You get to pick the March 2012 book club selection

I thought it would be fun to let you all have a say on our March book club selection. However, as host...I am not giving away complete power, but I did narrow it down to three books. Please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8LJ3DDQ to vote for the book you want to read. The majority wins. Thanks.

Tom

11/22/63 by Stephen King

Book Description: On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King’s heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a thousand page tour de force. Following his massively successful novel Under the Dome, King sweeps readers back in time to another moment—a real life moment—when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history. Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk. Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time. A tribute to a simpler era and a devastating exercise in escalating suspense, 11/22/63 is Stephen King at his epic best.


From William Liberatore's Amazon.com Review: I first read about this book a few months ago. While I am a fan of Stephen King, I'm not a huge fan. I don't typically buy his books the day they are released, but when I read the premise for this one I just thought that it was a really neat idea and I couldn't wait for it to be released so that I could read it. Then I got a little nervous about it. From the time I read the teaser I thought that there were so many interesting directions that someone could take this story, but what if it tanks? That's always the pitfall of a really neat idea... what if it fails to really bloom like you think it could? But this is Stephen King. For my review, I'd like to establish that I was born almost 7 years after JFK died. I am not a JFK scholar and I did not read this book trying to hyper-analyze the historical accuracy of the book. I took it as a fictional exploration of a historical event produced not to answer any historical questions but just to entertain and provoke thought. I feel it was very successful on both points. My fears that Stephen King was going to take a great idea and go nowhere with it were definitely unfounded. He also works in all his usual Stephen King "givens"... the story starts in Maine. We even get to "visit" a couple of characters from other Stephen King books and the town of Derry, though the majority of the book is set in Texas of course. On the whole I usually review books based on how well spent I feel my time was in reading it and I am in no way disappointed in this one. If you buy the book I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and thank you for taking the time to read my review.

A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel

Book Description: If you look at an atlas of the United States, one published around, say , 1940, there is, in the state of Indiana, north of New Castle and east of the Epileptic Village, a small town called Mooreland. In 1940 the population of Mooreland was about three hundred people; in 1950 the population was three hundred, and in 1960, 1970, and 1980, and so on. The book that follows is about a child from Mooreland, Indiana, written by one of the three hundred. It's a memoir, and a sigh of gratitude, a way of returning. I no longer live there; I can't speak for the town or its people as they are now. Someone has taken my place. Whoever she is, her stories are her own (taken in part from the prologue).

From Peggy Vincent's Amazon.com Review: This book is proof that each of us has plenty of material in our 'ordinary' lives to use as material for writing a memoir. What most of us DON'T have, however, if Haven Kimmel's ability to write so well that what was really a very simple small-town childhood can be elevated to a 280-page book that utterly captivates. Kimmel achieves what many others have attempted to do and failed: she writes entirely from the child's voice without losing her audience, without becoming cloying, without making us want to smack her and say `get on with it.' By turns wickedly witty, humorous, poignant, sweet, heart-wrenching, wise, A Girl Named Zippy is simply one of the best books I've read this year, a poem to a happy childhood. I resisted it for over a year, fearing it was going to be a sappy, feel-good story. Wrong. It's utterly original, utterly uplifting, utterly hilarious, utterly wonderful. Do NOT fail to read this book.



The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Book Description: Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals. On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through: the sacrifices Denny has made to succeed professionally; the unexpected loss of Eve, Denny's wife; the three-year battle over their daughter, ZoË, whose maternal grandparents pulled every string to gain custody. In the end, despite what he sees as his own limitations, Enzo comes through heroically to preserve the Swift family, holding in his heart the dream that Denny will become a racing champion with ZoË at his side. Having learned what it takes to be a compassionate and successful person, the wise canine can barely wait until his next lifetime, when he is sure he will return as a man. A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope.

