trilogy B.S. club

January meeting

2012-01-03T21:19:00.000-05:00

***UPDATED***
We will meet Monday, January 23 at 6:45 at Kim's house!

Our January meeting will be on Thursday, January 19 at 6:45 at Kim's house. We will be discussing Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Please bring a snack to share. See you there!

Book Club Picks

2011-09-19T10:16:00.002-04:00

As voted on by our group, our next three books will be:

(Click on the book cover to go to the link.)

October:

November:

December(?)/January:

Our next meeting is October 20 at Troye's house. Please email me if you would like to hostess in November.

Book Selection

2011-09-12T20:57:00.002-04:00

Here are the books up for voting. Please click on the link to read the book synapsis and vote for 1 book on the poll. The poll will close September 19th.

Running With Scissors-Augusten Burroughs
Never Let Me Go-Kazuo Ishiguro
The Late Lamented Molly Marx-Sally Koslow
Wildflower Hill-Kimberly Freeman
The Probable Future-Alice Hoffman
When We Were Friends-Elizabeth Joy Arnold
The Murderer's Daughters-Randy Susan Meyers
Girls in White Dresses-Jennifer Close
Rules of Civility-Amor Towels

February Book Club

2011-02-16T09:06:00.001-05:00

Reminder! Book Club meets tomorrow, Feb 17 at 7:00 at Susan's house. We will be discussing Half-Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls. Please bring your book and an appetizer to share.

PLEASE, PLEASE RSVP in the comment section.

See you tomorrow!

February Book Pick

2011-01-24T08:55:00.001-05:00

Thanks to everyone who voted in the book poll. Our February Book pick is Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls. (March and April are Sarah's Key and She's Gone Country, if you want to plan ahead.)

Book club will be Thursday, February 17th at 7:00 at Susan's house.

Book Picks

2011-01-21T16:01:00.001-05:00

Bound South by Susan Rebecca White

Louise Parker is a classic southern belle. Well-dressed and well-mannered, she can’t help but be frustrated by her daughter. Wild Caroline goes to a strict Christian prep school where she cheats in math class and can only focus on becoming an actress, until she has to leave after she’s discovered in flagrante delicto with her drama teacher. In the meantime Louise is distracted by Missy, the daughter of her housekeeper, a born-again evangelical who assists her mother in between trying to convert Louise’s gay son. Despite the consequences of Caroline’s behavior, Louise finds herself wishing she could be as careless and wondering how her life would have turned out had she chosen a different path. Even with their differences, Louise’s thoughts eventually lead her to believe that Caroline may be more of a southern dame and Louise more of a rebel than either of them thought. An elaborate, generation-spanning southern tale of family life in the vein of Rebecca Wells.

By The Time You Read This by Lola Jaye
Brit counselor Jaye offers a self-help manual dressed up as fiction in her debut. Lois's father, Kevin, died when she was five. Seven years later, she receives a book from Auntie Philomena on the day her mother remarries. The book, The Manual, is by her father and is chock-full of his advice for Lois, to be read one chapter per year, on her birthday. A list of seven rules includes a warning for Lois to not skip ahead, and she takes her dad's advice to heart, savoring the entries, the vast majority of which consist largely of standard self-help fare ( Tomorrow's not guaranteed, so live today; allow yourself the chance to really feel), while enduring the vicissitudes of life. It's decent if bland in its earnestness, and will likely find a place on more than a few bookshelves between Kübler-Ross and The Last Lecture.

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Wells
For the first 10 years of her life, Lily Casey Smith, the narrator of this true-life novel by her granddaughter, Walls, lived in a dirt dugout in west Texas. Walls, whose megaselling memoir, The Glass Castle, recalled her own upbringing, writes in what she recalls as Lily's plainspoken voice, whose recital provides plenty of drama and suspense as she ricochets from one challenge to another. Having been educated in fits and starts because of her parents' penury, Lily becomes a teacher at age 15 in a remote frontier town she reaches after a solo 28-day ride. Marriage to a bigamist almost saps her spirit, but later she weds a rancher with whom she shares two children and a strain of plucky resilience. (They sell bootleg liquor during Prohibition, hiding the bottles under a baby's crib.) Lily is a spirited heroine, fiercely outspoken against hypocrisy and prejudice, a rodeo rider and fearless breaker of horses, and a ruthless poker player. Assailed by flash floods, tornados and droughts, Lily never gets far from hardscrabble drudgery in several states—New Mexico, Arizona, Illinois—but hers is one of those heartwarming stories about indomitable women that will always find an audience.

In The Woods by Tana French
Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, land the first big murder case of their police careers: a 12-year-old girl has been murdered in the woods adjacent to a Dublin suburb. Twenty years before, two children disappeared in the same woods, and Ryan was found clinging to a tree trunk, his sneakers filled with blood, unable to tell police anything about what happened to his friends. Ryan, although scarred by his experience, employs all his skills in the search for the killer and in hopes that the investigation will also reveal what happened to his childhood friends. In the Woods is a superior novel about cops, murder, memory, relationships, and modern Ireland. The characters of Ryan and Maddox, as well as a handful of others, are vividly developed in this intelligent and beautifully written first novel, and author French relentlessly builds the psychological pressure on Ryan as the investigation lurches onward under the glare of the tabloid media. Equally striking is the picture of contemporary Ireland, booming economically and fixated on the shabbiest aspects of American popular culture. An outstanding debut and a series to watch for procedural fans.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de la Rosnay
De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down.

She's Gone Country by Jane Porter
Shey Darcy, a 39-year-old former top model for Vogue and Sports Illustrated led a charmed life in New York City with a handsome photographer husband until the day he announced he'd fallen in love with someone else. Left to pick up the pieces of her once happy world, Shey decides to move back home to Texas with her three teenage sons. Life on the family ranch, however, brings with it a whole new host of dramas starting with differences of opinion with her staunch Southern Baptist mother, her rugged but overprotective brothers, and daily battles with her three sons who are also struggling to find themselves. Add to the mix Shey's ex-crush, Dane Kelly, a national bullriding champ and she's got her hands full. It doesn't take long before Shey realizes that in order to reinvent herself, she must let go of an uncertain future and a broken past, to find happiness--and maybe love--in the present.

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg White Clayton
Set during the summer of 1968 in Palo Alto, California, Clayton’s novel chronicles the lives of five women who conduct a weekly writing group at their neighborhood park. Frankie is an unassuming midwesterner whose inventor husband brings them to the burgeoning Silicon Valley. She meets Linda, the all-American athlete; Kath, the southern belle; Brett, the enigmatic scientist; and Ally, the shy bohemian. The women share their feelings about marriage and motherhood and together mourn the assassination of Robert Kennedy and watch as man walks on the moon and feminists protest the Miss America pageant. They support one another through illness, infertility, racism, and infidelity—and encourage each other through publishers’ rejections. Readers will be swept up by this moving novel about female friendship and enthralled by the recounting of a pivotal year in American history as seen through these young women’s eyes.

January Meeting

2011-01-09T09:52:00.000-05:00

Our January meeting will be Thursday, January 20th at 6:30 PM at Kim A.'s house. We will be discussing Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner. Please bring your book and an appetizer to share.

Please also bring suggestions for books to read. I would like for us to pick our books through May.

As always, please RSVP in the comment section.

See you there!

December Meeting

2010-11-29T17:00:00.000-05:00

Our next book club meeting will be Thursday, December 9 at 6:45 at Mirko Pasta at Hamilton Mill. Please bring an ornament (under $10) to exchange. Please RSVP in the comments no later than Monday, December 6 so that I can make a reservation.

November Book Club

2010-11-15T22:46:00.000-05:00

Our next book club meeting is Thursday, November 18 at 6:45 at Lynne's house. We will be discussing Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner.

Please bring your book and an appetizer to share. We will be planning our December meeting, so be thinking about a restaurant you would like to visit!

Please RSVP in the comments.

See you Thursday!

November Book Pick

2010-10-29T16:04:00.001-04:00

For November, we will be reading Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner. Our next meeting will be Thursday, November 18 at 6:45. (Please note the date change!)

If you would like to hostess, please let me know.

November Book Picks

2010-10-27T07:36:00.001-04:00

The Chisellers by by Brendan O'Carroll

By turns funny, wise and heartbreaking, this Irish Tales of the City is O'Carroll's second book in his Mrs. Browne trilogy; the first, The Mammy, received high praise after publication in the U.S. last year. Featuring eccentric characters who are charming, irreverent and believable, the story continues in 1973 with Agnes Browne at center stage. A widow raising six sons and a daughter, whom she refers to collectively as the "chisellers," she lives in public housing in inner-city Dublin. Agnes is no angel, which makes her all the more human; she chain-smokes, likes a pint or two of an evening and has a sweet-dispositioned boyfriend, a French immigrant named Pierre, who works at a pizza joint and is endlessly patient with Agnes and her rambunctious brood. Mark Browne is the oldest; at 17, he is apprenticed to a furniture-maker whose business is failing. How Mark saves the business and wins the girl of his dreams inform the main storyline, but each of the siblings and Agnes get their fair share of attention. Frankie, the next in age, is involved with violent local skinheads. After he and his gang brutally beat his younger brother, Rory, a subsequent act further tarnishes Frankie's reputation and outrages his family. This lively novel features a wedding, a funeral and an ending that will melt the hardest heart.

In the Woods by Tana French

*Starred Review* Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, land the first big murder case of their police careers: a 12-year-old girl has been murdered in the woods adjacent to a Dublin suburb. Twenty years before, two children disappeared in the same woods, and Ryan was found clinging to a tree trunk, his sneakers filled with blood, unable to tell police anything about what happened to his friends. Ryan, although scarred by his experience, employs all his skills in the search for the killer and in hopes that the investigation will also reveal what happened to his childhood friends. In the Woods is a superior novel about cops, murder, memory, relationships, and modern Ireland. The characters of Ryan and Maddox, as well as a handful of others, are vividly developed in this intelligent and beautifully written first novel, and author French relentlessly builds the psychological pressure on Ryan as the investigation lurches onward under the glare of the tabloid media. Equally striking is the picture of contemporary Ireland, booming economically and fixated on the shabbiest aspects of American popular culture. An outstanding debut and a series to watch for procedural fans.

The Lace Makers of Glenmora by Heather Barbieri

Barbieri (Snow in July) sets her latest in a small Irish town, Glenmara, where a heartbroken American tourist, Kate Robinson, finds her one-night stay extended with the help of some motherly role models. Kate's hostess, chronically grieving widow Bernie, draws the young Seattleite into a gossipy ring of lace makers. Kate, a former fashion designer, takes to them perfectly (one of several head-scratching coincidences), inspiring them to take on an empowering but controversial project. Although the focus is always on the positive, the narrative's strongest when exploring the less charming sides of Glenmara; rich sources of missed potential include the local priest, nicknamed Father Dominic Burn-in-Hell Byrne, and Bernie's irritable best friend Aileen, the only lace society member to regard Kate with anything but syrupy goodwill. The result is a sweet novel with few surprises. Even Kate's pivotal, inspirational idea—embellishing the ladies' undergarments with lace—suffers from murky logic (as do reactions from characters like Father Byrne). Still, Barbieri's world generates convincing warmth and emotion, making it worth a look for Friday Night Knitting Club fans between sequels.

