In June, I wrote about how I recently joined the a book club at my local library. It has proved over the last few months to be a lot of fun for me. I enjoy the discussions with the other members. One of my favorite parts is listening to the thoughts from the other members of the club. Almost every time I go to my book club, I hear something that someone else has said that I never would have thought about on my own. I love that the members all have different opinions and ideas. I really do. It is amazing that we all think about things in our own way.
Back in the day, I to see advertisements book clubs at the libraries that I frequent. When I saw the list of the books the club was reading, I would think to myself that I wouldn’t want to go to that club because I did not know of the book that was being discussed. Back then I thought it would only be fun to attend a book club if I was a fan of the author or I already an interest in the subject that the book is about.
It’s funny though because the not knowing much about the books before I read them is my favorite part now. People think that librarians know all the books in the library, but that is just possible. There are so many books and new books are always coming out.
I also love being introduced to books that I might not have picked out for myself otherwise. Joining this book club is broadening my reading horizons. Last month, our book was Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. (He also wrote The Martian, which became a movie staring Matt Damon). It is probably the only book from the hard science fiction genre that I have ever read. Hard science fiction is a genre that is heavy on technical details and science facts. I probably would not have picked it up on my own. But ultimately, I liked it. I learned I probably would not choose to read much hard science fiction in the future in that I got bogged down by technical details.
At this point, I feel like I should mention that this book club that I joined is not at the library that I work at. I am a civilian. I am a participant in this book club but I do not lead this book club.
That being said, I should mention that this book club is a little unique in terms of library book clubs. Most book clubs are lead by a librarian. However, this has no library staff member who is the leader. This club is participant lead. This means that the members of the book club takes turns being the leader. This coming December I will be the leader for our selection for that month.
It’s lots of fun this way. Many of the members really get into it when it is their turn to be the leader. They sometimes bring in food, if food is part of the story.
Often there is extra material that someone brings in. For example, today the woman who is leading tomorrow’s meeting sent us an e-mail with links to newspaper articles about the giraffes that were integral to this month’s selection which is called West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge.
So without further ado. Here is a brief breakdown of West With Giraffes.
Title: West With Giraffes
Author: Lynda Rutledge
Publication Date: February 1, 2021
Pages: 346
Genre: Historical Fiction
I took a half listening to the audiobook and half reading approach experiencing this book. The main character and narrator is a centenarian in the year 2025 who is living in a VA hospital and is relaying one of the major incidences in his life to an unknown reader through the words that he writes on his notepads. His name is Woodrow Wilson Nickel, aka Woody Nickel and he was born in the year 1920.
At the time of the major turning point in his life, the year is 1938 and he has just survived the dust bowl in the Texas panhandle. He also moved to New York after his family perished and almost as soon as he arrived in New York City, he survived the 1938 New England hurricane.
He does not have much to live for in life, when he sees two giraffes being brought into New York harbor. The giraffes become a beacon for him and he follows the giraffes as they are transported throughout the city, into a quarantine site in New Jersey. The giraffes with a hopeful final destination will be the San Diego zoo if they can get across the country alive.
Eventually, Woody Nickel becomes an integral part of the team that helps the giraffes get to their final destination across the country. Along the way there adventure, culture, and the slightest bit of romance. The relationships that humans have with animals is another theme. Woody is also telling his story when he is 100+ years old so the story also deals with how people tell their stories and what it is like to be 100 years old. The power of storytelling is also a major theme in this book.
This novel is historical fiction as the the Dust Bowl, New England hurricane, and giraffes’ cross country trip on the back of a rig were real events from the year 1938. Woody Nickel is a made up character though.
I would say that this book reminded me a little of the movie Forest Gump because it deals with American history during the specific, though different, period of American history. Since the giraffes travel all over the United States, the reader is also given a snapshot of life across different parts America.
I wrote before that I would have recommended the movie Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris to my mother and grandmother. I would recommend West With Giraffes to my father because of his love of American history and the theme in the book of the power of stories and the theme of human’s relationships with animals. My father has had dogs most of his adult life and loves to tell a story more than anyone that I know.
Maybe you would like this book too if you picked it up.
