December's Book - The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Margaret's pick for our December 2 meeting -

from an Amazon.com review...

The Help is about a young white woman in the early 1960s in Mississippi who becomes interested in the plight of the black ladies' maids that every family has working for them. She writes their stories about mistreatment, abuse and heartbreaks of working in white families' homes, all just before the Civil Rights revolution.

This is our book for the discussion on December 2. At Margaret's house unless the weather is awful and then we will see -

Welcome Susan - Margaret's friend. Hope you enjoyed your evening with us and will come back!

Our plans for the next few months are

January - out to dinner Jan 6 - Heather is working on finding the best spot

February - Telarry Andersen - Baking Cakes in Kigal - Gaile Parkin

March - Ginger Johnson - still deciding on a book

April - Diane Walker - Founding Mothers - Cookie Roberts

Some good suggestions from Telarry:

Jantsen' Gift - Pam Cope

The Lost Quilter - Jennifer Chiaverin

See you at Margaret's!

November's Book - Big Russ and Me

Bethany's pick for November 4th



"A profoundly satisfying story of a father and his son"--Wall Street Journal

"A testament to solid values,hard work and filial devotion"...New York Times

A letter from Tim from bigrussandme.com

Dear Reader,

In the spring of 2004, I published a book about my father--about the lessons I have learned from him, the way he has influenced me, and my enormous love and respect for this steady, hardworking, and modest man. Big Russ and Me came out in May, and my publisher sent me on a publicity tour in the hope that people around the country would see the book as an ideal Father's Day gift.

Early in the tour I was in Chicago, where to my great relief, customers were lining up to buy the book and have me autograph it. What happened next really surprised me.

"Make it out to Big Mike" somebody told me, which was followed in rapid succession by,

"This is for Big Mario"

"Please inscribe it out to Big Manuel."

"For Big Irv."

"Big Willie"

"Big Stan"

I had expected that my book would appeal to readers in my home town of Buffalo, New York, but I didn't know whether the story of a young man coming of age in a blue-collar Irish-Catholic neighborhood, whose father was a truck driver and a sanitation man, would strike a cord with a wider audience. As soon as I discovered there were many Big Russes out there--good, industrious, and patriotic men who has a lot in common with my dad, even if they didn't share his religion or his heritage. By writing a book about my father, I was affirming not only his life, but the lives of many other fathers as well.

Sincerely,

Tim Russert

Sue's Pick for our October Book - A Lesson Before Dying

We will meet at Sue's house on October 7th. Thanks Sue!
From the on-line review at The Big Read - National Endowment for the Arts ...

Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying (1993) poses one of the most universal questions literature can ask: Knowing we're going to die, how should we live? It's the story of an uneducated young black man named Jefferson, accused of the murder of a white storekeeper, and Grant Wiggins, a college-educated native son of Louisiana, who teaches at a plantation school. In a little more than 250 pages, these two men named for presidents discover a friendship that transforms at least two lives.

The novel has a long history of championing social justice. Fiction has the signal ability to embody social ideas in a compelling narrative that possesses both emotional and intellectual power.

Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying offers a painful yet inspirational tale of institutional injustice and personal redemption. It addresses the biggest theme possible-how one affirms life in the face of death.

Sept's Book Club - hosted by Debbie

Michelle Holdaway is swamped with new baby and all the fun that that brings.... so Debbie Mullin will be doing Book Club in Sept. Since we will be reading in August - hopefully on vacation, relaxing on those lazy summer days - I picked a light and fun read. I picked this up in the Seattle airport on my way home from a vacation on the recommendation from a book club readers list. I loved it. Hope you will too. :) We will meet on Sept 2 at 7 pm at Debbie Mullin's house. See you then. If there is a conflict with the date, I am open to pushing it to Sept 9th. Just leave a comment with a vote as to which date works for you!

Church of the Dog by Kaya McLaren

From one on-line review....

"How often can you pick up a book and think right from the very beginning, "As soon as I finish reading this book, I am going to write my own."? That is what Kaya McLaren's words did for me. They were an absolute inspiration. Her style is crisp and refreshing - not intimidating. She tells a wonderful story in a narrative that lopes.

"Church of the Dog" is a work of fiction, but it is about people who are real. People you have met if you have ever lived in the rural west. Mara is the extremely creative and energetic single woman any single woman would like to emulate. She has dreams that help her and her friends navigate through life. Edith is the exuberant grandmother who has not let life's tragedies embitter her. In her advancing years, she is still singing the song, "It Is New Every Morning." Her practical, taciturn rancher-husband has not cramped her style one bit, but it is too bad her love of life did not rub off on Earl a little bit more. He might have wanted to stick around a little longer. The somewhat-troubled grandson evades true involvement in life by hiding behind his camera lens. The pictures he takes capture events and scenes - recording them more clearly than memory.