From Jessica Kornbluth's Amazon.com Review: I have finally found a new novel I can stand to read. To my great astonishment, it's told by a dog. (I'm not a pet-lover).  It contains many insights about car racing. (I have no interest in car racing, and I look askance at sports analogies.)  And the author has described it as "Jonathan Livingston Seagull' for dogs." (That book is tied with 'The Giving Tree' as my Least Favorite Ever.)  So what do I find to praise? The concept: "When a dog is finished living his lifetimes as a dog, his next incarnation will be as a man." Not all dogs. Only those who are ready. Enzo, a shepherd-poodle-terrier mix, is ready.  Enzo has spent years watching daytime TV, mostly documentaries and the Weather Channel (It's "not about weather, it is about the world"). And because Denny Swift, his owner, is a mechanic who's training to race cars, he and Enzo watch countless hours of race footage. So Enzo knows about the world beyond the Swift home near Seattle.  The situation is equally appealing: Enzo is old, facing death. While he has learned from racing movies to forget the past and live in the moment, this is his time to remember. And he can remember objectively --- as a dog, his senses are sharper, his emotions less complicated. With the clarity of a Buddha, Enzo can see. And he can listen: "I never interrupt, I never deflect the conversation with a comment of my own." So he's quite the knowing narrator.  And then the story: a happy family, brimming with good feeling and ambitious dreams. Denny loves Enzo like a son. Denny loves his wife Eve, who works for a big retail company that "provided us with money and health insurance." And Denny lives for Zoe, their daughter. Then Enzo smells something bad happening in Eve --- the dog is always the first to know --- and you start to brace yourself. But not enough, not nearly enough. Bad things happen to good people in this novel, and then worse things, and soon you are so angry, so hurt, so tear-stained and concerned that you do not think for one second to step back and say, hey, wait, this is just a story! A shaggy dog story, at that!  It works out. This is fiction, of course it works out. Not without cost to the characters and the reader. But the payoff is considerable --- a story that commands you to keep going, ideas that are a lot smarter than the treacle Garth Stein could have served up.  "How difficult it must be to be a person." Enzo nails that. "To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live." Who wouldn't? "Racing is about discipline and intelligence, not about who has the heavier foot. The one who drives smart will always win in the end." And there's more --- yeah, this could be summer reading in progressive high schools some day.  Or you could take a refresher course now in learning how to race in the rain. Why wait?

January 2012's Book - The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Our hostess Amy has picked the book for our January 2012 meeting and it is an excellent choice - The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  This is a perfect read during the holidays and I am sure it will create great conversations.

For those unfamiliar with the book, here is the blurb from Amazon.com:

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. 

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.  

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. 

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.  

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

Happy reading!

Thanks Sam!

A big thanks to Sam, who not only picked what most felt was the best book in book club so far - Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, but also preparing a top notch Italian spread. Everything was amazing.

Thanks Nicole

Thanks to Nicole Krout for hosting the September Book Club. Although I could not make it, I heard it was a great meet up and there were some great conversations around the book.

Next two books picked

The books for our November and December book clubs have been selected. I have not read either and based on the blurbs, I am very excited to read both.

The pick for November 2011 from host, Sam Sagona is Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Lauren Hillenbrand.

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War. 

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown. 

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will. 

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

The pick for December 2011 from hostess, Michelle Poole Stephans is Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver.

Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the forested mountains and struggling small farms of southern Appalachia. At the heart of these intertwined narratives is a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches the forest from her outpost in an isolated mountain cabin where she is caught off-guard by Eddie Bondo, a young hunter who comes to invade her most private spaces and confound her self-assured, solitary life. On a farm several miles down the mountain, another web of lives unfolds as Lusa Maluf Landowski, a bookish city girl turned farmer's wife, finds herself unexpectedly marooned in a strange place where she must declare or lose her attachment to the land. And a few more miles down the road, a pair of elderly, feuding neighbors tend their respective farms and wrangle about God, pesticides, and the complexities of a world neither of them expected. 

 Over the course of one humid summer, as the urge to procreate overtakes a green and profligate countryside, these characters find connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with which they necessarily share a place. Their discoveries are embedded inside countless intimate lessons of biology, the realities of small farming, and the final, urgent truth that humans are only one part of life on earth.  

 With the richness that characterizes Barbara Kingsolver's finest work, Prodigal Summer embraces pure thematic originality and demonstrates a balance of narrative and ideas that only an accomplished novelist could render so beautifully.

