Idaho Falls Public Library Book Club

discussion questions for "Mennonite in a Little Black Dress"

2012-02-09T13:45:00.000-08:00

1. Rhoda’s parents are deeply religious. What are some of the more notable ways their faith manifests itself? What qualities do they possess that you admire? Were you surprised by anything
you learned about the Mennonite community?

2. The lover named Bob pops up with an almost incantatory persistence, like a refrain. Do you think it would be harder to be left for a man or a woman? Given that Rhoda returns to the lover’s gender again and again, what do you think Rhoda would say?

3. Consider the marriages portrayed in this book. Rhoda and Nick remain together fifteen years; Mary and Si, more than forty-four years; Hannah and Phil, eleven years. Does the book make any tacit suggestions about what makes a good marriage? Do you know of any marriages that make you say, “I want what they have”?

4. Consider Rhoda’s family gatherings on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Would you describe this as a functional or a dysfunctional family dynamic? Rhoda and her siblings are very different from one another – do they get along better than you would expect, or not?

5. Rhoda does not explicitly state that her parents opposed her marriage to an intellectual atheist, but we may infer that with their deeply held religious convictions, they grieved for Rhoda’s future. Do you think that Rhoda’s parents would have opened their home to Nick, if he had wished to become a part of the family? What should loving parents do when their child chooses unwisely?

6. Rhoda announces early on in the memoir that her husband left her for a man he met on Gay.com; however, as the book progresses, she slowly reveals that her marriage had been troubled for some time, and that she knew Nick was bisexual before they were married. Does this revelation change your perspective? Can we sympathize with a woman who knowingly entered into a marriage with a bisexual man? Do you think Rhoda’s piecemeal revelations mimic the way in which Rhoda comes to terms with the end of her marriage? Why do you think the book is structured this way?

7. To what extent is this a memoir about growing up? Rhoda humorously relates her embarrassment at having to eat “shame-based foods” at school as a child – but admits that as an adult, she enjoys them. Similarly, she looks back fondly on other experiences that were likely not very pleasant at the time – setting off a yard bomb inside the van she was sleeping in on a camping trip, for one. Are there other examples you can think of? Do you think this kind of nostalgia – a willingness to appreciate and poke fun at bad memories – is something that’s indicative of maturity, of adulthood? Or is it a dodge, a way to avoid facing unpleasant truths?

8. The Mennonites disapprove of dancing and drinking alcohol. Rhoda says that while growing up, radios, eight-track tapes, unsupervised television, Lite-Brites, and Barbies – among other things – were all forbidden. Does her family gain anything positive by limiting “wordly” influences? Did Rhoda and her siblings lose anything in being so sheltered? What “wordly” influences would you try to protect your children from today?

9. Some Mennonites disapprove of higher education. Do you think that a career in academia necessarily precludes one from faith? How does Rhoda reconcile the two?

10. Rhoda’s mother is, as Rhoda puts it, “as buoyant as a lark on a summer’s morn.” Rhoda claims to be not as upbeat as her mother, but do you think that in some ways, she is? Given the seriousness
of some of the issues explored in the memoir, did the humorous voice surprise you?

11. Rhoda freely discusses the problems in her marriage, and how poorly her husband sometimes treated her. Looking back on it, however, she thinks that she probably still would have married him regardless. She asks, “Is it ever really a waste of time to love someone, truly and deeply, with everything you have?” What do you think?

12. Does the memoir signal Rhoda’s forgiveness of Nick? Or does the writing of it suggest that in some ways she is still hanging on to her hurt? Forgiveness isn’t often explicitly taught. Some religious institutions fall short in this area, stressing that we should forgive rather than telling us how to forgive. How did you learn to forgive? How can we teach forgiveness to our children?

13. Rhoda and Hannah make a list of men they would refuse to date – it includes, but is not limited to: men named Dwayne or Bruce; men who have the high strange laugh of a distant loon; men who bring index cards with prewritten conversation starters on a first date. What qualities might you assiduously avoid in a romantic partner?