Bound South by Susan Rebecca White

Louise Parker is a classic southern belle. Well-dressed and well-mannered, she can’t help but be frustrated by her daughter. Wild Caroline goes to a strict Christian prep school where she cheats in math class and can only focus on becoming an actress, until she has to leave after she’s discovered in flagrante delicto with her drama teacher. In the meantime Louise is distracted by Missy, the daughter of her housekeeper, a born-again evangelical who assists her mother in between trying to convert Louise’s gay son. Despite the consequences of Caroline’s behavior, Louise finds herself wishing she could be as careless and wondering how her life would have turned out had she chosen a different path. Even with their differences, Louise’s thoughts eventually lead her to believe that Caroline may be more of a southern dame and Louise more of a rebel than either of them thought. An elaborate, generation-spanning southern tale of family life in the vein of Rebecca Wells. --Hilary Hatton

Fly Away Home byJennifer Weiner

Sylvie Serfer Woodruff is stunned when her husband, Senator Richard Woodruff, is exposed by the press for having an affair with a staffer. Though Sylvie is humiliated, she agrees to stand by Richard’s side during his mea culpa press conference. As soon as it’s over, she heads to a house in Connecticut owned by her family, not sure whether she wants to end her marriage or not. The Woodruffs’ two daughters are at similar crossroads in their lives. Diana, a physician with a young son, is carrying on an affair with a younger man after growing weary of her marriage, while her younger sister, Lizzie, a recovering addict, is trying to rebuild her life after a stint in rehab. Realizing she has always put Richard first before her children, Sylvie makes a bid to have her daughters join her out at the Connecticut house and is surprised to find their lives as tumultuous as hers has become. Weiner’s trademark blend of wit and sensitivity distinguishes this timely tale about a family in crisis. --Kristine Huntley

October Meeting

2010-10-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

Book Club will meet Thursday, October 14 at Michele M's house at 7:00. (Please note the time change!)

We will be discussing The Wednesday Letters by Jason Wright. Please bring your book and an appetizer to share. See you Thursday!

October Book Pick

2010-09-26T21:14:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder that we are reading The Wednesday Letters by Jason Wright for our October book selection. Our next meeting is October 14.

September Meeting

2010-09-08T22:05:00.001-04:00

September book club will meet Thursday, September 9 at 6:45 at Tonya's house. Please bring your book and an appetizer to share. We will be discussing The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.

September and October Book Selection

2010-08-14T08:49:00.002-04:00

In September, we will read The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.

Our October book will be The Wednesday Letters by Jason Wright.

Shanghai

2010-08-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

1. What is the literal meaning of “Shanghai?”

On top of the sea

City by the sea

Flower of the sea

At sea

2. T___F___ As of 2005, Shanghai’s port was the smallest in the world.

3. What are the majority of buildings being built today?
office buildings

factories

customer service centers

high-rise apartments

4. What astronomical phenomena was visible from Shanghai in July 2009?

a comet

a total solar eclipse

a total lunar eclipse

a supernova star

5. Shanghai has the world’s most extensive:

train system

bus system

freeway system

bridge system

6. Shanghai is the largest city in:

China

Asia

The world

none of the above

7. What kind of uniquely Shangainese element is the shikumen?

Boat

temple

Townhouse

market

8. How many times has the Shanghai Museum moved since it opened in 1952?

Once

twice

Three times

never

9. As of 2006, what is the largest Christian church building in East Asia?

St. Ignatius Cathedral

The Orthodox Eastern Church

She San Cathedral

Dongjiadu Cathedral

10. T___ F___ Shanghai is the birthplace of Chinese cinema and theater.

11. For the first half of the 20^th century, Shanghai was considered the:

center of trade and finance of China

the center of culture of China

the economic center of China

none of the above

12. Today, Shanghai is often considered the center of China’s:

finance and trade

culture

economy

all of the above

September Book Picks

2010-08-10T10:48:00.003-04:00

Here are some suggestions for our September Book Pick. If you have any books you would like to add, please email them to me.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything dear to her. But an unexpected and mysterious bequest from Nell turns Cassandra's life upside down and ends up challenging everything she thought she knew about herself and her family. Inheriting a book of dark and intriguing fairytales written by Eliza Makepeace - the Victorian authoress who disappeared mysteriously in the early twentieth century - Cassandra takes her courage in both hands to follow in the footsteps of Nell on a quest to find out the truth about their history, their family and their past; little knowing that in the process, she will also discover a new life for herself.

Nose Down Eyes Up by Merrill Markoe

Gil is a bit of a schlub. Nearing 50, he lives rent-free as a handyman in an elderly couple’s Los Angeles vacation home. His girlfriend, Sara, works as an animal communicator. Consequently, he can now understand all four of his dogs and is surprised to discover that the alpha dog, Jimmy, has been giving informative lectures to the neighborhood dogs about such topics as begging faces, edible shoes, and peeing inside versus outside. A chance meeting with Gil’s ex leads to his accepting a job remodeling her guesthouse, and Jimmy begs to be brought along. Soon Gil finds himself moving uncomfortably closer to his ex and further away from Jimmy, and it’s only when things get rough that Gil and Jimmy begin to reconsider the meaning of family.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest--to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.

As the pieces of Deliverance's harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past then she could have ever imagined.

Written with astonishing conviction and grace, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the witch trials of the 1690s and a modern woman's story of mystery, intrigue, and revelation.

The Wednesday Letters by Jason Wright

Their story begins with one letter on their wedding night, a letter from the groom, promising to write his bride every week-for as long they both shall live. Thirty-nine years later, Jack and Laurel Cooper die in each other's arms. And when their grown children return to the family B&B to arrange the funeral, they discover thousands of letters. The letters they read tell of surprising joys and sorrows. They also hint at a shocking family secret-and ultimately force the children to confront a life-changing moment of truth . . .

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night. Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler. Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter's voice. Petra Gregory is Calli's best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Desperate to find his child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor. Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

August Meeting

2010-08-10T10:19:00.004-04:00

I hope that everyone had a great first day of school!

Just a reminder that book club is this Thursday, August 13 at 6:45 at Elisa's house. We will be discussing Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.

Please remember to RSVP in the comments! It makes it much easier for our hostess to plan.See you Thursday!

August Book Pick

2010-07-20T17:01:00.002-04:00

Our next meeting will be Thursday, August 12 at 6:45. We will be discussing Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

May and Pearl, two sisters living in Shanghai in the mid-1930s, are beautiful, sophisticated, and well-educated, but their family is on the verge of bankruptcy. Hoping to improve their social standing, May and Pearl’s parents arrange for their daughters to marry “Gold Mountain men” who have come from Los Angeles to find brides.

But when the sisters leave China and arrive at Angel’s Island (the Ellis Island of the West)--where they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months--they feel the harsh reality of leaving home. And when May discovers she’s pregnant the situation becomes even more desperate. The sisters make a pact that no one can ever know.

A novel about two sisters, two cultures, and the struggle to find a new life in America while bound to the old, Shanghai Girls is a fresh, fascinating adventure from beloved and bestselling author Lisa See.

2010-06-25T17:53:00.004-04:00

For our July meeting, we will be reading On Folly Beach by Karen White. Our next meeting is July 15 at 6:45 at Michelle H's house.

Please bring your book to discuss and an appetizer to share. Please RSVP in the comments!

July Book Selection

2010-06-16T07:25:00.004-04:00

Thanks, Michelle for submitting some book selections!

The Forgotten Garden-Kate Morton
Like Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved classic The Secret Garden, Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden takes root in your imagination and grows into something enchanting--from a little girl with no memories left alone on a ship to Australia, to a fog-soaked London river bend where orphans comfort themselves with stories of Jack the Ripper, to a Cornish sea heaving against wind-whipped cliffs, crowned by an airless manor house where an overgrown hedge maze ends in the walled garden of a cottage left to rot. This hidden bit of earth revives barren hearts, while the mysterious Authoress's fairy tales (every bit as magical and sinister as Grimm's) whisper truths and ignite the imaginary lives of children. As Morton draws you through a thicket of secrets that spans generations, her story could cross into fairy tale territory if her characters weren't clothed in such complex flesh, their judgment blurred by the heady stench of emotions (envy, lust, pride, love) that furtively flourished in the glasshouse of Edwardian society. While most ache for a spotless mind's eternal sunshine, the Authoress meets the past as "a cruel mistress with whom we must all learn to dance," and her stories gift children with this vital muscle memory.

Shanghai Girls-Lisa See

For readers of the phenomenal bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love--a stunning new novel from Lisa See about two sisters who leave Shanghai to find new lives in 1930s Los Angeles.

overs she’s pregnant the situation becomes even more desperate. The sisters make a pact that no one can ever know.

On Folly Beach-Karen White

Folly Beach, South Carolina, has survived despite hurricanes and war. But it's the personal battles of Folly Beach's residents that have left the most scars, and why a young widow has been beckoned there to heal her own...

To most people, Folly Beach is simply the last barrier island before reaching the great Atlantic. To some, it's a sanctuary for lost souls, which is why Emmy Hamilton's mother encourages her to buy the local book store, Folly's Finds, hoping it will distract Emmy from the loss of her husband.

Emmy is at first resistant. So much has already changed. But after finding love letters and an image of a beautiful bottle tree in a box of used books from Folly's Finds, she decides to take the plunge. But the seller insists on one condition: Emmy must allow Lulu, the late owner's difficult sister, to continue selling her bottle trees from its back yard.

For the most part Emmy ignores Lulu as she sifts through the love letters, wanting to learn more. But the more she discovers about the letters, the more she understands Lulu. As details of a possible murder and a mysterious disappearance during WWII are revealed, the two women discover that circumstances beyond their control, sixty years apart, have brought them together, here on Folly Beach. And it is here that their war-ravaged hearts can find hope for a second chance...

2010-05-15T07:49:00.002-04:00

Our June book selection will be The Icing on the Cupcake by Jennifer Rose.

Our next meeting will be Thursday, June 10. Please email Andrea if you would like to host.

May Meeting

2010-05-12T16:13:00.004-04:00

Book club will meet Thursday, May 13 at 6:30 PM at Danielle's house. We will be discussing A Soft Place to Land. Please bring your book and an appetizer to share. Please leave your RSVP in the comments. See you tomorrow night!

Recipe and Reminder

2010-05-01T15:12:00.001-04:00

Here is the cookie recipe from Elisa that everyone requested. For a printable copy, click here.

Reminder: Book Club is MAY 13 not May 20th!

May Book Selection

2010-04-18T20:08:00.003-04:00

Our next book club meeting will be Thursday, May 13th. We will discuss A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White.

Pick a Book for May

2010-04-16T06:12:00.004-04:00

Here are the contenders for our May book selection. Please vote in the poll above, but hurry! The poll will only be open through noon on Saturday!

