The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

This book was first reviewed on this site on Monday, October 6th, 2008. Please visit our archives to read Elizabeth's review.

I am reviewing it again as it was the chosen title for the Abingdon Book Discussion group in March. It has also featured at other branches, and I am sure a lot of non-library groups have been reading it. Why has this book with the unusual title become so popular? It is written as a series of letters, and although this style might be a little awkward for some readers at first, keep reading. Once you get into the flow of the letters, this is a charming, sometimes moving and always entertaining story. It is set against the background of second world war Guernsey, where a group of friends forms a book group to explain to the German occupiers why they are out afer curfew. Once the book group is formed, the friends find the strength & support there that helps them endure wartime conditions. There are some wonderful characters. Juliet is the English writer who contacts the islanders & receives their letters. Dorsey, Amelia, Isola and the other members of the group reveal themselves and their lives to Juliet as they write to her. And there is Elizabeth, the pivotal force whose spirit shines through all the letters. We get to know these characters and others who reflect the hope and tragedy of this period. Try this informative and optimistic book and you won't be disappointed.

We were all very sad to learn that Mary Ann Shaffer passed away as this book was reaching its conclusion. We wonder what else she might have written had she lived longer. This book is a great memorial to her.

If you are interested in reading the thoughts of someone who was actually a child in Guernsey at the time of the occupation, please go to this BBC website.
WW2 People's War: An Archive of World War Two Memories - written by the public, gathered by the BBC. A Child's War: The German Occupation of Guernsey submitted by Peter LePrevost. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/78/a4185678.shtml

Check out these links for reviews of the book, author biographies and book group questions.
http://www.guernseyliterary.com/bkBook.html
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385340991&view=rg
http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews2/9780385340991.asp
http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=1586
http://www.bookbrowse.com/reading_guides/detail/index.cfm?book_number=2155

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.

The Baltimore Sun Read Street

The Abingdon Lite at Night book group is featured on the Baltimore Sun online reader's site, Read Street, today. This site is dedicated to the readers of Baltimore and beyond. It includes news, events and information about book groups around the greater Baltimore area. To check out the site, go to
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/
To go straight to the book clubs go to
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/book_clubs/

The Abingdon group is currently reading Still Life with Elephant by Judy Reene Singer which we will be discussing on Monday, June 23rd at 6:30 pm. We are very casual and sociable and welcome new faces, so please come and join us.

A few of the group are pictured here, still in our winter clothes, with hot chocolate and cookies.

Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant

On Thursday, January 15, 2008 at 6:30 PM, the Darlington book group will meet at the branch to discuss Anita Diamant's The Last Days of Dogtown. Call 410-638-3750 for details.

The Last Days of Dogtown is set near Gloucester, Massachussetts, and is loosely based on a true story of a real place called Dogtown Commons.

This Booklist reviewer of June 1, 2005 sums up the book very well, giving just enough information to intrigue without giving away the secret at the center of the story:

"In the early days of the nineteenth century, a declining hamlet nicknamed Dogtown by detractors houses a pack of semi-feral dogs and an eclectic group of residents too stubborn, too poverty stricken, too worn down, or too old to relocate. As the interrelated stories of these unfortunate souls are recounted, the reader is irresistibly drawn into their orbit, becoming emotionally invested in both their individual and their collective lives. Widows, witches, spinsters, whores, abused and neglected children, freed slaves, and one particularly odious villain populate the ramshackle dwellings that dot the ruggedly stark landscape. At the center of these heart-wrenching sagas is Judy Rhines, a kindhearted middle-aged maiden who harbors a secret so passionate and so scandalous its revelation would bring her instant ruin and tear the moribund town apart. One by one, both the animal and the human characters die or move away, sealing the inevitable fate of the doomed community."

Conversation Starters:

"Diamant adeptly manages to evoke the minutiae of everyday living..."

"Diamant... expertly weaves together seemingly disparate stories of a dying Massachusetts town into something greater than the sum of its parts."

Several characters stand out. Which characters did you like the most?

"Diamant has a gift for storytelling..."

"Diamant... throws almost too many people at us simultaneously in the opening chapter."

"Diamant quickly and obliquely sketches complex relationships among characters we have just met, which may be initially confusing or even annoying to some readers.

Characters are "richly imagined," "nasty," "creepily fascinating." Do you agree; and also do you agree that Diamant elicits sympathy for these hard-bitten characters?

About the author:

Anita Diamant's website

Anita Diamant on Dogtown

Publisher's Reading Group Guide

Kirkus gave Last Days a Starred Review and has this high praise for it: "This is a deeply satisfying novel, populated by people we care about, delineated in spare, elegant prose. Moving, absorbing and engaging: first-rate fiction that will appeal to the literary-minded as well as those in search of just a plain-old good read. " Don't miss this absorbing tale!

How to Find Your Next Good Book in Genre Fiction

The October 2007 edition of Novelist Notes, which is an online newsletter that goes with our subscription to Novelist, had these excellent tips to finding genre fiction booklists.

I have recommended Novelist before. It's a great tool, particularly for finding similar books to one you have just read and liked. A drawback to Novelist that I have encountered is that the categories they assign to books are often too general to be meaningful. You have to be really clever to identify and choose the aspects of a particular book that you would like duplicated in your next read. I feel when I am using the "find similar books" feature that I need a human to intervene and describe the essence of the book in a more focused way. Novelist mitigates against this drawback by providing an increasing amount of editorial comment and expert articles. One such editorial feature is "Explore Fiction Lists."