14. Rhoda’s mother tells her, “When you’re young, faith is often a matter of rules…but as you get older, you realize that faith is really a matter of relationship – with God, with the people around you, with members of your community.” Is Rhoda’s own relationship with faith an example of this, in a way?

15. Toward the end of the book, Rhoda remarks that she “suddenly felt destiny as a mighty and perplexing force, an inexorable current that sweeps us off into new channels.” Do you believe in destiny? Can you really ever escape your roots or change your beliefs?

questions from Macmillan Media

www.readinggroupgold.com

contact readinggroup@macmillanusa.com

... and the winners are:

2011-11-23T08:11:00.000-08:00

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

(nonfiction)

The Warmth of Other Suns

(nonfiction)

Enchanted April

(fiction)

Olive Kitteridge

(fiction)

A Sudden Country

(fiction)

Broken Teaglass

(fiction)

Nothing to Do But Stay

(nonfiction)

Follow the River

(fiction)

Five Smooth Stones

(fiction)

The Art of Racing in the Rain

(fiction)

The Big Burn

(nonfiction)

The Tiger's Wife

(fiction)

This Beautiful Life

(fiction)

Librarian's Pick - available in February 2012

these will be available for check out January 9!

and here we go!!

2011-10-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

FICTION TITLES

❒ Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel by Sena Jeter Naslund—A rich epic, drawn from the classic Moby Dick, chronicles the life of Una Spenser, wife of the immortal Captain Ahab, from her Kentucky childhood, through her adventures disguised as a whaling ship cabin boy, to her various marriages.

❒ The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein—Meet Enzo, the unforgettable canine narrator of this bittersweet and transformative story of family, love, loyalty, and hope. Enzo is a philosopher with a nearly human soul, and he's gained a wealth of knowledge from hours spent in front of the TV.

❒ The Astral by Kate Christensen—The Astral is a huge, rose-colored apartment building in the rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint. For decades, it has been the happy home (or so he thought) of the poet Harry Quick and his wife, Luz, who raised two children in their rambling top-floor apartment. However, the aging Astral's glory is beginning to fade- and as the building crumbles around him, a series of events forces Harry to face the reality of his own fractured family

❒ Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar: Stories of work by Richard Ford—This vital and compelling collection of stories about work, compiled by novelist and short-story writer Richard Ford, explores how Americans are employed; how people find work and leave it; and how it excites, ennobles, occasionally debilitates, and often defines them.

❒ Book of Lies by Mary Horlock — A teenage girl’s Mean Girls-like experience pushes her to murder her best friend in a scandal that mirrors her uncle’s previously unknown story from the days of Guernsey’s Nazi occupation during World War II. Told through the voices of 15-year-old Cat Rozier and her long-dead Uncle Charlie, The Book of Lies lucidly illuminates the interior lives of a scorned modern girl and a defiant, faded man.

❒ The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault—While flirting with each other to ease the boredom of working as dictionary updaters, Billy Webb and Mona Minot discover that someone has been lacing their dictionary files with clues to an unsolved murder.

❒ Don’t Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon—Two young lovers find themselves ensnared in a seemingly supernatural web that ties them to a young girl’s disappearance 15 years earlier in this dark and twisty tale from the New York Times-bestselling author of Island of Lost Girls and Promise Not to Tell.

❒ Ed King by David Guterson—In this modern retelling of Sophocles's Oedipus Rex, Walter Cousins sleeps with the sexy, not-quite-legal British au pair who’s taking care of his children for the summer. She gets pregnant and leaves their baby on a doorstep, but not before turning the tables on Walter and setting in motion a tragedy of epic proportions.

❒ Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard—A recently widowed mother of two, Sylvie Bates-McAllister finds her life upended by a late-night phone call from the headmaster of the prestigious private school founded by her grandfather where her adopted son Scott teaches. Allegations of Scott's involvement in a hazing scandal cause a ripple effect, throwing the entire family into chaos.

❒ Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim—Four English women find their lives changed when they rent San Salvatore, a medieval castle on the Italian Riviera.