A Soft Place to Land

For more than ten years, Naomi and Phil Harrison enjoyed a marriage of heady romance, tempered only by the needs of their children. But on a vacation alone, the couple perishes in a flight over the Grand Canyon. After the funeral, their daughters, Ruthie and Julia, are shocked by the provisions in their will.

Spanning nearly two decades, the sisters journeys take them from their familiar home in Atlanta to sophisticated bohemian San Francisco, a mountain town in Virginia, the campus of Berkeley, and lofts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As they heal from loss, search for love, and begin careers, their sisterhood, once an oasis, becomes complicated by resentment, anger, and jealousy. It seems as though the echoes of their parents deaths will never stop reverberating until another shocking accident changes everything once again.

Icing on the Cupcake

In Ansley Waller’s world of Southern belles and gentlemen, getting a diamond ring isn’t just important—it’s the ultimate goal. So when her fiancé, Parish, unceremoniously kicks her to the curb and cancels their upcoming wedding, Ansley is so ashamed that she decides to leave Dallas and make a fresh start. In a surprise move, she heads to New York City to live with her recently widowed grandmother, Vivian, whom she’s never met. In turn, Vivian gives Ansley a no-nonsense ultimatum: Rather than wallow in misery, either get a job or go home.

The Waller women have a tradition of baking their way out of sorrow. So Ansley mixes batch after batch of creative cupcakes—Black Bottom Heartache, Moving Blues Banana Caramel, Tres Leches Made Small. Before long, she’s opening up her own cupcake shop and even trying her hand at dating. But the ways of Manhattan’s eligible bachelors are altogether different from their Southern counterparts, and Ansley’s nearly fail-safe tactics fall flat. And worse, someone’s got a half-baked scheme to sabotage Ansley’s new life. It’ll take a cup of courage and a dash of Southern charm, plus a few secret ingredients, if Ansley hopes to pull off her recipe for success.

Leaving Unknown

Maeve Connolly is tired of being labelled as irresponsible. Yes, she may spend unhealthy amounts of time on Facebook and watch marathon sessions of America's Next Top Model, but Maeve isn't a typical post-college slacker. Determined to change her life and make her own luck, Maeve impulsively decides on a grand adventure - driving cross country to LA. But en route, Maeve's car breaks down and she is stranded in Unknown, Arizona. It is here, alone and in the middle of nowhere, that Maeve finally faces up to the reality of her past. What Maeve has denied acknowledging, even to herself, is that she isn't running from bad luck, but from something much more complicated - something that made her feel as though the world would never turn again, and her heart would always remain closed. What begins as a hilarious and quirky coming-of-age tale soon deepens into a complex portrayal of survivorship and one woman's journey to a new beginning. Funny, irreverent, and moving in equal measure, The Good Luck Girl will leave you smiling through tears.

Sarah's Key

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

Thanks for the Memories

How can you know someone you’ve never met? Joyce Conway remembers things she shouldn’t. She knows about tiny cobbled streets in Paris, which she has never visited. And every night she dreams about an unknown little girl with blonde hair. Justin Hitchcock is divorced, lonely and restless. He arrives in Dublin to give a lecture on art and meets an attractive doctor, who persuades him to donate blood. It’s the first thing to come straight from his heart in a long time. When Joyce leaves hospital after a terrible accident, with her life and her marriage in pieces, she moves back in with her elderly father. All the while, a strong sense of déjà vu is overwhelming her and she can’t figure out why …

Quizball 57

2010-04-16T06:05:00.001-04:00

Quizball 57

Who was the first prime minister of Israel?

Who was the first man to appear on the cover of the American Vogue?

A gooney bird is another name for which bird?

Who directed the 2005 Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home?

What is the US state capital of Washington?

Salpingitis is the medical term for the inflammation of which part of the body?

Who (at 2008) plays Doctor Gregory House in the TV series House?

The Butut is the monetary unit of which country?

Chrometophobia is an irrational fear of what?

Who won the 1987 British Formula One Grand Prix?

What type of creature is a bonnethead?

The first chamber of commerce in Britain was founded in which city in 1783?

Which country hosts the world screaming championships?

In astronomy what is the outermost region of a planet's atmosphere called?

A bibliophile is a lover of what?

In which year did Captain Scott reach the South Pole?

Which British sportsman's autobiography is entitled Walking Tall?

George Williams founded what in London in 1844?

Which novelist wrote under the pseudonym Ellis Bell?

Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn played an architect and waitress in which 1992 film?

A costard is what type of fruit?

What is a corrida?

Which British rock band leased a six-acre section of Shepperton Studios in 1977 under the name of Ramport Enterprises?

Who painted The Monarch of the Glen?

In which year was Britain's first adhesive postage stamp the Penny Black issued?

In US politics who replaced Spiro Agnew as Richard Nixon's vice-president in 1973?

What does TGV most commonly stand for?

Who was crowned King of the Scots in 1306?

The term 'green-eyed monster' originated from which of Shakepseare's plays?

The Royal Mint is in which country of the UK?

answers in the comments section

April Meeting

2010-04-13T11:05:00.002-04:00

Don't forget! Our April book club meeting is Thursday, April 15th at 6:45 at Andrea's house. Come celebrate giving the government your hard-earned money! We will be discussing Look Again by Lisa Scottoline. Bring your book and an appetizer to share. See you Thursday!

April Book Selection

2010-03-19T12:27:00.000-04:00

Look Again

When reporter Ellen Gleeson gets a “Have You Seen This Child?” flyer in the mail, she almost throws it away. But something about it makes her look again, and her heart stops—the child in the photo is identical to her adopted son, Will. Her every instinct tells her to deny the similarity between the boys, because she knows her adoption was lawful. But she’s a journalist and won’t be able to stop thinking about the photo until she figures out the truth. And she can’t shake the question: if Will rightfully belongs to someone else, should she keep him or give him up? She investigates, uncovering clues no one was meant to discover, and when she digs too deep, she risks losing her own life—and that of the son she loves.

Lisa Scottoline breaks new ground in Look Again, a thriller that’s both heart-stopping and heart-breaking, and sure to have new fans and book clubs buzzing.

March Meeting

2010-03-17T14:14:00.003-04:00

Thursday, March 18th will be our next book club meeting. We will meet at 6:45 PM at Teri's house. We will discuss Keeping Faith by Jodi Piccoult. Please bring your book to discuss and an appetizer to share.

If you have any suggestions for our next book selection, please email them to Andrea or bring the book/synopsis.

See you tomorrow night!

April Suggestions

2010-03-17T14:02:00.006-04:00

If you have any other suggestions for our next book, please email them to Andrea.

Irreplaceable

Lovely's debut novel, a touching journey of the heart, tracks what happens to two Midwestern families after a death and a gift of life.

Archeologist Alex Voormann and his plant biologist wife, Isabel, had a pleasant enough life in Iowa until Isabel was struck and killed while riding her bicycle. Alex reluctantly complies with her wish to be an organ donor, which saves the life of Janet Corcoran, a 34-year-old Chicago art teacher and mother of two.

Lovely thoughtfully weaves the tales of these two families together, tracing the realities of love and loss of all kinds as Alex a

ttempts to move on, the man who was driving the truck that killed Isabel begins popping up in unexpected places, and Janet seeks out Alex and Isabel's mother to thank them and express her guilt and empathy. Lovely does a great job of staying out of sappy melodrama as the gravity of Isabel's death pulls the cast together in memorable fashion. The delicate handling of loaded material, attention to detail and depth of character make this a standout.

Look Again

The Local News
Lydia Pasternak is a decade out of high school, but inside she's still Danny Pasternak’s little sister, the bookish teenager who lived in her popular older brother's shadow until the night he disappeared. Though she has spent her adult life trying to forget that year she turned sixteen, the memory of her brother’s vanishing still haunts her: her secret pleasure at the attention she received as the missing football hero’s sister, her ambivalence about his possible fate, her emergence as an individual in his absence. As her parents went off the rails, she went to her first keg parties and befriended the school's elite crowd—all the while fervidly helping the attractive private investigator her family hired to search for clues to Danny's whereabouts. The shocking end to that trail of clues—an end that Lydia never prepared herself for—left a wound that has never healed, even now as she prepares to return to her hometown after many years.

An authentic dissection of public and private grief, The Local News is a moving, memorable debut that explores the complicated bond between siblings and how our brothers and sisters define who we are.

March Pick

2010-02-14T12:39:00.005-05:00

For our March meeting we will be reading Keeping Faith by Jodi Piccoult.

When the marriage of Mariah White and her cheating husband, Colin, turns ugly and disintegrates, their seven-year-old daughter, Faith, is there to witness it all. In the aftermath of a rapid divorce, Mariah falls into a deep depression—and suddenly Faith, a child with no religious background whatsoever, hears divine voices, starts reciting biblical passages, and develops stigmata. And when the miraculous healings begin, mother and daughter are thrust into the volatile center of controversy and into the heat of a custody battle—trapped in a mad media circus that threatens what little stability the family has left.

In Keeping Faith, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult—one of the most powerful writers in contemporary fiction—brilliantly examines belief, miracles, and the complex core of family.

Our next meeting will be Thursday, March 18th at 6:45. If you would like to hostess, please send me an email.

February Meeting

2010-02-09T15:34:00.001-05:00

Book Club is Thursday Feb. 11th at 6:45 at Kim A.'s house. We will be discussing Greetings from Somewhere Else. Bring your book and an appetizer to share!

February Meeting

2010-01-15T08:25:00.005-05:00

For February, we will read and discuss Greetings From Somewhere Else by Monica McInerney.

Book Club will meet Thursday, February 11 at 6:45 at Kim's house.

January Quiz

2010-01-14T21:12:00.002-05:00

Lockerbie Bombing

1. The plane that was destroyed by a bomb over Lockerbie Scotland was:

Pan AM Flight 103

Northwest Flight 253

American Airlines Flight 11

United Airlines Flight 175

2. The plane was flying from:

Paris to Newark

Dublin to JFK

Heathrow to JFK

Heathrow to LaGuardia

3. This tragedy occurred in

1986

1987

1988

1989

4. The number of fatalities was

247

324

270

202

5. _________ was convicted of this crime.

No one

A Libyan

An Iranian

An American Muslim

6. ___T ___F The cockpit voice recorder was never found.

7. ___T ___F There were CIA agents on board the flight.

8. ___T ___F There were no fatalities on the ground.

9. ___T ___F Investigators believe that the victims died from the explosion, not the impact.

10. This singing group was scheduled to be aboard the flight but overslept and missed it.

The Temptations

The Four Tops

The Commodores

The Platters

11. ___T ___F An anonymous warning was called in concerning the bomb and was distributed to all carriers.

12. In 2009, the only person convicted of the bombing was released on

appeal

an overturned conviction

compassionate grounds

a provision of a new international treaty

13. ___T ___F In 2003, Libya formally admitted responsibility for the bombing.

14. There were 35 students from this college returning from a semester abroad.

Princeton University

Syracuse University

Harvard University

Duke University

15. ___T ___F The families of the victims were compensated for their loss.

January Meeting

2010-01-12T20:25:00.001-05:00

We will be meeting at Susan's this month. See you Thursday at 6:45.

