What We Thought: Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman

Looking for Me is one of five finalists for the 2014 Kentucky Literary Award. The Southern Kentucky Book Fest partnership’s award will go to a work of fiction by a Kentucky author or with a significant Kentucky theme that was published in 2012 or 2013. Her good friend, Julie Kibler is a finalist as well for Calling Me Home. The winner will be announced on April 25.

Themes: restoration and renewal, family secrets and conflict, personal growth, and how choices affect the paths our lives take.

Readers were impressed with the scope of the story, the authentic portrayal of characters and their lives, vivid descriptions of rural Kentucky as well as Charleston, South Carolina. One reader who has lived in Charleston remarked that the descriptions of neighborhoods, historic houses, beautiful gardens and fountains were accurate and brought back memories of time spent there.

Everyone agreed that the story was written with great passion that only a woman could have felt. There were many emotional moments when readers spoke about particular events and characters. It was if they were remembering real people and their reactions to them. This led into several serious discussions about the dynamics of family life. One thread was about how different generations deal with family secrets. Nowadays, people are generally more open when talking about sensitive topics such as war-time experiences, family history, and family relationships.

Everyone in the group was pleased with the growth of the main character Teddi and her transformation from a country girl with an interest in old furniture to a successful artist and businesswoman who created a beautiful and satisfying life for herself. She was able to come to terms with having an emotionally distant relationship with her mother as well as with the mysterious disappearance of her younger brother. You don’t always get what you want in life but you can create the life for yourself that you need.

Readers remarked that the book was choppy but agreed that the switching back and forth did propel the story along. Some wanted more elaboration about certain events. They felt that enough wasn’t explained about Teddi’s parents and her brother. All in all, everyone enjoyed reading the book and was very enthusiastic when discussing it. Some said Looking for Me reminded them of other book club books; the Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty.

SPOILER ALERT -- If you haven't read the book yet, you may want to stop here!

Readers were surprised at the last word ending the book: Menewa. It is a Native American word meaning "Great Warrior" and was given as a name for a red-tailed hawk in a story told by Teddi to her brother Josh when he was a young child. She said that the raptor was chosen over all the other red-tails to be his guardian. Later, as an adult visiting the family farm in Kentucky Teddi saw a red-tailed hawk and felt a connection to her brother. When Teddi gifted the farm to be used a wildlife sanctuary, the caretakers named it Menewa in honor of her brother Josh. Menewa is evoked at the conclusion of Teddi’s story in recognition of love for her brother and her hope that someday they might be reunited.

This Month's Selection: Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman

Looking for Me

by Beth Hoffman

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

6:30 p.m.

Teddi Overman found her life’s passion for furniture in a broken-down chair left on the side of the road in rural Kentucky. She turns other people’s castoffs into beautifully restored antiques, and opens her own shop in Charleston. There, Teddi builds a life for herself as unexpected and quirky as the customers who visit her store.

But nothing can alleviate the haunting uncertainty she’s felt in the years since her brother Josh’s mysterious disappearance. When signs emerge that Josh might still be alive, Teddi is drawn home to Kentucky.

Have you read this book? Let us know what you thought of it! Join the book discussion online!

Potluck Dinner: What We Thought of The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Both Holmes Public Library adult book clubs, Evening and Afternoon Readers, combined to enjoy a pot luck supper in February after being interrupted by a January snow storm. A hearty winter’s meal was served buffet style and included macaroni and cheese, vegetable lasagna, chili, tortellini soup, spinach quiche, chicken pot pie, calzones, sausage peppers and onion casserole, chili pot pie, pie tortellini salad, corn bread, grapes and assorted artisan breads. A sparkling sunny winter punch added color to the menu.

After the main course all adjourned to the Library’s reading room for a book discussion accompanied by dessert. A spectacular book club-themed, decorated cake dominated the dessert table along with two different kinds of frosted cupcakes, apricot squares, decorated chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, along with candy and water bottles wrapped in book club-themed wrappers.

The centerpiece of the dessert table featured titles read by the combined groups.

The Age of Miracles generated intense discussion among book club members. It was obvious from the start that this book, liked or not, created a lot of thought-provoking reactions to the characters, as well as to the theme of the earth’s rotation slowing down. The group was divided about whether the story stayed true to an adolescent point of view of the catastrophe or was more realistically an adult memoir about the end of life as we (adults) knew it. It was noted that the book was originally targeted for a teen audience but was picked up by adult readers due to the complexity of the story. There was more to say about the fate of Julia as an adult, and many believed that a sequel will be written to talk more about the intervening years of the slowing.

A Sip of Winter Sun punch (minus the tequila)

Readers commented that this book made them more aware of daylight and the time of day, and think seriously about how they would react personally to situations created by the slowing. There was some discussion of how accurately time could be measured due to the slowing; is Julia really 23 years old? Which is better for individuals to adapt to society, clock time or real time? Is there room for both groups to get along? How adolescents at the beginning of major life changes may accept the slowing differently than adults who have grown up with a regular 24 hour day cycle. Some said that they compared the catastrophe to nuclear destruction because that was the reality of the post-World War II and boomer generation. Today’s children have new and unimagined terrors to confront. One member summed up her response to the lively discussion by saying, “If I had read the book, I would have liked it.”

Just one half of the potluck entrees, soups, and salads

This quote from The Age of Miracles brought a moment of silence:

“Seth and I used to like to picture how our world would look to visitors someday, maybe a thousand  years in the future, after all the humans are gone and all the asphalt has crumbled and peeled away. We wondered what these visitors would find here. We liked to guess at what would last. Here the indentations, suggesting a vast network of roads. Here the deposits of iron where giant structures once stood, shoulder to shoulder in rows, a city. Here the remnants of clothing and dishware, here the burial grounds, here the mounds of earth that were once people’s homes. But among the artifacts that will never be found -- among the objects that will disintegrate long before anyone else arrives -- is a certain patch of sidewalk on a California street where once on a dark afternoon in summer at the waning end of the year of the slowing, two kids knelt down together on the cold ground. We dipped our fingers in the wet cement, and we wrote the truest, simplest things we knew-our names, the date, and these words: We were here.”