In the end of the book, love and family and hope prevail. I cannot think of three better reasons to read a book."

Next Book Club is Sept 2

We all thought that it is Michelle Holdaway's turn for September's book club. Check back and I will post her pick when I talk to her....

July Book Club - Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

Heather Otte's pick for our July Book Club meeting is Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson.

We all agreed we wished for a happier ending! But what a great night sitting out on Heather's deck watching the osprey and enjoying talking about books. Thanks for bringing your Kindle Margie! Now we all want one for Christmas!

From one on-line review....

This fine novel, translated from the Norwegian by Anne Born, was the surprise winner of the 2006 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and it really is a book to cherish and remember.

Out Stealing Horses eschews the knowing realism of much contemporary fiction in favour of the episodic ebb and flow of the "unending conversation" in the mind of the narrator, as he looks back upon a series of traumatic war-time incidents in the past, and in the face of approaching old age. The narrator, Trond, has returned, following the death of his second wife, to a remote settlement in Norway where he and his family spent their childhood holidays under German occupation. Not only do old faces re-appear, but he has to try to finally understand the familial and political betrayals of that bitter period of resistance and collaboration, and the breaking of families.

June's read- Prince of Foxes

Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger

We will meet June 10th at Valerie Johnson's home. This is a change from the first Wednesday of the month because Valerie is out of town. See you there!

And thanks to Diane for a great May read! We had a good discussion about WISH YOU WELL and everyone agreed that it was a terrific book. We missed you if you weren't there.

All of the on-line reviews spoke highly of this book! Everyone gave it 5 stars!

Set in Renaissance Italy, this classic of American popular fiction is the story of Andrea Orsini, a peasant boy who rises to perform delicate political, military, and romantic missions for Cesare Borgia.

A clever and decidedly well written story of both heroic deeds and great deceptions, true love and the pride of men. You won't be wasting your time on this book, it's five-star material.

One reviewer shared this:
"I heartily agree with other readers who have given Prince of Foxes 5 stars. This novel is fast-paced, informative, believeable, beautifully written and a fantastic blend of history and fiction.

Mr. Shellabarger manages to educate the reader about the warring Italian city states of the period while holding their attention with a wholly credible depiction of people and places of the time.

The characters in these pages are not the stick figure cartoons of so many bodice-rippers, but display actual psychological development and manage to engage the reader into caring about them - a rare occurrence in much of what passes these days as historical fiction.

Once I got past about the first two chapters, I couldn't put this one down. There are no contrived coincidences to spoil the plot development, none of the artificial saving of the day that too often destroys believability. This has to rate as one of the most enjoyable reads I have had in a long time, not to mention, has captured my attention to the extent that I now want to learn more about the Borgias and the times they lived in. Highly recommended."

May Book Club on Wednesday this week!!

Just a reminder to everyone that book club will be on Wednesday this week at Diane Walker's home. That is Wednesday May 6th at 7 pm. Hope to see y'all there.

May Read - Wish You Well by David Baldacci

Diane's pick for May

One on-line review said:

David Baldacci has made a name for himself crafting big, burly legal thrillers with larger-than-life plots. However, Wish You Well, set in his native Virginia, is a tale of hope and wonder and "something of a miracle" just itching to happen. This shift from contentious urbanites to homespun hill families may come as a surprise to some of Baldacci's fans--but they can rest assured: the author's sense of pacing and exuberant prose have made the leap as well.
The year is 1940. After a car accident kills 12-year-old Lou's and 7-year-old Oz's father and leaves their mother Amanda in a catatonic trance, the children find themselves sent from New York City to their great-grandmother Louisa's farm in Virginia. Louisa's hardscrabble existence comes as a profound shock to precocious Lou and her shy brother. Still struggling to absorb their abandonment, they enter gamely into a life that tests them at every turn--and offers unimaginable rewards. For Lou, who dreams of following in her father's literary footsteps, the misty, craggy Appalachians and the equally rugged individuals who make the mountains their home quickly become invested with an almost mythic significance:

They took metal cups from nails on the wall and dipped them in the water, and then sat outside and drank. Louisa picked up the green leaves of a mountain spurge growing next to the springhouse, which revealed beautiful purple blossoms completely hidden underneath. "One of God's little secrets," she explained. Lou sat there, cup cradled between her dimpled knees, watching and listening to her great-grandmother in the pleasant shade...