January Meeting

2009-12-26T08:18:00.004-05:00

Book Club will meet Thursday, January 14th at 6:45 PM. We will be discussing The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve.

News of Jack Lyons's fatal crash sends his wife into shock and emotional numbness.The situation becomes even more dire when the plane's black box is recovered, pinning responsibility for the crash on Jack. In an attempt to clear his name, Kathryn searches for any and all clues to the hours before the flight. Yet each discovery forces her to realise that she didn't know her husband of 16 years at all. Shreve's complex and highly convincing treatment of Kathryn's dilemma, coupled with intriguing minor characters and an expertly paced plot, makes The Pilot's Wife really takes off.

Would anyone like to hostess?

Christmas Canteen

2009-12-20T08:22:00.000-05:00

Dinner at Dominick's and the Christmas Canteen at the Aurora. We had a great time!

November Meeting

2009-11-09T15:02:00.002-05:00

Book club will be this Thursday, November 12 at 6:45 PM at Danielle's house. We will be discussing Testimony by Anita Shreve. Please bring your book and an appetizer to share!

November Meeting

2009-10-16T08:43:00.002-04:00

Our November meeting will be held Thursday, November 12 at 6:45. Would anyone like to hostess? We will be discussing Testimony by Anita Shreve.
See you there!

October Bookclub

2009-10-14T09:57:00.004-04:00

October book club will be tomorrow, Thursday, October 15th at 6:45 at Kim A.'s house. We will be discussing Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch. Bring your book and an appetizer to share!

Also, if you are interested in going to the Aurora Christmas Canteen bring your checkbook!

Aurora Christmas Canteen

2009-09-16T16:23:00.002-04:00

We will be going to the Aurora Theatre on Thursday, December 3 for the Christmas Canteen. The show starts at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $26.50 (unless we have a group of ten and qualify for a group rate). If you would like to go, I must have your ticket money by our October 15th meeting.

We can discuss plans for dinner closer to the date.

October Book Selection

2009-09-10T22:08:00.004-04:00

Our October meeting will be Thursday, October 15th at at 6:45 PM at Kim's house. We will be discussing Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch.

Please send me your ideas for book selections by Monday, Sept. 21st. I will set up a poll and we will vote for our next 5 books.

September Meeting UPDATE

2009-09-08T20:36:00.002-04:00

Book club will be Thursday night at ANDREA's house. Kim's husband Mike is in the hospital due to some post-surgery complications and she will be unable to hostess. Please bring suggestions for books to read over the next several months. We will vote Thursday night for October's book and then by poll for the rest. I look forward to seeing all of you!

Please RSVP in the comments section.

September Meeting

2009-08-26T18:40:00.002-04:00

Book club will meet Thursday, September 10th at 6:45 at Kim A.'s house. We will be discussing Ask Again Later by Jill Davis.

Bring your book and an appetizer to share.

We are so happy to welcome some new members to our group!

August Book Club

2009-08-13T10:08:00.004-04:00

Book Club will meet at ANDREA'S house at 6:45 tonight. Bring your book and an appetizer to share. Also, bring book suggestions for our October pick.

See you tonight!

July Meeting

2009-08-10T21:42:00.003-04:00

Reminder!

Book Club will meet Thursday, August 13th at 6:45. We will be discussing The Friday Night Knitting Club.

Please send me an email if you would like to hostess this month.

VERY IMPORTANT!

Please RSVP in the comment section.

Looking forward to seeing all of you!

June

2009-06-01T19:01:00.004-04:00

June's book selection is The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman.

We are meeting this month on June 11 at 6:45 at Teri's house. Bring your book and an appetizer to share! Please RSVP in the comments, so we will know how many of us are coming.

See you there!

May

2009-04-19T07:48:00.003-04:00

Our May book is A Year on Ladybug Farm (click the link on the sidebar to go to it's Amazon page). We will be meeting on Thursday, May 21 at 6:45 at Susan's house. We will have a book swap, so bring any books you no longer want to swap for some new summer reading!

April Quiz

2009-04-14T23:52:00.001-04:00

1. This symbol of the United States has 13 olive leaves with 13 olives, thirteen arrows and 13 stars on it.

2. 13 donuts is called a ____________________________.

3. The fear of 13 is called ___________________________.

4. In Jewish tradition, a boy becomes ___________________ at age 13 when he reads from the Torah for the first time.

5. Apollo 13 is the only US space mission to ________________________________ ____________________.

6. Name the player who wore/wears the number 13:

For the Yankees ________________________________________

For the Dolphins ________________________________________

For the Chinese basketball team in the 2008 Summer Olympics ___________________

For the Harlem Globetrotters, the 76ers, and the Lakers _______________________

7. Name the thirteen original colonies

8. There are 13 players on a ________________ team.

9. Traditionally, there are 13 steps leading up to this method of execution.

10. Tradition states that this disciple was the last of the 13 participants at the last supper to sit at the table.

11. Thirteen is the nickname of this physician on House.

12. Thirteen is a coming of age movie starring ____________________.

13. Name at least three of the main stars of the movie Ocean’s 13.

April Meeting

2009-04-13T11:30:00.004-04:00

Don't forget! Book club is tomorrow night. We will meet at the Crossroads Bar and Grill at 6:45. (In the Publix shopping center across from the new Target.) Please RSVP in the comments so I can make a reservation. We will be discussing The Thirteenth Tale. See you tomorrow night!

Next Five Books

2009-03-31T20:21:00.004-04:00

A Year on Ladybug Farm

Friday Night Knitting Club

A Version of the Truth

Ask Again Later

The Zookeeper's Wife

We will discuss the order in which we will read them at our next bookclub meeting on Tuesday, April 14th. (Note the date change due to spring break!

April Book

2009-03-20T08:36:00.004-04:00

We will be reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield for April. Book Club will be meeting on TUESDAY APRIL 14th due to Spring Break. We will meet at a restaurant to be determined. If you have a suggestion, leave it in the comments. (Preferably a restaurant with a private room so we can discuss the book.)

Book Picks

2009-03-20T07:48:00.006-04:00

Here are the synopses of the books for which we will be voting. Pick your five favorites; this will take us through September. The titles are hyperlinks so you can click to read additional reviews on Amazon.

The Art of Racing In the Rain

If you've ever wondered what your dog is thinking, Stein's third novel offers an answer. Enzo is a lab terrier mix plucked from a farm outside Seattle to ride shotgun with race car driver Denny Swift as he pursues success on the track and off. Denny meets and marries Eve, has a daughter, Zoë, and risks his savings and his life to make it on the professional racing circuit. Enzo, frustrated by his inability to speak and his lack of opposable thumbs, watches Denny's old racing videos, coins koanlike aphorisms that apply to both driving and life, and hopes for the day when his life as a dog will be over and he can be reborn a man. When Denny hits an extended rough patch, Enzo remains his most steadfast if silent supporter. Enzo is a reliable companion and a likable enough narrator, though the string of Denny's bad luck stories strains believability. Much like Denny, however, Stein is able to salvage some dignity from the over-the-top drama.

An American Wife

Sittenfeld tracks, in her uneven third novel, the life of bookish, naïve Alice Lindgren and the trajectory that lands her in the White House as first lady. Charlie Blackwell, her boyishly charming rake of a husband, whose background of Ivy League privilege, penchant for booze and partying, contempt for the news and habit of making flubs when speaking off the cuff, bears more than a passing resemblance to the current president (though the Blackwells hail from Wisconsin, not Texas). Sittenfeld shines early in her portrayal of Alice's coming-of-age in Riley, Wis., living with her parents and her mildly eccentric grandmother. A car accident in her teens results in the death of her first crush, which haunts Alice even as she later falls for Charlie and becomes overwhelmed by his family's private summer compound and exclusive country club membership. Once the author leaves the realm of pure fiction, however, and has the first couple deal with his being ostracized as a president who favors an increasingly unpopular war, the book quickly loses its panache and sputters to a weak conclusion that doesn't live up to the fine storytelling that precedes it.

The 19^th Wife

This ambitious third novel tells two parallel stories of polygamy. The first recounts Brigham Young's expulsion of one of his wives, Ann Eliza, from the Mormon Church; the second is a modern-day murder mystery set in a polygamous compound in Utah. Unfolding through an impressive variety of narrative forms—Wikipedia entries, academic research papers, newspaper opinion pieces—the stories include fascinating historical details. We are told, for instance, of Brigham Young's ban on dramas that romanticized monogamous love at his community theatre; as one of Young's followers says, "I ain't sitting through no play where a man makes such a cussed fuss over one woman." Ebershoff demonstrates abundant virtuosity, as he convincingly inhabits the voices of both a nineteenth-century Mormon wife and a contemporary gay youth excommunicated from the church, while also managing to say something about the mysterious power of faith.

The ZooKeeper’s Wife

tells the remarkable WWII story of Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and his wife, Antonina, who, with courage and coolheaded ingenuity, sheltered 300 Jews as well as Polish resisters in their villa and in animal cages and sheds. Using Antonina's diaries, other contemporary sources and her own research in Poland, Ackerman takes us into the Warsaw ghetto and the 1943 Jewish uprising and also describes the Poles' revolt against the Nazi occupiers in 1944. She introduces us to such varied figures as Lutz Heck, the duplicitous head of the Berlin zoo; Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, spiritual head of the ghetto; and the leaders of Zegota, the Polish organization that rescued Jews. Ackerman reveals other rescuers, like Dr. Mada Walter, who helped many Jews pass, giving lessons on how to appear Aryan and not attract notice. Ackerman's writing is viscerally evocative, as in her description of the effects of the German bombing of the zoo area: ...the sky broke open and whistling fire hurtled down, cages exploded, moats rained upward, iron bars squealed as they wrenched apart. This suspenseful beautifully crafted story deserves a wide readership. 8 pages of illus.

The Middle Place

Newspaper columnist Corrigan was a happily married mother of two young daughters when she discovered a cancerous lump in her breast. She was still undergoing treatment when she learned that her beloved father, who'd already survived prostate cancer, now had bladder cancer. Corrigan's story could have been unbearably depressing had she not made it clear from the start that she came from sturdy stock. Growing up, she loved hearing her father boom out his morning HELLO WORLD dialogue with the universe, so his kids would feel like the world wasn't just a safe place but was even rooting for you. As Corrigan reports on her cancer treatment—the chemo, the surgery, the radiation—she weaves in the story of how it felt growing up in a big, suburban Philadelphia family with her larger-than-life father and her steady-loving mother and brothers. She tells how she met her husband, how she gave birth to her daughters. All these stories lead up to where she is now, in that middle place, being someone's child, but also having children of her own. Those learning to accept their own adulthood might find strength—and humor—in Corrigan's feisty memoir.

A Year on Ladybug Farm

Tired of always dreaming and never doing, Cici, Lindsay, and Bridget make a life-altering decision. Uprooting themselves from their comfortable lives in the suburbs, the three friends buy a run-down mansion, nestled in the picturesque Shenandoah Valley. They christen their new home “Ladybug Farm,” hoping that the name will bring them luck.

