One More Page Cafe Book Club

Shape of Mercy

2009-11-04T16:37:00.000-08:00

Patty B
Sarah H B+
Jill B+
Darcie B
Caryn B

Wedding Officer Ratings

2009-11-04T16:28:00.000-08:00

Jill B-
Caryn B-
Patty --
Darcie B-
Beth B -
Sarah H B- \ C

February 2009 Meeting

2009-01-25T05:07:00.001-08:00

Here are the details for our February 2009 Meeting:
Date: February 28, 2009 (hopefully with a new Brand member! Or a very grump old one!)
Time: 9:00am
Location: TBD

Book: Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together by Ron Hall
Next book: Snow Mountain Passage by James Houston

Feb - July 2009 Book Club Picks

2009-01-25T04:49:00.000-08:00

February - Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together by Ron Hall
March - Snow Mountain Passage by John Houston
April - Hidden by Shelly Shepard Gray
May - Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
June - The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner
July - The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

January Meeting

2009-01-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

Here are the details for our January Meeting:
Date: January 24, 2008
Time: 9:00am
Location: TBD

Book: Water Dancers by Terry Gamble

Next book: Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together by Ron Hall

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - Wroblewski, David

2009-01-18T11:58:00.000-08:00

Ratings:
BN: 3.5
Amazon: 3.5

Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong friend and ally. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar's paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles' once peaceful home. When Edgar's father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm—and into Edgar's mother's affections.
Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father's death, but his plan backfires—spectacularly. Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father's murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward.

David Wroblewski is a master storyteller, and his breathtaking scenes—the elemental north woods, the sweep of seasons, an iconic American barn, a fateful vision rendered in the falling rain—create a riveting family saga, a brilliant exploration of the limits of language, and a compulsively readable modern classic.

Fireflies in December - Valent, Jennifer Erin

2009-01-18T11:56:00.000-08:00

Ratings:

BN: 5

Amazon: 5

Jessilyn Lassiter never knew that hatred could lurk in the human heart until the summer of 1932 when she turned 13. When her best friend, Gemma, loses her parents in a tragic fire, Jessilyn's father vows to care for her as one of his own, despite the fact that Gemma is black and prejudice is prevalent in their southern Virginia town. Violence springs up as a ragtag band of Ku Klux Klan members unite and decide to take matters into their own hands. As tensions mount in the small community, loyalties are tested and Jessilyn is forced to say good-bye to the carefree days of her youth. Fireflies in December is the 2007 winner of the Christian Writers Guild's Operation First Novel contest.

When her best friend Gemma's parents are killed in a house fire, Jessilyn Lassiter's parents take the girl in. Trouble is, the year is 1932, Gemma is black, the Lassiters are white, and they live in a small Virginia town. Spunky Jessilyn is 13 years old, but her story will appeal to readers of all ages. Winner of the Christian Writers Guild's 2007 Operation First Novel contest, Valent's debut is both heartwarming and hand-wringing as it shows how one family endured the threats small and large of a prejudiced community while maintaining moral integrity. The cast of characters is rich. Jessilyn's mother wrestles with the social cost of challenging convention, her father is a dream dad and the neighbor's wisdom is as spicy as her cake. Jessilyn's romantic interest and penchant for trouble keep the tone light while the plot reminds readers of the evil that ordinary human beings are capable of doing, even in the name of righteousness. The book stares down violence and terror, making its affirmation of surprising goodness believable. (Jan.)

Lovely Bones - Sebold, Alice

2009-01-18T11:53:00.000-08:00

Ratings:

BN: 4.5

Amazon: 4

When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen.

In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets.

With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief, her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor and begin the difficult process of healing.

In the hands of a brilliant novelist, the author narrates the THE LOVELY BONES through the eyes of her winning young heroine. This story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed into a suspenseful and touching story about family, memory, love, heaven, and living.

Tomato Girl - Pupek, Jayne

2009-01-18T11:51:00.000-08:00

Rating:

BN: 5

Amazon: 4.5

For eleven-year-old Ellie Sanders, her father has always been the rock that she could cling to when her mother's emotional troubles became too frightening. But when he comes under the thrall of the pretty teenager who raises vegetables and tomatoes for sale at the general store that he runs, Ellie sees her security slowly slipping away. Now she must be witness and warden to her mother's gradual slide into madness.Told from Ellie's point of view, Tomato Girl takes the reader into the soul of a terrified young girl clinging desperately to childhood while being forced into adulthood years before she is ready. To save herself, she creates a secret world, a place in which her mother gets well, her father returns to being the man he was, and the Tomato Girl is banished forever. Tomato Girl marks the debut of a gifted and promising new author who has written a timeless Southern novel.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World - Myron, Vicky

2009-01-18T11:44:00.000-08:00

Rating:

BN: 4

Amazon: 4.5

How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can't even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.

Dewey's story starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director, Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility, (for a cat) and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.

As his fame grew from town to town, then state to state, and finally, amazingly, worldwide, Dewey became more than just a friend; he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming town pulling its way slowly back from the greatest crisis in its long history.

Publishers Weekly
In a world where a bad dog topped bestseller lists for years, it's inevitable that a library cat would soon make a bid to win the hearts of a nation. According to Mayron, this has already happened. Dewey is not bad, just occasionally mischievous enough to provide opportunities for the narrator to coo. Suzanne Toren wholeheartedly devotes herself to the first-person account of the author's travels with Dewey and only occasionally meanders into the sugar bowl. Dewey's story is a testament to how something small with a big heart can have an incalculable effect on a community. Anyone with at least one cat is guaranteed to get a lump in his or her throat as the orange fluff-ball connects with a severely disabled girl in one particularly affecting scene, memorably brought to life by Toren in her librarian persona. A Grand Central hardcover (Reviews, July 28). (Sept.)

The Shape of Mercy - Meissner, Susan

2009-01-18T11:42:00.000-08:00

Rating:

BN: 5

Amazon: 5

“We understand what we want to understand.”

Leaving a life of privilege to strike out on her own, Lauren Durough breaks with convention and her family’s expectations by choosing a state college over Stanford and earning her own income over accepting her ample monthly allowance. She takes a part-time job from 83-year-old librarian Abigail Boyles, who asks Lauren to transcribe the journal entries of her ancestor Mercy Hayworth, a victim of the Salem witch trials.

Almost immediately, Lauren finds herself drawn to this girl who lived and died four centuries ago. As the fervor around the witch accusations increases, Mercy becomes trapped in the worldview of the day, unable to fight the overwhelming influence of snap judgments and superstition, and Lauren realizes that the secrets of Mercy’s story extend beyond the pages of her diary, living on in the mysterious, embittered Abigail.

The strength of her affinity with Mercy forces Lauren to take a startling new look at her own life, including her relationships with Abigail, her college roommate, and a young man named Raul. But on the way to the truth, will Lauren find herself playing the helpless defendant or the misguided judge? Can she break free from her own perceptions and see who she really is?

Lady of Milkweed Manor - Klassen, Julie

2009-01-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

Rating:

BN: 5

Amazon: 4.5

As Charlotte drew closer to the looming grey edifice that was to become her temporary home, she could not help but notice the secretive shuttered windows. Then she noticed the milkweeds . . .

Even a proper vicar's daughter can make a mistake--and now Charlotte Lamb must pay a high price for her fall. To avoid the prying eyes of all who know her, she hides herself away in London's forbidding "Milkweed Manor," a place of mystery and lore, of old secrets and new birth.

But once there, she comes face to face with a suitor from her past--a man who now hides secrets of his own. Both are determined, with God's help, to protect those they love. But neither can imagine the depth of sacrifice that will be required.

Sprinkled with fascinating details about the lives of women in Regency England, Lady of Milkweed Manor is a moving romantic drama about the redemption of past failings and the beauty of sacrificial love.

Mudbound - Jordan, Hillary

2009-01-18T11:36:00.000-08:00

Rating:

BN: 4.5

Amazon: 4.5

In Jordan's prize-winning debut, prejudice takes many forms, both subtle and brutal. It is 1946, and city-bred Laura McAllan is trying to raise her children on her husband's Mississippi Delta farm -- a place she finds foreign and frightening. In the midst of the family's struggles, two young men return from the war to work the land. Jamie McAllan, Laura's brother-in-law, is everything her husband is not -- charming, handsome, and haunted by his memories of combat. Ronsel Jackson, eldest son of the black sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm, has come home with the shine of a war hero. But no matter his bravery in defense of his country, he is still considered less than a man in the Jim Crow South. It is the unlikely friendship of these brothers-in-arms that drives this powerful novel to its inexorable conclusion.

The men and women of each family relate their versions of events and we are drawn into their lives as they become players in a tragedy on the grandest scale. As Barbara Kingsolver says of Hillary Jordan, "Her characters walked straight out of 1940s Mississippi and into the part of my brain where sympathy and anger and love reside, leaving my heart racing. They are with me still."

Snow Mountain Passage - Houston, James D.

2009-01-18T11:32:00.000-08:00

Ratings:

BN: 5

Amazon: 4.5

Snow Mountain Passage is a powerful retelling of the most dramatic of our pioneer stories--the ordeal of the Donner Party, with its cast of young and old risking all, its imprisoning snows, its rumors of cannibalism. James Houston takes us inside this central American myth in a compelling new way that only a novelist can achieve.

The people whose dreams, courage, terror, ingenuity, and fate we share are James Frazier Reed, one of the leaders of the Donner Party, and his wife and four children--in particular his eight-year-old daughter, Patty. From the moment we meet Reed--proud, headstrong, yet a devoted husband and father--traveling with his family in the "Palace Car," a huge, specially built covered wagon transporting the Reeds in grand style, the stage is set for trouble. And as they journey across the country, thrilling to new sights and new friends, coping with outbursts of conflict and constant danger, trouble comes. It comes in the fateful choice of a wrong route, which causes the group to arrive at the foot of the Sierra Nevada too late to cross into the promised land before the snows block the way. It comes in the sudden fight between Reed and a drover--a fight that exiles Reed from the others, sending him solo over the mountains ahead of the storms.

We follow Reed during the next five months as he travels around northern California, trying desperately to find means and men to rescue his family. And through the amazingly imagined "Trail Notes" of Patty Reed, who recollects late in life her experiences as a child, we also follow the main group, progressively stranded and starving on the Nevada side of the Sierras.

Snow Mountain Passage is an extraordinary tale of pride and redemption. What happens--who dies, who survives, and why--is brilliantly, grippingly told.

The Kite Runner - Hosseini, Khaled

2009-01-18T11:28:00.000-08:00

Ratings:

BN: 4.5

Amazon: 4.5

In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try.

