Inspired by Reading January Blog Hop...

Today is the Reveal for January's selection of the Inspired by Reading Book Club!  We read, "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer.  The book was met with mixed reviews.  Some said that it was action-packed and others said that they had to renew the book four times at the library to get through it!  Even though not everyone thoroughly enjoyed it, everyone seemed engaged and had an opinion.  Mostly everyone agreed that the subject of the book was interesting and that the main character was overly confident, egotistical, and self-centered.  I personally hard a hard time with this book.  Not because it was difficult or the subject matter was too abstract, but because some of the story paralleled my relationship with my brother, who also "went into the wild" and left his family behind for over two decades.  Unlike the main character, my brother survived and returned to us.  Knowing what it is like to live with abandonment, I sort of found Chris' interactions with others painful.  Reading about how this seemingly amicable person made friends along the road, while forsaking his family, annoyed me a little.  When they mentioned his little sister, I thought of myself, always wondering if their sibling was alive or dead.

The meet-up was enjoyable, but small.  With the bad weather, only the locals came and we had to call it an early night to avoid the worst of the weather.  We sat around the table and snacked on rice cakes (to represent the 10 bag of rice the main character brought with him into the wilderness), trail mix, perogies, and hummus with rice crackers.  We had intended upon watching the movie based on the book, but unfortunately couldn't make it work due to increasingly inclement weather and decided to postpone that.

Here's a picture of Laurel (with her son), cradling a 10 pound bag of rice!  This is one of the few provisions that he brought with him. I picked up a bag so that we could get a feel of what it was like to carry something like this for hundreds of miles.

This necklace was made by Laurel.  I features a blend of vintage Czech glass and horn.  She said it had the woodsy feel of Alaska.

This necklace was also made by Laurel!  She strung up spent shotgun shells and wood beads.  Part of the book discusses how the main character fed himself, including hunting his own food.

I made this.  It'll eventually be a brooch.  It is made of polymer clay and is a representation of Hedysarum alpinum.  The roots and eventual seedpods become a major source of food.  It turns out that ingesting the seeds while starving and undergoing extreme physical activity can result in bad times, including lethargy... not good when you've got to run around hunting and gathering!

I also carved this pendant.  It features the leaves of the Hedysarum alpinum.  I made a few and will eventually turn them into earrings!

Amy made a really cool piece, but I didn't get a picture of it.  It featured a bright yellow bead to represent his car and a certain number of beads to represent how old he was and how long it has been since his tragic death.

But wait... there's more!  The fun isn't over yet!  Take a look at what these members of the Inspired by Reading Book Club made with "Into the Wild" in mind:

Sarajo Wentling

Rachel Stewart

Mary Harding

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Jeanne Steck

Alison Herrington

Andrew Thornton and Laurel Ross

The next book up is "Geek Love" by Kathryn Dunn.  For the rest of this year's list, CLICK HERE.  The in-person meet up at Allegory Gallery is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, March 4th with the blog hop on the following day.  If you're interested in keeping up with what we're doing, CLICK HERE to visit our Facebook page.