As the friends take on a home improvement challenge of epic proportions, they encounter disaster after disaster, from renegade sheep and garden thieves to a seemingly ghostly inhabitant. Over the course of a year, overwhelming obstacles make the three women question their decision, but they ultimately learn that sometimes the best things can happen when everything goes wrong…

Dwelling Places

A sad, absorbing story about the disintegration and rejoining of an Iowa farm family. Mack Barnes knows that family farms are essentially extinct, but he cannot bear to lose his land. He tries farming at night for a while and working for the school district during the day. Inevitably, he crashes and falls into a deep depression. As the story opens, Mack returns from the hospital to an embittered wife, Jodie, who is about to begin an affair; a son, Taylor, who is fascinated with all things Goth; a daughter, Kedzie, who has become a Jesus freak; and Rita, Mack's quintessential Iowa mom, who scurries about her dwindling village doing good deeds. Wright's scenes move along almost magically, with "the horizon of the entire world close at hand." Her feel for an Iowa farm town is achingly precise. There is indeed a Christian message here, but it isn't easy or obvious, and when the novel draws toward its climax of muted hope, you know how painful a passage these good people have undergone.

The Space Between Us

Umrigar's schematic novel (after Bombay Time) illustrates the intimacy, and the irreconcilable class divide, between two women in contemporary Bombay. Bhima, a 65-year-old slum dweller, has worked for Sera Dubash, a younger upper-middle-class Parsi woman, for years: cooking, cleaning and tending Sera after the beatings she endures from her abusive husband, Feroz. Sera, in turn, nurses Bhima back to health from typhoid fever and sends her granddaughter Maya to college. Sera recognizes their affinity: "They were alike in many ways, Bhima and she. Despite the different trajectories of their lives—circumstances... dictated by the accidents of their births—they had both known the pain of watching the bloom fade from their marriages." But Sera's affection for her servant wars with ingrained prejudice against lower castes. The younger generation—Maya; Sera's daughter, Dinaz, and son-in-law, Viraf—are also caged by the same strictures despite efforts to throw them off. In a final plot twist, class allegiance combined with gender inequality challenges personal connection, and Bhima may pay a bitter price for her loyalty to her employers. At times, Umrigar's writing achieves clarity, but a narrative that unfolds in retrospect saps the book's momentum.

Blessings

The plot of Anna Quindlen's novel Blessings is constructed on the same model as E.T.: adorable orphaned creature is found by unlikely caregiver who against his or her better judgment falls in love with the little beast, while all the while, the authorities loom in the background, threatening to take the foundling away. In Quindlen's book, however, the foundling in question isn't an alien, but a squalling baby left at Blessings, a vast estate owned by an ancient, crabby matriarch named Lydia Blessing. By a fluke, the baby's parents abandon her by the garage rather than at the front door, and so she is discovered by Skip Cuddy, Lydia Blessing's newly hired handyman, who happens to be an ex-con. The plot proceeds from there in fairly E.T.-like fashion, minus the Reese's Pieces and flying bicycles. Skip, Lydia, and the baby they name Faith form a surprisingly loving and sustaining, albeit temporary, family unit.

Quindlen wrings a remarkable amount of pathos from this somewhat simple setup. One of her strengths as a writer is the quietness she brings to her story; family secrets of paternity and lost love are buried deep in the narrative, hidden in descriptive paragraphs where they subtly zing us with their news. Her ear is good, too: we believe Skip and his bad-boy friends when they're shooting the breeze. Best of all is her flair for observation. The book wouldn't work at all if she couldn't make us feel Skip and Lydia's amazement at the small joys of a baby ("The deep pleat in the fat at her elbow made her arms look muscled"). Here is a book that lives up to its title.

The Friday Night Knitting Club

Georgia Walker's entire life is wrapped up in running her knitting store, Walker and Daughter, and caring for her 12-year-old daughter, Dakota. With the help of Anita, a lively widow in her seventies, Georgia starts the Friday Night Knitting Club, which draws loyal customers and a few oddballs. Darwin Chiu, a feminist grad student, believes knitting is downright old-fashioned, but she's drawn to the club as her young marriage threatens to unravel. Lucie, 42, a television producer, is about to become a mother for the first time--without a man in her life. Brash book editor KC finds her career has stalled unexpectedly, while brilliant Peri works at Walker and Daughter by day and designs handbags at night. Georgia gets her own taste of upheaval when Dakota's father reappears, hoping for a second chance. The yarn picks up steam as it draws to a conclusion, and an unexpected tragedy makes it impossible to put down. Jacobs' winning first novel is bound to have appeal among book clubs.

A Version of the Truth

Cassie Shaw, the 30-year-old dyslexic high school dropout narrator of Kaufman and Mack's follow-up to Literacy and Longing in L.A., is devoid of self-esteem and, as the winsome novel opens, has just been widowed by a jerk who left her nothing but debt. Desperate for a job, Cassie fudges her education background on a job application and snags an entry-level university office job working under William Conner, a charismatic professor of animal behavior who ignites Cassie's desire for learning—and other things. As Cassie's lust for knowledge swells and she becomes more involved with Conner, the list of her deceptions lengthens, and it's only a matter of time until budding beau Conner finds out. Kaufman and Mack lace the narrative with light humor (the rats in California's Topanga Canyon are like roaches in NY or liars in LA) and nods to Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Plato and Keats. Delightfully merging humor, philosophy and reflections on nature, this novel is a lot of fun and might give some readers freshman-year flashbacks.

The Rest of Her Life

Moriarty's follow-up to book-group favorite The Center of Everything again explores a tense, fragile mother-daughter relationship, this time finding sharper edges where personal history and parenting meet. Now a junior high school English teacher married to a college professor, Leigh has spent much of her adult life trying to distance herself from her dysfunctional childhood. Raising their two children in a small, safe Kansas town not far from where Leigh and her troubled sister, Pam, were raised by their single mother, Leigh finds her good fortune still somewhat empty. Daughter Kara, 18 and a high school senior, is distant; sensitive younger son Justin is unpopular; Leigh can't seem to reach either—Kara in particular sees Leigh (rightly) as self-absorbed. When Kara accidentally hits and kills another high school girl with the family's car, Leigh is forced to confront her troubled relationship with her daughter, her resentment toward her husband (who understands Kara better) and her long-buried angst about her own neglectful mother. The intriguing supporting characters are limited by not-very-likable Leigh's POV, but Moriarty effectively conveys Leigh's longing for escape and wariness of reckoning.

Ask Again Later

When her mother is diagnosed with cancer, New Yorker Emily Rhode ditches her too-perfect boyfriend and far from perfect legal career to become her mother's primary caregiver. At the same time, she reconciles with her estranged father, who left when she was five. When he offers her a job as a receptionist at his law firm, complete with Friday martini lunch dates and father-daughter cab rides to work, Emily agrees, and jokey family bonding follows as mom skates through treatment and dad proves to be more of a teddy bear than an iceman. Davis, author of Girls' Poker Night and a former writer for The Late Show with David Letterman, loads the narrative with one-liner asides and funny riffs (there's a particularly good bit about espresso machines), though she's less adept at sizing up Emily's inner turmoil, notably her fear of committing to smart, patient and loving boyfriend Sam. Though soft-focused (taking care of cancer-stricken mom mostly consists of watching TV and playing board games), Davis's book leavens regret and tragedy with a light-handed wit.

March Quiz

2009-03-19T23:09:00.000-04:00

MARCH!

1. This campaign during the Civil War left Atlanta in ashes. (2 points)

2. The death of Caesar occurred on:

3. NCAA College Basketball tournament:

The four number one seeds:

4. This Louisa May Alcott Book about four sisters _____________ was written from the perspective of:

5. Organization devoted to improving the health of babies:

6. WWII event that involved the transfer of 75,000 American POW’s to Japanese prison camps:

7. 1965 Civil Rights Protest (in March) in which 600 marchers were attacked and beaten by police. Came to be known at “Bloody Sunday.”

8. Pi Day:

9. Square Root Day:

10. Mother’s Day Rally in Washington to promote tighter restrictions on private ownership of firearms.

11. Political March convened by Louis Farrakhan on Washington in Oct. 1995.

12. Movie in which a young man awakens from a four-year coma to hear that his once virginal high-school sweetheart has since become a centerfold in one of the world’s most famous men’s magazines.

13. _____________________ is considered on of the greatest marches ever written. (extra point for composer)

14. Famous expedition to capture the throne of Persia.

March Meeting

2009-03-18T11:41:00.003-04:00

Don't forget! March book club meets Thursday, March 19th at Joelma's house. We will be discussing The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Neffenegger. Please bring your book and an appetizer to share.

Also, please bring 2 suggestions for books to read. We will need to pick books for April and May and discuss whether we will continue through the summer or take a hiatus until fall.

If you are not current on your dues, please turn in to Kim.

See you tomorrow night!

February Quiz

2009-02-22T14:04:00.004-05:00

Road Trip Quiz (answers are in the comments)

Match the state with its nickname

1. Alaska   a. Land of Lincoln

2. Arkansas   b. Keystone State

3. Connecticut   c. Live Free or Die

4. Delaware   d. The Silver State

5. Illinois   e. Land of Enchantment

6. Missouri   f. Greatest Snow on Earth

7. Montana   g. Great Lakes

8. Nevada   h. The Empire State

9. New Hampshire   i. The Natural State

10. New Jersey   j. Constitution State

11. New Mexico   k. Show Me State

12. New York   l. America's Dairyland

13. Pennsylvania   m. Wild, Wonderful

14. Michigan   n. The First State

15. Utah   o. Big Sky

16. Vermont   p. Green Mountain State

17. West Virginia   q. The Last Frontier

18. Wisconsin   r. Garden State

19. The longest east-west Interstate runs between:  

a. Los Angeles and New York City  

b. San Francisco and Washington D.C.  

c. Seattle and Boston

d. Portland, Ore., and Miami   

20. The longest north-south transcontinental route runs between:  

a. Alabama and Indiana  

b. Florida and Maine

c. Louisiana and Michigan  

d. Texas and Minnesota   

21. Interstate routes that run (north-south, east-west) are odd numbered.   

22. The state with the most Interstate routes is:  

a. California c. New York

b. Illinois   d. Texas

23. The highest elevation point on the Interstate System is in:

a. Colorado c. Utah

b. West Virginia d. Vermont

24. The lowest elevation point on the Interstate System is in:

a. Louisiana c. Arizona

b. California d. Florida

25. T F One mile of every five miles of Interstate highway must be straight enough to allow planes to land on it.

February Meeting

2009-02-01T18:37:00.002-05:00

Our February book pick is Driving Sideways by Jess Riley. As discussed at January's meeting, Book Club will be MOVED to February 19 instead of February 12 because of Early Release Day. Our meeting will be held at Sara's house at 6:45. More information to follow.

The King

2009-01-08T23:50:00.000-05:00

In honor of Elvis's birthday...

Complete the quotes

“Man, I was tame compared to what they do now. Are you kidding? I didn’t do anything but just ________”

Strum my guitar

Dance

Jiggle

Sing

“The image in one thing and the __________ is another, it’s very hard to live up to an image.”

Singing

Press and fans

Exposure

Human being

"Til we meet again, may God bless you, _________.” Which farewell did Elvis say on his last tour?

