was

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Almost everyone really enjoyed the book, but a couple of us were not impressed with it.  I just realized – I think everyone had finished it!

Some highlights:

• Feminist angle was a plus
• Was it history or fantasy?  Which was more interesting?  Fantasy part was either really stupid/boring, or an exciting part of the story, depending on who you ask
• Took some of us a while to get into it
• Made you want to research topic, visit Salem
• Hard to understand their belief of getting sick in relation to religion, with no concept of medicine or the scientific method
• It sure took Connie a long time to catch on to some things…
• Almost seemed like Connie & Liz were a couple
• Sam was not a very strong character, not very fleshed out
• Characters overall a little disappointing
• Did they really kick the women, not a stool out from underneath them?
• They also hanged men for witchcraft

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

Bag of Bones was definitely not enjoyed by everyone!

Some highlights:

• Hard to get into it for some of us
• Noonan went off on some weird tangents
• Was the sex necessary? Did you just picture Stephen King as the one doing it?  (Yuck…)
• Scary to some, not scary to others
• Many of King’s characters are writers
• Was it weird that the townspeople were still so scared of Devore after he died?  Or are small towns really like that?
• Some thought it was too wordy, others thought all the descriptions were great
• Do you want messages on the fridge magnets?
• Sara sort of possessed everyone to kill their kids
• Did Sara kill Jo?
• Not really explained why Noonan suddenly wants to kill Ki and himself
• Bartleby, Rebecca, martians
• Writer’s block – Noonan ignored the problem like in The Shining

The Light between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

The book was very well-liked, and it was generally agreed that it was gut-wrenching (though some of us connected with it more than others).

Highlights of our discussion:

• Beginning (first half) of novel very slow
• End of novel soooooooooooo sad
• Preyed on worst fears as an adoptive mother
• Book showed how you can be psychologically pulled into doing the wrong thing, even though you know it’s morally wrong
• Some found it hard to adjust to the way the writing switched perspectives
• In some places, it felt like the book built up climaxes that never happened – like Hannah testifying
• Not enough detail about Tom’s history with his mother
• Really affected if you’ve had a baby recently
• The whole story was a lose/lose situation
• Glad to have reconciliation between Tom & Isabel
• Took too long to get to the baby
• Not interested in Tom’s past
• Could you live a life of seclusion, like Tom & Isabel on the island?
• Tom tells Isabel to stay in “normal” mode

The Autobiography of an Execution by David R. Dow

Everyone enjoyed The Autobiography of an Execution.  Megan came up with incredible discussion questions, which the author himself called “great” – twice!!

Some highlights:

• Generally speaking, this is a tough issue any way you look at it
• Mental illness and crappy lawyers make the death penalty an even tougher pill to swallow
• BUT – do the criminals deserve it?
• Does the execution of just one innocent person make the entire system completely wrong?
• Dow has the hardest job in the world (lots of drinking & bad dreams) – how can he ever walk away from it without feeling guilty?
• We’d really like to know WHY he changed his mind and now opposes the death penalty
• For some of us, the book gave us a different perspective, but didn’t necessarily change our minds about how we feel
• James Holmes, the guy in Aurora – mentally ill or super smart?  Or both?  He should be sentenced to die, he seemed to know what he was doing
• Is all murder a result of chemical imbalance?
• Andrea Yates – no question about mental illness
• Which is worse – life in prison, or death penalty?  Could be hard to accept death when it’s not on your own terms
• We all felt better to know that the death row inmates don’t have TV, exercise, college, etc.
• Can people really be rehabilitated?

The Garden on Sunset by Martin Turnbull

Not everyone liked The Garden on Sunset; in fact, a couple of us really hated it.  Everyone else liked it well enough, especially because it was such an easy read.  Our hostess had the fabulous idea to email the author, Martin Turnbull – and he replied!!  They had quite the email chit-chat going on, and Mr. Turnbull even provided us with some discussion questions.  How cool!  We thought that this book was going to be the first in a trilogy, but apparently he’s going to write NINE of these suckers.

Some highlights:

• Not much character development; sometimes hard to keep them straight
• Characters predictable; scenarios a little ridiculous
• Prohibition lasted 13 years
• Rabbit Test was early pregnancy test; in fact, ALL the rabbits died!
• Cosmopolitan Pictures later became Cosmopolitan the magazine
• There were so many small events, but no one big plot – read like a blog
• It was hard to relate to others what it was actually about
• The time jumps were extremely annoying
• The end of each chapter resolved the issue at hand, instead of building suspense
• SO much name-dropping, although is that how it really was in Hollywood at that time?
• Did Turnbull just write this to live out his own fantasy?
• Every extraneous character was famous, like in an old Bugs Bunny cartoon!
• Garden of Allah Hotel similar to the Chelsea in Patti Smith’s book?