Our March book club met today IN PERSON with everyone in attendance—a first since November. It was great seeing everyone. We did meet outside, with social distancing, but two have had both vaccines, 3 have had one, and only one has not had any, so we are getting there. It was so nice to be around people. Unfortunately, our book was a bit of a dud. Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore, started out pretty funny, but quickly got old for all of us. The premise behind the book was that Biff (Levy) was resurrected by an angel to write the full story of Jesus’ life. Biff was Jesus’ best friend from childhood through crucifixion, and he told some interesting tales. There were some great insights at time, but overall, this book did not have a biblical tone. In fact, some might say it was sacrilegious. Once again, the book got glowing reviews on many websites, but our book club would be lucky to give it a one-star rating. Mr. Moore has written numerous books, but none of us are reading any others.
Lynne did knock it out of the park on her themed food for our party. She made Devils on horseback (bacon wrapped dates), loaves and fishes (tuna salad on bread) and rice pudding (to understand the rice part you would need to read the book, but I don’t recommend it).
In addition to discussing the book, we also did our annual academy awards of our past 12 books.
Best Leading Actor/Actress (Character) – 1st Place - Mei Ling from The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, 2nd - Gracie Lee from the Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee and tied for 3rd Odie from This Tender Land, Anna Frith from A Year of Wonders, and Violet Speedwell from A Single Thread.
Best Supporting Actor/Actress (Character) – 1st place Eve from This Tender Land, Elinor from A year of Wonders
Favorite Book – 1st Place – The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, 2nd place The Library Book and
Easiest Read- 1st place – Where’d you go Bernadette, 2nd place – Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee and 3rd place –
Hardest Read – tied for 1st place – Just Mercy and Ernie Dumas
Book that made the biggest impact this year: 1st place – Just Mercy, 2nd place The Library Book and A Year of Wonders, 3rd place A Single Thread
Book that you recommended the most: tied for 1st – Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee, The Girl Who Wrote in Silk and This Tender Land. 2nd place The Library Book and A Year of Wonder 3rd place Just Mercy
Book that you would least likely recommend: Tied for 1st place Just Mercy and Ernie Dumas, 2nd Place Lunch in Paris