Harford County Public Library Book Group News

The Harford County Public Library in-house book discussion groups have been having some extra fun lately. The following is a round-up of news from the June 2008 library branch reports.

"The Fallston daytime discussion group, "Fallston Critics Without Credentials," took their yearly bus trip on June 4th. Faced with a day predicted for rain, they set out properly prepared for a downpour; they had a wonderful rain-free day at Winterthur Mansion and Gardens in Wilmington, Delaware and the fact that the bus driver got lost didn't deter the 32 attendees one bit. The skies let loose on the drive home and by the time they pulled into the Fallston library parking lot at 5:00 pm, it had just about stopped. All in all, it was voted as one of the best bus trips ever. Now, of course, they have to do even better next year!"

Fallston also has a group that meets in the evening: the Friends Evening Group. On June 2 a group of 10 people discussed In an Instant by Lee and Bob Woodruff.

Books By Night, a group that meets in the Havre de Grace branch met in June at the Bayou Restaurant. According to their group moderator, "Nine people attended to discuss Jane Eyre over a brilliant repast."

In the Jarretsville branch, said their facilitator, the Novel Ideas book discussion group, "loved our June selection of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. The lifelong relationship of the two women in the novel and the many details of Chinese culture were of the greatest interest."

According to the Bel Air branch, attendance at their book groups is in the high teens and twenties. These successful groups are Betsy's Books @ the Center (meets at the Senior Center) Amy and Nancy's Mysterious Minds and Bob's Fiction. Recently Mysterious Minds members toured Tudor Hall, the boyhood home of John Wilkes Booth, and discussed not only the “mystery” of a conspiracy, but also assassinations in general.

ThrillerFest 2008

I was reading Suzanne Beecher's Dear Reader column this morning and she mentioned this year's International Thriller Writers' ThrillerFest coming up in July in NYC.

Click on the ITW website for more info on ThrillerFest, the largest event of its kind, a meeting place for authors, readers, budding writers, and publishing industry professionals. This year features two special add-on events, CraftFest and AgentFest, where authors of all levels can meet the professionals.

Thriller fans can also go to the ITW website to sign up for the BIG THRILL email each month. Get news and information on the latest thrillers being published that month along with in-depth stories and interviews.

By the way, Suzanne's column appears in the Harford County Public Library Fiction Book Club. Interested in having this online book club delivered to your e-mail? Go to Readers Place Online Book Clubs, sign up and every day, Monday through Friday, you will receive in your email a five-minute selection from a chapter of a book. By the end of the week, you’ll have read 2-3 chapters. Every Monday we start a new book. Sign up and start reading.

Share Your Winter Reading

Harford County Public Library's Winter Reading Program has been up and running for a couple of weeks now. It's called, "Let Your Imagination Run Wild: Read!" All you have to do to participate is sign up. If you read 5 books by March 1, 2008, you receive a free gift! Just check with your local branch for details.

I have signed up, and for doing so I have received my free Winter Reading Pen. I love those pens because they have a nice heft to them! The pen is going to come in very useful as I fill in my five titles on my book log, which I will turn in to my branch for my free gift.

So far, I've only read one and three-quarter books, and some odd pages of two or three others; however, already branch librarians have been receiving completed book logs from swifter readers than me. With permission, librarians are sending me titles from these book logs so that I can make booklists of readers' recommendations. I thought it would be nice for people to share their favorites, and also for you to see what others have read and liked.

If you put a star on your book log by the book you most recommend, we will share that recommendation with other readers. You in your turn can get an idea of what other people have liked recently by checking out the Winter Reading Booklist on Readers Place. I will keep it updated throughout Winter Reading.