The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")

Some of the plot's turns and twists may be somewhat implausible, but Hosseini has created characters that seem so real that one almost forgets that The Kite Runner is a novel and not a memoir. At a time when Afghanistan has been thrust into the forefront of America's collective consciousness ("people sipping lattes at Starbucks were talking about the battle for Kunduz"), Hosseini offers an honest, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, but always heartfelt view of a fascinating land. Perhaps the only true flaw in this extraordinary novel is that it ends all too soon. --Gisele Toueg

Matrimony - Henkin, Joshua

2009-01-18T11:25:00.000-08:00

Rating:

BN: 4.5

Amazon: 4

It's the fall of 1986, and Julian Wainwright, an aspiring writer, arrives at Graymont College in New England. Here he meets Carter Heinz, with whom he develops a strong but ambivalent friendship, and beautiful Mia Mendelsohn, with whom he falls in love. Spurred on by a family tragedy, Julian and Mia's love affair will carry them to graduation and beyond, taking them through several college towns, over the next fifteen years. Starting at the height of the Reagan era and ending in the new millennium, Matrimony is a stunning novel of love and friendship, money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith. It is a richly detailed portrait of what it means to share a life with someone-to do it when you're young, and to try to do it afresh on the brink of middle age.

Uprising -Haddix, Margret

2009-01-18T11:21:00.000-08:00

Rating:

BN: 4.5

Amazon: 5

Around her the workers were screaming out prayers and curses.... She herself was sobbing tearlessly.... Her only prayer was still, "I don't want to die."

Oh, please, God, don't let me die, she thought. I've never even had a chance to live.
Bella, newly arrived in New York from Italy, gets a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. There, along with hundreds of other immigrants, she works long hours at a grueling job under terrible conditions. Yetta, a coworker from Russia, has been crusading for a union, and when factory conditions worsen, she helps workers rise up in a strike. Wealthy Jane learns of the plight of the workers and becomes involved with their cause.

Bella and Yetta are at work -- and Jane is visiting the factory -- on March 25, 1911, when a spark ignites some cloth and the building is engulfed in fire, leading to one of the worst workplace disasters ever.

Margaret Peterson Haddix draws on extensive historical research to bring the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to tangible life through her thrilling story of Bella, Yetta, and Jane.

The Hearts of Horses - Gloss, Molly

2009-01-18T11:12:00.000-08:00

Ratings:

BN: 4.5

Amazon: 4.5

This breakout novel from the author of The Jump-Off Creek tells the heartwarming story of a determined young woman with a gift for "gentling" wild horses.

In the winter of 1917, a big-boned young woman shows up at George Bliss's doorstep. She's looking for a job breaking horses, and he hires her on. Many of his regular hands are off fighting the war, and he glimpses, beneath her showy rodeo garb, a shy but strong-willed girl with a serious knowledge of horses.

So begins the irresistible tale of nineteen-year-old Martha Lessen, a female horse whisperer trying to make a go of it in a man's world. It was thought that the only way to break a horse was to buck the wild out of it, and broken ribs and tough falls just went with the job. But over several long, hard winter months, many of the townsfolk in this remote county of eastern Oregon witness Martha's way of talking in low, sweet tones to horses believed beyond repair—and getting miraculous, almost immediate results—and she thereby earns a place of respect in the community.

Along the way, Martha helps a family save their horses when their wagon slides into a ravine. She gentles a horse for a dying man—a last gift to his young son. She clashes with a hired hand who is abusing horses in unspeakable ways. Soon, despite her best efforts to remain aloof and detached, she comes to feel enveloped by a sense of community and family that she's never had before.

With the elegant sweetness of Plainsong and a pitch-perfect sense of western life reminiscent of Annie Dillard, The Hearts of Horses is a remarkable story about how people and animals make connections and touch eachother's lives in the most unexpected and profound ways.

Still Alice - Genova, Lisa

2009-01-18T11:04:00.000-08:00

Rating:
BN: 4.5

Amazon: 5

Genova gives us a hauntingly accurate portrayal of a young woman's descent into Alzheimer's Disease from the prime of life and the loftiest of cerebral heights.

Publishers Weekly
Neuroscientist and debut novelist Genova mines years of experience in her field to craft a realistic portrait of early onset Alzheimer's disease. Alice Howland has a career not unlike Genova's-she's an esteemed psychology professor at Harvard, living a comfortable life in Cambridge with her husband, John, arguing about the usual (making quality time together, their daughter's move to L.A.) when the first symptoms of Alzheimer's begin to emerge. First, Alice can't find her Blackberry, then she becomes hopelessly disoriented in her own town. Alice is shocked to be diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's (she had suspected a brain tumor or menopause), after which her life begins steadily to unravel. She loses track of rooms in her home, resigns from Harvard and eventually cannot recognize her own children. The brutal facts of Alzheimer's are heartbreaking, and it's impossible not to feel for Alice and her loved ones, but Genova's prose style is clumsy and her dialogue heavy-handed. This novel will appeal to those dealing with the disease and may prove helpful, but beyond the heartbreaking record of illness there's little here to remember. (Jan.)

Cellist of Sarajevo (the) - Galloway, Steven

2009-01-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

Rating:

BN: 5

Amazon: 4

This brilliant novel with universal resonance tells the story of three people trying to survive in a city rife with the extreme fear of desperate times, and of the sorrowing cellist who plays undaunted in their midst.

One day a shell lands in a bread line and kills twenty-two people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope.

Meanwhile, Kenan steels himself for his weekly walk through the dangerous streets to collect water for his family on the other side of town, and Dragan, a man Kenan doesn’t know, tries to make his way towards the source of the free meal he knows is waiting. Both men are almost paralyzed with fear, uncertain when the next shot will land on the bridges or streets they must cross, unwilling to talk to their old friends of what life was once like before divisions were unleashed on their city. Then there is “Arrow,” the pseudonymous name of a gifted female sniper, who is asked to protect the cellist from a hidden shooter who is out to kill him as he plays his memorial to the victims.

In this beautiful and unforgettable novel, Steven Galloway has taken an extraordinary, imaginative leap to create a story that speaks powerfully to the dignity and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.

The 19th Wife: A Novel - Ebershoff, David

2009-01-18T10:23:00.000-08:00

Ratings:

BN: 4

Amazon: 4

Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain.Sweeping and lyrical, spellbinding and unforgettable, David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife combines epic historical fiction with a modern murder mystery to create a brilliant novel of literary suspense.

It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of a family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how a young woman became a plural wife.

Soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death.

And as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love and faith.

Fires in the Dark - Doughty, Louise

2009-01-18T10:21:00.000-08:00

Rating:
BN: 6

Amazon: 4

Fires In the Dark reveals the highly secretive and misunderstood world of the coppersmith gypsies.

In 1927, when prosperity still reigns in Central Europe, Yenko is born to two Coppersmith Gypsies. His parents, Josef and Anna, are nomads who raise their son during the relative calm of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Soon, though, dangerous times threaten to unsettle their family, as their heritage makes them vulnerable targets for ethnic cleansing. As Germany invades Czechoslovakia and the conflicts of World War II begin to unfold, Yenko and his parents become fugitives, forced on a journey that promises only great uncertainty and offers survival as a remote possibility. In the course of their flight, the burden of an ancient tradition rests entirely on Yenko's shoulders.

In capturing the desperation and perseverance of one family during an extraordinary time in history, Louise Doughty pays powerful homage to an insular and little-known culture.

A Woman's Place - Delinsky, Barbara

2009-01-18T10:14:00.000-08:00

Ratings:

BN: 5

Amazon: 4.5

Everything Claire Raphael has she's earned. On her own. The hard way. She built her part-time business up from nothing and made it successful through her imagination, creativity and hard work. She has two great children and Dennis, a husband she loves completely. Then, one evening, when Claire returns from a difficult business trip, Dennis hands her divorce papers along with a court order to vacate their house. And he's taking custody of the children. Claire is devestated. She had no idea her marriage was on the brink of disaster, that Dennis had been planning this ambush for weeks, if not months or that her hectic but happy life was about to come crumbling down around her. Claire doesn't know where to turn or whom to trust. But in a few short weeks she learns what so many women have had to discover -- that when the going gets tough, a woman's as tough as she needs to be..

Somebody Else's Daughter - Brundage, Elizabeth

2009-01-18T10:11:00.001-08:00

Ratings:

BN: 4

Amazon: 4.5

Brundage's second novel concerns ugly secrets that lie beneath the glossy veneer of a wealthy town and popular school in the Berkshires, waiting to be exposed by three new arrivals: a sculptor, her son and a writing teacher who gave up his daughter for adoption many years ago. Thrillers often make great audiobooks, because they offer frequent heart-stopping twists and turns. But this literary thriller, with its careful, delicate writing and a slow buildup to a powerful, sudden—and fairly predictable—denouement, is less suited to audio. Despite Bernadette Dunne's considerable efforts, the reading drags from time to time. Mark Bramhall only voices the prologue; the remainder of the book belongs to Dunne, who ably evokes both genders and is particularly skilled with New England accents. Despite the slowness of the story and patience required of the reader, this is a satisfying audio experience. A Viking hardcover (Reviews, May 26). (Aug.)

"Students, parents, teachers, townies: Somebody Else's Daughter is a deft balancing act of taut plot and richly drawn characters struggling to find their moral centers as they grope in the dark for the transformative power of love. I didn't so much read this novel as devour it. Brundage is a storyteller supreme."-- Wally Lamb, author of I Know This Much Is True and The Hour I First Believed

Sarah's Daughter - Bass, Ruth

2009-01-18T10:05:00.000-08:00

Ratings:
BN: None
Amazon: 4.5

Rose begins to think of her mother as "Sarah" because the very word "mother" makes her cry. She continually asks herself what her mother would do about breakfast for the family; about how to take care of her siblings; about her father's drinking and going off to a hotel almost every evening.

After the unusual accident that killed her mother, fourteen-year-old Rose Hibbard copes. She is forced to take on her silently grieving father and her younger brother and sister. Without a role model of her own, she becomes one for her eight-year-old sister. She makes breakfast, gets everyone started for the day, does the washing and ironing and sewing, and still manages to get to school and do her own homework.

Interspersed with Rose's moments of panic or despair are warm hours shared with her friends, Alice and Emily, who listen and help and have fun with her; times familiar to most American teenagers today. As are the nights she stares at the moon and wishes on stars, as well as her developing romance with young Newton Barnes.

Just when Rose thinks her family will find a way to manage without a mother, her father says she will have to leave school for good in the spring. Her teacher is her main adult ally. School is where she is happiest and feels most comfortable, where life feels almost normal for someone her age. The one thing that has kept her going, giving her the will to take care of everyone and stay awake in class is her lifelong dream of becoming a teacher, and it disappears in a matter of seconds.

