October is National Reading Group Month!

In honor of National Reading Group Month here are some links to check out:

• nine great group reads as chosen by the Women's National Book Association
• videos from the book club panel I moderated at the Baltimore Book Festival called "The Book Club Toolkit"
• Reading Group Guides' list of discussion questions for hundreds of different books
• Reading Group Choices' list of discussable books

This month our club is reading THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE, by Kevin Roose. I'm looking forward to the discussion that will result from this unusual book!

Next Meeting: The Art of Racing in the Rain

Author Garth Stein has lots of fun things available to help promote his book THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN and I'm having a great time checking them all out. Go to this website to find iron-on decals for t-shirts, Enzo's song (!), and images of the book's cover in other countries. I've even been able to create a custom poster for our next meeting - I'll be emailing it shortly so watch your inboxes.

Our next meeting is Sunday, July 19 @ 3pm - hope to see many of you there!

Summer Schedule

SdelleS Summer 2009 Schedule

The Art of Racing In the Rain (Kara's book)
Sunday, July 19th @ 3pm
at Bev's house

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Jennifer's book)
Saturday, Aug. 8th @ noon
Progressive Pool Party!
Starts at Annette's house for drinks, appetizers, and the beginning of the discussion (plus some pool time) then moves to Nancy's house for lunch, more discussion, and more pool. If it rains the party will be inside at Annette's house.

Till We Have Faces (Melissa's book)
Wednesday, Sept. 16 @ 6pm at Chevy's
Happy Hour means 1/2 price margaritas and appetizers!

Links for Little Bee

On June 16th we'll be discussing LITTLE BEE by Chris Cleave. Here are some links to check out, but only after you finish reading the book. Many of them contain spoilers so consider yourself warned.

• Chris is interviewed on The Early Show
• the book trailer for the UK version, entitled THE OTHER HAND
  
• discussion questions - we'll be using many of these at our meeting, and maybe some of the "book club enhancements" as well*
  
• an in-depth interview covering the background of the book, refugees, and many other topics
• and another interview with the author
  

And here is a video I found on Chris Cleave's website.



These links, along with the book itself, should give us ample fodder for discussion, don't you think?

* Here's an excerpt from this interview that I thought might be interesting to the club:

Do you have any tips you would give a book club to enhance their discussion of Little Bee?

Absolutely — first I’d suggest some books you could read in conjunction with it. The Grapes of Wrath is arguably Steinbeck’s greatest novel, and it’s also a refugee novel. It’s really asking the same question Little Bee is asking: how much help should people with relatively secure lives afford to those who have nothing, simply out of human solidarity? Then, for some non-fiction context, I’d recommend A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, a veteran of the conflict in Sierra Leone. And Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees by Caroline Moorehead, an excellent and dedicated journalist.

Next I’d suggest some fun stuff you could try. Little Bee says, “I have noticed, in your country, I can say anything so long as I say that is the proverb in my country. Then people will nod their heads and look very serious”. If yours is the sort of book club that enjoys a glass of wine with your literature, then why not try making up some proverbs of your own. The more gravely you recite them, the wiser you will sound. On the same lines, why not get the members of your book club to rename each other according to their personality traits, the way Udo (Little Bee) and Nkiruka (Kindness) do in the novel. You could award prizes for the best efforts…

Meeting Schedule: April - June '09

The next few months should be pretty exciting for our club. Here’s what we’re planning:

Saturday, April 18th – CityLit Festival & Book Discussion

Our book this month is The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz (nominated by Beth). We will meet at The CityLit Festival (at the Pratt in Baltimore) to hear the author speak from 3-4pm. After his talk, we’ll walk 2 blocks to a coffee shop and to discuss the book.

CityLit runs from 10am-5pm. For a complete listing of events click on this link.


Tuesday, May 12th – Queen of the Road & Author Chat

Stephanie is hosting us at her house in Arnold beginning at 6:30pm. Author Doreen Orion will (hopefully) being calling in to our meeting to discuss her very funny book Queen of the Road. We may have to reschedule for another date so I’ll keep you posted on that. This book was nominated by Amy.