Explore Fiction Lists has just been updated. This article explains how to use it. The article is directed to librarians, but I have quoted here only the parts that would be relevant to readers and book groups:

"NoveList and NoveList K-8's ready-made book lists are great sources for eager patrons and busy librarians. NoveList is now pleased to announce that all of our genre-based Explore Fiction lists have been completely revamped and updated. In addition to the updated lists, we have added several new genre lists, including Historical Fiction and Graphic Novels at the Adult level, based on requests from our users.
All of the popular genres, including Mysteries, Romance, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Historical Fiction, are covered in the Explore Fiction lists. Each genre contains a number of lists covering popular sub-genres, for example "Contemporary Romances" and "Romantic Suspense" under the Romance genre. Each list contains 15 to 20 titles, carefully selected by experienced librarians...
Here's how to access NoveList's Explore Fiction lists:
Select the Browse Lists tab.
Under the Explore Fiction heading, select the appropriate reading level link. To find the new Adult Historical Fiction list, select the "Adult" link.
You will see a list of genres to choose from. Select the "Historical Fiction" link.
A listing of sub-genres will display. Choose a topic of interest, for example "Immigrant Experience," to see the full list of titles.
At the end of each Explore Fiction list, you will find a description that will give you more information about the books on the list or how you can find more books like those listed. Please note that at each list, you can select a title to link directly to the book record for an annotation, reviews, and links to other resources."
© 2007 EBSCO Publishing, Powered by The Title Source TM

Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos

Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos is a book that richly repays the reader with eccentric characters, multiple plot lines, mysteries from the past, strong emotions, love in unlikely places, quirky humor, and complex but largely happy outcomes. It’s an ideal book for a book club.

About the book:
Margaret Hughes is a wealthy widow living in the biggest mansion in a Seattle neighborhood way on the top of a hill. She is all alone in the museum-like house stuffed with a priceless collection of porcelain. For various reasons, which unfold in the book, Margaret is a recluse and lives almost solely to be the caretaker of this collection, the provenance of which we suspect, but which is only slowly revealed. Margaret discovers that she has incurable cancer, and so decides she will take the last chance she has of living for herself. Her first step is to seek company and she advertises for a lodger. Wanda Schulz comes into her life. Wanda seems tough, but we find she has been severely emotionally damaged by a series of rejections, first by her father and more recently by a lover whom she is seeking in Seattle. As both women wrestle with the ghosts of their past, a diverse cast of eccentric characters comes into their lives. All are broken in some degree, and all find ways to put themselves together, each in a different and ultimately beautiful form. Wanda discovers that she is a talented mosaic artist. Her art form becomes a metaphor for all that occurs in the book, a breaking of things that is essential before beauty or lives can be reformed. The book itself is complex, with many themes and plot-lines being assembled to complete the mosaic, which finally takes shape as a celebration of the diverse ways love manifests itself.

About the author:
This is Stephanie Kallos’ first book. She spent 20 years in the theater as a teacher and actress. Her short fiction was nominated for a Raymond Carver Prize and a Pushcart Prize. She lives in Seattle. Click here for her website

Reviews:
The book received 3 starred reviews.

Conversation starters:
The book starts with Margaret in her house. What do you think of the way Margaret’s history is revealed?
The characters are very eccentric, but at the same time believable. Why do you think this is? What do you think of their behavior?
The plot is very complex. How are the different threads woven together? Are the resolutions believable?
Metaphor is very important in this book. Which ones worked for you?
I saw humor in this book. Did you also find the same? What for you was the effect of the humor?
The concept of “broken” is central to the book. What did you make of that?

This book has been compared to books by Margaret Atwood. I think it would appeal also to readers of Anne Tyler. Do you agree?

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

In April 2007, the Jarrettsville book group got together to talk about When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka. I can recommend this book for men or women, adult or teen, because it appeals to both the intellect and the emotions. It is eminently discussible, both for its themes and the artistry with which they are laid out.

Publisher’s Reading Group Guide

ABOUT THIS BOOK
It is Berkeley, California, the spring of 1942. Pearl Harbor has been attacked, the war is on, and and a woman reads a sign in a post office window. Though we do not know what was printed on the sign, we see the woman ready herself and her two young children for a journey that will take them to the high desert plains of Utah. They travel by train and gradually the reader discovers that all on board are Japanese American, and that their destination is an internment camp where they will be imprisoned “for their own safety” until the war is over. With stark clarity and an unflinching gaze, Otsuka explores the inner lives of her main characters—the mother, daughter, and son—as they struggle to understand their fate and long for the father whom they have not seen since he was whisked away, in slippers and handcuffs, on the evening of Pearl Harbor. As the publisher said, “Moving between dreams, memories, and sharply emblematic moments, When the Emperor Was Divine reveals the dark underside of a period in American history that, until now, has been left largely unexplored in American fiction.