Her brother and sister often sneak off to cry at their mother's grave, and Rose's father, unable to face his own loss, becomes increasingly gruff andsilent. She overhears a gossipy neighbor saying something about her father being "at the drink." And when she comes home early one day and discovers her father, his trousers in a heap on the floor, laughing in her parents' bedroom with a half-clothed woman, she flees to the woodshed where she hopes the restacked cords of wood will fall on her, just as they had crushed her mother.

This story, which takes place in late 19th century New England, focuses on a typical American teenage girl for whom cooking on a wood stove, pumping water, emptying chamber pots, reading by kerosene lamps and heating flatirons on the stove to do the ironing is the norm. But it is Rose's ability to deal with the death of her mother, her father's alcoholism and her distraught siblings, her stellar performance in school and her growth from child to girl-woman, her friendship with her teacher, and the responsibility she feels to care for her siblings, that shows us the depth and character of this fourteen-year-old young woman.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Barbery, Muriel

2009-01-18T10:01:00.000-08:00

Ratings:
BN: 3
Amazon: 4

Hedgehogs aren't native to America, but you don't have to be French to sniff out at least some of the contradictions in the title of Muriel Barbery's European bestseller. Her novel both depicts and hopes to appeal to the connoisseur of humanity who can appreciate exquisite qualities unacknowledged by others. One of her two Parisian diarist heroines is a concierge, the other a suicidal adolescent. They sound conventional, but that's precisely the point: they both work very hard to achieve stereotypicality. As the frumpy concierge Renée says, "I correspond so very well to what social prejudice has collectively construed to be a typical French concierge that I am one of the multiple cogs that make the great universal illusion turn, the illusion according to which life has a meaning that can be easily deciphered." From her position as a teenager, Paloma casts a jaundiced eye: "In our world...you must constantly rebuild your identity as an adult,...it is wobbly and ephemeral, so fragile, cloaking despair and, when you're alone in front of the mirror, it tells you the lies you need to believe."

2009 Jan Selection List

2009-01-17T14:00:00.000-08:00

In Order by Author's Last Name:

1. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County (Baker, Tiffany)

2. The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Barbery, Muriel)

3. Sarah’s Daughter (Bass, Ruth)

4. Somebody Else's Daughter (Brundage, Elizabeth)

5. A Woman's Place (Delinsky, Barbara)

6. Fires in the Dark (Doughty, Louise)

7. The 19th Wife: A Novel (Ebershoff, David)

8. Outlander (Gabaldon, Diana)

9. The Cellist of Sarajevo (Galloway, Steven)

10. Still Alice (Genova, Lisa)

11. The Hearts of Horses (Gloss, Molly)

12. Hidden (Gray, Shelly)

13. Uprising (Haddix, Margret)

14. Matrimony (Henkin, Josua)

15. The Kite Runner (Hosseini, Khaled)

16. Snow Mountain Passage (Houston, James)

17. Mudbound (Jordan, Hillary)

18. Lady of Milkweed Manor (Klassen, Julie)

19. The Shape of Mercy (Meissner, Susan)

20. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World (Myron, Vicky)

21. Tomato Girl (Pupek, Jayne)

22. Lovely Bones (Sebold, Alice)

23. Fireflies in December (Valent, Jennifer Erin)

24. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (Wroblewski, David)

25. The Shack (Young, William P)

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County - Baker, Tiffany

2009-01-08T04:37:00.000-08:00

Ratings:
BN 4.5
Amazon 4

Synopsis
When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how recordbreakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother's death in childbirth, and was totally ill equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of femine perfection. When he, too, relinquished his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated--Serena Jane to live a life of privilege as the future May Queen and Truly to live on the outskirts of town on the farm of the town sadsack, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers.

Serena Jane's beauty proves to be her greatest blessing and her biggest curse, for it makes her the obsession of classmate Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Robert Morgans who have been doctors in Aberdeen for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest Robert Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, and the location of her fabled shadow book--containing mysterious secrets for healing and darker powers--has been the subject of town gossip ever since. Bob Bob Morgan, one of Truly's biggest tormentors, does the unthinkable to claim the prize of Serena Jane, and changes the destiny of all Aberdeen from there on.

When Serena Jane flees town and a loveless marriage to Bob Bob, it is Truly who must become the woman of a house that she did not choose and mother to her eight-year-old nephew Bobbie. Truly's brother-in-law is relentless and brutal; he criticizes her physique and the limitations of her healthas a result, and degrades her more than any one human could bear. It is only when Truly finds her calling--the ability to heal illness with herbs and naturopathic techniques--hidden within the folds of Robert Morgan's family quilt, that she begins to regain control over her life and herself. Unearthed family secrets, however, will lead to the kind of betrayal that eventually break the Morgan family apart forever, but Truly's reckoning with her own demons allows for both an uprooting of Aberdeen County, and the possibility of love in unexpected places.

October Meeting

2008-10-25T03:49:00.000-07:00

Here are the details for our October Meeting:

Date: October 25, 2008

Time: 9:00am

Loction: Mimi's Cafe (615 S Hurstbourne PkwyLouisville, KY 40222 (502) 426-6588)

Book: Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell

October 2008 Book Selection List

2008-10-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

Here are the list of books for our October selection!

Case Histories by Atkinson, Kate
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows

The Wednesday Sisters by Clayton, Meg Waite

The Bondswoman Narrative by Crafts, Hanna
Good Harbor by Diamant, Anita
Outlander by Gabaldon, Diana
The Water Dancers by Gamble, Terry
Hidden by Gray, Shelley Shepard
Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World's Worst Dog by Grogan, John
Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together by Hall, Ron

The Painted Kiss by Hickey, Elizabeth

Welcome to the Great Mysterious by Landvik, Lorna
Family Baggage by McInerney, Monica
Blessings by Quindlen, Anna
The Last Oracle by Rollins, James
The Pilot's Wife by Shreve, Anita
The Rescue by Sparks, Nicholas
The Matchmaker of Perigord: A Novel (P.S.) by Stuart, Julia
The Shadow of the Wind by Zafon, Carlos Ruiz

The Shadow of the Wind - Zafon, Carlos Ruiz

2008-10-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

Barcelona, 1945-A great world city lies shrouded in secrets after the war, and a boy mourning the loss of his mother finds solace in his love for an extraordinary book called The Shadow of the Wind, by an author named Julian Carax. When the boy searches for Carax's other books, it begins to dawn on him, to his horror, that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book the man has ever written. Soon the boy realizes that The Shadow of the Wind is as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget, for the mystery of its author's identity holds the key to an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love that someone will go to any lengths to keep secret.

The Matchmaker of Perigord: A Novel (P.S.) - Stuart, Julia

2008-10-22T16:19:00.001-07:00

Guillaume Ladoucette wiped his delicate fingers on his trouser leg before squeezing them into the glass jar. As he wiggled them around the cold, slippery fat he recognized what he felt was an ankle and his tongue moistened. He tugged it out and dropped the preserved duck leg into the cassoulet made by his mother thirty-one years ago and which had been on the go ever since. The ghostly white limb lay for several seconds suspended on haricot bean and sausage flotsam before disappearing from sight following a swift prod with a wooden spoon.

Custodian of the cassoulet now that his mother had gone cuckoo, the barber gave the dish a respectfully slow stir and watched as a goose bone appeared through the oregano and thyme vapours. The flesh had long since dropped off, his mother having first added it to the pot nineteen years ago in celebration of his opening a barber shop in the village. Initially, Madame Ladoucette had strictly forbidden the bone's removal out of maternal pride. Years later, her mind warped by grief following the death of her husband, she convinced herself that her son's good fortune at starting his own business the only happy memory to surface during that difficult time was proof of the Almighty's existence. It was a conviction that led to her irritating habit of suddenly standing up at the table and dashing over to whichever unsuspecting dinner guest had mistakenly been served the grey bone. With a pincer-like motion, she would swiftly remove it from their plate with the words ‘not so fast', in the fear that they would make off with what she had come to consider a holy relic.

From amongst the beans emerged an onion dating from March 1999, several carrots added only the previous week, a new thumb of garlic which Guillaume Ladoucette failed to recognize and a small green button still waiting to be reclaimed by its owner. With the care of an archaeologist, he drew the spoon around the bottom and sides of the iron pot to loosen some of the blackened crust, which, along with an original piece of now calcified Toulouse sausage, were, the barber insisted, the secret of the dish's unsurpassable taste. There were those, however, who blamed the antique sausage for turning the pharmacist Patrice Baudin, who had never previously shown any sign of lunacy, into a vegetarian, a scandal from which the village had never recovered.
Keeping the cassoulet going was more than just the duty of an only son, but something upon which the family's name rested. For the cassoulet war had been long and ugly and there was still no sign of a truce. All those fortunate enough to have witnessed the historic spectacle agreed that the first cannon was launched by Madame Ladoucette when she spotted Madame Moreau buying some tomatoes in the place du Marché and casually asked what she was making. When the woman replied, Madame Ladoucette recoiled two paces in horror, a move not appreciated by the stallholder on whose foot she landed.

‘But tomatoes have no place in a cassoulet!' Madame Ladoucette cried. ‘Yes, they do. I've always used tomatoes,' Madame Moreau replied. ‘The next thing you'll be telling me is that you put lamb in it as well.' ‘Don't be so ridiculous, I would never commit such a perversion!' Madame Moreau retorted.

‘Ridiculous? Madame, it is not I who puts tomatoes in a cassoulet, it is you. What does your husband have to say about this?' ‘He wouldn't want it any other way,' came the terse reply.
Moments later, several onlookers witnessed Madame Ladoucette striding up to Madame Moreau's husband, who was sitting on the bench by the fountain said to cure gout watching an ant struggling with a leaf five times its size. Monsieur Moreau looked up to see a pair of crane's legs, whose owner was carrying a straw basket which his nose immediately told him was full of fresh fish.

‘Monsieur Moreau,' she began. ‘Forgive me, but it is a matter of utmost importance and a true Frenchman such as yourself will know the definitive answer. Should a cassoulet have tomatoes in it or not?'

Monsieur Moreau was so startled by her sudden appearance and line of questioning that he could think of nothing but the truth: ‘The correct method of making a cassoulet is always a source of contention. Personally, I prefer it without tomatoes, as my mother made it, but for God's sake don't tell the wife.'

