Here is the loooooooong awaited next pick...
As with last year, since it's the holidays (including the amazing once every 70,000 years Thanksgivukkah)--two months to read!
http://www.amazon.com/David-Goliath-Underdogs-Misfits-Battling/dp/0316204366
Monday, October 28, 2013
Nov/Dec 2013 Book Pick: David & Goliath
Oops... I had baby #3 and sort of fell off the book club wagon!
Here is the loooooooong awaited next pick...
As with last year, since it's the holidays (including the amazing once every 70,000 years Thanksgivukkah)--two months to read!
http://www.amazon.com/David-Goliath-Underdogs-Misfits-Battling/dp/0316204366
Here is the loooooooong awaited next pick...
As with last year, since it's the holidays (including the amazing once every 70,000 years Thanksgivukkah)--two months to read!
http://www.amazon.com/David-Goliath-Underdogs-Misfits-Battling/dp/0316204366
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Monday, October 29, 2012
November AND December Book Club Pick!
So-- while Pillars of the Earth and Poisonwood Bible seem ike amazing books, they seem a little too heavy for holiday season busyness!
So--- take 2 months to read this one, and then come back fresh in January ready to go back to one book per month!
I hope you'll read this with us!
or
why I spent a year trying to sing in the morning, clean my closets,
fight right, read Aristotle, and generally have more fun
by Gretchen
Craft Rubin
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
November Pick: The Poisonwood Bible or Pillars of the Earth?
Please vote!
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it—from garden seeds to Scripture—is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
The Pillars of the Earth is a historical novel by Ken Follett published in 1989 about the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, England. It is set in the middle of the 12th century, primarily during the Anarchy, between the time of the sinking of the White Ship and the murder of Thomas Becket. The book traces the development of Gothic architecture out of the preceding Romanesque architecture, and the fortunes of the Kingsbridge priory and village against the backdrop of historical events of the time. The novel explores themes of intrigue and conspiracy against historical events. It explores the development of medieval architecture, the civil war, secular/religious conflicts, and shifting political loyalties.
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it—from garden seeds to Scripture—is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
The Pillars of the Earth is a historical novel by Ken Follett published in 1989 about the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, England. It is set in the middle of the 12th century, primarily during the Anarchy, between the time of the sinking of the White Ship and the murder of Thomas Becket. The book traces the development of Gothic architecture out of the preceding Romanesque architecture, and the fortunes of the Kingsbridge priory and village against the backdrop of historical events of the time. The novel explores themes of intrigue and conspiracy against historical events. It explores the development of medieval architecture, the civil war, secular/religious conflicts, and shifting political loyalties.
October Pick: Middlesex
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a
remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a
teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of
l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen
Stephanides. My most recent driver’s license...records my first name
simply as Cal."
So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.
Middlesex is the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." And so begins Middlesex, the mesmerizing saga of a near-mythic Greek American family and the "roller-coaster ride of a single gene through time." The odd but utterly believable story of Cal Stephanides, and how this 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope, is at the tender heart of this long-awaited second novel from Jeffrey Eugenides, whose elegant and haunting 1993 debut, The Virgin Suicides, remains one of the finest first novels of recent memory.
Eugenides weaves together a kaleidoscopic narrative spanning 80 years of a stained family history, from a fateful incestuous union in a small town in early 1920s Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit; from the early days of Ford Motors to the heated 1967 race riots; from the tony suburbs of Grosse Pointe and a confusing, aching adolescent love story to modern-day Berlin. Eugenides's command of the narrative is astonishing. He balances Cal/Callie's shifting voices convincingly, spinning this strange and often unsettling story with intelligence, insight, and generous amounts of humor:
http://www.amazon.com/Middlesex-Novel-Oprahs-Book-Club/dp/0312427735
Friday, May 25, 2012
Sept. Book Pick: The Leftovers
The Leftovers by Tom Perotta
Kevin Garvey, Mapleton’s new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Kevin’s own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence;
his son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne. Only Kevin’s teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she’s definitely not the sweet “A” student she used to be.
