V.V.B.C.-The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

Vicarious Virtual Book Club-
The Mountain Between Us 
by Charles Martin
THE FIRST HALF OF THIS BLOG ENTRY IS WHAT WAS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED, WITHOUT SPOILERS. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BOOK. STOP READING WHEN I WARN YOU TO STOP, BELOW!




"The Mountain Between Us" is my Sisterchicks Book Club's February book selection. A brief synopsis of the plot is that two strangers, one, a young, married doctor on his way home from a conference, and the other, a young woman on her way home to be married, survive a private plane crash in the middle of a wilderness area. Nobody knows they are on the plane, so they will have to save themselves.

I will not post any review for the V.V.B.C., until after my Sisterchicks Book Club meeting February 21, but I wanted to have a place for those of you who've already read the book, those who want to recommend the book, or anyone else, to comment.

There are at least 30 of you "Vicarious Virtual Book Club" members who've e-mailed, facebooked, or told me in person that you're reading some of the selections! I hope SOME of you will post on the blog entries, so others can see your comments, and be inspired!

This is meant to be a "no pressure," FUN and CASUAL group! No worries about having to "sound intellectual!" We're all here because we ENJOY reading! Some of us may be more serious about reading than others--no problem! You don't have to read all the books to participate. We want to hear from anyone who wants to post!

PLEASE DON'T POST ANY "SPOILERS ABOUT THIS BOOK!"

All I'll say, until after the Sisterchicks Book Club meeting, is that I was THOROUGHLY engrossed in this story! It was great "escape" fiction for me. This is probably a "chick book," (translation: love story), however there's a fair amount of survival/adventure, as well.

I could almost LITERALLY FEEL the cold and snow! (Having so much snow here in Atlanta during the time I was listening to The Mountain Between Us, made it very real to me! I LISTENED to the Audible version this book on my iPhone, if you want to hear a sample, here is a link. Just type in the author or book name.)

Search for audiobooks:

by author, title or keyword

STOP READING NOW
IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ A COMPLETE REVIEW OF THE FEBRUARY SISTERCHICK BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION! 


Last night was my Book Club meeting at Starbucks in Peachtree City!
With a majority of our Sisterchick Book Club members enjoying themselves on a "Girl's Bahama cruise," our number was smaller than usual. Seven Sisterchicks who were "Left Behind," and two first timers, got together to discuss our February selection, The Mountain Between Us.

Before getting started, we introduced ourselves, to our new members, and got to know each other a little better. We learned some new "fun facts" about each other! We are a nice cross-section of interesting and intelligent women! We shared a lot of laughs, before we even started discussing books! (That's all I'm going to say. What goes on at book club, stays at book club! LOL! One of our "newbies" left after introductions, but before the discussion, so as not to spoil the book for herself. We're looking forward to seeing her next month for Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers!)

Sheron led off the book discussion with questions she'd found on the internet. We talked about the moral lessons of the book. Some reviews called it Christian fiction, but none of us saw any reason to classify it that way. There was no overt Christian content. There were no prayers or major references to God, or the hereafter.

This lack of references to God was especially obvious after the main characters, Ben and Ashley, dealt with the death of their pilot, Grover, and the removal of his body for "burial." There were not even any desperate prayers for divine intervention as Ben's and Ashley's circumstances become more dire. The book was full of good values, which certainly are compatible with Christianity, without feeling preachy.

Most of us felt that the book was pretty intense at times, requiring us to stop and take a break! The cold and wild animals were uncomfortable to consider, as was the hunger.

We discussed whether or not we could have eaten Napoleon, the dog, or the dead pilot. I think we all realized that we couldn't predict with certainty what we might do in order to survive. Speaking of survival, the fact that Ben and Ashley survived without frostbite damage to their extremities, in such dire circumstances, seemed unrealistic to a couple of people.

Sheron suggested that The Mountain Between Us could have represented something that bound Ashley and Ben together--the shared experience that nobody else could understand, as opposed to the mountain referring to something that separated Ashley and Ben from safety.

Out of the seven who'd read the book, only one figured out "the twist" that blindsided the rest of us! Several of us saw a few of the "clues" that Ben's wife and children were dead, but we were blind-sided by the unexpected revelation that they were interred in his wife's "dream beach house," which she did not live to see.

I personally thought this book was a great read, as well as a VERY compelling Audio Book. Everyone at Book Club liked the book--it's not always so "unanimous!" I asked the Sisterchicks for a numerical ranking. On a scale of 1-10, with ten being best, The Mountain Between Us garnered 3-7's, 2-8's, and 2-9's, for an average of 7.85!

What do y'all think? Did I leave out anything important? Any comments?
Jump on in!