Welcome New Member, and June's book

I'd like to welcome Priti Johari to our Rekindled Book Club!! Priti has just finished an intense 1 yr Master's program at Harvard, and will be getting married next month to her Harvard-professor-fiance (wowsers!) ... and will be joining our book club!

Just wanted to double check on what was the status for our next  book -- 'Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter' by Tom Franklin. When is that supposed to be due by?

Let us know, and let's Rekindle the bookclub again!!

Thomas Stone

I realized there's a lot that I could possibly write about with regards to Cutting for Stone but that's an overwhelming thought, so I'll stick to one of the aspects of the book that I really enjoyed.

Earlier this year in the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (ELIC), I was really angry at the grandfather character for picking up and leaving his wife and child and being selfish all through his life. Then I was also annoyed at how he just couldn't get his shit together, for lack of better words, and get over the trauma that caused him to leave. I assumed I would feel the same for Thomas Stone. Throughout the book, although the children were lucky to live a fulfilling life with the love of a mother and father, I still couldn't help but think that Thomas Stone was a failure for leaving his children and running from responsibility.

I'm surprised to say I sympathized with the Thomas Stone character and actually felt that he did come through in the way he could for his children. He wasn't in the mental capacity to take care of two children and probably would have caused them more harm in their childhood than leaving them in the care of Hema and Ghosh. (Well, I'm hoping he at least realized that they would be cared for and didn't leave them with no thought of their safety/well-being at all) In the end, when he does meet Marion, he doesn't shy away from the responsibility. He is awkward but puts in effort to reconnect with his son. He helps Marion's hospital from going under and we find out later that he was an anonymous donor for Shiva's cause back in Ethiopia. He doesn't leave ShivaMarion's side during the liver transplant/death debacle.

Somehow his inability to get over the Sister's death was also justified in my mind. I guess his history of the mother that died in his arms and not being able to say anything to Sister about loving her before she died was enough to push him over the edge. I am glad though, that Marion chose to tell Thomas about the letter when he found it, to give Thomas solace that he did come through for Sister in her eyes. It was almost better in terms of their relationship that she died than just left him -- ok maybe it made for a better story the fact that she did die. Hmm...what would have happened, do you think, if she hadn't died and had left Stone with that note and left Missing with the children unborn still?

80% through ... getting there!

I just wanted to give my mid-book comments -- don't read this unless you're more than 80% of the way through!!

Only at the 60% mark did I finally start somewhat enjoying the book. It was the first time since I started this book that I would actually seek out my Kindle in downtime. Then slowly I've started seeking out downtime to read because I'm finally interested in the story.

The turning point for me was the whole Marion-Genet-Shiva triangle. Marion's love for Genet was very cute & sweet, and Genet was a case where you can see how her circumstances led her so far astray from what she could have been (like what Marion envisioned for their life to be, and what she chose for it to be). And it's interesting how Marion links that one evening when Shiva slept with Genet to be the start of the downward spiral of events in Genet, and ultimately his life. Well, not that it's downward for him, but the fact that he had to become a political refugee of Ethiopia.

I'm currently at the part where he's in America, and he's already met Thomas Stone (that was an exciting moment!). They've realized that neither of them have the letter that was mentioned in the bookmark, neither does Shiva or anyone back in Missing. And I think Marion's finished his internship or something; he doesn't have much contact with Thomas Stone anymore.

I'll definitely finish the book, probably early next week... I'm busy today and tomorrow with 'Ramayana' and I'll finish it right after that. Thanks for forcing me to keep reading!

Can't wait to read the rest of your comments when I'm done -- Ferah, I haven't read your post yet bc I don't want any spoilers. 

Cutting through my thoughts

Sorry, my hand accidently published my post when it wasn't ready. Sorry for that premature email!

First- my dad met the author earlier this week! He said that he was a really great speaker and was very interesting to speak to. I asked if my dad could pull strings and somehow get us to speak with the author. We'll see what happens.

Ok, now onto the real thoughts. For Antara, as of Saturday morning, I was only 18% of the way through the book, but managed to finish at 9 pm last night. So my words of wisdom to you is that after about 45% (pg 300), the book gets really fast and sucks you in! So please, please stick with it! I really, really liked this book. I was sniffling on the plane last night as I finished it- the plot was so poignant and touching and I felt really invested in the characters.