[Unfortunately I'll have to miss this meeting. I just found out James has an award ceremony that night and I can't miss it.]

Sunday, June 14th – Little Bee

We’ll meet at Kara’s house in Crownsville at 2pm to discuss Little Bee, by Chris Cleave. Sorry, no author event this month. But we will get to enjoy Kara’s lovely porch! This book was nominated by me.


And to give you an idea of what is coming this summer …

Our July meeting will be on a weeknight at Chevy’s for happy hour. We’ll have a weekend meeting in August for our annual pool party, and in September we’ll meet at Chevy’s on a weeknight again.

Winter 2009 Meeting Schedule

Due to schedule conflicts we made an adjustment to our meeting schedule for early 2009. Here is the revised schedule for your reference.

Monday, January 26

Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri

nominated by Melissa

at Lenore's house in Annapolis

Saturday, February 28

Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult

nominated by Kara

at Beth's house in Annapolis

Thusday, March 26

The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver

nominated by Bev

at Cyndi's house in Linthicum

Happy reading to you all!

Books for 2009 (January - March)

At our last meeting we voted on the books we'd like to read over the next few months. Here's what we decided on:

January

Interpreter of Maladies

by Jhumpa Lahiri

nominated by Melissa

February

Change of Heart

by Jodi Picoult

nominated by Kara

March

The Bean Trees

by Barbara Kingsolver

nominated by Bev

We'll be setting meeting dates at our Christmas party on 12/21 so please remember to bring your calendar. And feel free to read ahead if you want to!

Ideas for Christmas Books

For our Christmas party we are reading any Christmas book of our choice.* Here's a list of suggested titles for those who need some extra inspiration:

• In keeping with the Jackie O theme from a few months ago, here's a Christmas book by her daughter Caroline.
• Try this list of Christmas books on Amazon.com to give you some ideas.
• This article lists more Christmas themed books including some mysteries.
• Want some light reading? Try these Christmas books for children.
• Read the Christmas story in the Bible (in Luke).
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever looks like a fun book.
• Truman Capote wrote a short story called A Christmas Memory that you can read online.
• This Christmas book is small - only 75 pages and 5x7".
• Here are some classic Christmas stories that you can read online.
• Southern Christmas fiction, anyone?
• And another online Christmas book - this one includes three short stories.
• Carrie suggested The Christmas Sweater, a new book.
• Here are several heartwarming Christmas books.
• How about a Christmas take on Pilgrim's Progress?

I can't wait to see what everyone chooses to read. At the meeting we'll do our Book Report format which means that everyone gets a chance to talk about their book for a few minutes. It should be fun!

*If you feel strongly about reading something else then go for it!

More Info on Jackie O.

Here are some interesting links to check out as you are reading about Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis this month.

• The National First Ladies Library has a brief summary of her life as well as some unique tidbits about her experiences as First Lady
• An article based on an interview she did just after her husband's assassination
• News footage and interviews from after the assassination
• Photos from her life
  
• Jackie's obituary
  
• Info about Jackie's grave site in Arlington National Cemetery
• Read her Last Will and Testament
• Lots of info/videos/photos about Jackie in the movies
• Quotes by and about Jackie

Schedule for the rest of 2008

October 7
your choice of any biography of Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy
(bring your book to the meeting to compare)
chosen by Annette
meeting at Lures Bar & Grille, Crownsville

November 15
The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls
chosen by Nancy
meeting at Melissa's house

December 21
Christmas Party & Planning Meeting, and
The Memory Keepers Daughter
by Kim Edwards
chosen by Joan
meeting at Jessica's house

Guest Blog Posts & Reminder

Remember me telling you that I'm now an official contributor to the blog at ReadingGroupGuides.com? Well my newest post is up!

Click here to read my recap of our meeting with DL Wilson, and then click here to read HIS thoughts on our meeting - how cool is that?!

(His post is dated Aug. 1 so if you click over after today you'll have to scroll down the page a bit.)

