My Three Book Clubs: A final column celebrating entertaining books and friends

Since that time, I have read hundreds of books, many of them for book clubs. I enjoyed many novels that I would not have picked up had it not been for one of my book clubs. More importantly, I have enjoyed the connections those books created and developed many wonderful friendships through my three book clubs. Last month’s highlight was a trip to a book club friend’s condo in Florida. On the flight home, my head was buried in a book, sparking a conversation with the flight attendant and a recommendation for a book that left an impact on him. In case you were curious, it was “Honeymoon With My Brother,” a memoir by Franz Wisner.

I also received emails from readers sharing what books they were reading and had the pleasure of meeting a book club that had been talking about books for more than 50 years. I hope my book clubs enjoy as many years together. As for My Three Book Clubs, this column will be my last. I don’t plan to leave any of my book clubs, but there may be times when I decide not to read the book and skip the meeting. Without the pressure to write this column, I can also savor the books more and not ponder what I am going to write about.

Thank you to my readers and the Post-Dispatch for letting me share my love of books. You will still find me on the St. Louis Book-Dispatch Facebook page looking for my next good read and sharing with others what I am reading.

With no further ado, this is what I read for book clubs in September and October.

‘All Fours’

A novel by Miranda July

At its basic premise, “All Fours” is about a middle-aged woman who goes on a road trip to find herself. But things quickly turn bizarre (with lots of sex) in a novel Miranda Joy describes as “very close to the bone” in a 2023 Instagram post.

The unnamed narrator, who has just turned 45, plans to treat herself by driving from her home in Los Angeles to New York. There, she will take a break from everyday life to catch up with friends and see some theater and museums. She plans a six-day itinerary with tourist sites along the way, including a stop in Casey, Illinois, to see some of its world’s largest, super-sized items.

Only 30 minutes into her trip, she stops for gas and a meal. At the gas station, she encounters a good-looking man named Davey who works for Hertz, and shortly thereafter, she rents a rundown motel room, where she spends the entirety of her 2½ week trip, pretending all the time  to her husband and child that she is on a road trip.

While at the motel, she hires a decorator to make over the room with a $20,000 budget — money she made by selling a line about a sex act to a whiskey marketing campaign. Oh, and the decorator is the wife of that good-looking Hertz employee she met at the gas station.

Joy shies away at nothing in this novel, and the graphic sex scenes may make some readers squirm . But Joy makes interesting observations on aging, motherhood, perimenopause, monogamy and sexuality during the narrator’s quest to figure out what she wants next out of her life.

Joy is a creative and imaginative writer. In October, “All Fours” was among five novels shortlisted for the National Book Award. But the book was too over the top and “far out there” for most readers in this book club. One member said the book struck her as “self-indulgent and egocentric.” Another said the book was “trying too hard” to be shocking and postmodern.

‘Straight Man’

A novel by Richard Russo

In this humorous novel about a man having a midlife crisis, Russo introduces us to William Henry “Hank” Devereaux Jr., the temporary chair of the English department at the fictional Railton College in Pennsylvania.

Over one week of Hank’s life, while his wife is out of town, he endures a variety of trials. Some of them are mental and some physical. The 50-year-old one-time novelist is questioning the choices he has made in his life, including a decision to stay at the underfunded university where he is employed. He has issues with his mom, dad, daughter and colleagues. His need for a cheeky comeback in almost every interaction doesn’t help. And on top of all that, he can’t pee.

As a graduate of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where Russo once taught, I have always meant to read one of his novels. He taught at SIUC while I was a student, and while I did not have him as a professor for my creative writing class, a fellow book club member did. She counts that class as one of her favorites.

A few other book club members could relate to the bickering, backstabbing and gossiping in the world of academia, calling Russo’s depiction on point. They particularly enjoyed Russo’s humor. A scene where Hank holds a goose by its neck in front of a TV news camera and threatens to “kill a duck a day” — yes, a duck — until he receives his departmental budget is delightfully memorable.

A 2023 TV series based on “Straight Man,” which Russo published in 1997, stars another SIUC alum, Bob Odenkirk. Unfortunately, “Lucky Hank” only lasted one season.

