Melanie Lennox
November 15, 2014 11:12 PM
Book Club! by Melanie Lennox
It had been a very busy year for Melanie with Head Girl duties, Head Library Monitor duties, RATS preparation and spending as much time with Marcus as she could. She probably neglected that a little, even though she didn't want to, because they had forever and everything else was just for this year. She still made the time though, because that was what mattered most to her. Truthfully, Melanie would be rather glad when the year was over and she could focus solely on him, on them.Another responsibility that the Teppenpaw had taken on this year was Book Club, an activity she'd always enjoyed attending and had been proud to take over, even if she'd hated the application process. Melanie didn't like talking herself up much...and she felt horrible that she was going to have to ask someone else to do so, so they could take over the club next term when she graduated. It was just that she didn't know any other way to pick. She didn't have time for an election and it would be a shame for the club to just end.
She gazed wistfully around the library. One might think that Melanie would be tired of the place given she'd spent more time here than in her own common room this year but she wasn't. The library held wonderful memories for her. She hoped that when she was married and had a home of her own with Marcus, she would have a grand library. The Teppenpaw wanted her children to have the opportunity to be readers too though she'd love them no matter how they turned out. What she wanted most was just for her children to be healthy, to not have to go through what Valerie did.
Of course, that was probably why books had been such a big part of her life. Melanie could have gone and done other things, her sister couldn't really and when it came down to it, the Teppenpaw wanted to stay with her, not to leave her out while she herself went out and had fun. Sometimes, when Valerie was feeling really bad, Melane would even read to her. A lot of their playing had been inspired by books they both loved too.
Though at the beginning of the year, she'd intended to hold meetings in the Library-what more natural place for a Book Club that those not in Aladren could get to?-she'd eventually decided to go back to the Transfiguration room, because they could have snacks there if they wanted. Today, however, Melanie had a particular idea in mind and they needed to be in the library to do it.
Once everyone had arrived, she cleared her throat. "Hi everyone, I have an announcement before I tell you the activity for today. As you all know, I will be graduating, and am looking for someone to take over Book Club. Please submit an application to me listing your qualifications if you're interested." Again, Melanie felt horrible asking people to do such a thing, but she really believed in the club and wanted it to keep going. She thought others might be more okay with bragging about themselves than she was though.
"Anyway, I would like you to all spread out and find a book or so you'd like to read as our next selection." She thought this might be a fun way to find new books to read. "Try to pick something you've never read before." Melanie encouraged them.
OOC-This is not IC the first or last Book Club of the year, it's just the only one that's being posted.
Subthreads: Discussing the future. by Julian and John Umland
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Melanie Lennox
Book Club!
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Melanie Lennox
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Julian and John Umland
November 18, 2014 8:19 PM
Discussing the future. by Julian and John Umland
Julian and her brother had, she thought, found a comfortable balance of time around each other versus time engaged in separate pursuits at school. It wasn’t at all like being at home, where everyone was continually tripping over everyone else, or like she had thought it might be before they arrived, where their different years and Houses, combined with John’s tendency to follow the white rabbit far too far into his books when left unsupervised, meant they only sort of waved vaguely to each other from across the dining hall every now and again. Since John hadn’t proven nearly as asocial as Julian had expected, though, they actually spent a reasonable amount of time together between working in the library, reading from the same literary period, having supper together on Sundays, and going to Book Club.When the club met in the Transfiguration room, they usually arrived there at about the same time, but when Julian got to the library meeting place, she was unsurprised to find John already there, apparently engrossed in a small and much-loved (she thought Joe had actually chewed on it once, back when it had been Paul’s turn to read it, and the look of the back cover supported her memory) copy of The Sword and the Stone but holding a seat for her with a large bag of books on who-knew-what. John was always, unless he was coming from a class, in the library first when their paths overlapped there, and between that and the times he’d waved her off when she’d warned him about curfew, Julian had concluded that the Aladren common room was very likely actually adjacent to the library, though the outside of the building neither supported nor denied, at least to her poor eye for architecture, that theory. She moved the bag and sat down, raising an eyebrow at several loud clinking sounds from inside it.
“Please do not ask me what’s in there,” said John, distantly, not looking up from his book.
“I don’t want to know,” said Julian.
