Book club last night

We met to discuss The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards last night. I thought it went well. Leading a discussion is difficult for me but everyone participated last night and I got some new insights into the book. I also had a drawing. Everyone that came put their name in a paperbag. I was hoping to be able to give away the new book for April which is Folly by Laurie R King, but unfortunately Barnes and Noble did not have a copy of it. So I just brought some other books to chose from. Robyn won the drawing and she chose the book Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund. Robyn, you will have to tell us what you think about it after you read it.

Marvell brought a poem to share about having a child with a disability. Here is the poem:

Welcome to Holland
by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability-to try to help people who have not shared that unique exerience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland,"

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you never would have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-place then Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after your've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around...and you being to notice that Holland has windmills...and Holland has tulips. Holand even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy. and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things...about Holland.


April Book Club
Folly by Laurie R King

Wednesday, April 22 @ 7pm
Tami Austin's home

If you need a copy of the book, let me know. But we will probably have to share copies this time.