Book Club

By Isabel Jones

The evening book group read Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon for our November meeting. The book is a powerful story comprised of letters between a teenage couple from New York. Their young love is tested as Antonio finds himself in jail in upstate New York accused of his father’s murder while Natasha tries to continue her life without him. Spanning a decade, the letters provide the reader with just enough information to see the couple change, grow, and find separate paths. Most of us enjoyed the book and the natural unfolding of the story and the characters’ personalities through the letter format. The style of the letters and the language used reflected Antonio and Natasha’s development in their lives so early on some expressions were repetitive and full of local slang. We found that it was a bittersweet story and thought the book perhaps best suited to a young adult audience.

In December, a small group met to discuss Practical Jean by Trevor Cole. While several of us were unable to meet due to holiday season commitments, many still voiced their enthusiasm for this book. Jean has supported her mother through a painful illness and drawn-out death. After witnessing that degree of suffering, she decides the best gift she could give her loved ones is an escape from a similar fate. Jean proceeds to plan and execute a wonderful last day and a death tailor-made for each friend. Of course, readers can sympathise with Jean’s motivation, but it’s harder to appreciate her actual actions. Dark as it sound, many of us found the story funny and entertaining. The male writer did a phenomenal job capturing the female psyche and the essence of female friendships.