September Book Club

BOOKCLUB REPORT September 15, 2020 Twelve members met for the first in-person meeting since February 18, 2020.  We welcomed two new members to the group. The book for this month was Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.  This is a first novel for the 70 year old author and scientist and has been on the New York Times best seller list for 93 weeks. It is a beautifully written but unusual novel in that it crosses many genres: romance, mystery, coming of age, poetry, and even non-fiction.  It deals with loneliness, perseverance, love, despair and hope. The book provided opportunity for discussions about race, inhumanity to those we perceive as different, abandonment, spirit animals, education without schooling, secrets, and more.  One thing that made this book particularly interesting is how this author brought the story to life by weaving rich descriptions of her experience with nature and wild life through out.  The central character in this book is a young girl name Kya who is abandoned by her parents and 7 brothers and sisters at the age of 7 in the marshland of North Carolina in 1952.  She is left to fend for herself. The reader is taken on an emotional, mesmerizing, at times heart breaking journey through her life.  Kya lives totally alone for many years, living by her wits alone often living on soda crackers and Crisco.  We watch as she learns to read and write and eventually comes into her own as an author and expert.  She longs for companionship and love and finds some of that in her relationships with two men, Chase and Tate. Both are drawn to her wildness but in different ways, leading to murder and mystery. The ending was a surprise to all. The book was rated as 8.8/10.