Another thing I love about my book club is the time, trouble, and effort that each member puts into their presentation when it is their turn to do the review. Of course, some of us are better at it than others, but each member “pulls out all the stops” to make their review entertaining as well as informational.
Eleanor is one of our very best reviewers and she pulled out all the stops today. I was not familiar with Fire in the Grove by John C. Esposito, but it moved right to the top of my list after Eleanor’s review. Fire in the Grove is a non-fiction account of the fire that killed nearly 500 people in a swanky nightclub in Boston in 1942. Although a very serious subject, Eleanor came dressed in costume, decorated the room in accord with the theme of the nightclub, and even had replicas of the original menus.
Since the Cocoanut Grove opened during prohibition, Eleanor did the Charleston for us and talked a good bit about prohibition - an absorbing subject whether you imbibe or whether you are a complete abstainer. Did you know that the KKK was a part of the force that brought about prohibition? I couldn’t imagine the KKK and an evangelist like Billy Sunday having a thing in common. Ah, well... back to the book - it also talks about organized crime and the corrupt politics of the day, but some good things did result from the tragedy as society learned some valuable lessons. Burn treatment advanced tremendously, the need for grief and post traumatic stress counseling was recognized, and fire and safety codes were established all over the nation due to the fire at Boston’s Cocoanut Grove.
When I looked at the review of the book on Amazon, their reviewer said that after reading this book, you’d never enter a public place again without checking out the exits.
I expect that is excellent advice.
Oh - and Cocoanut is not misspelled. They did spell it with that a, as in the spelling of Cocoa.
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