Carole Knits

october zinnia
october zinnia
martinis with a view
martinis with a view
gettysburg fence for
gettysburg fence for
germinate shawl on rocks
germinate shawl on rocks
field of flags 2
field of flags 2
color affection with edge
color affection with edge
cedar leaf shawlette 2
cedar leaf shawlette 2
3_27_2014
3_27_2014
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3_18_13
2_24_2014
2_24_2014
1_11_13
1_11_13
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peony-bouquet-for-carole-knits
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nightshift-progress-for-carole-knits

Read With Us: Leave the World Behind

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It’s my turn to take a stab at encouraging you to read our winter book club selection, Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. I read this book back in November but I still remember it quite clearly, which, when you think about it, is a pretty glowing endorsement.

It’s the story of a white family from New York City who head to a remote part of Long Island for a vacation in a beautiful home. Think really upscale AirBnB, complete with lots of room, a gourmet kitchen, a swimming pool, and more. After they’ve been there only a day or so there is a late night knock on the door from the couple who own the house. They are Black and older and very upset because something (we don’t know what) is going wrong in the outside world. Their arrival sets up a novel full of anxiety and suspense and questions, plenty of which remain unanswered even after the last page.

Sounds great, right? Delicious even? And it is. There is so much to unpack. Questions of race and class. Questions about our dependence on technology and need for constant information. Questions about trust and safety and connection.

It will leave you unsettled. Perhaps even frightened. Definitely ready to discuss!

And speaking of discussion, Bonny, Kym and I will be posting questions on our blogs on Tuesday, March 2nd and we will be hosting a live Zoom discussion that night at 7pm EST. I hope you’ll join us!

Read With Us: The Winter Book Announcement

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Readers! It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for since last September. It’s time to announce our winter book selection. Without further delay, I am excited to tell you that we will be reading Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam.

In a totally lazy move, I’m going to just plop the description from GoodReads right here:

A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong

Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older black couple—it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe.

Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another? 

Suspenseful and provocative, Rumaan Alam’s third novel is keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis. 

I read this book in 2 days last month. It’s a slow burn of suspense and dread and character development that makes for a great read. I have other feelings about it, too, that I’ll hold off on sharing until the time when we are promoting and discussing the book, but I do hope you’ll read it. And maybe even join us for our Zoom discussion this go round because that was not only really fun last time but it also added a lot to my appreciation for the book we read.

Be sure and check out Kym’s blog and Bonny’s blog today, too, and see why they think you should read it, too.

Read With Us: The Women of Brewster Place Discussion Time

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Okay, readers, it’s time to get down to it and talk about The Women of Brewster Place. I’ll tell you, I read this back in September and my memory is . . . not great. I should have watched the movie version with Oprah, both Kym and Bonny recommended it, but I just never made the time. We’ll just have to muddle through this discussion based on my recollections and some questions to get you thinking.

I’m always fascinated by stories about women, how they interact with each other, how they interact with men, how they find their places in the world. I’m going to ask just a few questions related to the women in this book and I hope you will find something worthy of discussing.

  • What do you think of the novel’s structure? How does each woman’s individual voice reinforce the novel’s themes as a whole?
  • Each of these women is capable of enormous love, but they are often hurt by their loved ones. What do you think Naylor is saying about a woman’s capacity for love? Is this sort of love “worth it”? Would these women be happier if they had hardened their hearts to those who eventually let them down?
  • Many of these women came from the South and Naylor portrays it as both a land of plenty and a land of harsh deprivation. How are these women’s lives different living in the North–are they happier? more fulfilled? more subject to racial bias? Is there more opportunity for them in Brewster Place than in the South?

I look forward to reading your thoughts on these questions. Don’t forget to check out Kym’s and Bonny’s blogs today, too, discussions are taking place all over blogland! And if you’d like to join us for our Zoom discussion tonight at 7:00pm it’s not too late – just let me know and I’ll make sure you get an invite!

Read With Us: The Women of Brewster Place

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It’s my turn to take a crack at convincing you to read our fall Read With Us book selection, The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor. While I’m tempted to just say, you should read this because Kym and Bonny and I recommended it . . . I realize that may not work for all of you. So, here’s my pitch.

Read it because it’s an award winner. Yep. Naylor won the National Book Award for first fiction for this book back in 1983.

Read it because it’s short. At only 192 pages it’s a fast read. If you choose to listen it’s just over 3 hours long.

Read it because it may help you walk in another woman’s shoes. You may be meeting characters who are different from you, who have had experiences that are unlike your own. At it’s core this book is about women who face incredible challenges because of their race and economic circumstances, women who experience pain that is so real it will make you cry, women who are blamed and judged and ridiculed . . . by each other and by society. Some of this will make you angry. A lot of it will probably break your heart and there are parts that may make you uncomfortable. But when we read about situations that are different from our own, when we encounter characters we struggle to understand and settings unlike where we live, that’s when we find empathy. That’s when we grow, not just as readers but as human beings. That, my friends, is when reading becomes magical.

I hope I’ve convinced you to read The Women of Brewster Place with us.

Read With Us: The Fall Book Announcement

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Hold on to your hats, friends, because I’m about to share some exciting news. Today Bonny and Kym and I are announcing our fall book selection for the Read With Us Book Club and it is . . .

The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

In the interest of full disclosure I will admit that I have only just started this book. BUT it comes so highly recommended and I already love what I’ve read so far and that leads me to conclude that I’m 100% confident that it’s a great choice for us. It won the National Book Award for First Novel in 1983. It’s on the Zora Canon list, which is a list of the 100 best books by Black women authors. And it was adapted as a miniseries for television back in 1989 and was also a television show in 1990 produced by Oprah. Good street credentials there, am I right?

It’s a collection of intertwining stories of seven women living in Brewster Place, an inner city housing development. The stories are described as touching, vulnerable, heartbreaking, resilient, loving and painful. That sure makes it sound like there will be lots for us to discuss!

It’s a fairly short book so even if you have a busy fall I think you can make the time to read it. We’ll be promoting the book on our blogs on Tuesdays in October and our discussion is set for November 10th. I hope you’ll join in and Read With Us for our fall selection.