|
This book discussion group meets the
first Monday of each month (except for holidays) at 7:30 PM. There's always an animated discussion, and the group is open to the public.
• January 4
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
• February 1
The King Must Die by Mary Renault
• March 1
The Red Princess by Sofka Zinovieff
• April 5
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by MaryAnn Shaffer
• May 3
Coin Street Chronicles by Gwen Southgate
• June 7
The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicolson
• July - No Meeting
• August 2
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
• September 13*
Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman
• October 4
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
• November 1
The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
• December 6
Love Wife by Jen Gish
* This meeting is held on the second Monday due to Labor Day.
More information on 2010 Monday Night Book Club Picks
- Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin 368 p. Three Cups of Tea is the true story of one of the most extraordinary humanitarian missions of our time. In 1993, a young American mountain climber named Greg Mortenson stumbles into a tiny village high in Pakistan’s beautiful and desperately poor Karakoram Himalaya region. Sick, exhausted, and depressed after a failing to scale the summit of K2, Mortenson regains his strength and his will to live thanks to the generosity of the people of the village of Korphe. Before he leaves, Mortenson makes a vow that will profoundly change both the villagers’ lives and his own—he will return and build them a school.
- The King Must Die by Mary Renault 339 p.The imperishable story of Theseus, prince of Athens, and the Minotaur of Crete to which 14 Athenian boys and girls were yearly sacrificed, has a timeless quality of poignant drama which is heightened in her retelling. The archaeological findings in the Knossos' excavations, which provide historical authenticity to the story, help give credence to the reconstruction of the vast palace, the labyrinth beneath it, the bull ring where the doomed young people played out their dance with death. A superb sense of story is sustained throughout against the vivid tapestry of the past.
- The Red Princess: The Revolutionary Life, Love Affairs, and Adventures of Princess Sophy by Sofka Zinovieff 368 p. Red Princess delights on several levels: as a detective story, biography, family saga, with glimpses of high society in Russia and Britain, and vivid descriptions of the desperate struggles for survival of those swept up in the storms of twentieth century history.
- Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by MaryAnn Shaffer 288 p. In 1946, as London emerges from the shadow of World War II, author Juliet Ashton is having a terrible time finding inspiration for her next book. Then she receives a letter from Guernsey Island, and learns of a unique book club formed on the spur of the moment as an alibi to protect its members from arrest by the occupying Germans during the war...this is a warm, funny, tender, and thoroughly entertaining celebration of the power of the written word.
- Coin Street Chronicles: London's Vanished Old South Bank by Gwen Southgate 359
During World War II when evacuation from London opens wider horizons, Gwen and her two brothers learn to live with the idiosyncrasies of many families in many locations. They encounter bewildering incidents like the "Rice Pudding Affair" and the "Sinfulness of Enjoying a Sunday Walk."
With a flair for detail, Southgate brings the characters to life and paints vivid scenes that touch all of the senses.
- The Perfect Summer, England 1911, Just Before the Storm by Juliet Nicolson 304 p. Nicolson offers an engaging story covering just four summer months in 1911. English society was living large; there seemed no end to its extravagances. Meanwhile and as always—the lower classes struggled, and the war loomed. Nicolson concentrates on specific persons representing different social strata and adds a great deal of humor to describe some of the period's eccentricities. Among the figures she includes are Winston Churchill (then home secretary), the scandalous Lady Diana Manners, and Queen Mary. Nicolson had access to many primary sources, some never before seen by the public. In a satisfying epilog, she tracks the fates of the personalities on whom she focuses. A best seller in Britain (and deservedly so), this quick, enjoyable read shows the inevitability of the decline of the aristocracy by blending serious history, quirky details, and an all-encompassing portrait of English society.
- OFF
- Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo 527 p. Coursing with humor and humanity, the sixth novel by the bard of Main Street U.S.A. gives full expression to the themes that have always been at the heart of his work: the all-important bond between fathers and sons, the economic desperation of small-town businesses, and the lifelong feuds and friendships that are a hallmark of small-town life.
- Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman 400 p. Examines America's loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11, and the global environmental crisis, and shows how the solutions to these two problems are linked.
- Mudbound by Hillary Jordan 328 p. In 1946, Laura McAllan, a college-educated Memphis schoolteacher, becomes a reluctant farmer's wife when her husband, Henry, buys a farm on the Mississippi Delta, a farm she aptly nicknames Mudbound.
- The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti. 320 p. In this dark but rousing 19th-century picaresque about a one-handed orphan who falls in with rogues, Tinti (stories: Animal Crackers, 2004) pays homage to 19th-century biggies, particularly Twain, Dickens and Stevenson, creating a fictional world unique yet hauntingly familiar.
- Love Wife by Jen Gish 379 p. Jen--a writer of great comedic skills, candor, and imagination, who specializes in cultural collisions--portrays a hugely entertainingly American family in her third novel, a vibrant work notable for its unusual and arresting dialogue-saturated style.
|
Jan 13
Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz
March 10
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
April 14
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
May 12
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
June 9
Escape by Carolyn Jessop
July 21
The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham
(No meeting in August)
September 8
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
October 13
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
November 17
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
December 8
Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich
|