REVIEWS
The book received several starred reviews, and was recommended for both adult readers and for older teens. It appeared on several editor’s choice lists and on Books for The Teen Age list for 2004 and 2005. It won the Alex Award for adult books with appeal for teens. These are some of the things that reviewers said:
“Otsuka…demonstrates a breathtaking restraint and delicacy throughout this supple and devastating first novel…”
“…this spare and poignant first novel…”
“A carefully researched little novel…”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Asia Source interview with Julie Otsuka
Random House conversation with the author (includes photo)
Barnes and Noble Meet the Writers (includes photo)

BACKGROUND TO THE BOOK
This is Otsuka’s first novel. It is based on the actual experiences of her grandparents in WWII. After Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were taken forcibly from their homes, some males were imprisoned or at least interrogated. Often families were split up and the women and children taken to internment camps in very remote and inhospitable places, where they suffered keen physical privations as well as the psychological and economic devastation of being interned by the government they considered their own.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

What did you think of the opening of the novel?
The internment of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during the war has been universally condemned in recent years; however, can you ever see an occasion where the denial of individual civil liberties in favor of the greater good would be right?
Otsuku’s writing has been criticised for being too spare and unsentimental. What do you think of her emotional restraint?
Details abound in the book. What do you think the cumulative effect of all these details is?
What do you think of the relationship between the mother, the daughter, and the son?
What do you think of the resolution and stoicism of the mother? Is there anger at the injustices the people suffer?
The family is alienated from everything they knew. How does Otsuku convey their alienation?
What do you think of the attitude of their neighbors?
What happened to the spirit of the woman’s husband? Is the depiction of his character believable?

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, Fallston Branch’s Critics Without Credentials will discuss Jodi Picoult’s fictional tale about a school shooting, called “Nineteen Minutes.”

I don’t want to preempt the group’s discussion by betraying too much about the book here, but I do hope one or two of them leave a comment afterwards about how the discussion went. I am sure it is a very timely book, and one perhaps difficult to read, but very rewarding.

I thought I might list here some suggestions for similar books:

A Theory of Relativity by Jacqueline Mitchard
Readers with a preference for observing how families in turmoil deal with shocking situations will appreciate this novel of grieving grandparents locked in an anguished custody battle for the sole surviving daughter of parents lost in a car accident.

The Buffalo Soldier by Chris Bohjalian
Jodi Picoult writes of hot-button issues as does Chris Bohjalian. This time the issue is the foster care system and mixed-race families. The devastating loss of their twin daughters in a flash flood turns the lives of Terry and Laura Sheldon upside down as their marriage is tested by grief, Terry's brief love affair, and their growing relationship with their foster child, a ten-year-old African American boy.

While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
Years after a friend was brutally murdered, Jo Becker is now married with a grown family, but when an old housemate moves nearby, Jo rekindles a relationship that takes her back to the past and threatens her future. This book asks the question, “How well do we really know our friends and the ones we care for?”

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
In a series of letters to her estranged husband, narrator Eva Khatchadourian relates the stories of her son’s upbringing and tries to resolve an agonizing question. Two years before the opening of the novel, her son, Kevin, murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and the much-beloved teacher who had tried to befriend him. Eva is tortured by the question of who is to blame.

Viking Penguin Book Club Launches Online

Here is another online resource for reading groups that I have seen several news bytes on, including a piece in Shelf Awareness: Daily Enlightenment for the Book Trade, "the free e-mail newsletter dedicated to helping the people in stores, in libraries and on the Web buy, sell and lend books most wisely."

Viking Press and Penguin Books have launched an online resource for
reading groups (click here) which includes regular posts from authors, editors and sales and marketing people at Viking and Penguin; a forthcoming blog where readers can post comments and reviews; a monthly newsletter; weekly news, awards, author tour updates and contests/giveaways.

Viking and Penguin plan regularly to feature one new Viking hardcover, one new Penguin paperback, and one Penguin classic. The site's archive, which currently consists of more than 100 titles, is being expanded. It includes titles by a range of authors picked to appeal to reading groups. It's designed to allow users to flip through titles as though browsing the shelves of a bookstore or library.

I plan to add this site to the other publisher sites I check for reading group choices and information. VP Book Club looks very attractive. So far the archive is full of 100 plus titles, but both the news section and the blog from the publishers are a bit scanty. No doubt they will fill up with comments soon! I might sign up for the e-mail newsletter.

Harper Collins has launched an author network

In two of my newsletters last week I saw articles about the launch of AuthorAssistant, an author network that will allow authors to post information, images, links and more for their fans. Some 40 Avon authors are participating in a pilot program. Click here to see what it's all about. You will need first to have registered as a user on the HarperCollins Home page.

For some time HarperCollins has had a number of newsletters for which you could sign up to receive regular updates on new titles coming out, author appearances in your area, etc. AuthorAssistant is being marketed as an even better way to connect authors with fans. In a statement, Jane Friedman, president and CEO of HarperCollins, commented: "Our AuthorAssistant tool, and these stunning new Author Pages, demonstrate how we are harnessing our power and scale as a publisher to add value for authors, while connecting them with fans who want more from them."

PW Daily of 9/25/07 said: "In an effort to make more appealing and easier-to-maintain author Web sites, HarperCollins has established a site called AuthorAssistant that allows authors to create, and control, a personalized Web page. The site, which rolled out with 40 authors from the Avon imprint, offers, according to Carolyn Pittis, senior v-p of global marketing strategy and operations, a way for authors to have a strong presence on the Web without having to go to the trouble of creating and hosting their own site."

Other publishers have web sites which connect book groups and fans in general to their authors (see links on this blog). AuthorAssistant looks as though HarperCollins is taking the marketing of their authors to a new level.

In my humble opinion I see a trend among readers, probably fuelled by the boom in book clubs, to be increasingly interested in the personal and creative life of the authors whose books they read. Doesn't knowing stuff about the personal and artistic life of an author whose book you are discussing make that discussion so much richer? Don't you as the reader oft times want to feel a personal connection to someone who has written words that have moved you in some way? And isn't it a thrill to be able to e-mail or leave a comment on an author's blog, or even participate in a conference call at your group meeting?