❒ Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn—From his birth in the Depression to his interracial marriage to Sara and participation as a civil rights leader, David Champlin demonstrates courage and integrity, and he sacrifices everything in his devotion to larger causes at the cost of his own happiness.

❒ Follow the River by James Alexander Thom—After being captured in an Indian raid during 1755, Mary Draper Ingles follows the Ohio River for 1,000 miles to return home to Virginia by herself.

❒ The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard—The lives and fortunes of two New Hampshire families, the Planks and the Dickersons, are entwined through the youngest daughters of each family, who were born on the same day in the same hospital.

❒ The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald—Jay Gatsby still adores Daisy Buchanan although she has married someone else, and he risks everything to lure her back

❒ The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch—While the sea continues to offer him discoveries from its mysterious depths, such as a giant squid, a teenaged boy struggles to deal with the difficulties that come with the equally mysterious process of growing up.

❒ Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende—Spanning four decades, Island Beneath the Sea is the moving story of the intertwined lives of Zarité and Valmorain, and of one woman’s determination to find love amid loss, to offer humanity though her own has been battered, and to forge her own identity in the cruelest of circumstances.

❒ Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte—In early nineteenth-century England, an orphaned young woman accepts employment as a governess and soon finds herself in love with her employer who has a terrible secret.

❒ The London Train by Tessa Hadley—Embracing change and facing loss, in a story evocative of Alice Munro’s Runaway and Julia Glass’ I See You Everywhere, New Yorker writer Tessa Hadley’s powerful characters illuminate the furthest reaches of love, hope, and determination.

❒ Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan—Descending on a family beach house won in a bet years earlier, three generations of women gradually impart difficult respective secrets including a pregnancy, a terrible crush and a deeply held resentment for past misdeeds

❒ Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout—In a small coastal town in Maine, Olive Kitteridge is the complex and often unpredictable town crier, a person who sees into the hearts of others, discerning their triumphs and tragedies, while not always seeing herself. It is through her profound insight into the human condition that these penetrating tales are told.

❒ Recapitulation by Wallace Stegner—In this moving sequel to Big Rock Candy Mountain, Bruce Mason returns to Salt Lake City for a family funeral and instead encounters the ghosts of his past.

❒ Room by Emma Donoghue—To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held captive for seven years, in this shocking, riveting, exhilarating story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the bond between a mother and her child.

❒ A Sudden Country by Karen Fisher—His life turned upside down by the deaths of his children from smallpox and desertion of his Nez Perce wife, Hudson's Bay Company trader James MacLaren joins a group of settlers headed west to Oregon in 1847.

❒ This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman—When their fifteen-year-old son Jake forwards a sexually explicit video of a thirteen-year-old girl to his friends, which then goes viral, the Bergmots find their social and professional lives in jeopardy and decide to fight back, resulting in disastrous consequences.

❒ Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum—Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during World War II, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what people endure to survive and the legacy of shame.

❒ The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht—Weaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love, Obreht, the youngest of The New Yorker's 20 best American fiction writers under 40, spins a timeless novel about a young doctor who confronts the inexplicable circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather's recent death.

❒ Waiting for Robert Capa by Susana Fortes—Moving between Paris before World War II and Spain in the midst of Civil War, Fortes’s latest historical novel traces the rocky romance between the real-life talented, striking Polish refugee and activist Gerta Pohorylle and fellow Jewish émigré André Friedmann, otherwise known as Robert Capa.

❒ The Wife’s Tale by Lori Lansens—When her husband doesn’t come home on the eve of their 25th wedding anniversary, Mary wonders if the weight she’s put on or her aversion to adventure has chased him off. With few clues, she boards a plane for the first time in her life, venturing to California in search of her husband. What she discovers is as shocking as it is delightful: a new vibrant energy and an entirely different kind of hunger.

NON-FICTION TITLES

❒ The Big Burn by Timothy Egan—In The Worst Hard Time, Egan puts the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history. Now he performs the same alchemy with The Big Burn, detailing the largest-ever forest fire in America.

❒ Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World by Dan Koeppel—Growing out of a Popular Science feature article, this work combines a pop-science journey around the globe with a fascinating tale of an iconic American business enterprise that takes readers into the high-tech labs where new bananas are literally being built in test tubes.