The rest of the club arrived, and Julian blinked at the reminder that Melanie was graduating at the end of the year. She had quite forgotten it – after Henny’s long tenure as head, she guessed she had just been expecting her successor to last longer. It didn’t make sense in retrospect, since it was obvious that Henny would have left it to another Advanced student, but she just hadn’t bothered to think it through logically to begin with.
They were sent to look for books to nominate shortly afterward, and Julian nudged John when he didn’t move, frowning at the air as he thought about something. “This is Earth calling,” she said. “It’s time to look for new books.”
The mention of one of his favorite activities did not do as much to make John stop thinking as Julian had expected; instead of dashing off to grab an armload of the books he no doubt had on some waiting-to-be-read list in his head already, John just followed her, walking slowly and – most tellingly of all – not seeming to notice when she led him to a shelf full of teen romances.
He picked one up, turned it over in his hands. “You should do it,” he said suddenly, after she had decided to leave him to it and started reading back covers. She didn’t seriously plan to show any of them to the club, but did like to check them out to herself sometimes, taking cheery advantage of how being a monitor meant never having to explain one’s reading choices. She put the book she was holding down and raised an eyebrow.
“Do what?” she asked, then glanced at the cover of the book in his hand. “Date a strangely asymmetrical Quidditch player whose hair time-traveled from the seventies?”
“Wha – “ John seemed to realize what he was looking at and put it down carefully. “No. Get a promotion. Her job.” He waved back toward the whole club had been together. “Next year,” he added.
Julian blinked, then laughed. “What? Me? Why would she pick me?”
“Why not?” said John, looking genuinely confused. “But I can’t argue about that. I’m biased.” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “I’ve got at least three biases there,” he added. “But it would make sense for you to apply even if I didn’t. You’ll be in Advanced next year – “
“ – If I don’t fail my CATS,” grumbled Julian.
“Improbable,” said John. “You're thinking about it. That's...not right, that's bad data. Standardized tests are about numbers.” He made a face. The homeschooling organization worked with the local schools, and while John had always been ecstatic when this involved use of their science equipment, he had been less pleased when forced to take standardized tests a few times, even though they always attached flattering adjectives to him. After the last time, they’d caught him asking one of his friends if she knew how to write to the Premiere and their MP to complain about how the tests were obviously by morons and for morons. The friend, to Mom’s profound lack of amusement, had suggested e-mail. “Numbers say you probably pass, four passes and zero failures. Anyway. You’ll be in Advanced next year. You’ve been in the club a long time. You read a lot. You know books.”
“Yes, but….”
“Is…never mind. That’s logic. And you know….”
He trailed off. Julian looked at him suspiciously. “What?”
“Well, you know Mom would like it….”
Julian looked intently at the spines of the mystery novels they had wandered into while they were talking. Mom probably would like it a lot. It was exactly the kind of activity of which Mom approved: social and academic at the same time. Still, though...well.... “I’ll think about it,” she said.
John looked triumphant. “’Kay,” he said, and, seemingly cheerful now, began looking at the shelves, too. “I’m kind of over mystery,” he said. “I had to read so many of those stupid, you know, Hardy Boys things at home…maybe there’s better stuff here, though.” He looked at another person entering the aisle. "Do you know if any of these authors are any good?" he asked.
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Discussing the future.
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Ava Fletcher
November 23, 2014 11:58 PM
Being nosy (as usual). by Ava Fletcher
Book club was something Ava had always been interested in joining. However, during her first year at Sonora she had been somewhat in a bit of a tizzy and somehow had managed to not sign up. And once that had happened she had also felt quite awkward actually going to the meetings. Besides, she’d signed up for Library Assistant and continued to that position through her second year, so between that and the amount of time she had spent in the MARS room painting she just hadn’t found a good opportunity to sign up for it. Her third year, what with the teachers missing for the entire first half, had been interesting. To be honest, Ava wasn’t sure if there had even been a Book Club at all, but that was mainly because during the first half of the year she had been busy trying to stay on top of her school work and had, for the first time in her life, a solid group of friends with which to distract herself from the real world. The second half of the year she had been playing catch-up because despite the effort she had put in to stay up to date seventh years teaching classes just was not the same as having teachers there.However, with the beginning of fourth year, Ava realized that her time at Sonora was early half way over and she still hadn’t joined a club she’d meant to join her very first year. So she’d added her name to the list, happy to find that one of her good friends, Emery already participated in it. That particular day, Ava had a spring in her step-- her grandfather had sent her a care package and she’d just gotten it that morning. Along with a brand new book (Lady Audley’s Secret, a delicious Victorian, gothic novel that somewhat reminded her of Crime and Punishment only the reverse) he had also sent a few new hair ribbons-- blue and black for Aladren colors, and a small charcoal set, enough to last her until she came home, at least. She stepped outside the common room and joined the rest of the book club where Melanie was hosting it realizing, for the first time all year, that everyone was growing up. She didn’t, however, feel qualified enough to take over the book club and therefore declined to fill out an application instead starting in right away to find a couple books to bring back.