AuthorAssistant may be a publisher's service to their authors, but I am willing to bet that it becomes a key site for book groups doing research for their discussions, and may even become an early stop on the way to choosing a book for the group to read.

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

The other day I read in one of my news alerts that a terrific book has just been adapted to make a movie. The Jane Austen Book Club, directed by Robin Swicord and starring Maria Bello, opened September 21. This would be an intriguing choice for a book club, if only because the theme is a book club! Six readers start a club to discuss the works of Jane Austen only to discover that their own lives resemble modern versions of her novels.

I don’t know what your opinion is about the audience for this book – women only? Perhaps we should be careful not to stereotype: men appreciate Jane Austen too, for her elegant writing and witty observation; and there is one (as a reviewer called him) “enigmatic” man in the book club of the title.

That same review (in Publisher’s Weekly 03/22/2004) suggests that Karen Joy Fowler is rather like Jane Austen herself, writing with sly wit and quirky characters. It strikes me that the characters and their “hangups” might be sources of some good discussion, and the humor might make it all rather fun!

You will find a Discussion Guide in Novelist. Find a link to Novelist on ReadersPlace Home page.

The book got two other “Starred Reviews” and was a New York Times Notable Book.

Click here to Find this book in our catalog.

Here are some suggestions of similar books:
Dinner With Anna Karenina by Gloria Goldreich
The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble
Ten Days in the Hills by Jane Smiley

Click here for a list of books about Jane Austen in fact and fiction
Karen Joy Fowler's Web Site : Fowler provides information about herself and her books.

Nefertiti: The Book of the Dead by Nick Drake

This week, rather than focusing on what a book group has been discussing, I wanted to recommend a book I have been reading myself. Since this book is by a debut fiction author, Nick Drake, I am hoping that I can steal a march on you and recommend a book you have not heard about. I think you should really try Nefertiti:the Book of the Dead. Though at times the plot gets a little confusing, I think you will put the book down well satisfied and looking forward to the next installment of the planned trilogy.

The story is set in ancient Egypt at the time of Akhenaten, the king who for political reasons dismantled the ancient structure of priests and gods and put in its place the worship of himself, as the incarnation of the one god, Aten, the sun disk. Our likeable hero, detective Rai Rahotep of the Egyptian secret police is summoned to Akhenaten, the new city built in the desert, to solve a mystery before the festival to celebrate the founding of the new regime. Should Rahotep fail he will be put to death, along with his young family. The mystery is the disappearance of Nefertiti, whose appearance at the festival is essential to Akhenaten to shore up his crumbling reign and equally crumbling city.

Nick Drake does an excellent job of describing the politics of the time, and also vividly depicts the palaces and streets of the city. The background details to me were one of the strengths of the book that kept me engaged. Even clothing and furniture is described, as well as the squalor of the ordinary people, who are not beneficaries of the new order as the rich are. The backstreets and the River Nile itself come into play a lot as Rahotep pursues suspects or is pursued himself. There is plenty of action and adventure in this book, together with some bloody and gruesome scenes of torture. Though there is a mystery to solve, this book is both longer and more complex than a traditional mystery. I think fans of Robert Harris’ Pompeii will enjoy this.

Things to think of as you read:
What does Drake have to say about love and family. Are there different kinds of love?
What are the motives of some of the great men described in the book? Are their characters well-developed? Are their motives believable?
Drake describes obsession and even madness. Is his depiction convincing?
One reviewer thought that the book had “a convincing aura of suspense.” Would you agree? What did you think of the scenes in the Otherworld?
What is the importance of the Nile and the Red Land?

Other authors of Egyptian mysteries:
Lynda Robinson
P. C. Doherty

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.

Cool Ideas for Book Groups

A few blogs back I discussed a few ideas I had seen in the literature about rejuvenating flagging book discussion groups. One of the ideas was choosing books with themes. Another idea is to set the scene for your discussion with the refreshments to be served and perhaps even the place where you hold your meeting.

The group I belong to meets in members’ houses. Quite often the host will decorate the table or the coffee table with items that go with the book. Once we read a biography of Frida Kahlo, and a couple of our members came dressed as Frida. Last month we discussed Bill Bryson’s The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. We had food of the fifties. Luckily, we were spared the meatloaves studded with candies!

One of the coolest ideas I have seen lately was brought to my attention while reading PW Daily last week. Apparently, Julia Flynn Siler, a Wall Street Journal contributing writer, offers a wine tasting group/reading group guide for her new book, The House of Mondavi. Ms. Siler suggests "organizing a tasting of some of the wines featured in The House of Mondavi as part of your event. You can discuss the colorful personalities in the book while sampling their wines." According to PW, “Siler can participate either in person or via speakerphone and discuss what "surprising news" led her to write the book about the famous California winemaking dynasty, what forced the Mondavi family to give up control of its company, her favorite wines and more.” The Penguin Group reading guide has a detailed wine list for a tasting session and how to arrange an interview with the author.

It looks to me as if in this case the wine list is sponsored by Mondavi. You and your group could be more independent if you wished. Perhaps you could choose to read one of the currently very popular travel and food memoirs, and arrange your own tasting of the food and drink of the region. Check out my Recent Biographies – Food Memoirs booklist on Readers Place for some ideas of where to begin.

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

In May the Norrisville book group read and discussed Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani. This book was the first in a series set in a delightful town in Virginia, called, no surprise here, Big Stone Gap! Not a lot happens to 35-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan in this quiet backwater. The highlight of her week comes on Friday, with the arrival of the Bookmobile. The novel concerns the family scandals that befall Ave Maria in this seemingly uneventful town. Greed, lust, envy all manifest themselves even in this hamlet of "ordinary folk."