Kevin wants to help her, but he’s distracted by his growing
relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family on
October 14th and is still reeling from the tragedy, even as she
struggles to move beyond it and make a new start.
With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta has written a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Leftovers-Tom-Perrotta/dp/0312358342
Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book for 2011
A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book for 2011
A USA Today 10 Books We Loved Reading in 2011 Title
One of NPR’s 10 Best Novels of 2011
What
if—whoosh, right now, with no explanation—a number of us simply
vanished? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot
in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down?
That’s
what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their
neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden
Departure, have to figure out. Because nothing has been the same since
it happened—not marriages, not friendships, not even the relationships
between parents and children. Kevin Garvey, Mapleton’s new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Kevin’s own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence;
his son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne. Only Kevin’s teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she’s definitely not the sweet “A” student she used to be.
With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta has written a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Leftovers-Tom-Perrotta/dp/0312358342
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Book Picks: May, June, July, August
MAY:
BEYOND THE SLING by Mayim Bialik
(We kicked off this book club in May 2011 with a parenting book, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother", so it'll be fun to debate this one!)
Drawing on both her experience as a mother and her scientific background, Mayim presents the major tenets of attachment parenting.
JUNE:
THE PARIS WIFE by Paula McLain
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.
JULY:
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, by E. L. James.
An inexperienced college student falls in love with a tortured man who has particular sexual tastes; the first book in a trilogy.
AUGUST:
WILD, by Cheryl Strayed
A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.
Get on the wait list now--- it is a looong list!
~~
BEYOND THE SLING by Mayim Bialik
(We kicked off this book club in May 2011 with a parenting book, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother", so it'll be fun to debate this one!)
Drawing on both her experience as a mother and her scientific background, Mayim presents the major tenets of attachment parenting.
JUNE:
THE PARIS WIFE by Paula McLain
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.
JULY:
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, by E. L. James.
An inexperienced college student falls in love with a tortured man who has particular sexual tastes; the first book in a trilogy.
AUGUST:
WILD, by Cheryl Strayed
A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.
Get on the wait list now--- it is a looong list!
~~
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
April Pick: Lift AND The Hunger Games (surprise!)
Yep--that's right-- TWO BOOKS!
"But, why?", you ask.
Well, I really like the sound of "Lift" for us--but we haven't done a non-fiction book in almost a year (in May 2011 we did "Cinderella Ate My Daughter"), and I know many of you have said you prefer fiction-- plus it's WAY short.
I have also heard the buzzing around The Hunger Games-- in fact, one of our DBC members, Lesly, suggested a fieldtrip to the movie. (Comes out in March 2012)
So we'll have one fiction and one non-fiction.
"But, why not save one for May?" you ask.
Because one is 96 pages and one is a young adult book! Combined, still the average length of our books.
Read more about them below.
Here is how we'll work it... we'll start Book Club at 8:30 that month and do 45 mins of each book. :)
"But, why?", you ask.
Well, I really like the sound of "Lift" for us--but we haven't done a non-fiction book in almost a year (in May 2011 we did "Cinderella Ate My Daughter"), and I know many of you have said you prefer fiction-- plus it's WAY short.
I have also heard the buzzing around The Hunger Games-- in fact, one of our DBC members, Lesly, suggested a fieldtrip to the movie. (Comes out in March 2012)
So we'll have one fiction and one non-fiction.
"But, why not save one for May?" you ask.
Because one is 96 pages and one is a young adult book! Combined, still the average length of our books.
Read more about them below.
