The bookclub diaries

I had a bookclub meeting this evening for the first time since February.
We read Red River by Lalita Tademy, and met to discuss it.
Everyone gathered at Camille's house.
There was a new reader there, Lou, and we welcomed her. She jumped right into the discussion, and I believe she will add a lot to the group.
It was so good to see everyone again. It had been a while.
Karen broke her leg, and was on crutches.
Camille's dad is not doing well these days. My prayers are with her and her family.
Everyone's been busy, but we finally took time to sit together and talk about literature. What could be better?
I really liked this book because it is about, ultimately, the courageous human spirit, the importance of education, and the survival and success of one determined family in the face of overwhelming hate and constant discouragement.
The following excerpt and synopsis, taken from the book's jacket, gives a glimpse into this important novel. I recommend it.

Come closer. This is not a story to go down easy, and the backwash still got hold of us today. The history of a family. The history of a country. From bondage to the joy of freedom…and then back into darkness, so fearsome that don't nobody want to talk about the scary time. 1873. Wasn't no riot like they say. It was a massacre... -From Red River. Hailed as "powerful," "accomplished," and "spellbinding," Lalita Tademy's first novel Cane River was a New York Times bestseller and the 2001 Oprah Book Club Summer Selection. Now with her evocative, luminous style and painstaking research, she takes her family's story even further, back to a little-chronicled, deliberately-forgotten time...and the struggle of three extraordinary generations of African-American men to forge brutal injustice and shattered promise into a limitless future for their children... Red River. For the newly-freed black residents of Colfax, Louisiana, the beginning of Reconstruction promised them the right to vote, own property-and at last control their own lives. Tademy saw a chance to start a school for his children and neighbors. His friend Israel Smith was determined to start a community business and gain economic freedom. But in the space of a day, marauding whites would "take back" Colfax in one of the deadliest cases of racial violence in the South. In the bitter aftermath, Sam and Israel's fight to recover and build their dreams will draw on the best they and their families have to give - and the worst they couldn't have foreseen. Sam's hidden resilience will make him an unexpected leader, even as it puts his conscience and life on the line. Israel finds ironic success - and the bitterest of betrayals. And their greatest challenge will be to pass on to their sons and grandsons a proud heritage never forgotten - and the strength to meet the demands of the past and future in their own unique ways. An unforgettable achievement, a history brought to vibrant life through one of the most memorable families in fiction, Red River is about fathers and sons, husbands and wives-and the hopeful, heartbreaking choices we all must make to claim the legacy that is ours.

My favorite parts of the book?
One is when the men of Colfax are holding the courthouse, standing for what they know is right though their lives are on the line for it, holding out hope that this time Justice will prevail. They are tired and dirty and scared. They are beginning to realize that they have dug their own graves by daring to take action against the white men. One of the weary men asks, "What are we doing here?" and another answers, "We are here so our sons will not have to be."
Yes.
Also, I loved all the passages about how precious books were to this family, and about how they learned to read.
Next up: The Zoo Keeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
June 14 @ 7 p.m.
Lou's house.
In the future: Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

On another note, it is soooo windy right now, I fear we will all lift off and be carried into the sky. I can hear the wind blowing through the trees, but it is not a gentle rustle. It is a violent, rushing sound, like many waters converging from all directions at one time.
That's some wind!