Ave Maria Mulligan is the daughter of the late pharmacist of Bit Stone Gap, Va., and an immigrant Italian seamstress. She inherited the pharmacy when her father died, but it's only her mother's recent death that has made Ave realize that, at 35, she's on the shelf. When her best friend, the handsome high school band and choral director proposes and then takes it back, and the mountain-man Jack McChesney also proposes – she thinks – out of pity, Ave is in despair. To add to her emotional turmoil, a letter from her mother tells her her real father is a man who lives in Italy. All of this takes place against the backdrop of Big Stone Gap, its history, and its summer Bluegrass festival. How will Ave cope with the unexpected arrival of her entire newly discovered Italian family, and will she be able to recognize true love before it’s too late?

These are some things to consider when reading or discussing the book:
This is part of what Publisher’s Weekly had to say about Big Stone Gap: “A wholesome Cinderella story with a winning blend of '70s nostalgia and Appalachian local color, Trigiani's debut introduces a likable heroine who's smart but obtuse, needy but rejecting, and generous with affection but afraid of love.” The reviewer places Ave squarely in the tradition of romantic heroines the world over. Would you agree that she conforms to the stereotype?

Publisher’s Weekly thought the book was almost too sentimental. Would you agree with the reviewer who wrote: “What saves the narrative from sentimentality and invests it with charm is Trigiani's witty voice, her tart-tongued but appealing heroine and her ability to recall the cultural details that immerse the reader in the atmosphere of her little mining town.”

There is a lot of local color in the book – there is even reference to an actual 1978 visit to Virginia of senatorial candidate John Warner and his wife, Elizabeth Taylor – did you find this contributed to the story or was it irrelevant?

Some reviewers found the writing awkward and some of the characters overblown. What did you think?

Step Ball Change by Jeanne Ray

This week I decided to write about a book I have been reading for a discussion group I belong to. This month the group will discuss the genre known as "Hen Lit."

"Hen Lit," though not a very flattering or politically correct designation, refers to the popular fiction genre that focuses on one woman or a group of female friends and the vicissitudes of their lives as they turn sixty or so. The tone is generally warm, gentle and optimistic, but above all humorous. The emphasis is on friendship and family.

I picked out the following title and can recommend it heartily as a pleasant and easy quick read, perhaps even a beach read:

Step Ball Change by Jeanne Ray

This warm and humorous book is sure to appeal to readers who like stories of a strong, older female main character who shares with us the joys and sorrows of her family relationships. Sixty-plus Caroline lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, just as she has done for years with her public-defender husband Tom. Caroline has succesfully raised four children, while at the same time owning and running a prosperous dance studio. Caroline is a mentor and mother figure to all, including the little girls in her studio. At the same time she maintains her humanity: we warm to her disorganization at home, her guilty wish to have quality time alone with her husband, her attempts to understand her children, the fact that though she suffers from arthritis she remains young and vulnerable at heart. Chaos breaks loose at Caroline’s home when her sister announces she is getting divorced and turns up at her doorstep, her daughter announces her engagement yet can’t seem to decide whom she loves, and the foundations of the house are discovered to be in imminent danger of collapse. It is obvious from the beginning that with love and patience all dilemmas will happily be resolved – it is such a pleasure finding out just how!

Some points you might like to consider when reading or discussing Step Ball Change:

The unusual title refers to a dance step. I understood it as a metaphor for all the changes going on in Caroline's life and how quick-footed she has to be to cope with them. I also understood the decay in the foundations of Caroline's house to be a metaphor for what was happening within the family, as well as a useful device with which to bring strangers into the family mix. Do you agree with me, and do you think these literary devices work or not?

Reviewers of hen lit usually maintain that in general the characters are more superficially drawn than in more serious traditional fiction. Do you agree in this case? The publisher of this book said that we feel we have known these characters all our lives. What do you say?

Examples of the genre:

The Hot Flash Club by Nancy Thayer

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

The Ladies of Covington Send Their Love by Joan Medlicott

The Elegant Gathering of White Snows by Kris Radish

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross

Angry Housewives Eating Bon-bons by Lorna Landvik

Good Grief by Lolly Winstan

Not-So-Perfect Man by Valerie Frankel

Harlequin began publishing in this genre under the name Harlequin Next http://www.eharlequin.com/store.html?cid=357

The Known World by Edward Jones

In April 2007 a group in Edgewood discussed The Known World by Edward Jones. This book has won multiple prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The ideas in it are complex, of moral weight and intellectual and emotional power, yet subtly expressed through a story that draws you in and then unfolds in a book that is difficult to put down; though sometimes you just have to take a breather!

The book begins with a crisis which precipitates many changes in the "known world," the circumscribed world of an antebellum slave plantation. The crisis is the death of the plantation owner and the upheaval that this creates for his "property" - including his slaves - and his family. The interesting thing is that Henry Townsend, the property owner, was once a slave himself.

This is a book that takes a commitment of time, as it is so dense and complex. There is a large cast of characters, and the minutiae of the life they lead is woven in fascinating detail into the story. The characters, their relationships and motivations, are so convincing and compelling that the reader becomes emotionally involved in their fates.

The time-line of the plot is not straightforward but moves from the present and Henry’s death, to the past, and then back to the future. The past reveals how a former slave became a slave-owner. The future is revealed rather like a prophecy. It is this prefiguring, together with the simple, measured, factual narrative, that at times gives the book an almost Biblical character.