Please post a comment over there and let me know what you think about both posts!

~~~~~~~~~

Nancy wanted me to remind you all to bring bug spray to the pool party at her house on Sunday. She says the mosquitoes are getting worse every day. :(

I have our books!

Hi ladies - David dropped off signed copies of his book Unholy Grail today! I'll have them for you at our meeting on Sunday. He was also kind enough to give me an extra signed copy that I can give away on my other blog - how cool!

As I mentioned in the emails, David is looking for constructive criticism on this book. He suggested that we each make of list of the three things we like most and the three things we like least about his book. I think this is an excellent idea that will lead to a great discussion.

FYI, David is very easy to talk to; I think our meeting with him will be very comfortable and informative. He brought the books to my office this afternoon and we had a few minutes to chat before he left again. He let me know that he asked our club to read his book for two main reasons. First, we read books from different genres (unlike some other clubs who stick with the same types of books each month). Second, we don't always agree about the books. He wants to hear from diverse readers who know how to verbalize their thoughts - good or bad - on a book. Like I said, he was very easy to talk to and I'm looking forward to our meeting more than ever.

For those of you who will not be at the meeting at Nicole's on Sunday, I'll work out a time/place to get your book to you. I hope you are enjoying The Kite Runner ... I'm sure we'll have LOTS to talk about at the meeting!

Recap: The Poisonwood Bible (Part II)

We had our final meeting for The Poisonwood Bible this past Saturday at Bev's house. Bev had a wonderful brunch for all of us - thanks Bev!

Our discussion was a bit crazy this time. From what I can tell, everyone really enjoyed this book. ALMOST everyone liked the 2nd half better than the first. One person liked the first better, and the rest of us decided that the 2 halves together are what makes the book so fascinating.

Here's a recap of some of our main discussion topics:

• the death of the daughter (I won't say which, in case those who didn't read it still want to!)
• Leah's marriage to Anatole (Annette fell in love with him through the audio book!)
• Nathan's death, and the biblical story it reflected
• how Nathan's decisions affected the girls throughout their lives
• the concepts of "muntu" and "nommo" and how that relates to the "eyes in the trees"
• more explanation of The Apocrypha - what it is, which churches accept it, etc.
• the position of women in society - in many ways they were limited by the resources they could control (not many resources in most cases) and oblivious or perhaps deliberately not aware of the larger political/social/etc. situation around them (Orleanna is a great example of this)
• Rachel as a character (this caused much debate as one member tried to defend Rachel's opinions and another member tried to justify her actions and most of the other members disagreed with both of them), and her amusing misuse of language (gotta love her for that!)
  
• Adah before and after "losing her slant"
• how each daughter changed from the first half of the book
• how the author shows the Congo to be a woman, and a character of the book
• the difference between European colonization in America and in Africa

Here's how we rated the book: there was one 8, four 9s, and five 10s. That gives us an average of 9.4 ... the second highest rating we've ever given! (FYI, the highest rating was 9.8 ... but only 6 people voted in that pole. That book was Memoirs of a Geisha.)

Our next meeting is set for June 8 at 2pm at Nicole's house. Bev chose our book, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Since there is a movie version, we MAY watch it at the meeting ... we'll decide as time gets closer.

As always, feel free to post any comments about the book, the discussion, or anything related to our club. Happy Reading!

Next Meeting: The Poisonwood Bible (Part 1)

Our next meeting is set for March 29 at 2pm. We will discuss Books 1-3 of The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. Here are some questions/ideas to consider as you read ...

• Where does the title of the book come from? Does this give you any insight into the theme of the book?
  
• Take notice of the different voices of the 5 narrators ... do you have a favorite?
• Why doesn't Nathan get to tell his part of the story? Do you think he should, or is the book better because he doesn't?
  

Of course, you can always use the questions on the bookmarks I gave out at the last meeting. Those are helpful when reading ANY book for discussion.

Happy Reading!

