Wrapping up the Book Club

Posted on

Now that most of the Star Trek hoopla has died down, I wanted to comment on the fourth and final meeting of the mystery book group.We discussed P.D. James’ An Inconvenient Job for a Woman, which was written in 1972 and introduced readers to her character, Cordelia Gray. Interestingly, I found the writing good, the structure sound but all the characters, especially Cordelia, exceedingly flat or two-dimensional. Cordelia was said to be 22 but nothing about the way she acted or was treated or thought or spoke indicated she was a 22 year old. When I voiced this, several people around the room (totaling nearly 50) nodded. One, though, said the opposite which surprised her since she normally agreed with my comments, which came as a pleasant surprise.Anyway, our leader did not give us the usual context including biographical details about James, which I found a bit of a shame. He also actually let the conversation flow and didn’t keep us to his normally rigid agenda. As a result, we were kind of all over the place which was interesting.Overall, I found myself pleased to have attended the sessions, glad to have sampled three authors I never thought I’d read. We closed the session with news that he will be back, probably in the fall, with another theme and set of books. Based on what we’d read, I’m inclined to return.On my way in, the Librarian grabbed me to say that the baseball book leader has an idea for a third go-round and is putting the plans together. I was particularly pleased to hear that since his passion and knowledge is terrific.

Back to Blog Listing