The book delivers without ever being heavy-handed a decided indictment of a society that depended on slavery. Subtly revealing the motives of the characters through their actions, the author inexorably builds up a picture of how slavery really ruined every part of society.

It is difficult to make suggestions for book discussion points without giving away the pleasures of the book to people who have not read it. I believe this book will appeal to readers who enjoy complex characterization and like to see characters develop. Edward Jones' characters are complicated: the good ones do bad things and the bad ones do good things. Enjoy coming to understand what drives them. See if you agree with me that Edward Jones' depiction of people and society in the era of slavery is remarkably free of stereotypes.

This book will certainly appeal to lovers of historical fiction, especially historical fiction that shows a depth of research into the period. For me, the book helped me understand more how such an inhumane institution as slavery could persist, especially after it ceased to benefit anybody. Look for occasions where Jones shows how slavery affected both white and black in the most insidious ways.

The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg

In October 2006 the Jarrettsville book group, Novel Ideas read and discussed The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg.

This is what Publishers Weekly said about the plot:

"Bestselling novelist Berg (Talk Before Sleep; Open House ) explores memory, love and forgiveness in her flawed but moving 12th novel. At her annual family reunion, Laura Bartone, a 50-something "quilt artist," is forced to confront the secrets that have long haunted her family. Her emotionally unstable sister, Caroline, tells Laura and their brother, Steve, that their mother abused her as a child. As Laura and Steve-whose own childhoods were reasonably happy-struggle to make sense of Caroline's accusations and wonder how they could've been oblivious to or complicit in what happened, their father dies."

Families and the complicated dynamics between their different members make wonderful subjects for literary fiction. In a novel some sort of conflict or crisis is necessary to drive the plot and to illustrate the universal dilemmas of life. Most families have conflict big or small built right into them! Though the fictional family conflicts in novels may be more extreme than we experience ourselves, many readers empathise with the characters and enjoy finding out how they resolve their dilemmas and crises. These kinds of books have lots of food for thought and make ideal book group titles. As the reviewer says, "Berg has written a nuanced account of a family's implosion, with enough ambiguity and drama to give book clubs-the book's likely audience-"plenty to discuss and to keep any reader intrigued, right up to the fittingly redemptive ending."

I would be very interested to know what participants in the discussion last October thought about the siblings' differing remembrances of their childhood. What could have caused that disconnect, and have you ever in your own life experienced a similar difference of perception? Is this difference of perception believable in the book?

Did book group members agree that the ending was "fittingly redemptive?" Please add your comments: they might help someone else decide to read the book.

For people who haven't read the book yet, here are some things you might consider when you do:

Do you think the piecing of the dark and light parts of the quilt works as a metaphor for the building of a shared family memory?

Do you agree with reviewers that Berg's insights are "penetrating" and that her characters are "carefully made real?"

If you would like to share insights and ideas on books with a group in real time, why not attend a meeting of the Novel Ideas Group?

The Group meets the fourth Monday of each month at the Jarrettsville Library from
10:30 am to Noon. For more information please contact the Jarrettsville Library at
(410) 692-7887. The moderator is Douglas Hess.

$64 Tomato

NORRISVILLE BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
THE $64 TOMATO BY William Alexander
April 2007

The Norrisville Book Discussion Group had a rollicking good time discussing the April 2007 selection, The $64 Tomato by William Alexander. Our resident (retired) Home Ec and Sex Education teacher provided the goodies this month: The famous “kiss me cake,” winner of the second ever Pillsbury bake-off. It seems that as the winner was preparing an orange cake, her husband came home in an amorous mood and distracted her from her project. With her mind on other things, she mixed the frosting in with the batter and created an instant classic.

Alexander’s more-or-less true account of his family’s move to a small town, and his subsequent obsession with creating the garden of his dreams is excruciating, instructive to the uninitiated, and laugh-aloud funny. Techie Alexander, his newly minted physician wife, and their two children move from Westchester County, New York to the perfect hamlet far from the madding crowd. Their new house, notorious in town for being dilapidated and uninhabitable, fails to smother their enthusiasm. But when the author sets out to wrestle a behemoth of a garden out of the untouched landscape, his neighbor Larry, his wife, and especially his two kids can only pity him. And even pity is difficult to muster, since Alexander willfully takes the wrong road at every fork-decision that he comes to. In fact, some readers will find his monumentally poor judgment a little irritating. Most of our group, however, appreciated the author’s self-deprecating tone and many disasters, not a few of which they themselves have experienced in the past. It felt good to see someone else get their lumps for a change, from unreliable and downright dishonest contractors to industrial strength weeds, to the shattering of the organic pipe dream, to the endless hours sucked up by this all-consuming hobby. Alexander’s story follows a path that is not entirely chronological and arrow-straight, which only seems to emphasize the atmosphere of out-of-control living described in the book. Yet our group never gave up wanting to know how it would all turn out, hoping for at least a partial victory over nature and human nature.

The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman

The Edgewood Branch of Harford County Public Library has three book clubs – one that meets in the branch on the second Thursday of each month, one that meets at the senior center on the fourth Tuesday, and one that also meets on the fourth Tuesday in the branch, but features books by African American authors. Recently, the senior group and the Thursday group both read and discussed the same book: Elinor Lipman’s The Inn at Lake Devine.

I would be delighted if one or two of the Edgewood group members would add their comments to this post. How did you enjoy the book? Did anyone else at the discussion influence how you now think of the book?

