Friday, May 8, 2009

Coke and peanuts....final "Bees" discussion

Thank you to all who attended the thai food/chocolate/peanut bonanza last night! We spent approx. 10% of the time talking about the book and the rest on random (but very enjoyable) discussion.

For those who couldn't make it but are still interested in what we talked about, here is a brief run-down. (no, I didn't take minutes!!)

  • A couple of people had read the book for the first time for book club and really enjoyed it. Some of us had read it before and re-read it for book club, and we all said we enjoyed it less the second time around. Perhaps it loses its freshness when you know what is going to happen.
  • We talked a little bit about the "romance" between Lily and Zach. Some of us felt this would've been more powerful as a friendship; others felt that as it was a coming-of-age story, it would be logical that it be a romance. We could all see what Lily saw in Zach, but found it more diffucult to understand why he would be attracted to a much younger girl.
  • We discussed the significance of bees but I don't know that we solved this one.
  • Kathryn showed us a portrait of a Black Madonna that she bought in Vilnius in Lithuania - this seems to be a wide-spread image in Europe that I was unaware of before the book.

If anyone else who was there can remember more can you add as a comment. And now back to our regularly scheduled programme - 1984!!!

2 comments:

Hettie Betty said...

Thanks for hosting Philippa! The coffee was so yummy and I was bouncing off the walls for the rest of the night, but it was worth it.

detecktive said...

Thanks for suggesting this book and posting the info on the blog. Its definitely out of my comfort zone for reading and I found some of the themes in the book quite challenging. Its funny how you can get desenstised to some things (like injustice) and then something you read or hear or watch stirs you out of apathy to outrage. Some of this book did that for me.

In any event, while I can't say I thoroughly enjoyed it, I think it has helped to stretch my reading.

Thanks again Phillipa!