Here is how we'll work it... we'll start Book Club at 8:30 that month and do 45 mins of each book. :)
 |
| Written as a letter to her children, Kelly Corrigan's Lift is a tender, intimate, and robust portrait of risk and love; a touchstone for anyone who wants to live more fully. In Lift, Corrigan weaves together three true and unforgettable stories of adults willing to experience emotional hazards in exchange for the gratifications of raising children. Lift takes its name from hang gliding, a pursuit that requires flying directly into rough air, because turbulence saves a glider from "sinking out." For Corrigan, this wisdom--that to fly requires chaotic, sometimes even violent passages--becomes a metaphor for all of life's most meaningful endeavors, particularly the great flight that is parenting. Corrigan serves it up straight--how mundanely and fiercely her children have been loved, how close most lives occasionally come to disaster, and how often we fall short as mothers and fathers. Lift is for everyone who has been caught off guard by the pace and vulnerability of raising children, to remind us that our work is important and our time limited. |
 |
| "Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When her sister is chosen by lottery, Katniss steps up to go in her place." |
Sunday, December 18, 2011
The first 3 books of 2012:
Book Chats are always the 1st Thursday of the month!
DecemberState of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Book Chat: Jan. 5
January
Sing You Home by Jodi PicoultBook Chat: Feb. 2
February
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey EugenidesBook Chat: March 1
March American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar (release date: Jan. 9)
Book Chat: April 5
March's Pick: American Dervish
http://www.amazon.com/American-Dervish-Novel-Ayad-Akhtar/dp/0316183318
When Mina meets and begins dating a man, Hayat is confused by his feelings of betrayal. His growing passions, both spiritual and romantic, force him to question all that he has come to believe is true. Just as Mina finds happiness, Hayat is compelled to act -- with devastating consequences for all those he loves most.
American Dervish is a brilliantly written, nuanced, and emotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion and modern life. Ayad Akhtar was raised in the Midwest himself, and through Hayat Shah he shows readers vividly the powerful forces at work on young men and women growing up Muslim in America. This is an intimate, personal first novel that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page.
This book will be released Jan. 9, 2012
Keep checking your library throughout January to get on the list right when it comes in!
Synopsis on AMAZON:
Hayat Shah is a young American in love for the first time. His normal life of school, baseball, and video games had previously been distinguished only by his Pakistani heritage and by the frequent chill between his parents, who fight over things he is too young to understand. Then Mina arrives, and everything changes.
Mina is Hayat's mother's oldest friend from Pakistan. She is independent, beautiful and intelligent, and arrives on the Shah's doorstep when her disastrous marriage in Pakistan disintegrates. Even Hayat's skeptical father can't deny the liveliness and happiness that accompanies Mina into their home. Her deep spirituality brings the family's Muslim faith to life in a way that resonates with Hayat as nothing has before. Studying the Quran by Mina's side and basking in the glow of her attention, he feels an entirely new purpose mingled with a growing infatuation for his teacher.
When Mina meets and begins dating a man, Hayat is confused by his feelings of betrayal. His growing passions, both spiritual and romantic, force him to question all that he has come to believe is true. Just as Mina finds happiness, Hayat is compelled to act -- with devastating consequences for all those he loves most.
American Dervish is a brilliantly written, nuanced, and emotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion and modern life. Ayad Akhtar was raised in the Midwest himself, and through Hayat Shah he shows readers vividly the powerful forces at work on young men and women growing up Muslim in America. This is an intimate, personal first novel that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page.
Mina is Hayat's mother's oldest friend from Pakistan. She is independent, beautiful and intelligent, and arrives on the Shah's doorstep when her disastrous marriage in Pakistan disintegrates. Even Hayat's skeptical father can't deny the liveliness and happiness that accompanies Mina into their home. Her deep spirituality brings the family's Muslim faith to life in a way that resonates with Hayat as nothing has before. Studying the Quran by Mina's side and basking in the glow of her attention, he feels an entirely new purpose mingled with a growing infatuation for his teacher.
When Mina meets and begins dating a man, Hayat is confused by his feelings of betrayal. His growing passions, both spiritual and romantic, force him to question all that he has come to believe is true. Just as Mina finds happiness, Hayat is compelled to act -- with devastating consequences for all those he loves most.
American Dervish is a brilliantly written, nuanced, and emotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion and modern life. Ayad Akhtar was raised in the Midwest himself, and through Hayat Shah he shows readers vividly the powerful forces at work on young men and women growing up Muslim in America. This is an intimate, personal first novel that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page.
