The Girls by Emma Cline

Moderator---Kathy

The 2020 Academy Awards included some movies that were based on books.  Jojo Rabbit was based on a book, Caging Skies, by Christine Leunen.  Little Women, another remake of the beloved book by Louisa May Alcott, hit the big screen again.  Though not at all based on The Girls, Quentin Tarantino's movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, was paired with it on a book list.  Both the book and the movie take on cults.  Tarantino actually follows the Mason family with a twist.  Cline has a very similar story though her characters are fictional.

The opening paragraph in the Wikipedia Synopsis explains premise of the story:

"In the present day Evie Boyd is a middle-aged woman with few ties. An old friend of hers allows her to stay in his home when she is between jobs. While there she thinks that house is being broken into and comes to realize it is only her friend's teenage son Julian and his girlfriend Sasha who have arrived unannounced. Julian does not remember Evie at first but eventually recalls that Evie was involved in a famous cult. This makes Evie recall the summer of 1969, when she was 14."  

The reader then is transported back and forth between then and now.  Her childhood includes divorce, a mother more interested in reinventing herself and a father more interested in his younger work assistant.  Evie has a fallout with her best friend and is at loose-ends.  She starts noticing young hippy dumpster diving girls and eventually finds her way into their cult and meets the charismatic leader, Russell.  One of the older girls, Suzanne, takes an interest in her and Evie develops a mad crush on the girl.  The cult members live on a ranch.  There is a variety of people, even children, sharing everything.  Famed musician Mitch Lewis helps the ranch financially and has been promising Russell a music deal.  When that falls through, well, to borrow from the Manson family, all helter skelter breaks loose.

This novel, published in 2016, concentrates mostly on the past.  The present is brought together with Julian and Sasha showing up. He is the son of the owner of the house Evie is staying in. Julian is on a drug run and Sasha bonds for the evening with Evie.  The story is not short on sex, drugs and rock and roll.  You get feel for cult life and its members.  And, you get to know Evie and what motivates her.

Cult Cuisine

 Ham salad, Chicken salad, coleslaw, broccoli salad,

 ham and selection of cheeses, crackers, chips and

 strawberry/blueberry shortcake with whipped cream. 

"Fiction based on fact.  A new spin on 

'cult classic.' ---Dee Dee

The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib

Moderator---Shellie

Published in 2019, this novel takes a close look at eating disorders, especially anorexia.  It takes you along for the journey of Anna and her stay at 17 Swann Street.  Considered a mental illness, this disease can be fatal and is always hard for others to understand.  Even the person with the eating disorder has trouble recognizing what is going on and following the necessary treatment. 

Anna is a vegan.  Her first meal at 17 Swann St. is a bagel smothered in cream cheese.  She learns quickly that the treatment house will not cave in to her demands.  Her vegan days are over though they allow her to remain a vegetarian.  Yogurt is another constant on the menu.  That doesn't make Anna happy either.  But rules are rules and the residents of Swann St. need the discipline if there is any hope for them getting better.  

Publisher's Weekly sums the story up nicely.  "In her powerful debut, Zgheib masterfully chronicles the pain of an anorexic’s distorted thinking and intense fear of food in a riveting diarylike structure. Plucked from Paris to St. Louis, former dancer Anna Aubry Roux is 26 years old, married, and in the fight of her life with a severe eating disorder. After fainting in the bathroom and being discovered by her husband, Anna is sent to a residential treatment facility. She is still in denial about her condition, even as she drops to 88 pounds. As she bonds with the other women, including former Olympian hopeful Emm and tortured Ivy League grad Valerie, Anna sees herself in them, and they in her; indeed, it is the residents who show Anna how much she has to live for. Anna’s fits and starts toward recovery are realistically and poignantly depicted."

Swann Street Snacks plus:

Pepperoni pizza, apples, popcorn,

animal crackers, pudding, ice cream

cones with sprinkles, and birthday cake.

"Interesting, but not dry like a text book, with

information concerning anorexia."---Shellie

"Writer was trying too hard to be flowery and

poetic.  Immediately irritating."---Anna

The Lost Girls by Heather Young

Moderator---Dee Dee

The story opens in 1935 with Lucy, one of the three Evans girls, wanting to write down the story of what happened that summer.  Sixty plus years have past and she, the middle child, is the last one alive.  Lilith is dead, and Emily was last seen that summer. Lucy is leaving her estate, which includes the summer house that she has lived in as a permanent residence since 1935, to her grandniece Justine.    

