You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

Roz and I were decreed to read State of Wonder for the February challenge. We decided a buddy read was in order. Please sign up if you would like to join us.

We will start in February whenever Roz receives her copy. I already have my copy.

Finally got my copy. My goodness that took a long time to arrive!! And tomorrow if February. All set to start.

Looks interesting. Just requested it from my library. I would like to join you although I may be a little bit behind you!

You may certainly join us Ann.

I'm going to try and finish the book I'm currently reading so that I can start tomorrow. :)

I was thinking of joining this as well...but no way...there are too many people ahead of me at the library for the kindle copies.

That's too bad, Jkmays. If one comes available sooner than later, we'll still be happy to discuss it with you.

I've started the book and think I will enjoy it. I took a close look at the cover last night and was surprised. The border is an intricate weaving of foliage and snakes.

Has anyone else started it?

I just started about an hour ago. Interesting border. I wonder how it would translate into needlepoint, but maybe minus the snakes.

It would make a great needlepoint or cross stitch border for a sampler.

When I saw the snakes I thought that there was more than what meets the eye. Maybe the story will turn out that way too. And maybe it's just wishful thinking. We shall find out.

Can I join if I read it recently?

You most certainly can, Shannon.

How is everyone doing? I am almost 1/2 way.

I'm on page 126 and so far I like it. I earmarked page 43 for an intersting quote pertaining to hope that could generate an interesting discussion.

That sounds intriguing. I'll have to go take a peek (if we're reading the same issue) and see if I can figure out which quote.

If you like, we can also use a few discussion questions for book clubs to aid our discussion.

I was waken by my tinnitus in the wee hours so read for a bit until I could go back to sleep. When I was closing the book, I accidentally flipped some pages and caught ONE sentence towards the end of the book. It was a bit of a spoiler, but OMG!!! I want to do nothing but read this book now and I can't read anything more until later tonight!

Just got the notice that my copy is in at the library. Will be picking it up today. Can't wait to start!

I really enjoyed this book and I couldn't put it down once I had reached about the halfway point.

I've got a bit more to go. I'm about 75% completed. I read till about 1:00 this morning and was ready to keep going. I had to have a stern talk with myself.

Roz, how are you doing?

I'm just a little more than half way through. I got sidetracked with work. But tomorrow I'm only working a half day so I should get in some good reading time. I have to keep myself from flipping to the end to catch that OMG moment. I really like this one. Thank you, Madame Janice :)

It is a good one, isn't it Roz? That fruit machine did us a favour. :)

I finished reading the book the other night. I stayed up till 1:30 in the morning.

I was a little disappointed afterall and overall. Maybe I ruined it for myself by peeking ahead like that.

I thought the book dragged in places especially the first half. The second half was much more in keeping with what I expected.

The ending left me feeling unfulfilled. Maybe that was because that was how it left Marina.

The highlights for me were the descriptions of the jungle.

Okay I just finished the book. I understand you're OMG moment, acturally there were 2. I liked the beginning 100 pages, was bored for the middle 100 or so and then it picked up again for the last 100. I thought I was going to like this book more than I did. The end left me flat, and there was a part just before the end that was totally unnecessary and could have been left out. I don't know how much to say at this point. I don't want to spoil it for anyone still reading it.

I read your review, Roz, and I liked the comparisons you made between Marina and Dr. Swenson.

You talked about highlighting a quote you thought we could discuss. Was it about hope?

The quote I was talking about was this one:

‘Hope is a horrible thing, you know. I don’t know who decided to package hope as virtue because it’s not. It’s a plague. Hope is like walking around with a fishhook in your mouth and somebody just keeps pulling it and pulling it.’

It wasn't far into the book, near the beginning before Marina goes to find Dr. Swenson. It's in a conversation with Karen, I think. It was the first thing in the book that sort of piqued my interst.