According to Henri Rousseau, who happened to be standing next to Madame Moreau as she was paying for her tomatoes, Madame Ladoucette walked straight back up to her and repeated the entire conversation, adding that it was her civic duty to cook a cassoulet correctly. Precisely what Madame Moreau called her in return Henri Rousseau failed to catch, a crime his wife never forgave and which led to her insisting that he wear a hearing aid despite the fact that he was not in the least bit deaf. There was no doubt, however, about what happened next. Madame Ladoucette reached into her basket, pulled out what was unmistakably an eel and slapped Madame Moreau across the nose with it, before leaving its head wedged firmly down her cleavage and stalking off. She had made it halfway down the rue du Château, when, much to the delight of the villagers who couldn't have wished for better entertainment on a Tuesday morning, Madame Moreau put her hand into the brown paper bag she was holding and hurled a tomato at Madame Ladoucette. It landed with such force her victim momentarily staggered.
While the pair never spoke again, the salvoes continued. From that day, Madame Moreau insisted on keeping a large bowl of over-ripe tomatoes near her kitchen window, which she used as ammunition from behind her white lace panels whenever her enemy passed. Madame Ladoucette retaliated by always doing her eel impression whenever she caught her adversary's eye in the street. And while Madame Moreau's throwing arm was not what it used to be, and Madame Ladoucette's eel impression, which was never that good to begin with, had for several years been hampered by a pair of ill-fitting dentures, the two kept up their insults well into their senility, when they became almost a form of greeting.

Leaving the duck leg to heat up, the barber decided to fetch a lettuce from his potager. By the time he reached the back door the soles of his bare feet had collected a small sharp black stone, a ginger-coloured feather, two dried lentils and a little sticky label from an apple bearing the words ‘Pomme du Limousin.' Resting his right foot on his left knee, he first removed the stone, lentils and label. Then, with a muttered blasphemy, he picked off the feather which he immediately carried to the bin.

The Rescue - Sparks, Nicholas

2008-10-22T15:57:00.001-07:00

Secret traumas again haunt Sparks's characters, in the author's fourth novel (after The Notebook; Message in a Bottle; A Walk to Remember). Denise Holden, the 29-year-old heroine, is destitute and forced to live in her mother's old house in Edenton, N.C. She's also the single mother of a handicapped child, Kyle, a four-year-old with "auditory processing problems" that render him unable to express himself or to fully understand others. Though she doesn't suspect it, Denise is on a literal collision course with true love. After she smashes her car into a tree and wakes up to discover Kyle missing, she finds deliverance in the form of Taylor McAden, dashing firefighter and compulsive risk taker, who rescues Kyle, too. Since Taylor enjoys an instant, unprecedented rapport with Kyle, there is little standing in the way of burgeoning romance. Trouble comes, however, when Denise learns of Taylor's checkered romantic past. Taylor's inability to commit, it seems, is somehow tied to his compulsive heroism, of which numerous histrionic examples are described. Denise's quest to find the source of Taylor's emotional distance takes up the final third of the book. The story here is mostly a pretext for the emotional assault that Sparks delivers, but when he manages to link affect to action, the result is cunningly crafted melodrama. These occasions are rare, though; more often Sparks gets bogged down in interminable interior monologue. Because these characters are preordained lovers, their feelings prescribed by fiction conventions, their psychology amounts to little more than a profusion of banality. Yet Sparks's narrative acquires immediacy when his characters' exaggerated emotions compel immoderate actions, and his readers will surely delight at these moments of heightened expressiveness. 1 million first printing; 24-city author tour. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

The Pilot's Wife -Shreve, Anita

2008-10-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

Oprah's latest Book Club pick is The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve—an engrossing thriller woven between the pages of a stirring meditation on love and betrayal. With one late-night knock on her door, Kathryn Lyons's worst fears as a pilot's wife come true: Her husband, Jack, has died in a mid-air explosion off the coast of Ireland. Later, a phone number found among Jack's papers leads Kathryn to London and the unfathomable truth about her husband's secret other life. A second wife and two young children are just the beginning of what Jack was hiding in England. With each staggering revelation, Kathryn must reconcile her memories of the man she loved with the disturbing portrait unfolding before her.

The Last Oracle - Rollins, James

2008-10-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

What if you could bioengineer the next great world prophet: scientifically produce the next Buddha, the next Muhammad, or the next Jesus? Would it mark the Second Coming or initiate a chain reaction with disastrous consequences?

A master at combining historical and religious intrigue with edge-of-your-seat adventure, New York Times bestselling author James Rollins brings back SIGMA Force to battle a group of rogue scientists who've unleashed a bioengineering project that could bring about the extinction of humankind.
In Washington, D.C., a homeless man dies in Commander Gray Pierce's arms, shot by an assassin's bullet. But the death leaves behind a greater mystery: a bloody coin found clutched in the dead man's hand, an ancient relic that can be traced back to the Greek Oracle of Delphi. As ruthless hunters search for the stolen artifact, Gray Pierce discovers that the coin is the key to unlocking a plot that dates back to the Cold War and threatens the very foundation of humanity.

An international think tank of scientists known as the Jasons has discovered a way to bioengineer autistic children who show savant talents—mathematical geniuses, statistical masterminds, brilliant conceptual artists—into something far greater and far more frightening, in hopes of creating a world prophet for the new millennium, one to be manipulated to create a new era of global peace . . . a peace on their own terms.

Halfway around the world, a man wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of who he is, knowing only that he's a prisoner in a subterranean research facility. With the help of three unusual children, he makes his escape across a mountainous and radioactive countryside, pursued by savage hunters bred in the same laboratory. But his goal is not escape, nor even survival. In order to thwart a plot to wipe out a quarter of the world's population, he must sacrifice all, even the children who rescued him.

From ancient Greek temples to glittering mausoleums, from the slums of India to the toxic ruins of Russia, two men must race against time to solve a mystery that dates back to the first famous oracle of history—the Greek Oracle of Delphi.

But one question remains: Will the past be enough to save the future?

Family Baggage - McInerney, Monica

2008-10-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

"An endearing and humane story about a family and its sticky web of secrets and misunderstandings . . . one of those rare books you could recommend to anyone and know that they'll love it."-The Australian Women's Weekly

Harriet Turner knows all about journeys. She's arranged hundreds of them for her family's travel agency. Now Harriet is joining her adopted sister, Lara, to lead a group through the Cornish countryside. But when Lara fails to appear at the airport as planned, Harriet finds herself in uncharted territory and suddenly alone with a busload of eccentric seniors. As the tour wends its way through the picturesque landscape, Harriet must uncover her sister's whereabouts and confront long-held family secrets involving Lara's arrival twenty-five years ago . . . not to mention keeping track of more baggage-real and emotional-than she ever expected.

Welcome to the Great Mysterious - Landvik, Lorna

2008-10-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

All right, so I'm a diva. . . . For those of you who don't know me, I am Geneva Jordan, star of stage, screen, and television. (If you didn't see me accept my Tony, I'm sure you heard my voice singing the 'Sweetie Cat' litterbox and Chef Mustachio Frozen Pizza jingles.) . . ."

Now Geneva Jordan has a command performance in Minnesota, a challenging role set in reality. Making her entrance with her usual flair, she is coming to the rescue of her twin sister, Ann, and Ann's husband, Riley. They desperately need someone to care for their thirteen-year-old son, Rich, a boy with Down's syndrome, while the couple takes their first-ever vacation away from him. Though she and Ann are as different as night and day ("I being night, of course, dark and dramatic"), Geneva remembers she had a family before she had a star on her door. But so accustomed is she to playing the lead, finding herself a supporting actress in someone else's life is strange and unexplored territory.

Leaving behind the bright lights of Manhattan, a tumultuous relationship with a charming (if cheating) Brit—whose tastes run to doe-eyed ingenues—Geneva heads to Deep Lake, Minnesota. Vowing to have the part of June Cleaver (minus the pearls) down flat, she gracefully steps into her role with a determination that she will perform with great panache even if she bombs at navigating the perils of domesticity.

However, life, Geneva soon learns, doesn't always follow even the best of scripts. And just as the guileless Rich and the eccentric folks of Deep Lake begin to open her heart, an unexpected tragedy forever changes the lives of those she has come to care about, forcing her to redefine herown role as well.Lorna Landvik delivers an extra special treat for readers who relished The Tall Pine Polka and Patty Jane's House of Curl. Hilarious and heart-wrenching, this wonderfully touching story is brilliantly told by a writer with a gift for portraying the dark side of comedy and the lighter side of tragedy to create a harmony that is the very essence of life and love.

Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together - Hall, Ron

2008-10-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

Meet Denver, a man raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana in the 1960s; a man who escaped, hopping a train to wander, homeless, for eighteen years on the streets of Dallas, Texas. No longer a slave, Denver's life was still hopeless-until God moved. First came a godly woman who prayed, listened, and obeyed. And then came her husband, Ron, an international arts dealer at home in a world of Armani-suited millionaires. And then they all came together.

But slavery takes many forms. Deborah discovers that she has cancer. In the face of possible death, she charges her husband to rescue Denver. Who will be saved, and who will be lost? What is the future for these unlikely three? What is God doing?

Same Kind of Different As Me is the emotional tale of their story: a telling of pain and laughter, doubt and tears, dug out between the bondages of this earth and the free possibility of heaven. No reader or listener will ever forget it.

Marley & Me Love and Life with the World's Worst Dog - Grogan, John

2008-10-22T15:39:00.001-07:00

Is it possible for humans to discover the key to happiness through a bigger-than-life, bad-boy dog? Just ask the Grogans.

John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same.
Marley grew into a barreling, ninety-seven-pound streamroller of a Labrador retriever. He crashed through screen doors, gouged through drywall, and stole women's undergarments. Obedience school did no good -- Marley was expelled.

But just as Marley joyfully refused any limits on his behavior, his love and loyalty were boundless, too. Marley remained a model of devotion, even when his family was at its wit's end. Unconditional love, they would learn, comes in many forms.

Marley & Me is John Grogan's funny, unforgettable tribute to this wonderful, wildly neurotic Lab and the meaning he brought to their lives.

Outlander - Gabaldon, Diana

2008-10-22T15:37:00.001-07:00

Rating:
BN: 4.5
Amazon: 4.5

Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another...In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon—when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an "outlander"—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Good Harbor - Diamant Anita

2008-10-22T15:35:00.001-07:00

A well-respected author who made news with her fiction debut, The Red Tent, Diamant draws a portrait of a friendship between women that weathers illness and infidelity. Kathleen Levine, a children's librarian in Cape Ann, MA, is 59 years old, married, and the mother of two grown sons. She is also suffering from breast cancer, which brings overwhelming solicitousness from others and countless stories of other women's illness. She is no stranger to the disease, having lived through her sister's death from breast cancer. Joyce Tabachnik is a journalist and pseudonymous romance novelist. Now 42, she is married and has a 12-year-old daughter who bristles at anything her parents say and do. The two Jewish women Joyce by birth, Kathleen by conversion meet at synagogue one Friday evening and begin a relationship that will take them up the Good Harbor beach in Gloucester for frequent walks and talks and through the momentous challenges and fears of their varied lives. Kathleen's ordeal with cancer, especially radiation treatment, rings true, and her honest, compassionate friendship with Joyce, who is doubting her own marriage and her ability to write, will touch readers as they recognize these women's frailties and strengths. Aside from a subplot concerning drug dealing that seems out of place, this is a wonderful story that most libraries should acquire.- Bette-Lee Fox, "Library Journal"

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Barrows, Annie & Schaffer, Mary Ann

2008-10-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

“ I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

Case History - Atkinson, Kate

2008-10-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

A triumphant new novel from award-winner Kate Atkinson: a breathtaking story of families divided, love lost and found, and the mysteries of fate.