As she walked through the shelves she wondered about choosing some of the essays she’d been reading but remembered that Melanie wanted them to choose books they hadn’t read yet. Besides, she consoled herself, the other students probably didn't want to read about theoretical medicine anyhow. It was too bad that the Sonora library didn’t have an extensive section of Muggle literature-- or if they had Ava just didn’t know where to find it, because Ava was almost certain that a lot of the Pureblood students wouldn’t have read those particular titles. “My dear Mr. Darcy,” she whispered under her breath as she tilted her head sideways to read a book title. “I’m afraid that you and I shall have to wait another day to be reunited.” She straightened herself up again and turned down the next aisle, still thinking about the dashing Mr. Darcy. Her inner-musings, however, were interrupted with the voice of a fellow Aladren and his older sister.
“Do you know if any of these authors are any good?” John asked.
Ava shrugged in return as she didn’t quite know who John was referring to just yet. She reached her paint covered fingers into the shelves and pulled out one of the books she assumed he was talking about and looked the cover over carefully. “Don’t worry,” she said absent-mindedly, unsure if they were looking at her fingers or not but wanting to put their minds at ease if they were, in fact, worried about the paint. “It’s dried. It’s oil paint though, so…” She shrugged and flipped up a strand of hair to show the paint that constantly seemed to be there too. “It doesn’t come out so easy.” She flipped the book over to read the back and then looked back up. “I suppose it all depends on what your definition of good is,” she shifted back to answering John’s question. “If you’re wondering if the story is worth reading, then no. If you’re wondering whether it’s written well, then yes.” She handed the book over to John. “It’s up to you, really.” Ava shrugged her shoulders.
“I hope someone takes over the club next year,” she said as she continued to peruse the aisle. “It would be a shame if it ended just after I joined.” She turned towards Julian. “Were you planning on applying? You’re probably one of the older students.” Julian was only a year older than herself but since she was going to be in the Advanced classes the next year Ava thought she seemed like a logical choice.
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Ava Fletcher
Being nosy (as usual).
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Julian and John
November 25, 2014 12:03 AM
We have different opinions about curiosity. by Julian and John
John frowned at the answer the girl he had spoken to (Julian was pretty sure she was called Ava, and in her classes) gave him about the mystery novels. Julian could not guess from the expression whether he was arguing with himself, about to try to argue with Ava for fun, or if the answer had annoyed him in some way, so she decided to intervene before he could answer.“Taste is – always subjective, right?” she said, smiling politely.
“Doesn’t that make – uh – all of – you know – literature, English, study – er – not valid?” asked John, no doubt, she thought, arguing with himself about the question even as he posed it to them.
“No,” said Julian. “I’ll argue with you later, if you want,” she added in an undertone, as his expression had changed enough now that she was sure he wanted to argue just for fun. He approached casual arguments the way he did board games, focused solely on winning, but could reach almost Charlie-like levels of bubbly and sometimes even become affectionate if someone presented an argument he hadn’t thought of, at least with family and his friends. Julian usually tried to put herself between him and trying it out with the rest of the world when she could, both because she didn’t like for him to look stupid or weird to people when he started either rambling or tripping over his words and because she didn’t want to deal with the fallout of him running into one of the subjects (claims of pureblood supremacy, all other people who he believed deliberately used ‘inaccurate data’, and people who insisted that the evolution of species had never happened were the ones that came to mind) which made him lose his temper in loud ways while he was with her. “Look for new books.”