When Mina meets and begins dating a man, Hayat is confused by his feelings of betrayal. His growing passions, both spiritual and romantic, force him to question all that he has come to believe is true. Just as Mina finds happiness, Hayat is compelled to act -- with devastating consequences for all those he loves most.
American Dervish is a brilliantly written, nuanced, and emotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion and modern life. Ayad Akhtar was raised in the Midwest himself, and through Hayat Shah he shows readers vividly the powerful forces at work on young men and women growing up Muslim in America. This is an intimate, personal first novel that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page.
Friday, November 18, 2011
January Pick: Sing You Home
The Marriage Plot may be a longer wait than we thought! So we are swapping:
Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
Synopsis:
Every life has a soundtrack. All you have to do is listen.
Music has set the tone for most of Zoe Baxter’s life. There’s the melody that reminds her of the summer she spent rubbing baby oil on her stomach in pursuit of the perfect tan. A dance beat that makes her think of using a fake ID to slip into a nightclub. A dirge that marked the years she spent trying to get pregnant.
For better or for worse, music is the language of memory. It is also the language of love.
In the aftermath of a series of personal tragedies, Zoe throws herself into her career as a music therapist. When an unexpected friendship slowly blossoms into love, she makes plans for a new life, but to her shock and inevitable rage, some people—even those she loves and trusts most—don’t want that to happen.
***This book has hit a lot of controversy, should be a great, lively chat when we have the monthly Book Club Chat. Please remember to be respectful of others' views!
Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
Synopsis:
Every life has a soundtrack. All you have to do is listen.
Music has set the tone for most of Zoe Baxter’s life. There’s the melody that reminds her of the summer she spent rubbing baby oil on her stomach in pursuit of the perfect tan. A dance beat that makes her think of using a fake ID to slip into a nightclub. A dirge that marked the years she spent trying to get pregnant.
For better or for worse, music is the language of memory. It is also the language of love.
In the aftermath of a series of personal tragedies, Zoe throws herself into her career as a music therapist. When an unexpected friendship slowly blossoms into love, she makes plans for a new life, but to her shock and inevitable rage, some people—even those she loves and trusts most—don’t want that to happen.
***This book has hit a lot of controversy, should be a great, lively chat when we have the monthly Book Club Chat. Please remember to be respectful of others' views!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Recap of upcoming book picks
Book Chats are always the 1st Thursday of the month!
November
Sister by Rosamund LuptonBook Chat: Dec 1
December
State of Wonder by Anne Patchett
Book Chat: Jan. 5
January
Sing You Home by Jodi PicoultBook Chat: Feb. 2
February
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey EugenidesBook Chat: March 1
Monday, November 7, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Recap of upcoming book picks
November= Sister by Rosamund Lupton
December= State of Wonder by Anne Patchett
Plus, please get on the wait list for:
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides--- we'll aim for January with this one, but see if everyone's up on the waiting list first
December= State of Wonder by Anne Patchett
Plus, please get on the wait list for:
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides--- we'll aim for January with this one, but see if everyone's up on the waiting list first
Thursday, October 27, 2011
November's Book Pick: Sister
Gong for a genre we haven't touched yet...