One theme that really resonated with me was the idea of always having your 'slippers' with you no matter how far you traveled in life. I liked that slightly more positive way of describing the baggage that you travel with through life. The term baggage has such a negative connotation, but the way (in the story Ghosh tells Marion) slippers are described, it's less negative and more the idea of lessons and memories that you always carry with you.

The character development and character relationships developed were absolutely fantastic- I felt like I was getting to know real, three-dimensional human beings who I had a vested interest in. I went from liking to hating certain characters (Genet) and from hating to liking certain characters (Stone) and the way the understanding of each character, and how your mind was changed was done is such a believable, subtle way, just like you may have a gut reaction to someone you've met, but as you get to know them, your mind changes (or stays the same).

I found Shiva to be such an enigmatic character. He frustrated me with his didactic, logical outlook in life (I want to have sex, so I'm going to have it with whomever). He seemed so seperated from emotion and saw emotion as an outsider. I really enjoyed watching him transform to better understand emotion and Marion, when he felt the need to donate part of his liver to Marion. That idea brings me to the theme of ShivaMarion which was SO well played- they were one entity as children, and you thought you saw them growing apart into seperate entities and the book ties it back together (even their seperation) for you to realize that they're still one entity even in Shiva's death. They really were mirror images- one logic, one emotion, one who tried hard at all things, one who never really tried except at what he wanted. Together they made one whole, though they functioned well apart. It was just so beautifully done- the arc was perfect.

Ghosh was my favorite character, I think. I want him to be my father! I had SUCH heavy boots when he died.

Anyway, getting hungry now, but will post more. I have so much to say. Despite it's rough start for me, I must say this is my favorite of the books we've read for book club!

Cutting progress

Hey everyone, just wanted to get a sense how we were doing on 'Cutting for Stone?' I've just started part 2 ... it's too slow of a read for me. I'm not hating it, but I just find the detailed description of five million characters really tedious, and this far into the book, and I still have no idea what the story is about.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I prolly won't be done with it by the end of the month, but will continue reading to try to finish it. There better be a twist or something.

I've also heard of this series called 'A Game of Thrones' on which they have recently made an HBO series that is supposed to be fantastic. I'm going to read the sample of that, and if it looks good, we could possibly do that for our next book? Let me know if anyone has heard anything about it.

And yes, Vaish, we should discuss the Hunger Games on our blog.

H-Games

I suggest that once Charitha is done w/ the Hunger Games Trilogy, we blog about it too since most of us have just recently read it. I also personally can't get enough of talking about it so it would be fun to discuss random topics.

Alice I have read finale post ;)

So after much fanfare for my thoughts about the past books. Here it is:

I really enjoyed reading Alice I have Been. It was a fun read and the author kept you interested throughout. Granted, that the world at the time was all Victorian and about purity, which if you were to think about it, gives women even more to gossip about over tea.

I thought that Mr. Dodgson was a little dodgy, but at the same time men at the time were not to show their affection to their wives or their children in public, he was different. He also did not have a wife, so I believe that gave him a little more leeway with women in society. I want to believe that he wasn't necessarily pedophile, but more intrigued on her innocence in the world and in life and enthralled by that more than anything. It was really sad that her mother and her sister always tries to chastise her ways, but I feel underneath they both wished that they could be more like Alice. Alice's older sister drove me up the wall, even when they were old ladies, not sure how you all felt about it.

I felt really sad for Alice when she finally realized she loved her husband cause it was a little late. It also reminded me a little of Hum Dil De Chuke Hain Sanam- yes, I had to bring in the Bollywood connection.

Had I written this immediately after I had finished the book, I would have a little more depth to the post, I do apologize for procrastinating. I would love to get a glimpse of society and its norms when Alice was growing up to get a better idea of her story and fully understand the implications of being an innocent child getting caught up in adult gossip. On the other hand, it still happens today, so really society hasn't really changed much since Alice's time.

I've already ready Cutting for Stones, which I did enjoy. I'll start commenting on everyone else's thoughts as you progress through the book.