The Mother Daughter Book Club (MDBC) by Heather Vogel Frederick takes place in Massachusetts. I want to be clear about that because I told my friend Grateful Mama that the girls in the novel are reading Little Women, and it takes place in Massachusetts. Grateful Mama laughed and laughed and laughed and said that only someone who's not from Massachusetts would point out that Little Women is set in Massachusetts.
Then I said, "No, no, no. I meant that Vogel's book takes place in Massachusetts." Although, if I'm completely honest I didn't remember that Little Women took place here until I read MDBC, so Grateful Mama had every right to hoot at me.
Now that I think about it, it's probably the equivalent of pointing out to a Californian that Steinbeck's novels take place in California. Ok, now I get it.
In any case, Sweet Potato and I just finished reading MDBC, and we liked it very much. It's about four sixth-grade girls who are forced by their mothers to meet once a month to discuss Little Women. The girls are very different and, for the most part, don't like each other.
I told Sweet Potato that I want to read Little Women with her now, and she thought that was a fabulous idea. I also said I want to start a mother-daughter book club, and she did not like that idea at all, which is perfect because neither do the girls in the book.
There's only one problem: I don't know any eleven-year-old girls or their mothers. There's Tap Girl down the road, but she and Sweet Potato have been on shaky footing ever since they voted for opposing candidates in the school's mock presidential election. That would be ideal material for the MDBC, but I'd like to keep our drama contained within the novels. Ah, well. Maybe I'll post a note at the library.
Another Massachusetts story I just read (for my grown-up book club) is Ethan Frome. Boy, was that a downer. I might as well have re-read Jude the Obscure, which I promised myself never, ever to read again. Plus, it was all about the frigid New England winters and how they turn people hard and ugly.
That's ok. We brought home our Christmas tree today (Buckaroo calls it a Santa tree), and now the house smells all piny, which fits perfectly with our decor. I made caramel popcorn, and tomorrow we're going to dig out the ornaments while listening to Stevie Wonder belt out the holiday tunes. Nothing hard and ugly about that.
Comments