Case One: Olivia Land, youngest and most beloved of the Land girls, goes missing in the night and is never seen again. Thirty years later, two of her surviving sisters unearth a shocking clue to Olivia's disappearance among the clutter of their childhood home. . .

Case Two: Theo delights in his daughter Laura's wit, effortless beauty, and selfless love. But her first day as an associate in his law firm is also the day when Theo's world turns upside down. . .

Case Three: Michelle looks around one day and finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making. A very needy baby and a very demanding husband make her every waking moment a reminder that somewhere, somehow, she'd made a grave mistake and would spend the rest of her life paying for it--until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.

As Private Detective Jackson Brodie investigates all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge. Inextricably caught up in his clients grief, joy, and desire, Jackson finds their unshakable need for resolution very much like his own.
Kate Atkinson's celebrated talent makes for a novel that positively sparkles with surprise, comedy, tragedy, and constant, page-turning delight.

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

2008-10-18T06:08:00.000-07:00

Friendship, loyalty, and love lie at the heart of Meg Waite Clayton’s beautifully written, poignant, and sweeping novel of five women who, over the course of four decades, come to redefine what it means to be family.For thirty-five years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967. These “Wednesday Sisters” seem to have little in common: Frankie is a timid transplant from Chicago, brutally blunt Linda is a remarkable athlete, Kath is a Kentucky debutante, quiet Ally has a secret, and quirky, ultra-intelligent Brett wears little white gloves with her miniskirts. But they are bonded by a shared love of both literature–Fitzgerald, Eliot, Austen, du Maurier, Plath, and Dickens–and the Miss America Pageant, which they watch together every year.As the years roll on and their children grow, the quintet forms a writers circle to express their hopes and dreams through poems, stories, and, eventually, books. Along the way, they experience history in the making: Vietnam, the race for the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they have ever thought about themselves, while at the same time supporting one another through changes in their personal lives brought on by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success.Humorous and moving, The Wednesday Sisters is a literary feast for book lovers that earns a place among those popular works that honor the joyful,mysterious, unbreakable bonds between friends.

The Water Dancers by Terry Gamble

2008-10-18T06:07:00.001-07:00

A stunning debut novel from a new voice in literary fiction, set on Lake Michigan following World War II, The Water Dancers limns the divide between the worlds of the wealthy elite "summer people" and the poor native population who serve them–and what happens when those worlds collide.

When Rachel Winnapee first comes to work at the March family summer home on vast and beautiful Lake Michigan, she quickly learns her place. Servants are seen and not heard as they bring the breakfast trays, wash and iron luxurious clothes, and serve gin and tonics to the wealthy family as they lounge on the deck playing bridge. Orphaned as a poverty–stricken young girl from the nearby band of Native Americans, Rachel is in awe of the Marches' glamorous life–and quite enamored of the family's son Woody.

Rachel is soon assigned the task of caring for Woody, a young man whose life has been changed utterly by his experience as a soldier in WWII. The war has cost Woody not only his leg, but, worse, the older brother he loved and admired. Now back at home, Woody cannot bear to face the obligations of his future – especially when it comes to his bride–to–be Elizabeth. Woody finds himself drawn to Rachel, who is like no one he's ever known. The love affair that unites these two lost souls in this Great Gatsby–esque portrait of class division will alter the course of their lives in ways both heartbreaking and profound.

This novel's richness is due, in part, to the author's memories of summers spent at her family's house on Lake Michigan, home to six generations of Gambles (as in Procter & Gamble). THE WATER DANCERS, told in avoice as clear and cool as lake water, is a luminescent tale of love, loss and redemption, and heralds the arrival of a remarkable new talent.

The Painted Kiss – Elizabeth Hickey

2008-07-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

In this passionate and atmospheric debut novel, Elizabeth Hickey reimagines the tumultuous relationship between the Viennese painter Gustav Klimt and Emilie Flöge, the woman who posed for Klimt's masterpiece The Kiss -- and whose name he uttered with his dying breath. Vienna in 1886 was a city of elegant cafés, grand opera houses, and a thriving and adventurous artistic community. It is here where the twelve-year-old Emilie meets the controversial libertine and painter. Hired by her bourgeois father for basic drawing lessons, Klimt introduces Emilie to a subculture of dissolute artists, wanton models, and decadent patrons that both terrifies and inspires her. The Painted Kiss follows Emilie as she blossoms from a naïve young girl to one of Europe's most exclusive couturiers -- and Klimt's most beloved model and mistress. A provocative love story that brings to life Vienna's cultural milieu, The Painted Kiss is as compelling as a work by Klimt himself.

July Meeting

2008-07-12T13:08:00.001-07:00

July 2008 Meeting

Our next meeting is: Saturday, July 26 at 9:00 am
Place: North End Cafe

1722 Frankfort Ave

(502) 896-8770
Book: Gods In Alabama Joshilyn Jackson

July 2008 Selection List

2008-07-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

Here is the book Selection List for our July 2008 picks. We will pick the top 3 from these books.

Author - Book Title
Agee, Jonis - The River Wife

Capella, Anthony - The Wedding Officer

Chiaverini, Jennifer - The Quilter's Apprentice

Crafts, Hanna - The Bondswoman Narrative

Davis-Gardner, Angela -Plum Wine

Diamant, Anita - The Red Tent

Gray, Shelley Shepard - Hidden

Gruen, Sara - Water for Elephants

Hannah, Kristin - Firefly Lane

Kidd, Sue Monk - The Secret Life of Bees

Lofthouse, Lloyd - My Splendid Concubine

Lott, Bret - Jewell

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia -One Hundred Years of Solitude

Mortenson, Greg -Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time

Noonan, Robert - Wildflowers: The first in the orphan train trilogy

Quindlen, Anna - Blessings

Russell, Mary Doria -The Thread of Grace

Setterfield, Diane - The Thirteenth Tale

Smolinski, Jill - The Next Thing on My List

Young, William P -The Shack

Hidden - Shelley Shepard Gray

2008-07-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 4

BN: 5

Synopsis (from BN.com)

When Anna decides it's time to leave her abusive boyfriend, she doesn't know where to turn. Rob has completely won over her parents, and the entire community, with his good looks and smooth charm. Only Anna has seen his dark side.

Desperate, she runs to the only place she's ever felt completely safe—the Amish Brenneman Bed and Breakfast, where Anna met life-long friend Katie Brenneman. The family welcomes her in, and with few questions asked allows her to stay, dressed in Plain clothing, and help around the inn.

Katie's older brother Henry is the only one who doesn't take too kindly to the intrusion. He tries to ignore Anna, knowing no good would ever come from caring for an Englisher like her. But as he gets to know Anna, he discovers her good heart and is surprised with her readiness to accept their lifestyle.

The more time Anna spends with the Amish, the more she feels she's found a true home. But how can she deny the life she left behind? And will her chance for happiness be stolen away by the man from her past?

The Thread of Grace - Mary Doria Russell

2008-07-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 4.5

BN: 5

Synopsis (from BN.com)

Set in Italy during the dramatic finale of World War II, this new novel is the first in seven years by the bestselling author of The Sparrow and Children of God.It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum is learning Italian with a suitcase in her hand. She and her father are among the thousands of Jewish refugees scrambling over the Alps toward Italy, where they hope to be safe at last, now that the Italians have broken with Germany and made a separate peace with the Allies. The Blums will soon discover that Italy is anything but peaceful, as it becomes overnight an open battleground among the Nazis, the Allies, resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italian civilians trying to survive.

Mary Doria Russell sets her first historical novel against this dramatic background, tracing the lives of a handful of fascinating characters. Through them, she tells the little-known but true story of the network of Italian citizens who saved the lives of forty-three thousand Jews during the war’s final phase. The result of five years of meticulous research, A Thread of Grace is an ambitious, engrossing novel of ideas, history, and marvelous characters that will please Russell’s many fans and earn her even more.

My Splendid Concubine - LLoyd Lofthouse

2008-07-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

Amazon:5

BN: 4.5

Synopsis (from Amazon.com)
No Westerner has ever achieved Robert Hart’s status and level of power in China. Driven by a passion for his adopted country, Hart became the “godfather of China’s modernism,” inspector general of China’s Customs Service, and the builder of China’s railroads, postal and telegraph systems, and schools. But his first real love is Ayaou, a young concubine.
Soon after arriving in China in 1854, Hart falls in love with Ayaou, but his feelings for her sister go against the teachings of his Christian upbringing and almost break him emotionally. To survive he must learn how to live and think like the Chinese. He also finds himself thrust into the second bloodiest conflict in history, the Taiping Rebellion, where he ends up making enemies of men such as the American soldier of fortune known as the Devil Soldier. During his first years in China, Robert experiences a range of emotion from bliss to despair. Like Damascus steel, he learns to be both hard and flexible, which forges his character into the great man he is yet to become.

Full of humanity, passion, and moral honesty, My Splendid Concubine is the deeply intimate story of Hart’s loyalty and love for his adopted land and the woman who captured his heart.

Wildflowers: The first in the orphan train trilogy - Robert Noonan

2008-07-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 5

BN: 5

Synopsis (from BN.com)

From 1854 to 1929, more than 200,000 homeless children left New York City on orphan trains to find new lives across the country. Some found loving homes; others experienced physical and mental abuse. Bridie's Daughter brings that world to life in this second novel in Robert Noonan's Orphan Train Trilogy.

Bridie's Daughter is an eye-opening tale that follows four teen-aged children who are filled with hope, concern and uncertainty, as they ride the rails to an unknown future. Once the train stops, however, it's a roll of the dice where they'll each end up.
Bridie McDonald, a wealthy spinster, finds in Catherine the daughter she has always wanted. Catherine learns to love Bridie and her new elegant home, but is concerned about Bridie's relationship with Jack, her mentally challenged handyman.

Though most of the citizens of Newberry, Illinois, befriend these children, some are not so welcoming, believing all the orphans from New York City are bastards and should be treated as such.