John, however, did not seem, as bizarre as that was to contemplate, to be in the mood to look for new books, because he was alert enough to hear Ava’s question about Julian possibly running the club next year. “See?” said John, pointing at Ava. “She agrees with me it makes sense, and she’s got no reason to like you….”
“Thank you, John,” said Julian dryly. “And don’t point at people.”
“Oh – sorry,” he said, she thought more or less to Ava, as he was looking more in that direction. She wasn’t sure he, interested in winning an argument, had registered her sarcasm about the first part at all.
“Anyway, I – might,” said Julian, answering the actual question with a pained smile. “My brother and I were just talking about that – which you, um, might have guessed from him….”
It had seemed ridiculous when John said it, but as she thought about it, she began to wonder if the idea was as far-fetched as all that. Francesca fit the…leader archetype much more than she did, of course, but Francesca was already juggling being a prefect with the Quidditch team, which she would eventually probably be captain of if Julian understood how the teams worked correctly and if there was a team to be captain of by then. Assuming there was, though, and that Francesca was not so smart that she could pull off Aladren-quality grades without effort, then adding a club leadership position to her resume might be a little much. In which case, Julian thought she might well be the next most qualified. And it would please Mom…something Julian felt like she definitely was not doing enough of lately. Not that she had done anything which Mom would exactly disapprove of, but…nothing to get that particular smile, the one Steve and John seemed to get all the time without even trying, one of pride and complete approval. When Julian got that one, it was - usually - because she had kept Joe occupied while Mom was teaching one of the other boys or because she had completed an extra chore without being asked….
“If no-one else wants it, I’ll set up something to keep it going, sure, of course,” she said. "I'll - have to think about anything else. I'm glad you're here, though, and enjoying it. What kind of books have you liked the best?" asked Julian, hoping to change the subject.
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Julian and John
We have different opinions about curiosity.
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Ava Fletcher
November 25, 2014 8:03 PM
In my book, curiosity ≠ nosiness. by Ava Fletcher
Ava nodded with Julian’s explanation as she found it to summarize her view quite well and besides that succinctly clarified what it was she had been trying to express with her opinion regarding the books. She returned the older girl’s smile and went to further add to the conversation when John asked a new question. She didn’t quite understand what he meant by “valid,” as she figured a person’s opinion or literary analysis of a book was drawn from evidence within the book and furthermore in what universe could the study of books ever be not valid. She frowned slightly, trying to best decide how to phrase her next thought, but Julian quieted John with a muttered phrase.“It’s fine,” Ava wanted to say. “I don’t mind talking about that, really. It is an interesting idea.” But then if they were to open that discussion off she would want to know how an eleven year old knew so much literature. She had been raised by a bibliophile, herself, but she had never really engaged in her grandfather’s discussions during his book clubs, instead preferring to sit quietly in a corner and listen or read her own book. Instead, she directed the conversation elsewhere, hiding a smile when John had another outburst. At least on some levels he was still a child.
“It’s okay,” Ava shrugged off John’s apology that seemed neither sincere nor insincere. “You should, though,” she continued. “I’m pretty sure the only qualifications that you would need to run this is to love books and as long as you liked to read I don’t see why you shouldn’t. Plus you and Melanie are in the same house, right?” Ava shrugged again and addressed Julian’s question next. “I don’t have a particular favorite. I just like books that are written well. My grandfather sent me a package this morning so I just got a new book from him, Lady Audley’s Secret, have you read that one?”
While the Umlands answered her question, Ava pursed her lips and tried to think about the books they had read as part of the book club and then decided to just list off a couple motifs and literary devices that she enjoyed and texts she liked whether or not they had been part of the club. “I think plot twists are great fun and I like it when the author can pull them off well and keep you in suspense. I don’t care too greatly for anything of the horror genre, though my grandfather has been sending me a fair amount of Muggle Gothic books and I’m greatly enjoying those. Also, I’m a fan of Malvac Theobrum’s collection of essays on controversial medicine, his speculations regarding the healing properties of chocolate being a favorite, but I don’t expect that to be anything many people have seen. He’s not that well known, I think I first heard of him from my mother, she’s a Healer. What about you guys?”
