Category: Book Club
Frankenstein
This is not a story about a monster. Or at least not the kind of monster I was anticipating. There is no brainless creature terrorizing the countryside. The “Monster” was a created being with human thought and reasoning, emotion, and the capacity for ethics. But, the real monster in this novel is Dr. Frankenstein himself who created this being and then cruelly abandoned him. It is a riveting tale of the human condition.
Hobbit Club Discussion Questions
Hobbit Club Discussion Questions (July & August) The Hobbit Tolkien, a master of words, uses the word ‘burglar’ to describe Bilbo. What does that mean? How are Bilbo and Gollum alike? How is Beorn like Lewis’s Aslan? Isn’t it interesting that after their stay with Beorn, Gandalf tells the party that he will be leaving…
Building A Hobbit Club
In the Spring of 2018, almost 2 dozen hobbits from a variety of parishes and walks of life came together to begin a monthly book club adventure into Middle Earth. We continue to meet and each month we discuss the literature as well as the Catholic themes we see. At our gatherings, we pray, laugh,…
Sense and Sensibility Young Ladies Tea
It seemed appropriate to schedule a Jane Austen romance during February for my Young Ladies Literary Tea. Since we did Pride and Prejudice last fall, we were eager to compare the Bennet sisters to the Dashwood sisters, so we chased away the mid-winter blues with Sense and Sensibility. It was a marvelous club. As usual,…
Raising Chaste Catholic Men – A Mom Book Club
My husband is the Associate Principal of a large Catholic high school. There is much about his job which is heartbreaking. Our secular culture today seeks to ravage the innocence and chastity of our young people – no matter where they attend school – Christian school, private school, home school, or any combination thereof. While…
Hobbit Club: January 2019
This is part of the Hobbit Club series This month we opened our book club with what we understand was J.R.R. Tolkien’s favorite prayer: The Litany of Mother Mary. We Catholics love our litanies. They are so soothing while also inviting contemplation. Our Lord despises vain repetitions, but He did not object to repetition. In…
Hobbit Club: December 2018
This is part of our Hobbit Club Series At our December meeting, I was sick. I got sick in October and have been in and out of doctors’ offices since then. At the time of writing this (February) I am preparing for a surgery which should cap off a nearly five-month ordeal. In fact, I…
Understood Betsy Young Ladies Literary Tea
In January, we drank cocoa instead of tea at our Young Ladies Literary Tea. If you have ever read Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s Understood Betsy you will know how important hot cocoa and cookies are. Those awful Putney cousins may make Betsy do farm chores, but they also show their love in cookies and cocoa. On…
Betsy and Tacy Young Ladies Literary Tea
In December my girls and I read Maud Hart Lovelace’s last six Betsy Tacy books for our Young Ladies Tea series. This is one of my favorite YLT book clubs to date. I was very ill in November and was confined to a chair for a number of days. During that time, Betsy and her…
The Secret Garden Young Book Club
Just before Thanksgiving, I had the pleasure of hosting a The Secret Garden book club with almost 25 young readers whose ages ranged from 7 to 14. It was one of our “mixed” book clubs that celebrates the kind of book that is especially good for family read aloud – a book that everyone will…
Hobbit Club: October Meeting
As I was preparing for our October Hobbit Club meeting, I fretted that I didn’t have any pre-planned questions to throw at the group. Silly me… all this crowd needs for good discussion is an open-concept furniture floor plan so we can see each other and move around to refresh our refreshments. To that end,…
Pride and Prejudice Young Ladies Literary Tea
For our fourth Young Ladies Literary Tea, we read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Really, could we have chosen a more perfect book for a literary tea? An advantage of doing these teas monthly is that we can settle into a rhythm. As usual, we went to the home of my friend Giovanna, some of…
Hobbit Club: September Meeting
In our September Hobbit Club meeting, we drank Dragon Eye Red Ale beer that Greg and I brewed, we had birthday cupcakes for Frodo and Bilbo, and we laughed until our sides hurt. It was a party for Hobbits! The reading for this month was the Joseph Pearce commentary, Frodo’s Journey. At this point in…
Book Club Questions
Sometimes the hardest part about leading a book club is getting the conversation going. While every book will have its own relevant questions and topics for discussion, it is nice to have a cheat sheet you can consult when the conversation dries up. Here are a dozen of my favorites: What did you like most…