Me and Emma by Elizabeth Flock-Review by Kellie

Dearest Book Club Babes:

What a good meeting we had yesterday, much was accomplished!

For starters, we had our biggest group in a long time.  Everyone was present and accounted for with the exception of Deb and Bonnie Jean (we missed you).  Also, we were all on time AND everyone finished the book.  Miracles never cease...

 The book was met with mixed reviews.  Jonnie felt the book was very stereotypical in the way that the South was represented (poor, ignorant, abusive).  However, she was also the only one that figured out very early on that Emma was not real while the rest of us were completely blindsided by this at the end of the book.  A couple of us also had issue with some technical details, such as the dialogue being too mature for an 8 year old girl and also, kids this age in grade school do not have geometry or homeroom.  Things that we could all agree on were that Richard, the stepfather, was truly a despicable character and that momma was weak and neglectful.  It's a proven fact that young individuals in abusive situations often create additional personalities to hide in when the abuse is taking place and this is exactly what Carrie did.  She created Emma to take the abuse that she herself just couldn't face.  :(

The scores ranged from 2.5 to 4.5 so it averaged about a 3.5.

 

Next months meeting is scheduled for Friday, June 10.

 

 

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Overall, we rated the book between a 3 and a 4.5.  It was a refreshing, sweet, and humorous story.  While it opens on a particularly sad event (the death of Major Pettigrew's brother) it is anything but a depressing book.  Parts were poignant but not in the way that stays with you and, in turn, makes you sad.  The writing and the character development was excellent.  We could picture the characters so well and felt an emotional tie to them.  We found ourselves pulling for the major and Mrs. Ali to make their relationship successful despite the many obstacles that were thrown at them.  His staunch, British correctness is so funny and endearing.  Although we are all Americans, we could laugh at the jokes about American excesses, particularly the vulgar American characters that turn up in the Major’s village.  Of course, we can't go without mentioning his insensitive son Roger!  We all would highly recommend this book, but not to our husbands.  This was definitely a chick book!