The Bondswoman Narrative - Hannah Crafts

2008-07-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 5

BN: 4

Synopsis (from BN.com)

An unprecedented historical and literary event, this tale written in the 1850s is the only known novel by a female African American slave, and quite possibly the first novel written by a black woman anywhere. A work recently uncovered by renowned scholar Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., it is a stirring, page-turning story of "passing" and the adventures of a young slave as she makes her way to freedom. When Professor Gates saw that modest listing in an auction catalogue for African American artifacts, he immediately knew he could be on the verge of a major discovery. After exhaustively researching the hand-written manuscript's authenticity, he found that his instincts were right. He had purchased a genuine autobiographical novel by a female slave who called herself -- and her story's main character -- Hannah Crafts. Presented here unaltered and under its author's original title, The Bondwoman's Narrative tells of a self-educated young house slave who knows her life is limited by the brutalities of her society, but never suspects that the freedom of her plantation's beautiful new mistress is also at risk...or that a devastating secret will force them both to flee from slave hunters with another powerful, determined enemy at their heels. Together with Professor Gates's brilliant introduction -- which includes the story of his search for the real Hannah Crafts, the biographical facts that laid the groundwork for her novel, and a fascinating look at other slave narratives of the time -- The Bondwoman's Narrative offers a unique and unforgettable reading experience. In it, a voice that has never been heard rings out, and an undiscovered story at the heart of the American experience is finally told.

Jewell- Bret Lott

2008-07-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 3.5

BN: 4

Synopsis (from BN.com)

Each of Jewel Hilburn's six children is a blessing. But her youngest, Brenda Kay, who was born with Down syndrome, is also a burden. The smallest accomplishments are milestones in Brenda Kay's life, and Jewel must devote her complete attention to the child. Set in 1943 in backwoods Mississippi, Jewel is a haunting tale of heartbreak and the redemptive powers of love. Drawing from the real-life experiences of his grandmother and aunt, author Bret Lott spins a masterpiece of truth and triumph, capturing the joy of Brenda Kay's first steps and the strain the dependent child puts on the rest of the Hilburn family.

Blessings- Anna Quindlen

2008-07-01T16:21:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 3.5

BN: 3.5

Synopsis (BN.com)

Blessings, the bestselling novel by the author of Black and Blue, One True Thing, Object Lessons, and A Short Guide to a Happy Life, begins when, late at night, a teenage couple drives up to the estate owned by Lydia Blessing and leaves a box.

In this instant, the world of the estate called Blessings is changed forever. The story of Skip Cuddy, the Blessings caretaker, who finds a baby asleep in that box and decides he wants to keep her, and of matriarch Lydia Blessing, who, for her own reasons, decides to help him, Blessings explores how the secrets of the past affect decisions and lives in the present; what makes a person, a life, legitimate or illegitimate, and who decides; the unique resources people find in themselves and in a community. This is a powerful novel of love, redemption, and personal change by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about whom The Washington Post Book World said, “Quindlen knows that all the things we ever will be can be found in some forgotten fragment of family.”

The Secret Life of Bees- Sue Monk Kidd

2008-07-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

Amazon: n/a

BN: 4.5

Synopsis (BN.com)

Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens has shaped her entire life around one devastating, blurred memory - the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four. Since then, her only real companion has been the fierce-hearted, and sometimes just fierce, black woman Rosaleen, who acts as her "stand-in mother."
When Rosaleen insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily knows it's time to spring them both free. They take off in the only direction Lily can think of, toward a town called Tiburon, South Carolina - a name she found on the back of a picture amid the few possessions left by her mother.

There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters named May, June, and August. Lily thinks of them as the calendar sisters and enters their mesmerizing secret world of bees and honey, and of the Black Madonna who presides over this household of strong, wise women. Maternal loss and betrayal, guilt and forgiveness entwine in a story that leads Lily to the single thing her heart longs for most.

The Red Tent - Anita Diamant

2008-07-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 4

BN: 4.5

Synopsis (from BN.com)

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood—the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of her mothers—Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah—the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through a hard-working youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past. Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's society.

Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah

2008-07-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 4.5

BN: 5

HARDCOVER

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of On Mystic Lake comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . .

In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer's end they've become TullyandKate. Inseparable.

So begins Kristin Hannah's magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives.

From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness.

Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she reallywants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn't know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she'll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she'll envy her famous best friend. . . .

For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they've survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.

Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone's Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it's the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It's about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you---and knows what has the power to hurt you . . . and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you'll never forget . . . one you'll want to pass on to your best friend.

One Hundred Years of Solitude -Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2008-07-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 4

BN: 4

Synopsis (from BN.com)

One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world, and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.
The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the noble, ridiculous, beautiful, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility -- the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth -- these universal themes dominate the novel. Whether he is describing an affair of passion or the voracity of capitalism and the corruption of government, Gabriel García Márquez always writes with the simplicity, ease, and purity that are the mark of a master.

Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an accounting of the history of the human race.

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

2008-07-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 4

BN: 4

Synopsis (from BN.com)

Sometimes, when you open the door to thepast, what you confront is your destiny.
Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of twelve enchantingstories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate livesfor herself. Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about herextraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept secret forso long. Calling on Margaret Lea, a young biographer troubled by her ownpainful history, Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good. Margaret ismesmerized by the author's tale of gothic strangeness -- featuring the beautifuland willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess,a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Together, Margaret and Vida confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

The Quilter's Apprentice - Jennifer Chiaverini

2008-07-01T15:59:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 4

BN: 4

Synopsis (BN.com)

Tangled, anxious thoughts relaxed when she felt the fabric beneath her fingers and remembered that she was creating something beautiful enough to delight the eyes as well as the heart, something strong enough to defeat the cold of a Pennsylvania winter night. She could do these things. She, Sarah, had the power to do these things.
From debut novelist Jennifer Chiaverini comes The Quilter's Apprentice, a delightful, timeless story of loyalty and friendship.
When Sarah McClure and her husband, Matt, move to the small town of Waterford, Pennsylvania, to get a fresh start, Sarah struggles to find a fulfilling job. Disheartened by failed interviews, she reluctantly accepts a temporary position at Elm Creek Manor helping seventy-five-year-old Sylvia Compson prepare her family estate for sale after the recent death of Sylvia's estranged sister. As part of her compensation, Sarah is taught how to quilt by this reclusive, cantankerous master quilter.

During their lessons, Mrs. Compson slowly opens up to Sarah, sharing powerful, devastating stories of her life as a young woman on the World War II home front. Hearing tales of how Mrs. Compson's family was torn apart by tragedy, jealousy, and betrayal, Sarah is forced to confront uncomfortable truths about her own family -- truths that she has denied for far too long. As the friendship between the two women deepens, Mrs. Compson confides that although she would love to remain at her beloved family estate, Elm Creek Manor exists as a constant, unbearable reminder of her role in her family's misfortune. For Sarah, there can be no greater reward than teaching Mrs. Compson to forgive herself for her past mistakes, restoringlife and joy to her cherished home.

Heartfelt and inspiring, The Quilter's Apprentice teaches deep lessons about family, friendship, and sisterhood -- and about creating a life as you would a quilt: with time, love, and patience, piecing the miscellaneous and mismatched scraps into a harmonious, beautiful whole.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace - Greg Mortenson

2008-07-01T15:56:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 4

BN: 4.5

Synopsis (BN.com)

The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban's backyard

Anyone who despairs of the individual's power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan's treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools-especially for girls-that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson's quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.

Plum Wine- Angela Davis-Gardner

2008-07-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 3

BN:3.5

Synopsis (from BN)
Bottles of homemade plum wine link two worlds, two eras, and two lives through the eyes of Barbara Jefferson, a young American teaching at a Tokyo university. When her surrogate mother, Michi, dies, Barbara inherits an extraordinary gift: a tansu chest filled with bottles of homemade plum wine wrapped in sheets of rice paper covered in elegant calligraphy—one bottle for each of the last twenty years of Michi’s life.

Why did Michi leave her memoirs to Barbara, who cannot read Japanese? Seeking a translator, Barbara turns to an enigmatic pottery artist named Seiji, who will offer her a companionship as tender as it is forbidden. But as the two lovers unravel the mysteries of Michi’s life, a story that draws them through the aftermath of World War II and the hidden world of the hibakusha, Hiroshima survivors, Barbara begins to suspect that Seiji may be hiding the truth about Michi’s past—and a heartbreaking secret of his own.

The Wedding Officer - Anthony Capella

2008-07-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 4

BN: n/a

Synopsis (from BN)
In the sumptuous tradition of Chocolat and Captain Corelli's Mandolin, and already optioned for a major motion picture, comes a magical tale of romantic passion, culinary delight—and Italy.

Captain James Gould arrives in wartime Naples assigned to discourage marriages between British soldiers and their gorgeous Italian girlfriends. But the innocent young officer is soon distracted by an intoxicating young widow who knows her way around a kitchen...Livia Pertini is creating feasts that stun the senses with their succulence—ruby-colored San Marzana tomatoes, glistening anchovies, and delectable new potatoes encrusted with the black volcanic earth of of Campania—and James is about to learn that his heart may rank higher than his orders. For romance can be born of the sweet and spicy passions of food and love—and time spent in the kitchen can be as joyful and exciting as the banquet of life itself!

The Shack – William P Young

2008-07-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 4.5

BN: 5

BN Synopsis
Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.
"The Shack is the most absorbing work of fiction I've read in many years. My wife and I laughed, cried and repented of our own lack of faith along the way. The Shack will leave you craving for the presence of God." — Michael W. Smith, Recording Artist

Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

2008-07-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Amazon: 4.5

BN: 4.5

BN Synopsis
As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

The River Wife – Jonis Agee

2008-07-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

Amazon Rating: 4 out of 5

BN Rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis

From acclaimed novelist Jonis Agee, whom The New York Times Book Review called “a gifted poet of that dark lushness in the heart of the American landscape,” The River Wife is a sweeping, panoramic story that ranges from the New Madrid earthquake of 1811 through the Civil War to the bootlegging days of the 1930s.When the earthquake brings Annie Lark’s Missouri house down on top of her, she finds herself pinned under the massive roof beam, facing certain death. Rescued by French fur trapper Jacques Ducharme, Annie learns to love the strong, brooding man and resolves to live out her days as his “River Wife.”

More than a century later, in 1930, Hedie Rails comes to Jacques’ Landing to marry Clement Ducharme, a direct descendant of the fur trapper and river pirate, and the young couple begin their life together in the very house Jacques built for Annie so long ago. When, night after late night, mysterious phone calls take Clement from their home, a pregnant Hedie finds comfort in Annie’s leather-bound journals. But as she reads of the sinister dealings and horrendous misunderstandings that spelled out tragedy for the rescued bride, Hedie fears that her own life is paralleling Annie’s, and that history is repeating itself with Jacques’ kin.

Among the family’s papers, Hedie encounters three other strong-willed women who helped shape Jacques Ducharme’s life–Omah, the freed slave who took her place beside him as a river raider; his second wife, Laura, who loved money more than the man she married; and Laura and Jacques’ daughter, Maddie, a fiery beauty with a nearly uncontrollable appetite for love. Their stories, together with Annie’s, weave a haunting tale of this mysterious, seductive, and ultimately dangerous man, a man whose hand stretched over generations of women at a bend in the river where fate and desire collide.