There are a variety of characters in the book whose individual personalities keep them unique and add to the story.  Published in 2016, the story spans many decades with the first girls, then LIlith's daughter, Maurie, and finally Justine and her daughters.  Their lives are examined and all seemed to be coming up short with moving forward.  Lucy and Lilith never leave the summer home, Maurie never stays in one place but moving around doesn't add to her life, and Justine involves herself with a needy man who hangs on to her in a suffocating way. The reader begins to understand each of them and the reasons and family secrets that led to decisions.    

Author Heather Young sums it up nicely:  "The Lost Girls is a haunting debut novel that examines the price of loyalty, the burden of regret, and the meaning of salvation through the voices of two women linked by a decades-old family mystery at a beautiful, decaying lake house."

Lake House Luncheon:

Fried chicken, corn, tater tots,

bread, chocolate cookies

and fig newtons.

"The domino effect of one sad decision 

made in haste is at the heart of this story."--- Dee Dee

"A summer of sisters and the

loss of their innocence."--- Kathy

The Flood Girls by Richard Fifield

Moderator---Kim

The setting is Quinn, Montana in a town that doesn't even have a population of 1000.  But there is never a dull moment.  The colorful townspeople keep the story fast moving and quirky.

Flood is the last name of two of the main character, Rachel and her mother Laverna.  Rachel left town some years ago after ruining not only her reputation but many relationships and marriages in Quinn.  Her mother was included in the ruined relationships department.  Her AA inspired amends return does not sit well with the locals, including her mother.

The Flood Girls is the softball team in Quinn.  Laverna runs it plus owns and operates the Dirty Shame bar, the second of two bars in the town.  Between the bar customers and the softball team, a host of characters show up.  Jake Bailey is one of them.  He is a 12 year old who has mature tastes in chic clothing, reads Jackie Collins books and can sew as well as any seamstress.  He keeps score for the softball team and is loved by the women.  You can't say the same for his stepfather, Bert.  Buley, owner of the thrift store, keeps Jake's fashion sense on display.  Ginger Fitchett is the richest woman in town and a player on the team.   There are two Mabel's, Black Mabel and Red Mabel.  There are kind-hearted men including Bucky, Jim #3, and the Fire Chief.  From firemen to miners, the book isn't short on characters.

The novel, published in 2016, is about redemption and being part of a team.  It is about flawed people and some who are still admirable and have much to impart.  It is a trip into small town America where each person is unique, for better or for worse, and has their own distinct voice.  It is people rough around the edges, capable both of violence and kindness.  And it comes together with the Flood Girls and their softball team.

Dinner in Quinn

KFC is on the menu with

fried chicken, green beans,

cole slaw, biscuits, mashed

potatoes and gravy.

"What's not to like--bar brawls, AA, soft

ball and quirky characters."---Kim

"What you might expect from a small town story.

Everyone knows everyone, even their

questionable pasts."---Shellie

The Little Drummer Girl by John LeCarre

Moderator---Kim

This story was first published in the U.S. in 1983.  

(From Wikipedia)

Martin Kurtz, an Israeli spy working in a clandestine agency to allow plausible deniability for his superiors, recruits Charlie, a "21 or 22-year-old" radical left-wing English actress, as part of an elaborate scheme to discover the whereabouts of Khalil, a Palestinian terrorist. Joseph is Charlie's case officer. Khalil's younger brother Salim is abducted, interrogated, and killed by Kurtz's unit. Joseph impersonates Salim and travels through Europe with Charlie to make Khalil believe that Charlie and Salim are lovers. When Khalil discovers the affair and contacts Charlie, the Israelis are able to track him down.

Charlie is taken to Palestinian refugee camps to be trained as a bomber. She becomes more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, and her divided loyalties bring her close to collapse. Charlie is sent on a mission to place a bomb at a lecture given by an Israeli moderate whose peace proposals are not to Khalil's liking. She carries out the mission under the Israelis' supervision. As a result, Joseph kills Khalil. Charlie subsequently has a mental breakdown caused by the strain of her mission and her own internal contradictions.

Spy Fare:

Variety of bagels with

cream cheese, grapes,

oranges and zucchini bread.

"An actress finds herself playing the biggest part of her

life.  A part in 'the theatre of the real.'"

---Kim

"Excellent story, great plot, but too many characters, 

details and sub-plots for a focused book club discussion."

---Dee Dee