Five-year-old Jack and his Ma live and eat and play and sleep in one room–an 11×11-foot space that is Jack’s world… and Ma’s prison. Ma was abducted at the age of 19 by Old Nick 7 years ago. 5 years ago, Jack was born. All Jack knows of the world is in ROOM. He has never seen sky, grass, a dog, a store…. he knows TABLE, BED, SPOON, RUG, WARDROBE, TV… and everything that has been in the room since he was born. Jack is very satisfied with what he believes to be a normal life…. but each day brings Ma to another level of how is she going to get free and save her son who does not know he needs saving?
Last September I read and reviewed ROOM. At the time of that reading I was really impressed with this book. As time went on, I found the book really stuck with me and that …. made it all the more impressive.
Last month, my book club the AWESOME Bookies, chose ROOM to be our book club read for May, and last night we had our potluck around the book and discussion.
Much of what we discussed in the book could be considered spoilerish to someone who has not read the book so I am going to make a spoiler page (my second one for ROOM) to allow those who have read the book to go to and see what was discussed.
Now – for those of you who have not read the book, this is my advice for you. Read it. I recommend it. I have heard many of you say that you don’t think you could handle the book, but seriously – the book is pretty tame. Yes Ma was abducted. Yes Jack is a result of that abduction. BUT note this – all that is pre-ROOM. When ROOM opens, Jack is five and ROOM is told entirely from Jack’s perspective. Things are not going to get too crazy when a five-year old is telling the story. And that too is brilliant of Emma Donoghue…. what could have been a harsh hard book is told by hmmm…. let’s say, Ma, is mellowed and innocent as told by Jack.
The Bookies overall ratings were mixed. We are on a scale of 1 – 5 (5 the best) and most came in around 4 and 4.5… a few around 3. Angie and I, who had both read this book before encouraged them to sit on their thoughts of the book for a while. We both agreed that after reading, we found we even liked it more.
Oh…. and anytime we have a home meeting for Bookies, there is food. I LOVE planning food around our book reviews… our group is so creative, and here is what we had last night in celebration of ROOM:
My original review of ROOM is here
Book Journey 
I wasn’t thinking Sunday treat with the candy. I was thinking “Jack’s going to rot his teeth out!”
LOL…. no kidding…. thank goodness for all that milk 😉
I love Jack in a rug! You’re so clever!
LOL…. 😛
Your book club looks amazing! I want to start a book club like this in my own area; where we read a book and than make food that relates to it!
I loved Room too. A really great read. I know what you mean when you say it stayed with you.
Our book club is amazing…. I hate to brag but… yeah it’s true 😀
The food reviews are so fun… sometimes we have to be pretty creative to come up with ideas….
(One of my favs was when we read Wicked and one of the girls brought chicken wings (Elphiba in the beginning of the book pulls the wings off chickens…)
I agree with Christa, this looks like so much fun. I also read Room and loved it. Emma Donoghue came and spoke about it too, which made it even better.
WOW- you had Emma come and talk about it! I interviewed her but not in person 😀
I have to admit I am one of those people who was “afraid” to read this book.. You made a great point that I hadn’t thought of – how crazy are things going to get when the story is told by a 5 year old.
Ok, you’ve convinced me, I’m going to read it!
YAY Bonnie – trust me… I would never intentionally subject my book club to a harsh read… this one we all agreed is mellow.
You can do it Bonnie and I am excited to read your thoughts 😀
The food is so clever! I don’t remember anything about tortilla soup though!
I dont think there was Jill… but Amy can make anything…. it was sooooooo good! 😀
So I loved this book. Like favorite book of last year loved and suggested it for my bookclub thinking it would be super discussion worthy and they all hated it! I was stunned. So glad yours received it better!
There were a couple in our group that almost put t down in the beginning… we all enjoyed the discussion though 🙂
Oh I really liked Room too. A lot of people didn’t, but I really appreciate it a lot especially because of how realistic the plot line is!
Btw.. those chocolates look pretty awesome. Haha. Now I wish I had a book club around here, but nobody reads around me!
I absolutely LOVED this book and still think about it even after getting through many others. The food that was made looks lush and as for the sunday treat definitely!
Glad you got to revisit the wonderment of Jack’s world. 😀
It was a great discussion…. 😀
I really plan to read ROOM at some point…I just have so many books on my stacks!
Love the food pix…now I’m hungry! LOL
Laurel ROOM is a one maybe two sitting read…. do not hesitate – I would love to discuss this one with you 🙂
At first, I thought, “what foods could possibly go with this book?” but you were all very creative!! Sounds like you have a fun book group. I agree this book really stays with you – I read it in January and still find myself thinking about it.
Sue
I loved the Sunday treats… it was smart thinking 😉
This one’s still on my shelf, waiting patiently …
Hannah it is a quick read…. hope you get to it soon 😀
That’d be nice, but the outlook appears doubtful right now. 😦