When the body of Beatrice’s beloved younger sister, Tess, is discovered in an abandoned building in Hyde Park and ruled a suicide, Beatrice knows the police have made a mistake. She’s certain her sister was murdered. Determined to uncover the truth, Beatrice impulsively begins to hunt for clues on her own. So begins Rosamund Lupton’s stunning debut, Sister, at once an engrossing thriller and a powerful meditation on the bonds of family. Writing her story as a letter to Tess, Beatrice gradually connects the strange, varied occurrences leading up to Tess’s death--Tess’s pregnancy; a trial drug from a pharmaceutical company; a man who may or may not have been a figment of Tess’s imagination. Beatrice’s former life falls apart as her search veers toward obsession, and she realizes she might pay a terrible price for the truth. An adrenaline-filled psychological thriller, Sister’s emotional impact comes from Lupton’s heartrending portrait of the love between Beatrice and Tess. --Lynette Mong
Monday, September 12, 2011
December Book Pick
Published 2011
In State of Wonder, pharmaceutical researcher Dr. Marina Singh sets off into the Amazon jungle to find the remains and effects of a colleague who recently died under somewhat mysterious circumstances. But first she must locate Dr. Anneck Swenson, a renowned gynecologist who has spent years looking at the reproductive habits of a local tribe where women can conceive well into their middle ages and beyond. Eccentric and notoriously tough, Swenson is paid to find the key to this longstanding childbearing ability by the same company for which Dr. Singh works. Yet that isn’t their only connection: both have an overlapping professional past that Dr. Singh has long tried to forget. In finding her former mentor, Dr. Singh must face her own disappointments and regrets, along with the jungle’s unforgiving humidity and insects, making State of Wonder a multi-layered atmospheric novel that is hard to put down. Indeed, Patchett solidifies her well-deserved place as one of today’s master storytellers. Emotional, vivid, and a work of literature that will surely resonate with readers in the weeks and months to come, State of Wonder truly is a thing of beauty and mystery, much like the Amazon jungle itself. --Jessica Schein
Feb. 2012 Book Pick
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides will be out: Oct. 11
POSSIBLE:
Backup book is by same author: Middlesex
If The Marriage Plot is too high in demand and none of us can get it at the library, we'll go ahead witht he backup
Review
In Eugenides' first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex (2002), English major and devotee of classic literature Madeleine Hanna is a senior at Reagan-era Brown University. Only when curiosity gets the best of her does she belly up to Semiotics 211, a bastion of postmodern liberalism, and meet handsome, brilliant, mysterious Leonard Bankhead. Completing a triangle is Madeleine's friend Mitchell, a clear-eyed religious-studies student who believes himself her true intended. Eugenides' drama unfolds over the next year or so. His characteristically deliberate, researched realization of place and personality serve him well, and he strikes perfectly tuned chords by referring to works ranging from Barthes' Lovers' Discourse to Bemelmans' Madeline books for children. The remarkably à propos title refers to the subject of Madeleine's honors thesis, which is the Western novel's doing and undoing, in that, upon the demise, circa 1900, of the marriage plot, the novel 'didn't mean much anymore,' according to Madeleine's professor and, perhaps, Eugenides. With this tightly, immaculately self-contained tale set upon pillars at once imposing and of dollhouse scale, namely, academia ('College wasn't like the real world,' Madeleine notes) and the emotions of the youngest of twentysomethings, Eugenides realizes the novel whose dismantling his characters examine." --Annie Bostrom, BooklistPOSSIBLE:
Backup book is by same author: Middlesex
If The Marriage Plot is too high in demand and none of us can get it at the library, we'll go ahead witht he backup
October Book Pick
Published 2010
Martin compresses the wild and crazy end of the millennium and finds in this piercing novel a sardonic morality tale. Lacey Yeager is an ambitious young art dealer who uses everything at her disposal to advance in the world of the high-end art trade in New York City. After cutting her teeth at Sotheby's, she manipulates her way up through Barton Talley's gallery of "Very Expensive Paintings," sleeping with patrons, and dodging and indulging in questionable deals, possible felonies, and general skeeviness until she opens her own gallery in Chelsea. Narrated by Lacey's journalist friend, Daniel Franks, whose droll voice is a remarkable stand-in for Martin's own, the world is ordered and knowable, blindly barreling onward until 9/11. And while Lacey and the art she peddles survive, the wealth and prestige garnered by greed do not. Martin (an art collector himself) is an astute miniaturist as he exposes the sound and fury of the rarified Manhattan art world. If Shopgirl was about the absence of purpose, this book is about the absence of a moral compass, not just in the life of an adventuress but for an entire era. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Place this one on hold! Nov or Dec pick:
State of Wonder by Anne Patchett
it seems to be VERY high in demand!
At my local library there are 21 copies and I am number 71! Another D.R.E.A.M. member is #94!!!!