❒ A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr—When lawyer initiates a civil suit against two of the nation's largest corporations who stand accused of the deaths of children in Massachusetts , he finds himself locked in an epic struggle that costs him his home, his reputation, and nearly his sanity.

❒ Elegy for Iris by John Bayley—A melodious, hugely affecting tribute to the late Dame Iris Murdoch, one of the greatest writers of her time, written by her devoted husband of 42 years

❒ The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee—The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificently written "biography" of cancer--from its origins to the epic battle to cure, control, and conquer it. Riveting and magisterial, the book provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments and offers a bold new perspective on the way the human body has been observed and understood for millennia.

❒ The Good Daughrter by Jasmin Darznik—Relates how the author's discovery of a photograph of her mother wearing a wedding veil and with a man she had never seen before revealed her family's true origins in Iran, her mother's history of abuse and neglect, and a sister that the author never knew she had.

❒ The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto—In a landmark work of history, Shorto presents astonishing information on the founding of our nation and reveals in riveting detail the crucial role of the Dutch in making America what it is today.

❒ Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen—Based on careful research at the Smithsonian Institution, this volume issues a bold, direct challenge to the errors, misrepresentations, and omissions of the leading American history textbooks.

❒ Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen—In the spirit of Anne Lamott and Nora Ephron comes Janzen's hilarious and moving memoir about a woman who returns home to her close-knit Mennonite family after a personal crisis.

❒ Nothing: A portrait of insomnia by Blake Butler—Blake Butler pens a thrillingly wide-ranging and provocative book about insomnia—from its role in history, art, and science through its unexpected consequences on his personal imagination, creative process, and perspective on reality.

❒ Nothing to Do But Stay: My Pioneer Mother by Carrie Young—In eight enjoyable anecdotal essays, Young describes the challenges and rewards of 20th-century pioneering life in North Dakota.

❒ Tisha by Robert Specht—The author tells the story as told to him of Anne Hobbs, a woman who went to Alaska in the 1920's to teach, but who had trouble due to her kindness to the Indians there.

❒ The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson—With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells the story of the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, from 1915 to 1970, through the lives of three unique individuals.

❒ The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion—Didion chronicles the experience of losing her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, to a massive coronary, just weeks after the two of them watched as their only daughter was put into an induced coma to save her life. With honesty and passion, Didion explores this intensely personal yet universal experience.

❒ Zeitoun by Dave Eggers—When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. After the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. A week later, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared.

2010 Book Clubs in a Box

2011-09-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

it's that time of year again...

we're taking your nominations for books you'd like to see in the 2012 collection.

so between now and october 15, you can give us one title or your groups whole wish-list. please make sure the list at least includes title and author... a little review would be nice too. you can leave the nominated titles with the librarians on the 3rd floor or send me an email.

voting for the titles will begin on october 24 and continue thru november 19. you will be able to vote here or in the library.

the sets will be available for checking-out on january 3, 2012!!

see you in the library!
JeNNiFFeR

may book clubs

2011-05-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

there are just a few spots open in our thursday night book club...
are you looking for a book club? would you like to join us?

the next meeting is May 26 @ 7pm
maisie dobbs

by jacqueline winspear

Maisie entered domestic service in 1910 at the age of thirteen, to work as a maid at the Belgravia mansion of Lady Rowan Compton. When her remarkable intelligence and innate love of learning are discovered by her employer, Maisie becomes the pupil of Maurice Blanche, a learned friend of the Comptons who is often retained by Europe's elite, and the police, to conduct discreet investigations.

Eventually, Maisie enters Girton College at Cambridge University, but the escalation of World War I intervenes to change her plans. She serves as a nurse at the front and falls in love with a handsome young doctor, only to lose him.

