Tenth Meeting: The Book Thief

This Month's Book:

The Book Thief

by

Markus Zusak

-576 pages-

Markus Zusak's unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul.

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

The Plan:

• Discuss The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Vote for new books.

Discussion Highlights:

We all enjoyed this book. Beautifully written, but some of us didn't expect it to be so deep. Although it is during WWII and involves a hiding Jewish man, we were under the impression it was written for (older) children so the depth of dealing with death was surprising. Most of us did find the narrator used as a very creative and unique point of view. While it ends on a good note, it left everyone with a very somber feeling.

Book Votes (January-February):

• Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Hard Mode Book Votes (Optional reads for January-February):

• Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin (Book One of the M.Y.T.H. Adventures series)
• Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

Off topic highlights:

How to make the scheduling more efficient so more members can start attending regularly. Making Hardmode meetings an official option. After this entry, Hard Mode will have separate entries from regular meetings. Refer to separate entries for Hard Mode books below:

First Hard Mode: Ender's Game
Second Hard Mode: Another Fine Myth

Next Month's Book:

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

by

Neil Gaiman

-432 pages-

Our 11th month meeting will be January 22, 2014! Have a Happy New Year and can't wait to see you then!

First Hard Mode: Ender's Game

This Month's Book:

Ender's Game
by
Orson Scott Card
-352 pages-

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut--young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives, that is.

Discussion Highlights:

We all really enjoyed this book! Everyone was sucked in from the very beginning and we couldn't put it down! We did have different views on the detailed battle training scenes. Some of us really found the detail fascinating and others just didn't really care, but still found it interesting.

Next Month's Book:

Another Fine Myth

by

Robert Asprin

-200 pages-

Our 2nd Hard Mode meeting will be February 1, 2014! Happy a Happy New Year and can't wait to see you there!

Ninth Meeting: The Sugar Queen

This Month's Book:

The Sugar Queen

by

Sarah Addison Allen

-294 pages-

In this irresistible novel, Sarah Addison Allen, author of the New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets—and secret passions—are about to change her life forever.

Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds her closet harboring Della Lee Baker, a local waitress who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey’s narrow existence quickly expands. She even bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who is hounded by books that inexplicably appear when she needs them—and who has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. Soon Josey is living in a world where the color red has startling powers, and passion can make eggs fry in their cartons. And that’s just for starters.

Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love—and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.

The Plan:

• Discuss The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen.
• Vote for new books.

Discussion Highlights:
We had mixed feelings about this book. It is a fast read. Out of all the characters, maybe only three characters were likable and they were not main characters. Barely supporting characters. The main character, Josey, is extremely sheltered, whiney and really loves sweets. The way she would think about them is borderline sexual. The mystery of Della Lee was disappointing. There were so many unanswered questions which is sometimes okay after reading a book, but the author really could have expanded on some of the details of her characters. Such as...WHY IN THE WORLD ARE BOOKS APPEARING TO CHLOE? Who does it? WHAT does it? The book just stops talking about it. We were really expecting heartwarming growth with Josey's mom, but no. She stays horrible to Josey even after she finds happiness. This book was just so frustrating. It had potential to be a sweet, cute, heartwarming book. We wanted to like it, but when the climax came it crashed and burned.

We voted for our newest member's book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Off topic highlights: Not many of the members seem interested in science fiction, horror, or other genres related to that nature but some of us would like to read books in those genres. Testing out reading an extra book for the month and having an extra OPTIONAL meeting the week before the regular meeting. Book chosen for Hard Mode is the first book of the Ender Quintet:

Ender's Game 

by 

Orson Scott Card
-352 pages-

Next Month's Book:

The Book Thief

by

Markus Zusak

-576 pages-

Our 10th monthly meeting will be December 19, 2013! See you there!

Eighth Meeting: The Paris Wife

This Month's Book:

The Paris Wife 

by 

Paula McLain

 -314 pages-

A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Hadley.

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight year old who has all but given up on love and happiness--until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group --the fabled "Lost Generation"--that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.

Discussion Highlights:
Everyone enjoyed this book very much! We all loved seeing Ernest Hemingway through the eyes of someone else. McLain does a wonderful job at bringing to life a true story through fiction. We could all relate to Hadley in someway and we all agreed that while Ernest Hemingway was a brilliant writer, he was a sad and horrible person.


Next Month's Book:

The Sugar Queen

by

Sarah Addison Allen

-294 pages-

Our 9th monthly meeting will be November 18, 2013! See you there!

Seventh Meeting: All the Lonely People

This Month's Book:

All the Lonely People

by

Jess Riley

-274 pages-

This wry, touching novel from the author of Driving Sideways follows a cast of five endearing misfits who form a family of choice to try and make sense of their families of origin.

WANTED: A whole new family to share holidays with. Please have a good heart and be a thoughtful, polite person. No sociopaths, no pedophiles, no fans of the Kardashians. We're not weirdos, I promise. I love old Steve Martin movies, new Steve Martin banjo tunes, Indian food, and reruns of Bob Ross painting happy little trees. So if you're looking for something other than the typical family dysfunction this Christmas, drop us a line.

After losing her beloved mother to cancer, 37-year-old Jaime Collins must confront the ugly fact that she and her siblings don't actually like one another. At all. Fueled by grief and an epic argument at Thanksgiving dinner, Jaime decides to divorce her brother and sister and posts an ad on Craigslist for a new family with whom to share Christmas dinner.

What happens next is a heartwarming, funny, and surprising journey to forgiveness and healing. Is blood really thicker than water? What makes a family? And how far do we have to go to find our way back home again?

Dedicated to anyone who has ever wanted to unfriend a relative on Facebook, All the Lonely People is about family: those you make...and those you make peace with.

Discussion Highlights:

The concept of the book was humorous and somewhat relatable, because honestly, who hasn't imagined finding a new family? Also, the fact that most of our members found the book club through a Craiglist ad was a funny happenstance. But the author's lack of deeper characters and more researched back stories left a bitter taste in our mouths.  It was hard to accept some of what she tried to pass off as truth. 

Next Month's Book:

The Paris Wife

by

Paula McLain

-314 pages-

Our 8th monthly meeting will be on October 21st, 2013! See you there!

Sixth Meeting: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

This Month’s Book:

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

by

Neil Gaiman

-181 pages-

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered

past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

Discussion Highlights:

Fantastic book! Great story, imagery, and themes. A favorite by everyone and the best discussion so far! While a book for adults, it still had those elements of fairy tales we heard and read as a child. It even left us with questions. Whose funeral was the main character attending? Why doesn't he remember what happened outside of the property? Are the Hempstocks really three different people? How was his relationship with his parents after everything went back to normal?


Next Month’s Host and Book:

All the Lonely People

by

Jess Riley

-274 pages-

Our 7th monthly meeting will be September 26, 2013! See you then!

Fifth Meeting: Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

This Month’s Book:

Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

by

Jack Mayer

-396 pages-

During World War II, Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker, organized a rescue network of fellow social workers to save 2,500 Jewish children from certain death in the Warsaw ghetto. Incredibly, after the war her heroism, like that of many others, was suppressed by communist Poland and remained virtually unknown for 60 years. Unknown, that is, until three high school girls from an economically depressed, rural school district in southeast Kansas stumbled upon a tantalizing reference to Sendler's rescues, which they fashioned into a history project, a play they

called Life in a Jar. Their innocent drama was first seen in Kansas, then the Midwest, then New York, Los Angeles, Montreal, and finally Poland, where they elevated Irena Sendler to a national hero, championing her legacy of tolerance and respect for all people.

Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project is a Holocaust history and more. It is the inspirational story of Protestant students from Kansas, each carrying her own painful burden, each called in her own complex way to the history of a Catholic woman who knocked on Jewish doors in the Warsaw ghetto and, in Sendler's own words, "tried to talk the mothers out of their children." Inspired by Irena Sendler, they are living examples of the power of one person to change the world and models for young people everywhere.

60% of the sales of this book are donated to the Irena Sendler/Life in a Jar Foundation. The foundation promotes Irena Sendler's legacy and encourages educators and students to emulate the project by focusing on unsung heroes in history to teach respect and understanding among all people, regardless of race, religion, or creed.

The Plan:

• Discuss Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project by Jack Mayer. 
• Vote for new reads!

Discussion Highlights:
Everyone agrees this was a wonderful book. Only thing some of us didn’t like was all the information on the girls who started the project. We wanted to know more about Irena! We had a great discussion about Irena and what she did for her country.

Book Votes (August-November):

• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (181 pp.)
• All the Lonely People by Jess Riley (274 pp.)
• The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (352 pp.)
• The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (294 pp.)

Off topic highlights:
Getting to know our new member! Kids, other books, adding new members. Possibility of moving meeting to Mondays or Tuesdays once a month.


Next Month's Book:

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

by

Neil Gaiman

-181 pages-

Our 6th monthly meeting will be August 26, 2013. See you there!

Fourth Meeting: Caucasia

This Month’s Book:

Caucasia

by

Danzy Senna

-432 pages-

Birdie and Cole are the daughters of a black father and a white mother, intellectuals and activists in the Civil Rights Movement in 1970s Boston. The sisters are so close that they have created a private language, yet to the outside world they can't be sisters: Birdie appears to be white, while Cole is dark enough to fit in with the other kids at the Afrocentric school they attend. For Birdie, Cole is the mirror in which she can see her own blackness.

Then their parents' marriage falls apart. Their father's new black girlfriend won't even look at Birdie, while their mother gives her life over to the Movement: at night the sisters watch mysterious men arrive with bundles shaped like rifles.

One night Birdie watches her father and his girlfriend drive away with Cole—they have gone to Brazil, she will later learn, where her father hopes for a racial equality he will never find in the States. The next morning—in the belief that the Feds are after them—Birdie and her mother leave everything behind: their house and possessions, their friends, and—most disturbing of all—their identity. Passing as the daughter and wife of a deceased Jewish professor, Birdie and

her mother finally make their home in New Hampshire. Desperate to find Cole, yet afraid of betraying her mother and herself to some unknown danger, Birdie must learn to navigate the white world—so that when she sets off in search of her sister, she is ready for what she will find. A powerful coming-of-age story and a groundbreaking work on identity and race in America.

The Plan:

• Discuss Caucasia by Danzy Senna.
• Reminder that next month is a voting month.

Discussion Highlights:
Not a likeable story, but not dislikeable. For us all, it is unimaginable to know what it would be like growing up without an identity. At the same time, for some of us, the story was relatable. We all have to go through changes and learn who we are to ourselves. And the parents are horrible.
Next month we will be voting for new books. Please bring at least 2 books you would like to suggest. Those who haven't had a turn with hosting, will be first up for voting this round.


Next Month's Book:

Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

by

Jack Mayer

-396 pages-

Our 5th monthly meeting will be July 31, 2013! See you soon!

Third Meeting: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Books 4-5)

This Month’s Book:

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

(Five Complete Novels)

by
Douglas Adams

-815 pages-

The last 2 novels will be read for this month's discussion. The short story is optional.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (book 4)
Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription conspires to thrust him back to reality. So to speak.

Mostly Harmless (book 5)
Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself?

• Extra Credit: Read the short story added in some of the editions.

Young Zaphod Plays It Safe (Short story)
The two-headed hero travels to the depths of the ocean floor to investigate the mysterious destruction of the ship that "could one hundred percent positively never crash." With the annoying assistance of the Safety and Civil Reassurance Administration, Zaphod learns some disturbing secrets...


The Plan:

• First off, don't forget your towel and DON'T PANIC!
• Discuss the last 2 novels of "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. Discuss how the club is going and how to deal with meetings.

Discussion Highlights:
Same as last month pretty much.


Next Month's Book:

Caucasia

by

Danzy Senna

-432 pages-

Our 4th monthly meeting will be June 26, 2013! See you then!

Second Meeting: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Books 1-3)

This Month's Book:

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

(Five Complete Novels)

by

Douglas Adams

-815 pages-

The first 3 novels will be read for this month's discussion.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book 1)

Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (book 2)

Facing annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat.

Life, the Universe and Everything (book 3)

The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky–so they plan to destroy it.

The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew.

The Plan:

• First off, don't forget your towel and DON'T PANIC!
• Discuss the first 3 novels of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Discussion Highlights:
This is definitely not a favorite among the members. Only about 3 of us enjoy it. We have come to the conclusion (for most members) it is definitely something that should be read very young to be a book that is enjoyed as an adult.

Off topic highlights:
Doctor Who (everything from the original show to the new), Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, True Blood, Warehouse 13, 2001: A Space Odyssey, John Green, Hank Green, Nerdfighteria, educational YouTube videos, kids, Facebook, husbands, Science-fiction, Harry Potter.


Next Month's Book:

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

(Last 2 Books)

by
Douglas Adams

-815 pages-

Our 3rd monthly meeting will be May 29, 2013! See you soon!

First Meeting

The Plan:

• First off, have fun! 
• Get to know each other!
• Pick out our books for April, May, June, & July. 
• Introduce ourselves one at a time and give the title and author of our books with a short summary of what the book is about. After everyone introduces their books, we vote on which books we want to read for the next 4 meetings. 
• Icebreaker questions. 
• Schedule next meeting.

Discussion Highlights: 
First meeting, so the discussion focused mainly on book suggestions and voting.

• The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom (368 pp.)
• Maid to Match by Deeanne Gist (363 pp.)
• Room by Emma Donoghue (321 pp.)
• *The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (815 pp.)
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (352 pp.)
• Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein (528 pp.)
• Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey (1,015 pp.)
• Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (224 pp.)
• It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini (444 pp.)
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (320 pp.)
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (528 pp.)
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (296 pp.)
• *Caucasia by Danzy Senna (413 pp.)
• *Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project by Jack Mayer (396 pp.)
• Fall in Love for Life by Barbara “Cutie” Cooper w/ Kim Cooper and Chinta Cooper (208 pp.)
• Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (400 pp.)
• Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (512 pp.)
• What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (432 pp.)
• What is the What by Dave Eggers (480 pp.)
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (432 pp.)
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (323 pp.)
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (432 pp.)
• *The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (320 pp.)
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (varies, 140-50 pp.)

(*Books voted on for the next 4 meetings.)

Off topic highlights:
Strip clubs. Reptiles, amphibians, cat rats. The Twilight series. Children. Video games. Men at future meetings. Driving a U-Haul to Mt. Rushmore. While we all have our favorite format to read, it doesn't matter if it is hardcover, paperback or e-book. At least people are reading!


Next Month's Book:

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

(Books 1-3)

by

Douglas Adams

-815 pages-

Our 2nd monthly meeting will be April 24, 2013! See you then!