We'll aim for November!
Synopsis:
In State of Wonder, pharmaceutical researcher Dr. Marina Singh sets off into the Amazon jungle to find the remains and effects of a colleague who recently died under somewhat mysterious circumstances. But first she must locate Dr. Anneck Swenson, a renowned gynecologist who has spent years looking at the reproductive habits of a local tribe where women can conceive well into their middle ages and beyond. Eccentric and notoriously tough, Swenson is paid to find the key to this longstanding childbearing ability by the same company for which Dr. Singh works. Yet that isn’t their only connection: both have an overlapping professional past that Dr. Singh has long tried to forget. In finding her former mentor, Dr. Singh must face her own disappointments and regrets, along with the jungle’s unforgiving humidity and insects, making State of Wonder a multi-layered atmospheric novel that is hard to put down. Indeed, Patchett solidifies her well-deserved place as one of today’s master storytellers. Emotional, vivid, and a work of literature that will surely resonate with readers in the weeks and months to come, State of Wonder truly is a thing of beauty and mystery, much like the Amazon jungle itself. --Jessica Schein
it seems to be VERY high in demand!
At my local library there are 21 copies and I am number 71! Another D.R.E.A.M. member is #94!!!!
We'll aim for November!
Synopsis:
In State of Wonder, pharmaceutical researcher Dr. Marina Singh sets off into the Amazon jungle to find the remains and effects of a colleague who recently died under somewhat mysterious circumstances. But first she must locate Dr. Anneck Swenson, a renowned gynecologist who has spent years looking at the reproductive habits of a local tribe where women can conceive well into their middle ages and beyond. Eccentric and notoriously tough, Swenson is paid to find the key to this longstanding childbearing ability by the same company for which Dr. Singh works. Yet that isn’t their only connection: both have an overlapping professional past that Dr. Singh has long tried to forget. In finding her former mentor, Dr. Singh must face her own disappointments and regrets, along with the jungle’s unforgiving humidity and insects, making State of Wonder a multi-layered atmospheric novel that is hard to put down. Indeed, Patchett solidifies her well-deserved place as one of today’s master storytellers. Emotional, vivid, and a work of literature that will surely resonate with readers in the weeks and months to come, State of Wonder truly is a thing of beauty and mystery, much like the Amazon jungle itself. --Jessica Schein
SEPTEMBER BOOK CLUB PICK: Freedom
I am going to try to start announcing picks earlier. Depending on where you live, it may take longer to receive a book once you place a hold. In that spirit, I'll try to post choces 6 weeks before we talk about them, and ones that I can tell are in demand, I'll try to give a 3 month lead. -Emily
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen Published 2010
SYNOPSIS:
Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul, Minnesota—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Baby Boomers. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter's dreams. Together with Walter—environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man—she was doing her small part to build a better world.
But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why is Walter working away from home so much? What has happened to their teenage son? Why has Patty, the bright star of Barrier Street, become "a very different kind of neighbor," coming unhinged before the street's attentive eyes? And what exactly is eccentric rocker Richard Katz—Walter's college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture?
As the story explores the nature of love, it also tackles our tenuous relationship with nature. When Walter fights to preserve a habitat for an endangered bird, the troubled history between Patty, Richard and himself threatens to topple the deal, along with everything he believes about truth and illusion.
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen Published 2010
SYNOPSIS:
Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul, Minnesota—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Baby Boomers. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter's dreams. Together with Walter—environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man—she was doing her small part to build a better world.
But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why is Walter working away from home so much? What has happened to their teenage son? Why has Patty, the bright star of Barrier Street, become "a very different kind of neighbor," coming unhinged before the street's attentive eyes? And what exactly is eccentric rocker Richard Katz—Walter's college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture?
As the story explores the nature of love, it also tackles our tenuous relationship with nature. When Walter fights to preserve a habitat for an endangered bird, the troubled history between Patty, Richard and himself threatens to topple the deal, along with everything he believes about truth and illusion.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)