The Veil

We gathered at Nancy's house for our second meeting to discuss Jenni's book choice The Veil by Cory Putman Oakes.

Points of discussion:

• None of us regretted reading the book, but it was definitely aimed at a teenage audience and lacked some substance and quality.  


• Some faults included lack of elaboration, obvious foreshadowing, unrevealed inner thought processes, and little character development.  Erin compared it to a "B" movie.


• We answered the questions for discussion the author had written for book clubs.  Strangely, they did not lead to discussion about the book, rather they gave an example of something from the book and asked us to relate a personal story that is similar.  Awkward!  (Inside joke...)

We felt the author was definitely setting up for a series.  Some of us would continue with the series if and when it became available but others would not.  It was pretty obvious this was a first time author and the story lacked the depth that causes some teenage books to appeal to wider audiences (like Harry Potter)

Fun Facts:
We had a feast from Nancy's garden!  Fresh cantaloupe, tomatoes, cucumber...amazing food!
(See recipe after the photos!)
The two main male characters in the book are "Nate" and "Lucas" which was fun for Becky because those are her boys' names.
Never before has deodorant been so thoroughly discussed at a book club meeting.
I'll leave you with one word: Frenemies

Here it is: from an old recipe card:

Cucumber Dip

8 oz cream cheese, softened 
2-3 green onions tops and all, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped 
1Tbsp lemon juice
Dash of garlic salt
2 dashes of celery salt
3-4 shakes Tabasco sauce
1/2 - 3/4 cup Miracle Whip
Salt and pepper to taste

Mash cream cheese with fork, add cucumbers and onions and blend. Add other ingredients and refrigerate. 

*You can tell this is an old recipe with all the "dashes", "shakes", etc., but you get the idea. I did not put onions in the recipe last night since I was serving onions with the tomatoes and thought that was enough onions.