The River Wife richly evokes the nineteenth-century South at a time when lives changed with the turn of a card or the flash of a knife. Jonis Agee vividly portrays a lineage of love and heartbreak, passion and deceit, as each river wife comes to discover that blind devotion cannot keep the truth at bay, nor the past from haunting the present.

The Next Thing on My List – Jill Smolinski

2008-07-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

Amazon Rating: 4.5

BN Rating 4.5

Amazon Synopsis

After a Weight Watchers meeting, narrator June Parker offers a ride home to newly svelte Marissa Jones, and the two hit it off until Marissa dies in a nasty one-car accident. When June runs into Marissa's hot brother at the cemetery six months after the crash, she makes a rash promise to carry out the dead girl's list of 20 things to do before she turned 25 (even though June is 34). The challenges that follow—running a 5K, kissing a stranger, "dare to go braless"—serve less to improve June's life than to highlight how unfortunate it is that she's taken up a stranger's goals instead of her own. Smolinski's Los Angeles is a well-executed set—June tilts at windmills as a writer for a ride-sharing nonprofit—but the most human characters in it are June's tyrannical and calculating boss and her secretly sensitive, underused brother. Though completing the list is a transformative experience for June, the leadup fizzles.

June Meeting

2008-06-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

June 2008 Meeting

Our next meeting is: Saturday, June 28 at 9:00 am

Place: Anyone want to recommend a good breakfast place?

Book: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Lisa See

Since summer is here we thought we might do a morning meeting to see if more people would be able to join us!

May Meeting

2008-05-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

***STICKY POST ****

Our next meeting is:

Saturday, May 31 at 11:30am

Place: TBD

Book: Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Family Tree - Barbara Delinsky

2008-04-23T15:39:00.001-07:00

Here are our ratings for our April 2008 book selection of Family Tree:

Celeste - B

Darcie - B

Jill - B or B-

Patty - B

Sandy - A

Sarah - A

April 2008 Meeting Details -

2008-04-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

Our next meeting is:
Saturday, April 19 at 11:30am
Place: Qudoba Herr & Westport Road
Book: Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky

Ms. Delinsky has agreed to answer our questions about the book! I was thinking that since we most likely won't be around a phone that we should collect questions at the meeting and we can put them on the Blog. What do you think of this idea? So write down your favorite quotes and questions for the author!

Spring Book Selection

2008-04-15T03:37:00.000-07:00

The book selection for Spring is:

May 31: Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
June 28: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Lisa See
July 26: Gods In Alabama Joshilyn Jackson

Spring 2008 Book Selection

2008-04-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

Here are our current options for the Spring 2008 Book selection. Your suggestions are due by Friday April 4, 2008.

Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Bread Alone by Judith R Hendricks
Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Gods In Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson
Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Reading Group Novel by Elizabeth Noble
Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews
The Secret Scroll by Ronald Cutler (FREE)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Summer by Karen Kingsbury
Then We Came End by Josua Ferris

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Book Club Guidelines

2008-04-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

Here are the guidelines that we established for the book club at our next meeting. These guidelines are subject to change as the group decides what is working for them.

We will meet the last Saturday of the Month (with exception in April, which will be the 3rd Saturday of the month, so it doesn't interfere with Derby festivities)
We will read Fiction books
We won't eliminate hardbacks as choices
We will pick 3 books at a time (so we can get used books)
A collection of potential books will be submitted by the group. This this will be put on the blog and Darcie will email a rating sheet for each person to decide what their reading preference is. Darcie will total the priorities and the 3 with the lowest numbers will be the next 3 books we will read.
Locations of the meetings will change to different restaurants/coffee shops around Louisville.

The Secret Scroll - Ronalds Cutler

2008-03-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

Synopsis
Josh Cohan, a work-obsessed archaeology professor, has a recurring dream about a great secret. He follows his instincts to the Judean desert, where he makes a fantastic discovery-an ancient scroll which seems to have been written by Jesus Christ. The Israeli Antiquities Authority has a claim on the scroll, but another, more sinister organization wants the scroll as well. The Guardians, members of an ancient extremist religious sect, are willing to kill to get what they want.Josh joins the government-sponsored team of translators who believe the scroll might be genuine, and falls in love with Danielle, the fiery daughter of one of the translators. When a friend turns up dead and Danielle goes missing, Josh realizes that the scroll might be more powerful and controversial than he had ever imagined. Will Josh be able to prevent something terrible from happening to the woman he loves without giving up the most important discovery mankind has ever made?

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

2008-03-31T16:41:00.000-07:00

Ratings: (BN 4/5 & 4/5 Amazon) (432 pages)
Sometimes, when you open the door to the past, what you confront is your destiny. Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of twelve enchanting stories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate lives for herself. Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept secret for so long. Calling on Margaret Lea, a young biographer troubled by her own painful history, Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good. Margaret is mesmerized by the author's tale of gothic strangeness -- featuring the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Together, Margaret and Vida confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

Then We Came End by Josua Ferris

2008-03-31T16:40:00.000-07:00

Ratings: (BN 3.5/5 & 3.5/5 Amazon)
Amazon Significant Seven Spotlight Title, April 2007: It's 2001. The dot-com bubble has burst and rolling layoffs have hit an unnamed Chicago advertising firm sending employees into an escalating siege mentality as their numbers dwindle. As a parade of employees depart, bankers boxes filled with their personal effects, those left behind raid their fallen comrades' offices, sifting through the detritus for the errant desk lamp or Aeron chair. Written with confidence in the tricky-to-pull-off first-person plural, the collective fishbowl perspective of the "we" voice nails the dynamics of cubicle culture--the deadlines, the gossip, the elaborate pranks to break the boredom, the joy of discovering free food in the breakroom. Arch, achingly funny, and surprisingly heartfelt, it's a view of how your work becomes a symbiotic part of your life. A dysfunctional family of misfits forced together and fondly remembered as it falls apart. Praised as "the Catch-22 of the business world" and "The Office meets Kafka," I'm happy to report that Joshua Ferris's brilliant debut lives up to every ounce of pre-publication hype and instantly became one of my favorite books of the year. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Summer by Karen Kingsbury

2008-03-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

Ratings: (BN 5/5 & 4.5/5 Amazon)

Hollywood actor Dayne Matthews and Katy Hart are married and living in Bloomington, Ind., where Dayne has found a solution to his on-camera love scenes-he wants Katy to star in his next film. Katy wins the part and is cast opposite her super-star husband. The story of a small town girl's dream come true is too much for the press to resist, and in an effort to appease them, the couple agrees to a 12. It seems like the perfect compromise but by the time they finish filming the movie, they feel cracks around the edges of their marriage. Now they face an uncertain future, and possibly the end of everything that truly matters to them.

The Baxter family learns that Ashley and Kari are both pregnant, but an ultrasound reveals that something is wrong with one of the babies. As the summer progresses, the sisters pray for a miracle while trying to face the unthinkable. It's in this trying season that they must all learn the lesson God has been trying to teach them-He is still in control, and He will be with them regardless of the outcome.

The Flanigans continue to draw closer to their only daughter, yet Bailey struggles to find her way amidst the turmoil of adolescence. She has always made good decisions, but she wants to experience more of life. Her friendship with Cody Coleman-the young border staying with the Flanigans-continues to blossom in this summer after his graduation. But when Cody decides to enlist in the Army, he'll have to say goodbye to the family he's come to love and the girl he'll never forget.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

2008-03-31T16:34:00.000-07:00

Ratings: (BN 4.5/5 & 4.5/5 Amazon)
Lily is haunted by memories-of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.
In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu ("women's writing"). Some girls were paired with laotongs, "old sames," in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.
With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become "old sames" at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.

Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews

2008-03-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

Ratings: (BN 4.5/5 & 4.5/5 Amazon)
This delightfully breezy, richly atmospheric debut by a former journalist who covered Savannah's infamous Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil murder trials fails to generate much suspense, but it derives its charm from an encyclopedic trove of lore about antiquities and dishy gossip, Southern style. Divorced from blue-blood architect Talmadge Evans III, but still living in a carriage house in the backyard of their restored mansion, Eloise "Weezie" Foley suffers the indignity of having her ex's sexy fianc‚e, Caroline DeSantos, living in the main house Weezie restored herself. As a "picker," Weezie earns her living foraging for discarded treasures in Dumpsters and at estate sales. When she discovers Caroline's corpse in a historic manor house, Weezie is the prime suspect in her murder. To compound her quandary, Weezie's attorney her closeted Uncle James, an ex-Catholic priest is having an illicit affair with a man from the DA's office. Factor in her on-again, off-again romance with old high school flame Daniel Stipanek, counterfeit antiques and her mom's alcoholism, and the plucky heroine has enough problems to drive at least three novels. Unfortunately, the suspense gets lost somewhere among the antiques and Weezie's attempts to consummate her romance with Daniel. But even a denouement that comes way too soon and a junk bin of distractions won't keep readers away. 8-city author tour. (Feb. 20)Forecasts: This appealing effort should do well enough on its own, but if booksellers and publicists play up the Midnight connection, it could soar.

Reading Group Novel by Elizabeth Noble

2008-03-31T14:10:00.000-07:00

Ratings: (BN 4/5 & 4 /5 Amazon)
Perfect indulgence for the eponymous set—or pandering to an anticipated audience? Or maybe both? As the London Evening Standard put it, "The blurb has [the author] down as a simple Surrey housewife who knocked this out between the Hoovering and the hot sex, but further investigation reveals her to be a veteran of book marketing married to the head of Time Warner UK." Go figure! Well, either way, this U.K. bestseller is a frothy page-turner that dissects the relationships, desires and discoveries of five English women, all members of a book club. Over the course of a year, the women read 12 novels (including Atonement, Rebecca and The Alchemist) and, through their playful but intimate discussions (few of which revolve around the books), they bond closely while coping with such matters as a philandering husband, a mother with dementia, a pregnant but unmarried daughter, an infertility crisis, a wedding and a funeral. It's a testament to Noble's characterizations and plotting that the novel is not overwhelming, despite its numerous (perhaps too many) points of view, complicated back stories and interweaving contemporary crises. Light but never flip, this is funny, contemplative and touching reading, and the group's familiar book choices allow readers to feel as if they're part of the gang, too, as they race to the end, eager to find out what happens, why it does and what it all means.

Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

2008-03-31T14:09:00.000-07:00

Ratings: (BN 4.5/5 & 4.5/5 Amazon)
Sisterly rivalry is the basis of this fresh, wonderfully vivid retelling of the story of Anne Boleyn. Anne, her sister Mary and their brother George are all brought to the king's court at a young age, as players in their uncle's plans to advance the family's fortunes. Mary, the sweet, blond sister, wins King Henry VIII's favor when she is barely 14 and already married to one of his courtiers. Their affair lasts several years, and she gives Henry a daughter and a son. But her dark, clever, scheming sister, Anne, insinuates herself into Henry's graces, styling herself as his adviser and confidant. Soon she displaces Mary as his lover and begins her machinations to rid him of his wife, Katherine of Aragon. This is only the beginning of the intrigue that Gregory so handily chronicles, capturing beautifully the mingled hate and nearly incestuous love Anne, Mary and George ("kin and enemies all at once") feel for each other and the toll their family's ambition takes on them. Mary, the story's narrator, is the most sympathetic of the siblings, but even she is twisted by the demands of power and status; charming George, an able plotter, finally brings disaster on his own head by falling in love with a male courtier. Anne, most tormented of all, is ruthless in her drive to become queen, and then to give Henry a male heir. Rather than settling for a picturesque rendering of court life, Gregory conveys its claustrophobic, all-consuming nature with consummate skill. In the end, Anne's famous, tragic end is offset by Mary's happier fate, but the self-defeating folly of the quest for power lingers longest in the reader's mind.

Gods In Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

2008-03-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

Ratings: (BN 4.5/5 & 4.5/5 Amazon)
When Arlene Fleet headed off to college in Chicago, she made three promises to God: She would never again lie, never fornicate outside of marriage, and never, ever go back to her tiny hometown of Possett, Alabama (the "fourth rack of Hell"). All God had to do in exchange was to make sure the body of high school quarterback Jim Beverly was never found. Ten years later, Arlene has kept her promises, but an old schoolmate has recently turned up asking questions. And now Arlene’s African American beau has given her a tough ultimatum: introduce him to her family, or he’s gone. As she prepares to confront guilt, discrimination, and a decade of deception, Arlene is about to discover just how far she will go to find redemption--and love.

Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

2008-03-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

Ratings: (BN 4.5/5 & 3.5/5 Amazon)
Between running her Manhattan yarn shop, Walker & Daughter, and raising her 12-year-old biracial daughter, Dakota, Georgia Walker has plenty on her plate in Jacobs's debut novel. But when Dakota's father reappears and a former friend contacts Georgia, Georgia's orderly existence begins to unravel. Her support system is her staff and the knitting club that meets at her store every Friday night, though each person has dramas of her own brewing. Jacobs surveys the knitters' histories, and the novel's pace crawls as the novel lurches between past and present, the latter largely occupied by munching on baked goods, sipping coffee and watching the knitters size each other up. Club members' troubles don't intersect so much as build on common themes of domestic woes and betrayal. It takes a while, but when Jacobs, who worked at Redbook and Working Woman, hits her storytelling stride, poignant twists propel the plot and help the pacing find a pleasant rhythm.

Bread Alone by Judith R Hendricks

2008-03-31T14:05:00.000-07:00

Ratings: (BN 4.5/5 & 4.5/5 Amazon)
The First Wives Club acquires a junior member in this pleasant if unremarkable first novel. When 31-year-old Wynter Morrison finds herself locked out of her house by her handsome, spoiled husband, David, who has taken up with a beautiful blonde, she is devastated. With only three years' experience teaching high school, one year in real estate sales and seven years experience as the "Executive Wife" and "Charming Hostess," Wyn has little success fending for herself at first, but a growing self-awareness emerges slowly once she leaves her old lifestyle in Los Angeles. After visiting a friend in Seattle, Wyn moves there to take a job at a local bakery. No longer dependent on David, Wyn finds solace in living a spartan existence and working hard in the early morning hours baking bread, though she is frustrated by the unimaginative veteran baker. Her memories of a year abroad in Toulouse during her sophomore year at UCLA where she learned to bake bread in a family bakery are sprinkled throughout the story, as are her favorite bread recipes. Over the course of this long, convoluted tale, Wyn transforms from a "willfully ignorant," betrayed wife living in sunny L.A. whose greatest worry is what to wear to the next symphony ball, to a flannel shirt-wearing bakery owner living in the rainy Northwest who finds love with a bartender-turned-writer. In this engaging novel, Hendricks creates a compelling narrator whose wry, bemused and ultimately wise voice hooks the reader. Even though Wyn's story is predictable at times, this is a well-written, imaginative debut.

Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

2008-03-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

Ratings: (BN 4/5 & Amazon 4/5)
The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a lesson or two. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream.
Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.
"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." --Gail Hudson

Snowed Out!

2008-03-08T15:11:00.000-08:00

Well...today was going to be our first meeting...but snow did us in. Since Saturdays in March seem to be out for us I am proposing that we meet during the week sometime.

So far most people can meet if we meet after 7:00pm and Wednesdays seem to be out for a lot of people.

Please send me your weekday selections! Also if you have some ideas of books to read next send me your thoughts!

Meeting Saturday!

2008-03-04T02:28:00.000-08:00

Meeting Location:
Barnes & Noble at the Summit
4100 Summit Plaza Dr
Louisville KY 40241

When: Saturday, March 8, 2008 at 10:00 am

Reading: Five Fortunes by Beth Gutcheon

Bring: 3-4 new book selections
See ya there!!

Five Fortunes!

2008-02-07T06:15:00.000-08:00

The first book selection is Five Fortunes!! This book has been published with 2 covers...so the question is, which cover do you like the most? Does one cover grab you more than the other? Vote in the margin!

March Voting Open

2008-01-16T04:15:00.001-08:00

You can now vote for the book that we read in March. We still have the original 3. I didn't get any other suggestions. Please go to the poll on the right side of the screen and select the book you would like to read. Voting will be open until January 28. The book with the most votes will be the book we read!

I didn't get any other suggestions on when to meet, so it stands at

Meeting Location: Barnes & Noble at the Summit
4100 Summit Plaza Dr

When: Saturday, March 8, 2008 at 10:00 am

Want to Join?

2008-01-10T04:46:00.000-08:00

Leave me a comment or email me at darciebrand at yahooo dot com.

Possible Book Choices

2008-01-07T14:19:00.000-08:00

Since we need a book for our first meeting I thought I would start out with the suggestions. Here are 3. If you have some suggestions leave it as a comment by January 16. Return back January 17 to vote on the books suggested. The voting will start Jan 18 - 30.

The Secret Life of Ceecee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

Rated 4.5 stars (BN.com) 4.5 (Amazon)

Synopsis (from BN.com)
An unsolved murder.
A missing child.
A lifetime of deception.
In 1977, pregnant Genevieve Russell disappeared. Twenty years later, her remains are discovered and Timothy Gleason is charged with murder. But there is no sign of the unborn child.
CeeCee Wilkes knows how Genevieve Russell died, because she was there. And she also knows what happened to the missing infant, because two decades ago she made the devastating choice to raise the baby as her own. Now Timothy Gleason is facing the death penalty, and she has another choice to make. Tell the truth, and destroy her family. Or let an innocent man die in order to protect a lifetime of lies…

Alphabet Weekends: Love on the Road from A to Z by Elizabeth Noble

Rating: None (BN) 3.5 (Amazon)

Synopsis (From BN.com)
Natalie and Tom have been best friends forever, but Tom wants them to be much more. When Natalie's longtime boyfriend walks out on her just when she thinks he's going to propose, Tom offers her a different and wildly romantic proposition. He suggests that they spend twenty-six weekends together, indulging in twenty-six different activities from A to Z, and at the end of that time Tom's convinced they'll be madly in love. Natalie, however, is not so sure.
As Natalie's touring the alphabet with Tom, her mother's going through her own romantic crisis—while Tom's unhappily married sister-in-law, Lucy, struggles with temptation. And over the course of six amazing months, three generations of passionate dreamers are going to discover that, no matter how clever they are, love—and life—is never as easy as A, B, C . . .

Five Fortunes by Beth Gutcheon

Rating 4.5 (BN) 3.5 (Amazon)

Synopsis (from BN.com)
Witty, wise, and hope-filled, Five Fortunes is a large-hearted tale of five vivid and unforgettable women who know where they've been but have no idea where they're going. A lively octogenarian, a private investigator, a mother and daughter with an unresolved past, and a recently widowed politician's wife share little else except a thirst for new dreams, but after a week at the luxurious health spa known as "Fat Chance" their lives will be intertwined in ways they couldn't have imagined. At a place where doctors, lawyers, spoiled housewives, movie stars, and captains of industry are stripped of the social markers that keep them from really seeing one another, unexpected friendships emerge, reminding us of the close links between the rich and the poor, fortune and misfortune, and the magic of chance.

First Meeting Details

2008-01-07T14:11:00.001-08:00

Here is what I am proposing for the first meeting:

Meeting Location: I thought a neutral location would be good, so I am selecting
Barnes & Noble at the Summit
4100 Summit Plaza Dr
Louisville KY 40241

When: Saturday, March 8, 2008 at 10:00 am

Book...to be decided.

I am proposing this date to get us started. I think we should discuss what days will work best for us and set up a routine meeting time (for example the first Thursday of the month or second Saturday of the month). We will meet in the cafe area which will give us an opportunity to purchase some coffee!

Book Selections

2008-01-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

To give us the most possible time to read the books we will pick 3 - 4 months of books (one book a month). Potential books will be submitted by each members and all the active members will vote on the books (active members will be defined as members who have been to 50% or more of the past meetings or who have submitted comments on the blog on the book with their book rating). This ensures that active members are selecting the books that we will read next.

Paperbacks vs Hardback books. In past clubs we have limited the book selection to paperback books only, but I think we should leave it open to what the members what during each book selection.

Book priorities/selection. When the time arrives to select the books members will submit the books and they will be put on the blog with a brief synopsis of the book. Members will fill out a spreadsheet prioritizing the books starting with the one they most want to read as 1 increasing to the number of books on the list. The priority spreadsheets will be tallied and the books with the lowest total score will be selected as the next readings.

Let me know what you think! I am open to new ideas!!

Welcome!

2008-01-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the One More Page Cafe book club!! We are a club that meets in Louisville, Kentucky.

Some history on me: I started a book club in Champaign, Illinois called Novella Cafe the book club carries on, but I have moved to Louisville. So now it's time to start a new book club. I have wanted to belong to a book club for a while but haven't been able to find one. So I thought I would start one! I have missed the comradary that we had with the Novella Cafe women and am excited to have a group to discuss books with.

If you want to see some of the books that I like reading you can go to my blog Reading Derby. I think we should limit the group to 10 - 15. Please let me know what you think or if you are interested.

Next Meetings

2008-01-01T04:29:00.000-08:00

Our next meetings are...
May 31: Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

June 28: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Lisa

See July 26: Gods In Alabama Joshilyn Jackson