Good night

Adios

Bon voyage

Good-bye

“When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a _________.”

Loner

Dreamer

Wanderer

Optimist

“I learned very early in life that: Without a ______, the day would never end, without a _____, a man ain’t got a friend, without a _____, the road would never bend…”

__________ is the missing word (one word)

“The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me ______.”

Like crazy

To death

Real bad

So much

“Some people tap their feet, some people snap their fingers, and some people sway back and forth. I just sorta’ _____ I guess.”

Have my own style

Do ‘em all together

Wiggle my hips

Shake my leg

“It’s my favorite part of the business ___________.”

Making movies

Live concerts

Making records

Meeting fans

T F Elvis was a twin.

Elvis’ middle name was ____________.

In which city did Elvis die?

Memphis, Tennessee 

Las Vegas, Nevada 

Atlanta, Georgia 

Sacramento, California

What was Elvis’ first number one hit in the United States?

Hound Dog 

Blue Hawaii 

Jail House Rock 

Heartbreak Hotel

Where was Elvis born?

Memphis, Tennessee 

Waycross, Georgia

 Little Rock, Arkansas 

Tupelo, Mississippi

What is the name of Elvis’ estate in Memphis? ________________

What branch of the service did Elvis join in 1958? ______________________

What was the name of the studio where Elvis first recorded? __________

What year was Elvis born?

1930 1932 1935 1938

Elvis’ mother’s name was?

Mary Gladys Ethyl Betty

T F Elvis father spent time in jail.

What was Elvis’ favorite sandwich? __________

January Book Club

2009-01-04T17:42:00.006-05:00

Book Club is THIS Thursday, January 8th at 6:45 at Danielle's house. We will be discussing Carpool Diem. Bring your book and an appetizer to share. Can't wait to see you all and hear about your Christmases and New Years!

December Book Club

2008-12-08T21:34:00.002-05:00

**Reminder**

In lieu of December's book club we are going to the Christmas Canteen at the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville (if you purchased a ticket!) The show starts at 8:00. We will meet for dinner at Dominick's at 6:00. Please come for dinner even if you are not planning to attend the show! RSVP in the comments for dinner so I will know how many for the reservation. Thanks!

November Quiz

2008-11-18T21:40:00.001-05:00

Queen Latifah

1. T F Queen Latifah’s real name is Dana Elaine Owens.

2. T F She was born in 1974.

3. T F She has never won a Grammy Award.

4. T F She has been nominated for an Academy Award.

5. T F She was raised in a middle class suburb in New Jersey.

6. T F She performed in her high school play The Wiz.

7. T F Her parents divorced when Latifah was ten.

8. T F Her mother was a high school teacher and her dad was a policeman.

9. T F Her stage name, Latifah meaning "kind" in Arabic, was given to her when she was eight by her cousin.

10. T F She played volleyball for her high school team.

11. T F Latifah started her career beatboxing for the rap group Ladies Dick.

12. T F Latifah was one of the members of the original version of the Flavor Unit, which, was a crew of MC's grouped around producer DJ Mark the 45 King.

13. T F At the same time, Latifah was a pole dancer at a nightclub in Brooklyn called Bigger and Better.

14. T F Latifah's first album All Hail the Queen, was released when she was sixteen.

15. T F She began her film career in supporting roles in the 1991 films House Party 2, Juice, and Jungle Fever.

16. T F She appeared as Referee on the UK label Music of Life album "1989—The Hustlers Convention". It received critical reviews.

17. T F In 1991 she discovered the hip-hop group Old School, who would change their name to Naughty by Nature.

18. T F From 1993 to 1998, Latifah had a starring role on Living Single, a FOX sitcom; she also wrote and performed its theme music.

19. T F She also had recurring roles during the second season (1991-1992) of the NBC hit The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

20. T F Latifah received an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in Chicago.

21. T F She had her own talk show, Queen, from 1999 to 2001.

22. T F She has starred with John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, and Steve Martin.

23. T F Latifah voiced Ellie, a friendly mammoth, in the animated film, Ice Age: The Meltdown.

24. T F In 2003, Latifah was the victim of a carjacking, which also resulted in the shooting of a friend.

25. T F In 1996 she was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and possession of a loaded handgun.

26. T F Latifah is a celebrity spokesperson for CoverGirl cosmetics, Curvation ladies underwear, Pizza Hut and Jenny Craig.

November Book Club

2008-11-11T17:31:00.005-05:00

Don't forget!

Book club is Thursday, November 13 at 6:45 at Kim A.'s house. We will be discussing The Secret Life of Bees. Bring your book and a snack to share. Please remember your dues! If you are not sure if you are paid up or not, Kim will have the list.

Looking forward to seeing each of you!

October Quiz

2008-10-10T08:41:00.003-04:00

Korea and Iran

1. What continent does Iran lie in?

Africa  Oceania  Europe  Asia

2. What is the capital city of Iran?

Baghdad  Ankara  Islamabad  Tehran

3. What is the population of Iran?

66,128,965  26,128,965  16,128,965  36,128,965

4. True or False-Iran is slightly larger than the state of Alaska.

5. What is Iran's official name?

Islamic Republic of Iran  State of Iran  Republic of Iran 

Democratic Republic of Iran

6. True or False-The form of government that Iran has, would be best described as a military regime.

7. What is the official language of Iran?

Urdu  Arabic  Farsi  Bahasa

8. True or False-The monetary unit used in Iran is the Iranian dinar.

9. True or False-The Azeri make up the biggest ethnic group in Iran with 24% of the ethnic composition.

10. True or False-The population density for Iran is 1140.3 persons per sq km.

11. What is the most popular sport in Korea?

Ssirum T'aekwondo Soccer Baseball

12.What is the name of the traditional Korean costume?

hanbok  sari  kimino  dragon robe

13.True or False-The invention of the world's first movable metal type came from Korea.

14. What is a 'National Living Treasure'?

an occupant of the Korean National Zoo 

a rare type of conifer in the north-west of Korea 

a performer or craftsman 

a black-billed magpie

15. Rice is the traditional main dish in Korea. Next to rice comes kimchi. What is kimchi?

pieces of chicken with herbs 

a spicy vegetable dish

 a soup with seafood in it 

a curried lamb dish.

16.True or False- Korean custom forbids people marrying within their own clan.

17. There are many festivals and rituals in Korea, including the infant celebration of 'Tol'. What is its significance?

it will be the last ceremony before the child turns ten years old 

to ward off spirits that may cause blindness in infancy 

it is a time of sadness because the infant will soon be put up for adoption 

it is a celebration that the baby has reached one year old without dying

18.True or False-Shamanism in Korea is practiced mostly by men.

19. When do Koreans celebrate their birthdays?

Taeborum - First full moon 

Ch'usok - Harvest Moon

Festival Ch'ilsok - Seventh day of the seventh month 

Lunar New Year's Day

Personal Safety Seminar

2008-10-09T12:10:00.002-04:00

Ladies-

The Gwinnett County Police Department Crime Prevention Unit will be at HMUMC on Monday, Oct. 27 from 7-9 PM to present a Rape Prevention Seminar for women. The seminar is for women 18 and older, but girls 16-17 are welcome to attend if accompanied by a parent. Learn how to be aware of your surroundings and about common mistakes women make. Learn how not to become a victim. There is no cost, but reservations are requested. Is anyone interested in this? Leave it in the comments...

2008-10-06T15:59:00.004-04:00

Don't forget!

Book club is this Thursday night, October 9 at 6:45. It will be at Andrea's house (not Danielle's). We will be discussing Digging to America by Anne Tyler. Bring your book and an appetizer to share. See you there!

Christmas Canteen

2008-10-03T16:55:00.004-04:00

In December, in lieu of a book discussion, our book club will be attending the Christmas Canteen at the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville. The show we will attend is December 11 (our normal book club night) and starts at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $24.00 (plus tax) unless we have a group of 10 or more. The group rate is $20 per ticket (including tax.)

If you would like to go, please RSVP in the comments and BRING YOUR MONEY TO BOOK CLUB Thursday night. The show is filling up fast so we need to make our reservation.

If you have any questions, let me know. Thanks!

September Quiz-The Civil Rights Movement

2008-09-11T21:24:00.000-04:00

ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!

1. Whose writings and practices inspired Martin Luther King Jr. and other nonviolent civil rights protesters?

(A) James Meredith

(B) Mohandas Gandhi

2. Which earlier decision did the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision reverse?

(A) Milliken v. Bradley

(B) Dred Scott v. Sanford

3. The Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that

(A) Affirmative action constituted reverse discrimination

(B) Poll tax requirements for voting in federal elections were illegal

4. During what event did Martin Luther King Jr. first become a nationally prominent figure?

(A) The Selma campaign

(B) Freedom Summer

5. During what event did Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous “I have a dream” speech?

(A) The Selma campaign

(B) The Birmingham campaign

6. Who was the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court?

(A) Clarence Thomas

(B) Earl Warren

7. In the early twentieth century, civil rights activist Marcus Garvey pushed for

(A) Resettling all American blacks in Africa

(B) Additional constitutional amendments to protect black rights

8. Which methods did the NAACP primarily employ in order to achieve civil rights goals?

(A) Nonviolent methods of protest such as the sit-in tactic

(B) Violence to push for social change

9. Eisenhower sent federal troops to desegregate public high schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 mainly because

(A) He agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education

(B) Governor Faubus’s use of the National Guard to prevent integration challenged federal authority

10. What was President Eisenhower’s response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision?

(A) He said nothing

(B) He publicly denounced it

11. What happened during the Freedom Summer campaign of 1964?

(A) Civil rights activists boarded interstate buses in the South to protest racial segregation

(B) White activists from the North held voter registration drives in the South

12. In which city did the most infamous and destructive race riots of the mid- to late 1960s occur?

(A) Los Angeles

(B) Detroit

13. What was the main reason Lyndon B. Johnson promoted civil rights?

(A) He wanted to distract the public from the war in Vietnam

(B) He wanted to unite the Democratic Party after Kennedy’s assassination

14. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 differed from all previous pieces of civil rights legislation and Supreme Court decisions in that it

(A) Specifically protected blacks’ right to vote in federal elections

(B) Banned segregation in federal offices

15. Why did Malcolm Little change his surname to “X”?

(A) To represent his spiritual transformation after becoming a Muslim

(B) To represent the black people’s ancestry lost due to slavery

16. James Meredith was the first African-American

(A) Student to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas

(B) Student to attend the University of Mississippi

17. What did Rosa Parks protest in 1955?

(A) A black code

(B) A poll tax

September Meeting

2008-09-10T07:47:00.003-04:00

Our September meeting is tomorrow night at 6:45 at Teri's house. We will be discussing Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! Please bring an appetizer to share and your dues. Please RSVP in the comment section so we know how many to expect. See you tomorrow night!

Drum Roll, Please...

2008-08-22T16:11:00.007-04:00

Okay! Votes are in. I drew out of a hat the book for each month and they are as follows:

September Welcome to the World, Baby Girl

October Digging to America

November The Secret Life of Bees

December no book

January Carpool Diem

February Driving Sideways

March The Time Traveler's Wife

Our next meeting is September 11th at 6:45 at Teri's House. Thanks for voting!

