Our book club met to discuss All Creatures Great and Small. We are definitely not a book club you would join if you are interested in critical discussion of only the book. We have been together for several years…I’m thinking 7 now…….and we enjoy lots of discussion other than the book itself. I absolutely admire, respect, and sometime even worship the women in our group….not to mention how much I love each one of them! I'm sure this discussion was not about the book....Lisa...Tricki Woo is not my new dog!
This month we were lucky to have 2 guests join us, Nancy’s friend Cecily and my new friend Dana. Dana is living next door to me for the summer. Her DH is the manager for the Ogden Raptors and it has been such a pleasure to get to know their family. Dana is amazing in so many ways….I have such an admiration for a woman who can: 1. Live the life style of the MLB family 2. Have a career of her own and 3…be an amazing mother who has homeschooled her 4 children with remarkable results. I’m so delighted we can now call you a part of our family circle.
Cecily is an author and editor, so I’m sure she knows that we are not a true “LITERARY” BC. I do hope we weren’t a disappointment to her. Nancy and Cecily have been friends for many...many years. Cecily moved to Arizona several years ago, and they have continued their friendship with many trips for each of them back and forth from Utah to Arizona. Cecily is a very generous woman…. Ali and I traveled to Phoenix during Spring Training 1999….Cecily opened her home to us and we were so appreciative....especially the lemon trees and swimming pool in the backyard. 
Oh how I digress….so back to BC……. Actually I felt like we discussed the book more this month than we have several others….we all seemed to feel a great deal of affection for the characters as well as the animals in the story. The story is about James Herriot and his life as a rural veterinarian in 1930's Yorkshire. Herriot certainly knows how to tell a heartwarming, funny tale, but he never lets us forget that a country animal doctor's life is hard, sometimes tinged with sadness and that even in a lovely place like the farming midlands tragedy is never far away. He practices veterinary medicine in a small town and out on the little family farms that dot the Dales. His boss Seigfried (later his partner) and Seigfried's jovial brother Tristan work beside James as they answer midnight calls to birth calves, stitch up injured sows, and partner with the local farmers to keep England's agricultural concerns feeding the nation. Around these duties, James has assorted adventures and is a time or two lead astray by the charming, well-meaning but definitely problem-prone Tristan, who with his skirt chasing and love of the odd pint is perpetually in danger of flunking out of vet school. These lovable men allow us to come along as they mingle with some of the amazing characters. They work with farmers who live in such isolation they have in some cases never been five miles from their own homes, and Herriot's prose celebrates their glorious idiosyncrasies. This was a great book to add to my have read collection!
1 comment:
Nice post...great description of BC. Thank you for being so caring and considerate about everyone's eating needs. I truly apprecitate it. The food was yummy!
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