We met at the home of Susan Watson to discuss MARCH by Geraldine Brooks. Susan broke the ice on introductions by giving us all fortune cookies to celebrate the Chinese New Year. As we introduced each other and read our fortune we had to add the phrase “between the sheets”. That was definitely an entertaining introduction for the new members. The plot summary of MARCH is that Mr. March the father of the girls from Little Women goes off to the Civil War as an abolitionist and chaplain to assist the soldiers but not to fight. It was a true account of the brutalities of any war. When he writes home to his family he withholds the truth of what he witnesses on the battlefields. Instead, he writes poetic messages of love and essentially lives off the memories he has left behind. When his wife is called to come take him home because of his prolonged illness from horrid conditions she learns two truths. His condition is this bad because of the filth of the hospital. She also meets the other woman, a black nurse that Mr. March knew 20 years before. As all soldiers who are injured in war either mentally or physically or both he goes back to his home but has scarred memories that he must suppress and endure in order to once again be a loving husband and father of his Little Women.