Helene Moog opened her home on an autumn afternoon to the members of Taine Club. In keeping with the club theme, “The Gift of Friendship”, President Jackie Boyd read the poem “One True Friend” to open the meeting.
After a short business meeting the program was presented by Jodi LaMantia, who reviewed the book The Black Out Book Clubby Amy Lynn Green.
This novel is a look at life on the home front during World War II and how comfort and camaraderie can be found in the shared love of books and friendships are formed.
In a small town on the coast of Maine, Avis Montgomery promised her brother she would be head librarian before he went off to fight the war in Europe.
Though she had never been much of a reader, when wartime needs threatened to close the library, she invents a book club to keep its doors open. The women she convinces to attend the first meeting couldn’t be more different.
Louise Cavendish is a spinster who inherited the library from her father and is thinking about shutting it down against Avis’s admonitions.
Ginny Atkinson assists her father on his lobster boat and leans on the group after suffering an unbearable loss. Martina Bianchini struggles to raise her two young children while her husband serves in the Navy, and her troubles get worse when she starts to suspect him of a treasonable offense.
At first, the problems and struggles of the home front are all the club members have in common but over time, the books they choose become more than an escape from the hardships of life and the fear of the U-boat battles just past their shores.
As the women face personal challenges and unite together in the face of danger, they find they have more in common than they think. but when their growing friendships are tested by secrets of the past and present, they must decide whether depending on each other is worth the cost.
The next Taine meeting will be a Christmas luncheon in the Lounge at Wesley United Methodist Church, 12:00 noon on Monday, December 9. Helene Moog and Georgetta Kuhman will be hostesses.
Pictured is Taine Club President Jackie Boyd, Speaker Jodi LaMantia, and hostess Helene Moog.