Catcher in the Rye & Tacos

Thanks for Dale for being a wonderful host for book club this past Friday. The taco bar was delicious. Also a thanks for Anjanette for the chips & guacamole, Michelle for the margaritas and Shannon for the kick-ass desert. Everything was incredible.

I think overall the book brought some great discussion as people tended to either love it or hate it...and those books seem to spark the most interesting debate.

I think Tripp's comments (sent via email to Michelle) summed the book up best:

"I think Catcher is a brilliant exposition of adolescent angst, the turmoil-laden transition from childhood to adulthood, and the fear of loss of innocence. Holden is the catcher nobly struggling to save children from all the scary, major, yet inevitable changes they must undergo. Phoebe, Holden's sister, as the chief target of his "saving." But Holden himself is in the mix, and must be "saved" by Phoebe, who also becomes a catcher of sort. 

I wouldn't say the hero prevails, but

August will be Solitude of Prime Numbers

For the August book club, Nicole Krout will be hosting and has selected, The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paola Giordano.

From Ecletic Booklover at Amazon.com:

The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a quiet but poignant coming of age story about two lonely misfits: Alice Della Rocca and Mattia Balossino. The story begins in 1983 and ends in 2007. 
Alice is pushed by her overbearing father at a young age to become a world-class skier, but a serious skiing accident,in the Italian alps, leaves her scarred and with a permanent limp. She desperately wants to fit in, but she is taunted by other classmates, engages in self loathing behavior, and, as a result, detests her father for the life she seems faced with.  

Mattia is a twin, while he is brilliant,

A huge thanks to Shannon Spencer

Last night’s meeting of the Standley Lake Book Club was another great evening. Our friend Shannon Spencer did a superb job. Not only did she pick an incredible book with the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, but she also provided a delicious meal with pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, macaroni salad and homemade cookies. The food was incredible and best of all it was a beautiful summer night, so she hosted book club in the backyard. Shannon even made white peach sangria.

It was the perfect summer night – good book, good food, good friends and great drinks. Thanks Shannon!!!!

For August we are going classic

Dale has picked our August book and has gone with a classic – Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
For those unfamiliar, Catcher in the Rye was originally published for adults, but has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage confusion, angst, alienation, language and rebellion. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major languages and 250,000 copies are still sold each year. Total sales of more than 65 million. The novel's protagonist and antihero, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best

Another book club is in the books

A huge thanks to Stacey Luthy for hosting a great meeting of the book club. The desserts were incredible and the cake – pure heaven!

Life of Pi by Yann Martel was a very interesting book to discuss and created a lot of interesting conversation, especially over which story everyone preferred – the animal version or the human version. Great read!
Reminder, the next meeting will be Friday, June 24th at 7:00 PM at Shannon Spencer’s house. We will be discussing the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I already read it and it is a very interesting read.

Enjoy. See you all in June.

June book announced

Last night was another wonderful meeting of the book club. A huge thanks for everyone for pitching in and pulling together the meeting at mine and Dale's house. Thanks for Juli for the salad, Shannon for the bread and spinach dip, Sam and Anjanette for the pies, Stacey for the snacks and Tripp for the coffee...not to mention all the wine everyone brought.

Up next will be Life of Pi by Yann Martel at Stacey's house om May 20th.

Last night, Shannon also presented her pick for the June selection and it will be The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. After reading the jacket, I personally am very excited for this book. Here is a blurb from amazon.com:

From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. And from that same life, and those cells, Rebecca Skloot has fashioned in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks a fascinating and moving story of medicine and family, of how life is sustained in laboratories and in memory. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Meanwhile,

May's Book Announced

Stacey Luthy picked the May book and it is <>.....Life of Pi by Yann Martel, which is one of fellow book clubber Anjanette Osborne's favorite books.

Why Stacey Picked This Book:

I have talked with all different book clubs and they have recommended this book enthusiastically. Also, the summary of the book really caught my attention - an adventure at sea. 

Amazon.com Review:

Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion."

