The group selected both books one woman nominated, and I offered to host one of the two--since it was The Golden Compass. I was looking forward to it--the garden is lovely in June, and those of the neighborhood group who wanted to discuss it again were going to come--but the woman has new digs she wanted everyone to see and recently said she'd like to do it herself.
Talking about children's fantasy meant that Harry Potter came up. One member does not distinguish among fantasy books at all and asked the difference between Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling. Rowling writes a story with action and not much theme, and not very skillfully; Pullman has plot and theme and character development and skill and imagination. Also, Rowling's world is full of inconsistencies--if food and shelter you magick forth can sustain you, why are the Weasleys poor?--but Pullman's is not.
I was pleased that several woman had immediately read the rest of the trilogy. No one took me up on my offer of a three-sentence summary for those who didn't want to finish it. I brought Pan and no one mocked me. Plus someone pointed out how evil Mrs. Coulter is and how prescient that makes Pullman seem--was Ann Coulter anywhere in 1997? No one could come up with a theory why her daemon doesn't have a name or speak better than that the absence of these basic characteristics makes him seem even meaner.