‘All the Colors of the Dark’

A novel by Chris Whitaker

“All the Colors of the Dark” has the elements of a thriller/mystery — a hunt for a serial killer and a missing person — but readers also get a deep dive into the characters of this more-than-600-page novel. Fortunately, short chapters keep the pace moving, if not quickly, bearably.

Set in 1975, girls are disappearing in the rural, fictional town of Monta Clare, Missouri, and the surrounding area. Joseph “Patch” Macauley is a young teen branded as a pirate because he only has one eye — an identity he embraces in his youth. His best friend is another outsider, Saint. She is smart, keeps bees, and is unfailingly devoted to Patch. Other characters — a wealthy family’s daughter, a gallery owner, a police chief, a bus driver (named Norma!), a doctor and a serial killer — fill out the intriguing cast.

Without giving too much away, the story spans 30 years about how Patch’s and Saint’s lives intersect and bond.

At book club, two days before Halloween, we discussed the book over a “spooky” feast — a skull-shaped cheese “ball” wrapped in sausage, brie disguised as a mummy and a Caprese salad with skull-shaped mozzarella “balls.”

Most readers were entranced by this novel and its lovable characters and didn’t even notice its length. A few readers, like me, thought it could have been about 200 pages shorter. One other reader and I wondered how well the writer knew rural Missouri because a few things seemed unbelievable.

‘Stolen Beauty’

A novel by Laurie Lico Albanese

Laurie Lico Albanese weaves together fact and her imagination in this novel that follows the lives of two women, Adele Bloch-Bauer and Maria Altmann, and the paintings by Gustav Klimt that connect them.

Adele, raised in a vibrant Vienna, grows up wealthy, bright, curious and Jewish, but as a girl in the late 1800s and early 1900s, her options are limited. She meets her much older husband, Ferdinand, at her sister’s engagement party. He promises her access to the art world of Vienna, and unable to bear children, Adele becomes a society hostess who runs salons and is a great patron of the arts. She also becomes acquainted with Klimt, becoming his muse and posing for several portraits, including the well-known “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” also known as “Woman in Gold.”

Her niece Maria’s story begins in 1938 as Hitler’s army is marching into Vienna. As Jews, though non-practicing ones, Maria and her family’s lives are at risk. We watch with Maria as families are forced from their homes and relieved of their possessions by the Nazis, including valuable artwork.

Maria and her husband eventually land in California as refugees, and her fight to rescue the paintings from the Austrian government is briefly addressed. The 2015 film “Woman in Gold” starring Helen Mirren as Maria and Ryan Reynolds as her lawyer digs deeper into the legal battle to obtain the painting.

Even though book club members didn’t enjoy this as much as Albanese’s previous book we had read, “Hester,” the history in it was interesting. It took a few readers a while to figure out the connection between the two narrators, and the book dragged at times.

The host ran a slideshow of Klimt’s artwork on her big-screen TV and served cookies flecked with gold among other “golden” treats. We all dreamed of a field trip to the Neue Galerie in New York, where “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” has hung since 2006.

‘Chasing the Boogeyman’

A novel by Richard Chizmar

In a book club where we did go on a trip, though one not related to the book, we planned to discuss “Chasing the Boogeyman.” Two of the four on the trip were still listening to the book, so we opted to postpone our discussion and enjoy Florida instead.

After reading this clever novel, which is written as a “true crime” account, earlier this year, I recommended it to this book club. I knew this book was fiction, yet I still Googled things just because the author was so convincing. He even had photos to back up the “crimes.”

Some of the details are true. Chizmar really did grow up in Edgewood, Maryland, during the late 1980s. Chizmar’s firsthand account of a serial killer who sends his town into a frenzy as girls go missing is all made up.

I am not that into actual true crime shows, podcasts or books, but Chizmar’s fictional account had me riveted. I read the book in two days.

In preparation for my book club column retirement, I skipped one of my meetings and didn’t read the book. That club read Agatha Christie’s “Hallowe’en Party.”

Norma Klingsick is a former designer and editor at the Post-Dispatch. If you want to still share what you are reading or just discuss books, she can be reached at [email protected].