Below is a short description of The Inn at Lake Devine, and then one or two discussion points that I hope will tempt new readers to try it.

The Inn at lake Devine was first published in 1998 and has become a classic example of Elinor Lipman’s gentle and romantic social commentaries. The story starts in 1962 and is a portrait of the social upheaval and prejudice of the 1960s and 1970s. The story deals with the serious subject of anti-Semitism, though Ms. Lipman handles it with a light touch: one reviewer called the book, “delightful,” and, “both entertaining and thought-provoking.” In fact, there is considerable humor in the book as well as some distinctly eccentric characters.

The main character, Natalie Marx is a sharp, sensitive teenager growing up in a tight-knit Jewish family. She is shocked, when in response to a query, her mother receives a note from a Vermont inn saying more or less that Jews are not welcome to stay there. Natalie becomes fixated on the people who could say such things, and she does all she can to see them face to face. She and her father use an assumed name and visit the inn from their vacation house the other side of the lake. Another year, Natalie enveigles an invitation to stay there with a friend, blending in as one of her family. A good ten years later, when Natalie is invited to her friend’s wedding at the inn, she can finally infiltrate the bastions as herself. Her professional and romantic life become hopelessly entangled with the rigidly prejudiced proprietor and her two sons when, despite a tragedy, Natalie falls in love. Will love triumph and put prejudice to rout?

Different reviewers have said the following things about The Inn at Lake Devine. Would you agree or disagree?...

“Skillfully interweaving the bittersweet narrative with threads of both tragedy and comedy, Lipman displays a healthy amount of empathy and affection for her flawed and slightly eccentric cast of characters.”

“…this very funny novel…”

“…skewering of assimilation and cultural diversity…”

“Natalie's search for answers to unanswerable questions…”

For more information about Edgewood branch book groups, please call 410-612-1600.

You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett

The “Novel Ideas” book group meets at the Jarrettsville branch of HCPL at 10:30 AM on the fourth Monday of each month. Recently they selected a title that strikes me as being an innovative choice and a difficult book to discuss. They chose You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett, a debut short story collection that explores different aspects of depression and mental illness.

As Claire Dederer, a reviewer at Amazon.com says, “Adam Haslett drags into the light subjects often left in the cellar.” Most of the stories are told from the viewpoint of the mentally ill, though one is told by the doctor in the case. Others are stories are about closeted homosexuals: boys who are coming to terms with their identity and men who never have.

Despite the sensational topics, Haslett writes quietly, plainly and with truth and sensitivity about the people in his stories. As Ms. Dederer said, “this is a beautifully written collection that's as heartfelt as it is intelligent.”

Members of the Novel Ideas group, and anyone else who has read the book, do please add your comments to this posting. Below are some questions that might bear discussion, or contribute your own insights to the dialog.

Did you find a book of short stories difficult to discuss? Did you find that the collection had any themes that made it hang together?

What did you think of the beauty of the writing?

In The Good Doctor, Haslett writes of Frank, a young MD, "The fact was he still felt like a sponge, absorbing the pain of the people he listened to." In your opinion, is the reader of these stories likely to be able to cope with all the pain of all the people?

The next meeting of the Novel Ideas will be at 10:30 AM on Monday, April 23, 2007. They will discuss When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka. For information call (410) 692-7887.

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan wins Texas Book Award

Timothy Egan, a reporter for the New York Times, has won the fourth
biennial Texas Christian University Texas Book Award for The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. The $5,000 award is sponsored by the Friends of the TCU Library and TCU Press.

The book has also won other awards:

The 2006 National Book Award for nonfiction
The Oklahoma Book Award
The Western Heritage(Wrangler)Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.

The Worst Hard Time would be a good book to read following The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin. A few days ago I posted a description of The Children’s Blizzard, which was read recently by one of HCPL’s book groups.

In The Worst Hard Time, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Timothy Egan follows, in a similar scheme to Laskin, a few pioneering families and an overwhelming disaster that overtook them, this time during the period of the Dust Bowl. In this book the disasters the families lived through, both economic and ecological, were man-made. Egan writes how eight years of drought on the windy plains, which had been ploughed up for wheat, led to an endless series of dust storms or “black blizzards.” "Dust clouds boiled up, ten thousand feet or more in the sky, and rolled like moving mountains." As Egan shows, the plains were not suited to arable farming and with the drought all the topsoil was blown into the air. Like Laskin, Egan spends a while describing the hardy Americans and immigrants who settled the area, desperate in the Depression for a piece of land and lured there by the false claims of promoters. Egan interviewed actual survivors of those hard times, and the book is filled with tales of courage and suffering. As well as stories of privation, there are horrific accounts of the effects of the black blizzard, such as the "dust pneumonia" which killed both young and old. Publishers Weekly said, “With characters who seem to have sprung from a novel by Sinclair Lewis or Steinbeck, and Egan's powerful writing, this account will long remain in readers' minds.”

BlogaBook Points of Discussion

Publishers Weekly compares The Worst Hard Time to the novels of Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis. What do you think?

What remains most in your mind when you have finished this book?

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin

The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin

In January the Books By the Bay book group met in the Havre de Grace branch of Harford County Public Library and discussed The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin.

On January 12 1888 a blizard struck the Great Plains region, killing about 500 people, 100 of whom were schoolchildren, who were totally unprepared and unprotected from what happened. The children’s parents were the brave immigrants who had recently settled the area. They are portrayed as totally naïve about the land they had settled, and so ignorant of what the local weather could do that on an unseasonably warm day many allowed their children to attend school without coats, hats and mittens. During the day the temperature dropped rapidly, and a blizzard ensued that many remembered as the worst that the area had ever seen.

