In these last few chapters of the book, we see CeeCee break open in many ways.  As she collapses from the pain she has carried for so long, she also begins her healing process.  She witnesses adults being imperfect and fighting like children and then walking away as friends.  She learns that even though she [...]

Each week we see CeeCee become more comfortable with her surroundings and her new friends and family.  The realities of a “normal” life begin to occur, with all of their complexities and subtleties.  CeeCee is confronted with racism, not once but twice; first, through the attack on Tybee Island and secondly, (and more humorously), when she [...]

In this week’s reading we get to see CeeCee enjoying a little mischief and adventure.  After so many years of living in a state of constant shame, despair, and constant alert I wondered how these new experiences might feel to her.  While the incident with Miz Hobbs was surely scary for CeeCee, she also got [...]

In this week’s reading selection we meet the women of Savannah, Georgia. Oletta, Miz Hobbs, and Miz Goodpepper each bring their own brand of southern hospitality to CeeCee. On the one hand, CeeCee drinks in all of the love and affection offered by her new friends and family, while on the other she doubts her [...]

As our Spring Book Club reading opens, we meet CeeCee, a young girl forced to be caretaker and overseer to her mentally ill mother. It is easy to instantly like CeeCee; while possessing the innocence of a child, much of her life is spent performing very adult tasks; the blend of naivety and wisdom that [...]

 The Art of Racing in the Rain ended for me in the same way that it started, with my aging Boston Terrier laying on my lap sleeping soundly, while tears spilled down my cheeks.  I am struggling with what to write this week, not only because of the mix of emotion in these last few [...]

In this week’s reading we see the return of the zebra – a seemingly harmless toy that reminds us that light is always balanced with dark, and that no matter how much humanity fills us it is equaled with a wild, animalistic nature. However, in this second encounter with the zebra, Enzo has gained wisdom [...]

There’s so much good in this book that I often have difficulty choosing what to write about each week.  Even though the chapters we’re covering this week recounted a dark and difficult time for Denny and his dog, I was so enthralled by the expression of Enzo’s deep wisdom for human affairs that I could [...]

The chapters we’re discussing this week really captured the dark heaviness of Eve’s illness and the impact it was having on Denny, Enzo and Zoe.  I thought it was interesting that Enzo, like all of us, began questioning his ability to respond to the complex emotions that arise in these types of experiences.  In chapter [...]

Welcome to the second discussion of our Winter Book Club.  This week’s reading opens with Enzo struggling to maintain control over the innate animal instincts for which he feels such disdain.  Upon finding himself locked in the house for three days without food or water, Enzo’s strategy for survival forces him to acknowledge his “genetic [...]