Jen Vido, Author, Columnist, and Book Reviewer Launches Website

On September 1, Jen Vido, well known to Harford County readers in the Bel Air area as the leader of a book discussion group in the Bel Air branch and also the regular contributor of author interviews on ReadersPlace, launched her own website. Here is the link: http://www.jennifervido.com/index.html

As you probably know, Jen is also the former Chairperson and now Vice Chairperson Representing the Bel Air Area on the Harford County Public Library Board of Trustees. A woman of many talents, she is also a French teacher, a book reviewer for FreshFiction.com, and an aspiring author.

If you like chick lit, romance, mystery or suspense, do look at her website for gossip and news from the publishing world. This is what Jen says on her home page:

“Welcome to your ultimate source of tidbits and tantalizing scoop happening in romance, chick-lit, mystery, and suspense! Aspiring author Jennifer Vido dishes the scoop with her right-off-the-press book reviews, up-close and personal interviews with popular authors, and even sizzling contests that you just can’t find anywhere else on the web. Add http://www.jennifervido.com/ to your list of favorites so that you can stop by and see what’s happening. And, don’t forget to sign-up for her monthly newsletter so that Jen can keep you in the loop of what’s hot and what’s not in the world of publishing. Yesterday’s newcomer could be tomorrow’s star! You won’t want to miss it!”

A Recipe for Bees by Gail Anderson-Dargatz

In May the Novel Ideas book group, which meets the fourth Monday of each month at the Jarrettsville Branch of Harford County Public Library from 10:30 AM to Noon, met and discussed A Recipe for Bees.

As Publishers Weekly put it, “… Anderson-Dargatz's (The Cure for Death by Lightning) latest is a warm and wise love story, an exploration of the extraordinary as revealed in everyday lives.”

As Augusta Olsen awaits the outcome of her son-in-law’s surgery she reminisces about her long and never-dull life. Augusta is both extremely gifted and headstrong. She inherited from her mother her gift of clairvoyance and her ability at bee-keeping. Unfortunately for Augusta, with her unusual outlook on life, at 18 she marries Karl, a shy man older than she who takes her away to his isolated farm in British Columbia. Augusta quickly learns to resent his taciturnity and his lack of sexual finesse. Determined not to despair, Augusta tries various friendships, work in town, and a brief affair. Eventually she causes her family’s move from the farm, after which she takes up bee-keeping again, the “ointment for her soul.” Her starting of this business re-connects her to the community and sparks changes in her marriage. Augusta realizes that as she has aged she is able to look on her life differently.

Some things to consider:

1)The PW reviewer wrote, “Augusta is a headstrong heroine with prismatic perspectives; her long, never-dull life as told by the gifted Anderson-Dargatz is both charming and impressive in its quiet, cumulative power.” If you have already read this book, would you agree with that assessment? If you haven’t read it, why not put it on your “To Read” list? If you enjoy stories of strong women and their inner emotions, or of farm life or family relationships, you will probably enjoy this.
2)I was struck by similarities that I could see between this book and Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. In Prodigal Summer, Lusa, a talented scientist gives up her career to marry a farmer and try to make a life in an isolated Appalachian community. Most of the book takes place after she is widowed, but Lusa does a lot of self-searching and looking back on her marriage, which, like Augusta’s, was troubled by her husband’s taciturnity and his apparent inability to understand her. Each husband expressed his love through "a simple gesture he had been planning for a day or two, a message contained in flowers.” Lusa’s husband, for instance, sent her a message across the fields from his tractor when he refrained from cutting down “her” honeysuckle.
3)Prodigal Summer contains many story lines; but, both books contain a lot about small town life and gossip. This could be an aspect of both books you could bear in mind while reading and discussing them.
4)Another possible topic of discussion could be the author’s treatment of farm life. Are they sympathic towards the lifestyle, even though their heroines have difficulty with it? Does life on the farm in some way mold the characters?
5)Prodigal Summer has a great deal in it about farming, crops and orchards, and growing things, and also about the wilderness and about a family of coyotes. The background of A Recipe of Bees is beekeeping. I enjoyed all the lush details. What do you think they contribute to the books?

Here is a link to the publisher’s discussion guide for A Recipe for Bees.