Partial Results

2008-08-21T15:28:00.003-04:00

Votes are in! The top four books are:

The Time Traveler's Wife

Digging to America

Driving Sideways

The Secret Life of Bees

Please vote to narrow our six way tie down to the last two books. When we have all six books I'll randomly assign the book to the month. Hurry! Poll ends Friday night at midnight!

2008-08-21T08:16:00.000-04:00

It was decided at our August meeting that our group has grown too large to have our book discussion at a restaurant. So from now on we will meet in each others homes and occasionally go out to eat apart from book club. Check the calendar in the sidebar for future meeting locations. We also decided not to read a book in December, but to go to the Aurora Theatre for the Christmas Canteen. More details to follow.

Grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable....

2008-08-16T07:40:00.012-04:00

Here is the list of book suggestions. Thanks to ALL who contributed! Read through the list and vote on NO MORE THAN SIX . I will take the top six and pick out of a hat to determine which month we will read them. Hurry! You only have until WEDNESDAY to vote.

Shors's spirited debut novel tells the story of the eldest daughter of the 17th-century emperor who built the Taj Mahal. From her self-imposed exile, Jahanara recalls growing up in the Red Fort; the devotion her parents, Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, had for each other; and the events that took place during the construction of the fabulous monument to their love. Although Jahan is the emperor and has many wives, Mumtaz (he calls her Taj) is his soul mate, a constant companion and wise political consultant. She even travels with him into battle, where she eventually dies giving birth to their 14th child. Fortunately, she has the foresight to begin preparing her favorite daughter, Jahanara, by instructing the girl in the arts of influence and political strategy. Thus the young woman is able to pick up where her savvy mother left off. From then on it is Jahanara who advises the emperor, often instead of her dreamy brother, Dara, who is the rightful heir to the throne. It is she who helps with construction of the magnificent mausoleum for Mumtaz's remains and who falls in love with its architect, Isa, a man whom she can never marry. And it is she who leads a failed effort to defend the throne against a coup by her evil brother, Aurangzeb. With infectious enthusiasm and just enough careful attention to detail, Shors give a real sense of the times, bringing the world of imperial Hindustan and its royal inhabitants to vivid life.

When her mother is diagnosed with cancer, New Yorker Emily Rhode ditches her too-perfect boyfriend and far from perfect legal career to become her mother's primary caregiver. At the same time, she reconciles with her estranged father, who left when she was five. When he offers her a job as a receptionist at his law firm, complete with Friday martini lunch dates and father-daughter cab rides to work, Emily agrees, and jokey family bonding follows as mom skates through treatment and dad proves to be more of a teddy bear than an iceman. Davis, author of Girls' Poker Nightand a former writer for The Late Show with David Letterman, loads the narrative with one-liner asides and funny riffs (there's a particularly good bit about espresso machines), though she's less adept at sizing up Emily's inner turmoil, notably her fear of committing to smart, patient and loving boyfriend Sam. Though soft-focused (taking care of cancer-stricken mom mostly consists of watching TV and playing board games), Davis's book leavens regret and tragedy with a light-handed wit.

This story flows as smoothly and predictably as maple sap during a New Hampshire spring. Ostensibly, the story is about the arrest of popular Lake Henry, New Hampshire, local Heather Malone for a murder committed fourteen years earlier in California. But the real story is that of the growing relationship between Poppy, who is paraplegic, and her suitor, writer Griffin Hughes.

Former academic Setterfield pays tribute in her debut to Brontë and du Maurier heroines: a plain girl gets wrapped up in a dark, haunted ruin of a house, which guards family secrets that are not hers and that she must discover at her peril. Margaret Lea, a London bookseller's daughter, has written an obscure biography that suggests deep understanding of siblings. She is contacted by renowned aging author Vida Winter, who finally wishes to tell her own, long-hidden, life story. Margaret travels to Yorkshire, where she interviews the dying writer, walks the remains of her estate at Angelfield and tries to verify the old woman's tale of a governess, a ghost and more than one abandoned baby. With the aid of colorful Aurelius Love, Margaret puzzles out generations of Angelfield: destructive Uncle Charlie; his elusive sister, Isabelle; their unhappy parents; Isabelle's twin daughters, Adeline and Emmeline; and the children's caretakers. Contending with ghosts and with a (mostly) scary bunch of living people, Setterfield's sensible heroine is, like Jane Eyre, full of repressed feeling—and is unprepared for both heartache and romance. And like Jane, she's a real reader and makes a terrific narrator.

Stewart peers into the complicated heart of friendship in a moving second novel (after 2000's Body of a Girl). Ever since a cataclysmic falling out with her best friend, Sonia, after college, Cameron's closest companion has been Oliver, the 92-year-old historian she lives with and cares for in Oxford, Miss. Oliver's death leaves Cameron alone and adrift, until she discovers that he has given her one last task: she must track down her estranged best friend (whose letter announcing her engagement Cameron had so recently ignored) and deliver a mysterious present to her. Cameron's journey leads her back to the people, places and memories of their shared past, when they called themselves "Cameronia" and swore to be friends forever. It was a relationship more powerful than romantic love—yet romantic love (or sex, anyway) could still wreck it. Stewart lures the reader forward with two unanswered questions: What was the disaster that ended their friendship, and what will be revealed when Cameron and Sonia are together again and Oliver's package is finally opened? The book is heartfelt and its characters believable jigsaw puzzles of insecurities, talents and secrets, and if Cameron's carefully guarded anger makes her occasionally disagreeable, readers will nevertheless welcome her happy ending.

The red tent is the place where women gathered during their cycles of birthing, menses, and even illness. Like the conversations and mysteries held within this feminine tent, this sweeping piece of fiction offers an insider's look at the daily life of a biblical sorority of mothers and wives and their one and only daughter, Dinah. Told in the voice of Jacob's daughter Dinah (who only received a glimpse of recognition in the Book of Genesis), we are privy to the fascinating feminine characters who bled within the red tent. In a confiding and poetic voice, Dinah whispers stories of her four mothers, Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, and Bilhah--all wives to Jacob, and each one embodying unique feminine traits. As she reveals these sensual and emotionally charged stories we learn of birthing miracles, slaves, artisans, household gods, and sisterhood secrets. Eventually Dinah delves into her own saga of betrayals, grief, and a call to midwifery. Remembering women's earthy stories and passionate history is indeed the theme of this magnificent book. In fact, it's been said that The Red Tent is what the Bible might have been had it been written by God's daughters, instead of her sons.

With home-cooked, Southern literary flair, Fannie Flagg (Fried Green Tomatoes) returns with Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! "Baby Girl," as she is lovingly referred to by her sweet, country cousins, is Dena Nordstrom, a tall, blonde, corn-fed girl who makes it big in Manhattan. Ms. Nordstrom is now the top TV anchorwoman in the city, beating out veteran journalists and making ungodly amounts of money. Although her life seems charmed, Dena is frazzled and miserable. She drinks uncontrollably, is a borderline compulsive liar, and is forced to undergo therapy because of her stress-induced ulcer. Her psychiatrist, Dr. O'Malley, falls madly in love with her, of course, and sends the blonde bombshell to a close colleague, Dr. Diggers. Living up to her name, Diggers shovels up a mountain of dysfunction and forces Dena to face her mysterious past; all the while the good doctor reports back to brokenhearted O'Malley about her patient's progress. Meanwhile, back at the station, Ms. Nordstrom has made friends and enemies in very high places. Her greatest ally is Howard Kingsley, the Cronkitesque reporter who wields power with more ease than most seasoned politicos. It's a good thing she has friends like that, because her boss, Ira Wallace, makes George Costanza from Seinfeld look like a scrupulous saint. When Wallace hires a nasty but effective mole by the name of Sidney Capello to dig up garbage on celebrities, Nordstrom has a head-on collision with his sense of ethics (or lack thereof) and gets Capello canned. Or so she thinks.

In this elegant and stunning novel, veteran heartstring-puller Hoffman (Here on Earth; Seventh Heaven) examines the lives of three women at different crossroads in their lives, tying their London-centered stories together in devastating retrospect. High powered New York attorney Maddy Heller arrives in 1999 London having had an affair with Paul, her sister Allie's fiancé,; she must now cope with the impending marriage, and with Paul's terminal illness—which echoes the girls' mother's cancer during their childhood. Hoffman then shifts to heady 1966 London and to Frieda Lewis, Paul's future mother, who falls for a doomed up-and-coming songwriter knowing he will break her heart. The narrative then shifts further back, to 1952 and to Maddy and Allie's future mother, Lucy Green. A bookish 12-year-old wise beyond her years, Lucy sails with her father and stepmother from New York to London for a wedding. There, she becomes an innocent catalyst to a devastating event involving a love triangle. Hoffman interweaves the three stories, gazing unerringly into forces that cause some people to self-destruct (There was no such thing as too much for a girl who thought she was second best) and others to find inner strength to last a lifetime.

Brunonia Barry dreamt she saw a prophecy in a piece of lace, a vision so potent she spun it into a novel. The Lace Reader retains the strange magic of a vivid dream, though Barry's portrayal of modern-day Salem, Massachusetts--with its fascinating cast of eccentrics--is reportedly spot-on. Some of its stranger residents include generations of Whitney women, with a gift for seeing the future in the lace they make. Towner Whitney, back to Salem from self-imposed exile on the West Coast, has plans for recuperation that evaporate with her great-aunt Eva's mysterious drowning. Fighting fear from a traumatic adolescence she can barely remember, Towner digs in for answers. But questions compound with the disappearance of a young woman under the thrall of a local fire-and-brimstone preacher, whose history of violence against Whitney women makes the situation personal for Towner. Her role in cop John Rafferty's investigation sparks a tentative romance. And as they scramble to avert disaster, the past that had slipped through the gaps in Towner's memory explodes into the present with a violence that capsizes her concept of truth. Readers will look back at the story in a new light, picking out the clues in this complex, lovely piece of work.

Leigh Fielding was diagnosed with kidney disease and recently received a transplant. Since then, she’s been trying all kinds of new things and comes to believe that she’s channeling the donor, Larry. She decides to leave her central Wisconsin home for a road trip to meet Larry’s family and see if he’s anything like the new personality she has acquired. Things go awry at the Minnesota border when a teenage girl named Denise steals Leigh’s purse and uses it to blackmail Leigh into giving her a ride to L.A. On the way they visit classic tourist traps and try to stay out of trouble, especially since Denise claims that it’s her crazy ex in the black sedan that seems to be following them. Leigh’s road trip continues, embracing both highs and lows, alternately hilarious, humiliating, and heartbreaking, often within the same sentence. Smart and funny without being forced, sentimental without being maudlin, Riley’s funny, picaresque vision of America will make readers wish they could go along with Leigh on her next trip.

