Book Club

Last night at bookclub I realized how food blogging has altered my manners: I took photos of the refreshments without even first asking if it was ok with the hostess. She was startled, but nice about it when I tried to explain myself.

On the right in multi-color foil wrappers not far from the chocolate-dipped strawberries notice the chocolate covered Oreos. I loved them!

We ate for a while and chatted, and then discussed the book Persepolis by Satrapi. Some viewed it as mainly political, but one person said she considered it more of a coming of age story. We went into the various issues of the book in some detail, as the facilitator had good discussion questions.

Nine out of the ten participants liked the book, though some found it somewhat abrupt or choppy. Some liked it better than others, and all had several reasons. People liked it because:

• The graphic-novel format was effective in terms of imagery or in terms of not using too much prose to convey ideas.
  
• The author's artistic choices were pleasing, especially the use of black-and-white drawings.
  
• The author captured a child's point of view and stuck to it as she matured.
  
• The subject matter -- the Iranian revolutionary period -- was interesting; and people appreciated the fact that it wasn't a historical tome, but condensed the history and issues. (For some, this made up for the abruptness.)