A little Irish and a lot of conversation

Last night was another joyful meeting of the Standley Lake Book Club and it was Irish-tastic. In honor of up-coming St. Patrick’s Day, our host Tripp Baltz out did himself and provided a traditional Irish feast for our meeting that included Guinness beer, corned beef & cabbage, Irish music and even shamrock shaped sugar cookies. All I can say is wow. Everything was delicious and it was the perfect way to end the week. A huge hats off to Tripp, not to mention a great thanks!

You would think that the book was also something Irish, but it was not. It was Mountain Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. It brought on some really interesting conversations about whether a man that does so much good is actually a good man. The book also brought a lot of discussion on the best way to cure the world of disease. Do you do it one person at a time like Paul Farmer, who is profiled in the book or do you try to help a larger pool of people. It was a very interesting conversation. Today, Tripp posted a quote of Facebook that I think summed up the conversation perfectly.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." – Margaret Mead

What I love about our book club is that everyone participates and feels free to give them opinions. The conversations always evolves well beyond the book to topics of politics, social norms and even religion. These are topics usually avoided, but the group seems to always be respectful of each other, so the hot topics always flow with such ease. I always leave book club feeling so happy and proud of the group.

April's book is an adventure of the mind and spirit

After reading the blurb on our April book club selection, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit, I was instantly excited to read this book, I mean a philosophical gorilla...how cool is that, right?

The book was selected by our latest book club member and future April hostess, Amy Montgomery. I asked her why she picked this book and here is what she said:

"I picked it because it seems very interesting. It almost seems as if it could come true. It is about monkeys getting smart enough to where they take over the earth. Maybe kinda like planet of the apes. Not sure though. I have not read it. My husband gave me an idea of what is about."

I will be honest, smart monkeys and planet of the apes had me sold!




Here are some Editorial Reviews I found about the book:

From Publishers Weekly

Quinn ( Dreamer ) won the Turner Tomorrow Award's half-million-dollar first prize for this fascinating and odd book--not a novel by any conventional definition--which was written 13 years ago but could not find a publisher. The unnamed narrator is a disillusioned modern writer who answers a personal ad ("Teacher seeks pupil. . . . Apply in person.") and thereby meets a wise, learned gorilla named Ishmael that can communicate telepathically. The bulk of the book consists entirely of philosophical dialogues between gorilla and man, on the model of Plato's Republic. Through Ishmael, Quinn offers a wide-ranging if highly general examination of the history of our civilization, illuminating the assumptions and philosophies at the heart of many global problems. Despite some gross oversimplifications, Quinn's ideas are fairly convincing; it's hard not to agree that unrestrained population growth and an obsession with conquest and control of the environment are among the key issues of our times. Quinn also traces these problems back to the agricultural revolution and offers a provocative rereading of the biblical stories of Genesis. Though hardly any plot to speak of lies behind this long dialogue, Quinn's smooth style and his intriguing proposals should hold the attention of readers interested in the daunting dilemmas that beset our planet.

From Library Journal

Winner of the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, a literary competition intended to foster works of fiction that present positive solutions to global problems, this book offers proof that good ideas do not necessarily equal good literature. Ishmael, a gorilla rescued from a traveling show who has learned to reason and communicate, uses these skills to educate himself in human history and culture. Through a series of philosophical conversations with the unnamed narrator, a disillusioned Sixties idealist, Ishmael lays out a theory of what has gone wrong with human civilization and how to correct it, a theory based on the tenet that humanity belongs to the planet rather than vice versa. While the message is an important one, Quinn rarely goes beyond a didactic exposition of his argument, never quite succeeding in transforming idea into art. Despite this, heavy publicity should create demand.

Change to April 2011 Meeting

The book club meeting for April 2011 has moved from April 15th to April 8th. If you have anything marked on your calendars, please adjust. Thanks.

Another great book club with The Lost Symbol

This past Friday night we had another great meeting of book club. This time Juli Tingle hosted and her selection of Dan Brown’s the Lost Symbol provided some lively discussion. Overall, most felt it was a bit too formula to the Da Vinci Code, but most still felt it was still a page turner. However, we all agreed we wanted to revisit Washington, DC. Perhaps a book club vacation????

Anyhow, thanks to Juli for a good selection and being a superb hostess. The food was wonderful and your house gorgeous. Everyone agreed! Here are a few posts from Facebook proving the fact: