Book Discussion Group

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Looking Ahead to a New Year

Please take a moment to help us pick our future book titles. Fill out our survey to decide which books we will read for January, February, and March of 2018. The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YWTY8LG and will be open until November 30.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Contemplating Immortality

To kick off our fall reading, book discussion group members met at the library to discuss The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. This nonfiction text raised many questions about bioethics and the group had a lively discussion about the implications. Members also enjoyed a rice pudding, like Henrietta Lacks used to make for her family. Below are additional resources for those wishing to learn more about the book.

Author Bios & Interviews

Book Reviews

Discussion Questions

Movie Tie-In

Miscellany

Argument for patients' rights - https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/medical-and-genetic-privacy/henrietta-lacks-story-powerful-lesson-patients
BBC documentary on Henrietta Lacks & HeLA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lMrp_ySg8
Book banning controversy - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/09/henrietta-lacks-book-rebecca-kloots-porn-allegation-tennessee-parent
Family rift regarding the book/movie -https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/on-the-eve-of-an-oprah-movie-about-henrietta-lacks-an-ugly-feud-consumes-the-family/2017/03/28/d33d3418-1248-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?utm_term=.6cd8c78630e5
The Henrietta Lacks Foundation - http://henriettalacksfoundation.org/
Rolling Stone magazine article mentioned often in the book - http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/the-double-edged-helix-19760325

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Who's Ready for Some Reading?

Here is an update on what we'll be reading this fall:

Cover image for The amazing adventures of Kavalier & Clay : a novel

October 19 - With ComicCon rolling into New York City this month, we'll get in the spirit of things by reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. In this novel, Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat to date: smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a collaborator to create the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book.As the shadow of Hitler falls across Europe and the world, the Golden Age of comic books has begun.

November 16 - In honor of National Native American Heritage Month, we'll be reading a novel from the vast catalog of books by Chippewa author Louise Erdrich. In The Plague of Doves, Erdrich writes about the unsolved murder of a farm family that haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.

December 21 - Winter is coming! We'll enter in the Winter Solstice by discussing The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon. In this paranormal novel, nineteen-year-old Ruthie begins a search for her agoraphobic mother and discovers the century-old diary of her farmhouse's long-ago resident, a grieving mother named Sara who died under mysterious circumstances. As Ruthie gets sucked deeper into the mystery of Sara's fate, she discovers that she's not the only person who's desperately looking for someone that they've lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.

All book discussion meetings begin at 7pm. Light refreshments will be served at each. Please feel free to join us for any or all of these upcoming discussions!

And in case you were wondering -- no, you did not miss a survey. This time around the books were chosen by the book group's moderator. Starting in the new year, we will go back to our more democratic selection process of suggesting and voting for books as a group.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Reunions & Revelations

To wrap up the summer, book club members read The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg for the month of August. This book goes backwards and forwards in time from the present to the 1930s and 1940s, covering a wide geographic swath, including the deep South and the Midwest. Within its pages, family secrets are concealed and divulged as the main characters grow to learn more about themselves and their relatives.

The book discussion group met to discuss this book and enjoy a light snack of pepper jelly, cream cheese, and crackers alongside some coconut-flavored water. A hearty discussion surrounded this book, which was largely liked all around. Below are additional resources for those wishing to learn more.

“She had always liked cheese, especially pimento cheese sandwiches. Could that have come from her genetic background, or did she just love cheese?”

Author Bios and Interviews

Book Reviews

Discussion Questions

Historical Background

Pulaski, Wisconsin

1930s-1940s Gas Stations

Aerial Stunts

1940s Radio (shows/songs specifically mentioned in the book)

World War II

Invasion/Occupation of Poland

Women Air Service Pilots (WASPs)

Female pilots officially become part of the U.S. military in the 1970s

Planes of WWII/1940s

Friday, July 21, 2017

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

For the month of July, SRPL book discussion members read the memoir The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt. The book covers correspondence between the mother-and-son authors, in which they discuss important events that affected their lives and careers over the years.

Members had a lively discussion and enjoyed a rainbow-layered cake. Below are resources for those wishing to learn more about the book.

Author Interviews

Book Reviews

Discussion Questions

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/reviews/the-rainbow-comes-and-goes-a-mother-and-son-on-life-love-and-loss/guide

Gloria Vanderbilt: Oh hell, please don’t label me a hopeless optimist. We all have moments when we die a little, or a lot. But stay calm. Take a look at yourself in the mirror. No crying, please. These moments can be the beginning of a rebirth, another chance to reinvent yourself. “The rainbow comes and goes,” Wordsworth wrote, and boy, was he right.

Miscellany

HBO documentary: http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/nothing-left-unsaid-gloria-vanderbilt-and-anderson-cooper/synopsis/about.html
Brief article about Gloria Vanderbilt's 2001 art exhibit: http://observer.com/2012/09/gloria-vanderbilt-paints-the-town-exhibits-60-years-of-artworks-at-1stdibs/
Photos of Vanderbilt and her homes over the years: http://www.vogue.com/slideshow/gloria-vanderbilt-homes-photography
Wordsworth poem containing the title line: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45536/ode-intimations-of-immortality-from-recollections-of-early-childhood

Friday, June 23, 2017

Lakeside Reading

Summer is here and the South River Book Discussion Group met to discuss the "beach read" The Charm Bracelet by Viola Shipman. Members enjoyed some maple and sea salt caramel fudges in honor of the book's character Lolly, who works in a fudge shop. Also, thanks to one group member's generosity, we were able to make and take our own charm bracelets!

Additional resources about the book can be found below.

Author Bios & Interviews

Book Reviews

Discussion Questions

http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/10958-charm-bracelet-shipman?start=3

Miscellany

Book two in the series coming soon: http://violashipman.com/violas-books/the-hope-chest/
Essay by the author about his father's fatal illness: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a43239/my-fathers-caregiver-family/

Friday, June 2, 2017

Summer Reading

The results of our survey are in and here are the books we'll be reading this summer!

June 22 at 7pm: The Charm Bracelet by Viola Shipman

Summary: Through an heirloom charm bracelet three women will rediscover the importance of family, love, faith, friends, fun and a passion for living as the magic of each charm changes their lives.

Year Published: 2016

Length: 298 pages

July 20 at 7pm: The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt

Summary: Though Anderson Cooper has always considered himself close to his mother, his intensely busy career as a journalist for CNN and CBS affords him little time to spend with her. After she suffers a brief but serious illness at the age of ninety-one, they resolve to change their relationship by beginning a year-long conversation unlike any they had ever had before. The result is a correspondence of surprising honesty and depth in which they discuss their lives, the things that matter to them, and what they still want to learn about each other. [NONFICTION]

Year Published: 2016

Length: 290 pages

August 17 at 7pm: The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

Summary: Spanning decades, generations, and America in the 1940s and today, this novel is a fun-loving mystery about an Alabama woman today, and five women who in 1943 worked in a Phillips 66 gas station, during the WWII years.

Year Published: 2013

Length: 347 pages

September 21 at 7pm: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Summary: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells--taken without her knowledge in 1951--became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta's cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can't afford health insurance. This bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew. [NONFICTION]

Year Published: 2010

Length: 381 pages