Baldacci switches deftly between lovingly detailed character description (an area in which his debt to Laura Ingalls Wilder and Harper Lee seems evident) and patient development of the novel's central plot. If that plot is a trifle transparent--no one will be surprised by Amanda's miraculous recovery or by the children's eventual battle with the nefarious forces of industry in an attempt to save their great-grandmother's farm--neither reader nor character is the worse for it. After all, nostalgia is about remembering things one already knows. --Kelly Flynn

Book Club will be at Diane Walker's house May 6th at 7pm.

April Book Club on Wednesday this week!

Just a reminder to everyone that book club is Wednesday night, April 8th at 7 pm at Margaret Vidmar's house. Hurry and finish The Infidel!

April Read - The Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Margaret's pick for the month of April.

One on-line review shares this:

Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali — recounts her terrorized childhood in Africa and, much later, her embattled political career in Holland in her book Infidel.

Summary: Brilliant, brave, inspiring. Read this book.

In a review this brief, I can't possibly do justice to the breadth of Hirsi Ali's journey or the dangers she's faced down. She's literally retraced the history of human progress in the span of a single lifetime, traveling from a nomadic Stone Age existence to an elected leadership position in a modern, industrialized democracy. Along the way, she's overcome obstacles most of us can scarcely conceive, and shown more courage than I hope any of us will ever be called upon to display.

We who are born in the First World, who are taught ideas of individual liberty and human rights from childhood, can take these concepts for granted, but Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in a world where they are nonexistent. To escape the suffocating bonds of repression, she had to face down family, clan, culture, religion - the entire universe of her society aligned against her, all teaching in unison that a woman's role in life is to be a pious, unprotesting slave, to be handed off like property from father to husband, and to be silent and submissive in the face of abuse and degradation.

She did not live through the Enlightenment, when the landscape of ideas changed around her. Rather, she had to reinvent and rediscover them all for herself, forging a new identity from scratch, and then finding the courage to act on those newfound ideals to flee her home for a society she had never known. That she not only did so, but excelled and thrived there, is a testament to her courage and her passion for justice and equality.

Hirsi Ali speaks with eloquence and passion, not just with her words but with her life, when it comes to the dangers of excessive tolerance.

March Read - Mistaken Identity

Syd's pick for March

Thanks Syd for a great evening!

I thought I'd post two different reviews from Amazon readers...one positive and one a little on the negative side. I think we brought both of these points out in our discussion on Wednesday night.

POSITIVE NOTE:

I couldn't put this book down. It was such a compelling read that I kept turning page after page wanting to know what came next...even though I already knew how it ended. It is beautifully written, almost like reading a fiction book, and yet, of course, frightenly real. It is tragic that this actually happened, but I'm thankful to each family that they have chosen to tell their story.

To share with us the grace and mercy, and abundant love that these two families have for one another. They have been a wonderful example of how we, too, can love and forgive, and have compassion towards one another when life doesn't play out how we would like. This book makes me want to live a deeper faith-filled life and always love and have faith...no matter what!

NEGATIVE NOTE:

Like many readers I was mesmerized by this story, first hearing of it when it happened and then more recently when it received more media attention on Dateline, Oprah, and via People magazine coinciding with the publication of the book. How could this have happened? How did the families react? How is Whitney doing? All these questions were answered by the media yet I wanted to know more and was glad to see the book was available for download on my Kindle.

The Van Ryns and Ceraks seem like such nice people who are truly living their faith. Even in their grief how they were able to reach out to one another was really amazing. We should all learn from how they handled this tragic situation.

That said, I wanted to know more about Whitney's brain injury itself and other than the first five weeks, the TBI portion was really not covered in very much detail. These families are the epitome of Christian kindness. In a world where evangelical Christians sometimes have a negative connotation, where they say they pray but their actions seem to be full of hypocrisy, these people really do walk the walk and talk the talk. When I see those buttons that say "WWJD" these are the people who definitely I would think of.

However, although well written, the families use so much praise and prayer in their story that they end up alienating the readers who could really benefit from the message. Another sore spot with me was that they did a lot of bragging about the people that evidently became Christians due to this tragedy. Does that make them somehow feel better? The story itself really gets bogged down in all the religion. To some readers this is a positive point, to others like myself who considers themself spiritual rather than religious, this was way overdone. I found myself skimming many parts - making this a very quick read. For those who are interested in a book detailing more about traumatic brain injury, I highly recommend Where is the Mango Princess by Cathy Crimmins who details her husband's TBI in detail and how it affected her family. I would recommend Mistaken Identity to evangelical Christians who aren't concerned about details of traumatic brain injury itself.

So there you have it - and there is another book reccommendation for those looking for more tramatic brain injury stories. - Mango Princess.

Syd made a good comment that if we have more comments on the book - something that came to mind after our meetings we can just share it here on the blog. Thanks Syd.