The story has two main threads. The first is the story of five immigrant families and what happened to them in the storm. The families are put into the context of the great push into the upper Great Plains, especially by immigrants from Norway, Germany and Russia. Laskin goes into considerable detail of the immigrant experience, the hardships they faced, what made them leave home in the first place.

The second main thread is the story of the inner workings of the US Army Signal Corps, which was then in charge of weather forecasting. There is considerable detail about the formation of severe storms and the science of meteorolgy at the time.

When the storm hit, many children were trapped at school. Laskin relates the differing and sometimes heroic actions of the teachers. There are stories of heroism and also of senseless tragedy.

BlogaBook Discussion Points

Chapters about the settlers are alternated with chapters about the fledgling weather service. One reviewer felt that, “Laskin is at his best when he relates the heartbreaking stories of the storm’s victims; the chapters on weather history interrupt the book’s flow.” Would you agree with this?

Another reviewer found the book to be, “somewhat information-heavy.” Would you agree, or do you think with the reviewer that the possible drawback of the density of the detail is balanced by the empathy we feel for the children? How do you think Laskin provokes this empathy in the reader?

More reviewers found the story to be, “gripping,” “spellbinding,” “well-told, “adroit,” “sensitive,” and “horrific.” Was this true for you, or did you get bogged down in all the separate threads and the historical detail?

Click on “comments” to post your own comment. You may be anonymous. Comments may be edited for things like bad language, but generally your comments stand as you post them.

Books By the Bay meet on the third Friday of the month at 11:30 AM. For details contact 410-638-3151.

Free Online Book Clubs

If you like to talk books, there are a number of new venues online where you can participate in a book club without leaving your computer. In my last blog I suggested a few websites where book group leaders and members might go to get suggestions for titles for future discussions. The sites I am suggesting this time go beyond recommending good books and providing discussion guides and author interviews to allowing members to post their own comments and be part of an ongoing book discussion.

Booklist Online Book Club is a partnership between Booklist and the Downers Grove Public Library in Downers Grove, Illinois. Every month they add new book discussions moderated by Downers Grove staff. They post a short critique of each book and one or two comments or questions to spur discussion. Then members or guests can go online and add their comments or view what other people have said.

Bookspace at Hennepin County Library has a book clubs blog. Registration is required, but it is free. A new feature of Bookspace allows readers to add their own booklists to the website. Book clubs can view what other clubs have been reading. Readers can also post their own comments on the blog.

Barnes and Noble has introduced a new service: free online book clubs. This is intended as an online community of writers, literary experts, and readers. There are over 25 discussions happening right now, including conversations with authors, expert-led book groups, writing advice, discussions on topics such as Mystery, History, Romance, and more.

And finally, there is Harford County Public Library! BlogaBook is your very own opportunity to find out what book groups in your community are reading and thinking. Your editor and your book group leaders will be posting critiques of books just read by HCPL book groups, plus discussion questions, and sometimes comments on how the discussions went and what participants felt.

Join Blogabook with your comments and enrich the dialog! All you have to do is click on “post a comment” and then type in the box, then “publish your comment.” You can be anonymous if you wish. Though the comments may be edited for things such as bad language, generally your opinion will stand as you write it. We welcome a chance to talk with you about books!

Elizabeth

Finding Good Books For Your Book Club

Sometimes it can be a bit of a daunting task finding good books for your book club. Not every book will spark a lively and meaningful discussion, no matter how good it is of its kind, so looking at what is popular and in the news at the moment is not always a good strategy. Sometimes it’s just hard to think of where else to start looking for suggestions. The more voracious readers in your club may have lots of suggestions, but they have already read the books and want to try something new. Other club members may have joined for a bit more guidance in their reading, and they are stumped. Most successful book clubs prefer to choose their books by consensus rather than be directed by a leader; so where do you start?

Now that book clubs and reading groups are all the rage, it’s actually easy to find lots of guidance, particularly online. In fact, it might almost be said that book groups are now faced with a fresh problem of choice: which book discussion group site to go to first for help!

HarperCollins.com Reading group and reading tips, reading guides, invite the author, newsletters, etc

Penguin Group (USA) Click on “Special Interest” and then on “Reading Guides”

Reading Group Center The Reading Group Source Vintage Books – Anchor Books ”Vintage and Anchor Books invite you to discover today's best selections for reading groups and access useful resources to facilitate your group discussion here at the Reading Group Center.

Reading Group Choices: Selections for Lively Book Discussions Reading Group Choices is an opinionated guide of great books to read and discuss that have been published by independent presses as well as major publishers

ReadingGroupGuides.com ReadingGroupGuides.com is part of The Book Report Network and is the first website built especially for reading groups, providing them with all they need to make their book club experience better than ever. Features include reviews, over 1400 reading group guides, a newsletter, and book group interviews.

The Modern Library: Reading Group Guides Modern Library's Reading Guides are starting points for book discussions led by readers. Modern Library is an imprint of Random House.

Now that you have a range of resources to help you find the perfect book that will spark discussion in your group, spend some time surfing the sites and all the tempting reviews, author interviews, and discussion guides. I guarantee that you will have almost as much fun as reading the books! You will find lots of books to pick from, and almost certainly you will enrich your appreciation of what you read and discuss.

Look out for my next blog, when I will be recommending some actual online book clubs that you can join. You can make comments, or alternatively just visit and see lots of examples of people commenting on their own reading.

Elizabeth