An Author's Passing ...

For those who haven't heard ...

From The New York Times:

Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 78 and lived in Manhattan and Roxbury, Conn.

Mr. McCourt spent three decades as a teacher of English and creative writing in New York City’s public schools. As Eric Konigsberg writes, Mr. McCourt was the first to say that “those years, while depriving him of the time to actually write, were what made a writer out of him.” And his students learned from him that “literature was nothing more — and nothing less — than the telling of stories.”

Our club hasn't read any of his books together but several members read Angela's Ashes for our book report meetings or on their own. The literary world is much poorer without his humor, that's for certain.

Meeting Recap: Little Bee, by Chris Cleave

I completely forgot to post link to the meeting recap I wrote for Reading Group Guides. You can read it here - hope you enjoy it!

And a big thank you to Kara for hosting us on her lovely porch. We all had a great time.

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!

Check out this review ...

In August we're reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. At our last meeting most of you hadn't heard of this book and (of course) thought the title was really odd. I just came across a review that I'd love for you to check out. It is a quick read but it gets to the heart of why this book is getting so much attention lately.

Here's an excerpt from the review:

I couldn’t put it down. It was the kind of book that made me angry at the doctor for running on time so I couldn’t keep reading it. It was the kind of book that made me seriously consider telling the babysitter that the doctor was running late so I could read it.

Sounds great, right?! You can read the rest of the review here.

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!

Meeting Recap and Upcoming Books

Thanks to Kara for a wonderful hostessing job yesterday. The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed sitting out on her screened-in porch. Plus, the food was FANTASTIC!

Two big announcements were made at yesterday's meeting ...

• Kara is pregnant! She's due Jan. 27th.
• Melissa's dissertation was accepted! She'll get her PhD on Aug. 16th.

Congratulations to both lovely ladies!

We had a good discussion of LITTLE BEE by Chris Cleave. This was the book I nominated so I was pleased most of the gals enjoyed it. Our discussion centered around social justice issues and how much one individual is responsible for doing to save another. We also discussed the different ways the book impacted us, much of which depended on who we are at this point in our lives.

After our discussion we voted on our next three books. The way this works is that each person ranks the books in order from most preferred (#1) to least preferred (#8). Once I add up the totals for each book the three books with the lowest total scores (meaning the most #1 votes) are the winners.

Here are the results of the voting (remember, lower is better).

Our next three books:

The Art of Racing In the Rain
44 points

Till We Have Faces
46 points

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
48 points


Out of the running:

The Shack
52 points

The Red Tent
53 points

Still Alice
54 points

Liberty and Tyranny
66 points

Testimony
68 points

I'll post our meeting schedule as soon as the hostesses confirm the dates. Happy reading everyone!

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…