____________

I just found an excellent summary of the book on ReadingGroupGuides.com ... I'm posting it here for everyone:

God's Kingdom in its pure, unenlightened glory. So fourteen-year-old Leah Price expects when, in the summer of 1959, she arrives in the Congo with her family. Her Baptist-preacher father, Reverend Nathan Price, assigned to Kilanga mission, is determined to enlighten the savages and to rule his family with strict biblical sanction. Leah's twin, Adah, the victim of hemiplegia at birth, limps along and maintains silence. Fifteen-year-old Rachel resents being dropped on "this dread dark shore" far from America's fashions and comforts. Ruth May, five years old, faints. And their mother, Orleanna, readies herself to protect them all from whatever perils may come--from jungle, river, or father and his terrible God. From 1959 through 1998, the Price sisters tell their stories, in alternating narratives that reflect their ages as the years pass and the understandings that they achieve. Those stories--together with Orleanna's retrospective commentaries--reveal the amazing forty-year saga that the Prices and the Congo share. Cultural and spiritual conflicts, confusion and revelation, hunger and pleasure, cruelties and kindness, suffering and love, all combine with the day-to-day life in Africa's villages to enrich this wondrous tale. This is Barbara Kingsolver's most daring, complex, and rewarding novel--a whopping good story told with tender majesty. The wisdom that Rachel, Adah, Leah, Ruth May, and Orleanna wrest from their lives is also ours.

Next Meeting: Me Talk Pretty One Day

For our next meeting Anna chose Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. This has been on my "To Be Read" list for about a year so for me this is a a great choice. ;)

Next Meeting Details ...

Hosted by: Nancy
Date: Feb. 17 @ 2pm
Theme: Parisian Brunch
Food: Please check the evite for Nancy's menu suggestions.

Next Book Picker: me!
Next Book: The Poisonwood Bible

Our current book is really a collection of short humorous essays about the author's life. For the meeting, pick one or two favorites ... it will be fun to see what everyone else finds entertaining!

If you want to hear the author read some of the chapters from this book, and also his commentary on NPR, check out the links below. They are hysterical!

Life in New York City
The Sex of French Nouns
Inside French Health Care
The City of Lights in the Dark

Next Meeting: Reading Lolita in Tehran

Our meeting is almost here ... finally!!!!

Just a few reminders about our Christmas Party this Saturday (Jan. 12 @ 2pm @ Steph's):

• Please bring a wrapped book (new or used) for our book exchange.
• Steph is doing a tapas-style meal so bring a dish of something to share that goes with that theme

It's been quite a while since I read our current book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi. I'm reviewing my notes tonight (after our Christmas dinner with my mom and dad - they were in FL for Christmas), so hopefully I'll remember everything for tomorrow!

Here is a list of some of the questions/topics that we’ll discuss at the meeting, in case you want to think about your answers ahead of time:

1 – According to Nafisi, how is the Ayatollah Khomeini like Humbert in Lolita?

2 - Think about "the blind censor" and how he relates to the larger story.

3 - Consider the position of women in Iran before the revolution versus their position during Nafisi's story.

4 - Why did the regime feel it necessary to ban/restrict most books? Why did it matter what the people were reading? What did the government fear?

5 - In your opinion, should books ever be censored or banned? Why or why not? Are there circumstances that would be an exception to your rule?

6 – What is “home” to you? Is it a place, people, things? Is it stationary or “portable”?

7 - Nafisi focused on two specific novels, Lolita and The Great Gatsby, and on two specific authors, Henry James and Jane Austen. Why did she choose these and not others? What was the relation between the books/authors and Nafisi and her students in Tehran at that specific time?

8 - And finally, the message at the core of the book - What is the real value of fiction? Why should we read it? Is it meant solely for enjoyment or is there something more to "great fiction"? I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these topics and more!

See you all tomorrow!

- Heather

PS. If you’d like to hear Azar Nafisi herself, here are some links you may enjoy:
http://www.authorbytes.com/abmediaplayer/readerscircle10/player.htm http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3617 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5140411773302656963 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4602009390796832062