As a young California girl growing up in a blue collar neighborhood, Taylor Young dreamed of being popular, beautiful, and acquiring a wardrobe to die for. Not to mention marrying a handsome, successful man and living happily ever after in a gorgeous house with three wonderful children. Now, at 36, Taylor has reached the pinnacle of her dreams, but is it all about to unravel? As the new school year approaches, Taylor prepares herself for playing the perfect alpha mom: organizing class activities, fund-raising, and chairing the school auction. But the horror! Her archrival, bohemian mom Marta Zinsser, is named Head Room Mom of Taylor's daughter's fifth grade class. As tensions rise at committee meetings and school activities, the two rivals seem to be destined for a final confrontation. But as Taylor plans her next move, she is floored by a more serious blow at home-her husband has been secretly unemployed for the past six months. With her posh lifestyle crumbling, Taylor struggles to maintain her alpha image-but could Marta, who cares little about appearances, be her only true friend?

Annie Fleming's family has always adjusted well to her hard driving career. How could they not? Annie keeps them in line at home with typed, edited, and proofed to-do and not-to-do lists for her husband, her babysitter, and her daughter. (No TV on a school night, please!) But when an obnoxious co-worker conspires to force Annie out of her job, she finds herself out of work and face-to-face with her family, who, it turns out, isn't quite as well-adjusted as Annie thought. Husband Tim doesn't have near the follow-through that Annie does (ordered to downsize his employees, he can't fire anybody!) And daughter Charlotte doesn't even try to make the local soccer team - a cut-throat, take-no-prisoners system run by Winslow West, a man who dreams of the Olympic gold his young charges will someday win for him. Here Annie is unemployed and Charlotte's the one with the quitting attitude? Annie doesn't think so. She's determined to get Charlotte on the A team, but finds that the soccer sidelines are more cutthroat than a boardroom ever was.

This clever and inventive tale works on three levels: as an intriguing science fiction concept, a realistic character study and a touching love story. Henry De Tamble is a Chicago librarian with "Chrono Displacement" disorder; at random times, he suddenly disappears without warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in his life. This leads to some wonderful paradoxes. From his point of view, he first met his wife, Clare, when he was 28 and she was 20. She ran up to him exclaiming that she'd known him all her life. He, however, had never seen her before. But when he reaches his 40s, already married to Clare, he suddenly finds himself time travelling to Clare's childhood and meeting her as a 6-year-old. The book alternates between Henry and Clare's points of view, and so does the narration. Reed ably expresses the longing of the one always left behind, the frustrations of their unusual lifestyle, and above all, her overriding love for Henry. Likewise, Burns evokes the fear of a man who never knows where or when he'll turn up, and his gratitude at having Clare, whose love is his anchor. The expressive, evocative performances of both actors convey the protagonists' intense relationship, their personal quirks and their reminiscences, making this a fascinating audio.

Hosseini's stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid '90s. Amir, the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant, is the first-person narrator, who marries, moves to California and becomes a successful novelist. But he remains haunted by a childhood incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best friend, a Hazara boy named Hassan, who receives a brutal beating from some local bullies. After establishing himself in America, Amir learns that the Taliban have murdered Hassan and his wife, raising questions about the fate of his son, Sohrab. Spurred on by childhood guilt, Amir makes the difficult journey to Kabul, only to learn the boy has been enslaved by a former childhood bully who has become a prominent Taliban official. The price Amir must pay to recover the boy is just one of several brilliant, startling plot twists that make this book memorable both as a political chronicle and a deeply personal tale about how childhood choices affect our adult lives. The character studies alone would make this a noteworthy debut, from the portrait of the sensitive, insecure Amir to the multilayered development of his father, Baba, whose sacrifices and scandalous behavior are fully revealed only when Amir returns to Afghanistan and learns the true nature of his relationship to Hassan. Add an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East, and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium.

On a violent, stormy winter night, a home birth goes disastrously wrong. The phone lines are down, the roads slick with ice. The midwife, unable to get her patient to a hospital, works frantically to save both mother and child while her inexperienced assistant and the woman's terrified husband look on. The mother dies but the baby is saved thanks to an emergency C-section. And then the nightmare begins: the assistant suggests that maybe the woman wasn't really dead when the midwife operated.

In Midwives, Chris Bohjalian chronicles the events leading up to the trial of Sibyl Danforth, a respected midwife in the small Vermont town of Reddington, on charges of manslaughter. It quickly becomes evident, however, that Sibyl is not the only one on trial--the prosecuting attorney and the state's medical community are all anxious to use this tragedy as ammunition against midwifery in general; this particular midwife, after all, an ex-hippie who still evokes the best of the flower-power generation, is something of an anachronism in 1981. Through it all, Sibyl, her husband, Rand, and their teenage daughter, Connie, attempt to keep their family intact, but the stress of the trial--and Sibyl's growing closeness to her lawyer--puts pressure on both marriage and family. Bohjalian takes readers through the intricacies of childbirth and the law, and by the end of Sibyl Danforth's trial, it's difficult to decide which was more harrowing--the tragic delivery or its legal aftermath.

In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, 14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their Georgia peach farm, spends hours imagining a blissful infancy when she was loved and nurtured by her mother, Deborah, whom she barely remembers. These consoling fantasies are her heart's answer to the family story that as a child, in unclear circumstances, Lily accidentally shot and killed her mother. All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with the words "Tiburon, South Carolina" scrawled on the back. The search for a mother, and the need to mother oneself, are crucial elements in this well-written coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s against a background of racial violence and unrest. When Lily's beloved nanny, Rosaleen, manages to insult a group of angry white men on her way to register to vote and has to skip town, Lily takes the opportunity to go with her, fleeing to the only place she can think of--Tiburon, South Carolina--determined to find out more about her dead mother. Although the plot threads are too neatly trimmed, The Secret Life of Bees is a carefully crafted novel with an inspired depiction of character. The legend of the Black Madonna and the brave, kind, peculiar women who perpetuate Lily's story dominate the second half of the book, placing Kidd's debut novel squarely in the honored tradition of the Southern Gothic.

Two families arrive at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport in August 1997 to claim the Korean infants they have adopted. Strangers until that evening, they are destined to begin a friendship that will span their adoptive daughters' childhoods. Bitsy and Brad Donaldson are the quintessential middle-class, white American couple. Sami and Ziba Yazdan are Iranian Americans. From the beginning, the differences in the ways they will raise their daughters are obvious: Bitsy's well-meaning but overzealous efforts to retain her child's Korean heritage are evident in the chosen name–Jin-Ho–and in the Korean costumes that she dresses the girl in every year as they mark the anniversary of the adoption date. The Yazdans are comfortable with their daughter Susan's assimilation into their own Iranian-American culture. When Bitsy's widowed father begins to show romantic interest in Susan's grandmother, cultural differences are brought to a head. Tyler weaves a story that speaks to how we come to terms with our identity in multicultural America, and how we form friendships that move beyond the unease of differences. She does not dwell on the September 11 attacks, but subtly portrays the distrust that the Yazdans have to endure in the following months. Tyler's gift, as in her other novels, is her ability to infuse the commonplace with meaning and grace, and teens will appreciate her perceptiveness in exploring relationships within and between families across the cultural spectrum.

Discussion Questions from "The Next Thing On My List"

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1. Marissa died soon after she lost 100 pounds. Was the timing of this was significant to the story, and if so, in what way?
2. Why do you think the author had June complete someone else’s life list and not write it as a woman completing her own?

3. Which items on the list were most challenging to June? Which would you have the hardest time completing? Did any appeal to you?
4. Have you ever written a “life list?” If so, what sort of items were on it, and have you completed any of them? If you haven’t, why not?
5. Life lists aim to help people live more dynamically by doing things—how does fit in with your philosophy of what makes a person’s life important?
6. After the accident, June says that there are two types of horrible events: the type that make you grab life by the throat and never take it for granted, and the type that make you watch a lot of reality TV. Was her reaction realistic? How would you feel if a passenger died when you were driving?
7. What did you think about the relationship between June and Deedee? How would June’s experience have been different if she’d been given the type of “Little Sister” she’d been
expecting?
8. At Sebastian’s party, guests who learn about the list assume that Marissa must have been unhappy if she was fat. Were they being, as one woman put it, “size-ist?” or it is impossible to be overweight and happy in this society?
9. What characteristics attracted June to Troy? Do you think she would have been drawn to him if he wasn’t a traffic reporter? If he wasn’t Marissa’s brother?
10. Several of the items on the list were open to interpretation—do you think June did it in a way Marissa would have liked? What other ways might she have completed some of the tasks on the list?
11. If someone you loved died (or has died), what dream of his or hers would you most want to see fulfilled? What dream of yours do you fear might never happen if you died suddenly?
12. By the end of the book, June feels that she’s changed. What do you think had the biggest impact on her transformation?

August Meeting

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Book Club will meet on Thursday, August 14th at 6:45 at McCray's Tavern on the Square. We will be discussing The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski. Please bring suggestions for books to read for the rest of the year. Also, if you are not up to date on your dues, please bring your checkbook! Kim A. can tell you if you owe dues or not.

Please RSVP in the comments section so I will know how many for the reservation. Thanks!

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Please make suggestions for our September and October book selections. Leave suggestions in the comment section and we will vote. Thanks!

August Meeting

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We voted at the July meeting to change our meeting night to the second Thursday of the month. August's meeting will be on Thursday, August 14th at 6:45. We will be discussing The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski. Please leave suggestions for restaurants in the comments section and we will vote.

Because you asked...

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Following is an excerpt from this article. Sound familiar?

Together with Schwartz and Russek, Pearsall conducted a study, published in the Spring 2002 issue of the Journal of Near-Death Studies, entitled, "Changes in Heart Transplant Recipients That Parallel the Personalities of Their Donors." The study consisted of open-ended interviews with 10 heart or heart-lung transplant recipients, their families or friends and the donor's families or friends. The researchers reported striking parallels in each of the cases. The following is a sampling of some these.

In one case, an 18-year-old boy who wrote poetry, played music and composed songs, was killed in an automobile accident. A year after he died his parents came across an audiotape of a song he had written, entitled, "Danny, My Heart is Yours," which was about how he "felt he was destined to die and give his heart to someone." The donor recipient "Danny" of his heart, was an 18-year-old girl, named Danielle. When she met the donor's parents, they played some of his music and she, despite never having heard the song, was able to complete the phrases.

In another case, a seven-month-old boy received a heart from a 16-month-old boy who had drowned. The donor had a mild form of cerebral palsy mostly on the left side. The recipient, who did not display such symptoms prior to the transplant, developed the same stiffness and shaking on the left side.

A 47-year-old Caucasian male received a heart from a 17-year-old African-American male. The recipient was surprised by his new-found love of classical music. What he discovered later was that the donor, who loved classical music and played the violin, had died in a drive-by shooting, clutching his violin case to his chest.

A 29-year-old lesbian and a fast food junkie received a heart from a 19-year-old woman vegetarian who was "man crazy." The recipient reported after her operation that meat made her sick and she was no longer attracted to women. If fact, she became engaged to marry a man.

A 47-year-old man received a heart from a 14-year-old girl gymnast who had problems with eating disorders. After the transplant, the recipient and his family reported his tendency to be nauseated after eating, a childlike exuberance and a little girl's giggle.