Liz, Richard and the Book Club Discussion

I told you awhile back about the book that I started and refused to finish for my Book Club. Yesterday was our meeting. After coffee was poured, a little chit-chat, and settling into comfortable chairs, we began the discussion with a question for the hostess.

"Why," asked one member, "did you select this book about celebrities of long ago?"

Our hostess said that when she was a teen-ager, she devoured movie magazines and this book was like reading them all over again. To learn all about the love life, the highs and lows of the Taylor-Burton romance/tragedy.

Of seven people there, four didn't like the book, one was on the fence and two adored it. But, as the discussion moved on, we were all engrossed in dredging up memories of movie stars from fifty or more years ago. Names like Eddie Fischer, Debbie Reynolds, Ingrid Bergman, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney popped up. We all agreed that these stars were manipulated by the studios who owned them and hounded by the press while being embraced by the public. They were the days when people who made movies were 'stars' in every sense of the word. And they lasted for a good many years. It seems the movie people of today are here one day and gone the next, except for a few.

Even though I didn't finish the book and I didn't like it, I have to admit that I definitely enjoyed the discussion we had yesterday. It was lively and interesting from start to finish.