Night Club

This week my book club met to discuss this month's book. Did I tell you what I named it? The book club, not the book :). Since our club is at night then it's the Night [Book] Club or just Night Club for short. It cracks me up every time I send out a reminder email because we're mostly single LDS school marms and it's the closest we've ever gotten to a night club :).

This month the book selection is Persuasion by Jane Austen. It took me a little while to get into the book because, frankly, the language is 193!!! years old. Can you believe it's almost 200 years old and people are still reading it?! That craziness.
I was glad that I had seen the movie so that I knew the plot and could still skim when I didn't have a clue what I was reading. Austen does this weird third person narrative without any dialogue that feels vague. Of course, I don't know some of the words she uses. Actually, I don't know a lot of the words she uses. I ALMOST looked up what "staid" was but then realized that it's just a change in the spelling for "stayed" :). Oy.

It's been quite the adventure and the book is MUCH better than the 1995 movie version because they dropped big sections of the story and tried to wrap up the plot in the last twenty minutes. Lame. One of my favorite passages is when Anne has overheard her ex-fiancé (she had been persuaded by her family to break it off) tell her friend that to be easily persuaded shows a lack of character. Ouch. Then as the whole group is walking back, they meet up with his sister and he talks her into driving Anne back because she's tired.

"She understood him. He could not forgive her, --but he could not be unfeeling. Though condemning her for the past, and considering it with high and unjust resentment, though perfectly careless of her, and though becoming attached to another, still he could not see her suffer, without the desire of giving her relief. It was a remainder of a former sentiment; it was an impusle of pure though unacknowleged friendship; it was a proof his own warm and amiable heart... "

Anne is feeling so sad and hurt and yet can't help admire a guy that doesn't like her but is still a gentleman enough to provide for her needs. Isn't that sweet? And so sad? Definitely a bittersweet moment. Yah, I SERIOUSLY missed that in the movie :). They came out with a new movie of Persuasion last year and it is just delightful. Chris totally has the hots for Captain Wentworth :). And for good reason!
Sorry. Rambling. For Night Club we got together at my parents’ house where they have a comfy basement and watched the new version. Sounds like fun, right? I was really hoping people would show up. There's nothing more awkward than inviting ten people and only have your mother show up like last month. Last month was a bit of a dud. It started off with Mom saying it sure was a thick book and then asking me how far I'd gotten on the Relief Society photo directory :). Good times!
This month we met with Mindy Haws (thanks for coming Mindy!) and my sister, Tricia. It was a small group, but we had a good time.