So, is hope a good thing to hold onto, or not? Is it better to let go and accept, or better to leave the door ajar in case something wants to come wandering through? Have you ever hoped for something and got nothing in return? Or hoped and been rewarded? Was the reward what you expected? or maybe different in some way?

Then there are also questions concerning drug company ethics/morality; and the preservation of indigenous cultures.

I wondered if that was the quote you mentioned earlier in the thread.

It seems to me the quote is like asking if the glass if half full or half empty. I can certainly see why Karen would feel so bitter about it. Was it hope or denial though?

I think we all have experienced situations where we had hopes that were dashed, and situations where our hopes were realized. Maybe things don't work out quite the way we expect. Each outcome is an opportunity for something new and possibly better. I think hope goes hand in hand with faith.

Without hope you have despair.

Roz wrote: "Then there are also questions concerning drug company ethics/morality; and the preservation of indigenous cultures."

It's almost overwhelming to think about these issues! This was the area that fell flat for me. Dr Swenson talked about the risks of providing medical care and upsetting the natural order of the indigenous people. She implied that she was wrong to provide care to the child with the machete gash. Yet, she seemed oblivious to the possible effects of experimenting on the women. It seemed inconsistent.

Aside: There's a thread out there about this book spending a lot of time discussing the probability that Marina is pregnant by Anders from their one night stand. Did I miss something? I didn't miss the event but didn't come to that conclusion/outcome. I didn't get that at all or I just glossed over the whole episode because I felt it was unnecessary and should have been left out.

I think that's just speculation on the part of those readers. I suppose it is conceivable (pun not intended) that she could have gotten pregnant, but there was nothing in the book to indicate the possibility.

(view spoiler)[I suppose that they took the fact that she was chewing the bark, not taking contraceptives, had sex with Anders, the research was about fertility in older women, and then took it one step further. (hide spoiler)]

I really had wanted to like this book. The whole idea appealed to me. I am an anthropologist, love the jungle, studied a bit of medical anthropology etc. Should be right up my alley but I was really disappointed for many of the reasons that have already been listed here. I also found the characters to all be very "nice". Even the cannibals - beware of spoilers in following comments (I don't know how to hide) The cannibals allowed Anders to live, they dropped off the boy knowing a doctor lived in the other village etc. It just bugged me (let alone the whole cannibal thing).

I remember my overall opinion when I closed the book was that it was 'ridiculous". It was so unbelievable, it had great themes that it could have explored but chose not to, and the characters ended up not interesting me.

One person in our bookclub thought that the female protector (Sorry I have forgotten names) was the daughter of the mushroom guy from when he was doing other research because he was quite the ladies man... Did anyone else get that??? or was she alone in coming up with that one? Most of us did agree that Marina was impregnated because she stopped eating the bark which if I remember correctly is what happens as soon as you are pregnant - otherwise it is almost addictive? Am I remembering that correctly? Anyway, even that seemed a bit silly to me and I do not really understand the point of it.

I do think the title was good though.

I think I've forgotten the book already. Ok... not quite.

I have The Patron Saint of Liars and I hope it's better than this book.

Oh! One scene that I really liked for some reason was when Marina walked from the opera to the coffee house in her strappy sandals and the first real meeting with Dr Swenson. It showed her again at a disadvantage to her mentor in a really descriptive manner.

I've just finished this one and I can see what you're saying. i can think of 2 significant OMG moments. I thought the last chapter was very rushed and i do know what you mean about it being left hanging.

I thought there was an element of the ways the different parties were portrayed throught the book was interesting. At the start is Dr Swenson as the secretive scientist doing goodness only knows what and spending the hard working big pharma company's money. then, once Marina was in Manaus, it shifted stance to the big bad pharma company hassling the honest scientist in her hard work. But the truth, of the final half of the book was different again.

But i did love the writing, the passages of the jungle were almost seductive they were so beautiful and calm, but with a sense of melancholy. I liked it, but it didn't leave me entirely satisfied.

I agree with your comments, Helen. Something was missing, but I can't quite put my finger on what it was.