May 16 Meeting at Kathy's

I was planning on doing something simple tonight so our book club meetings could be considered casual.  I never really expected hot dogs to be such a big hit.  Who knew?  So glad many were pleasantly surprised to have a cookout and the weather cooperated.  I’m sorry you missed it Ellen, the weather man was wrong again.  In addition to hot dogs we indulged in Bourbon Slush and Hoppin John as a compliment to our book "Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl".

I think I picked a good one.  This autobiographical book generated a variety of topics to discuss.  Harriet Jacobs aka Linda Brent‘s condemned  slavery mostly because slaves were considered property.  Carol pointed out that in Elizabethan England woman were considered their husband’s property. This has been a theme though out history where man possessed absolute control over others, as Rosemary commented  “it's human nature”. 

After Linda was freed she faced another obstacle, prejudice, which generated another flurry of discussion.  Back when we grew up there was segregation and it was the accepted way of life.  Over the years things changed, integration started with some major obstacles.  Today some things are better and others not so much, like hate crimes which generated yet another discussion.

After completing our book discussion, I announced next moth’s book club selection – “Skinny Dip” by Carl Hiaasen hosted by Louisa on June 19.  Grace then distributed her Creamsicle-Shooters and the next phase of our book club commenced – Dessert. We had an assortment: Roe’s brownies, Dricka’s lemon coconut bars, fruit cocktail and angel food cake.

Our book tonight "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Ann Jacobs was made possible through Project Gutenberg.  This is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works….. As of March 2014, Project Gutenberg claimed over 45,000 items in its collection.

Thanks girls, I had a really good time tonight.
KAthy G