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Ava Fletcher
In my book, curiosity ≠ nosiness.
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John and Julian
November 27, 2014 2:41 PM
The definitions are probably debatable. by John and Julian
Triumph over persuading his sister to do what he wanted her to do (as John was confident she would; she was refusing to commit out loud, but John was pretty sure she was just saying that because she didn’t want him to know he’d won so quickly) faded quickly into his customary awkwardness when John realized the person he was speaking to was not a person he knew. Older Aladren Girl didn’t bother him – he knew her face from the book club and around the common room, both of which meant she was probably ‘safe’ – but nor was she someone he knew well, so her presence made it hard to really concentrate on the books.So did the argument he thought she was having with his sister, but not in the good way. He was a little confused. If Older Aladren Girl was right, then it was possible to declare some stories Worth Reading and others Not, some writing Good and some writing Not. If Julian was right, it was not possible to decide what was Good Writing or a Good Story and what was Not, that was all a matter of personal taste, and lists of classics and the English classes that taught them therefore had no reason to exist. Since they did exist, though, then either Mom had a pointless master’s degree in a subject which only existed thanks to bad data or else Julian was wrong and Older Aladren Girl was right. All of which made perfect sense; the only problem was that Julian seemed to think he was the one being rude and arguing with a stranger, when she was the one he thought was actually disagreeing with Older Aladren Girl….
Probably best to assume that they were not actually discussing anything, just…saying things, not thinking or caring what they meant. People did that. It annoyed him, but he knew only to argue with family, friends, and people he disliked. OAG didn’t fit into any of those categories, so he shrugged sullenly when Julian offered to continue the discussion later, not particularly wanting to talk to either of them anymore at the moment.
He perked back up a little, though, when OAG voiced her support for Club Head Julian, only briefly scowling at his sister before apologizing for pointing. He guessed it had sounded kind of wrong, like he was saying there weren’t reasons in general to like Julian instead of just that, as far as he knew, this specific person didn’t know her well enough to have a real opinion of her. Plus, support for his argument was support for his argument. He had just come up with it when Club Head Melanie had mentioned she was leaving, so he knew it wasn’t his best plan ever, but John wanted his sister to take over the club next year. With Julian in charge, he would have a lot of say in what they read, which meant they would only get books with good data, and maybe people who didn’t normally see any would be exposed to good data….
Julian deflected it again with a question about OAG’s reading habits, then shook her head. “I don’t think I’ve read that one,” she said. John shook his head, too. He looked on with more interest, though, at the stuff OAG was reading that didn’t sound like trashy romance. He made a note to ask Julian what her real name was later; she seemed interesting.
“The last thing my mother sent me to read was a stack of essays people wrote back in the day about whether or not Muggles and wizards should separate,” said Julian. “She likes to take us through time periods – John and I are both studying medieval and Renaissance this year, though his are mostly adaptations….”
“Not all of it,” objected John. Some of the poetry just had the spelling regularized, and while the plays had modern English on one side and the real text on the other, he was still counting them. “And you used the early ones as much as I did.” Admittedly, he would probably re-read the adaptations of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Canterbury Tales and stuff, too, before he tackled the grown-up translations in a few years, but he wasn’t going to let Julian make him look like a stupid kid in front of someone vaguely interesting. Impolite – she had pretty much told him to go have bad taste if he wanted to – but he could hardly complain about that in a person, and it was probably just because she assumed people his age were stupid by default. He'd accepted that people did that and that he had to make a special effort to prove them wrong. “That’s our school reading, though - it's good, but it's what Mom gives us. I’m – “ he paused for a moment, trying to think of something he could mention without potentially talking about his Work. That was too risky. The Work had to be secret. "I like birds. Av - avian intelligence. Transfiguration theory, too - but that's a, a different thing. And...."
"I don't think there's really anything you don't like to read some of," said Julian, sounding amused. "I'm awful, nothing I read on my own is really about anything. I just like a nice story, nothing too dramatic. It's a nice break from studying for my CATS."
"Mom says everything's about something, even if it doesn't know it," said John. "What, er, do you think?" he asked OAG, wondering if she'd keep being interesting.
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John and Julian
The definitions are probably debatable.
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