In 1929, following an apprenticeship assisting Blanche iin his work, Maissie hangs out her shingle: M. DOBBS, TRADE AND PERSONAL INVESTIGATIONS. She soon becomes enmeshed in a mystery suurrounding The Retreat, a reclusive community of veterans wounded in body and spirit. At first, Maisie only suspects foul play, but she must act quickly when Lady Rowan's son decides to sign away his fortune and take refuge at The Retreat. A coincidence? Maisie has learned that coincidences can lead to the truth, and hurriedly investigates The Retreat. She uncovers a disturbing mystery at its core which in an astonishing denouemment, gives Maisie the courage to confront the ghost that has haunted her for over ten years.

you can get a copy of the book from me at the library...

jenniffer at 612-8460 or jhentzen@ifpl.org

april book clubs

2011-03-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

looking for a book club?

give our thursday night group a try!

the thursday night group is meeting on april 28 at 7pm to discuss now and then by jacqueline sheehan

Anna O'Shea has failed at marriage, shed her job at a law firm, and she's trying to re-create herself when she and her recalcitrant nephew are summoned to the past in a manner that nearly destroys them. Her twenty-first-century skills pale as she struggles to find her nephew in nineteenth-century Ireland. For one of them, the past is brutally difficult, filled with hunger and struggle. For the other, the past is filled with privilege, status, and a reprieve from the crushing pain of present-day life. For both Anna and her nephew, the past offers them a chance at love.

and the monday night group is meeting on april 11 at 7pm to discuss the optimist's daughter by eudora welty

The Optimist's Daughter is a Pulitzer Prize winner that's slight of page yet big of heart. The optimist in question is 71-year-old Judge McKelva, who has come to a New Orleans hospital from Mount Salus, Mississippi, complaining of a "disturbance" in his vision. To his daughter, Laurel, it's as rare for him to admit "self-concern" as it is for him to be sick, and she immediately flies down from Chicago to be by his side. The subsequent operation on the judge's eye goes well, but the recovery does not. He lies still with both eyes heavily bandaged, growing ever more passive until finally--with some help from the shockingly vulgar Fay, his wife of two years--he simply dies. Together Fay and Laurel travel to Mount Salus to bury him, and the novel begins the inward spiral that leads Laurel to the moment when "all she had found had found her," when the "deepest spring in her heart had uncovered itself" and begins to flow again.

you can get a copy of the book from me at the library...

jenniffer at 612-8460 or jhentzen@ifpl.org

switcheroo

2011-03-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

ok, the groups have spoken... and it looks a little familiar!

the monday night group will discuss

the hunger games

by suzanne collins

on march 21 @ 7pm

and the thursday night group will discuss

miss hargreaves

by frank baker

on march 17 @ 7pm

please join us for discussion even if you haven't read the books!

ifpl book clubs meet at least once a month in the library at 7pm

for more information about the book clubs, contact the library at 612-8462 or me {JeNNiFFeR} by email at jhentzen@ifpl.org

upcoming groups!

2011-02-23T08:53:00.000-08:00

this week, the thursday night group will discuss the hunger games by suzanne collins

next week the monday group meets to discuss miss hargreaves by frank baker

join us--even if you haven't read the books, just come for the discussion!

IFPL book clubs meet at least once a month in the library at 7pm

for more information, contact the library 612-8462

or me {JeNNiFFeR} by email jhentzen@ifpl.org

we're BACK!!

2011-01-18T12:39:00.000-08:00

news for the book clubs that meet at Idaho Falls Public Library:

MONDAY Group

January 31 @7pm

BUFFALO COAT

by Carol Ryrie Brink

THURSDAY GROUP

February 3 @7pm

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee

contact Jenniffer for your book at jhentzen@ifpl.org or 612-8462

* * * * *

and our 2011 Book Club in a Box sets are facing a small setback... but we're getting closer! keep checking in with us!

2011 collection

2010-11-15T15:39:00.000-08:00

sorry about the delay… here are the titles for the 2011 collection:

1776 by David McCullough
Draws on personal correspondence and period diaries to present a history of the American Revolution that ranges from the siege of Boston, to the American defeat at Brooklyn and retreat across New Jersey, to the American victory at Trenton.

Buffalo Coat by Carol Ryrie Brink
Originally published in 1944, Carol Brink's first adult novel, Buffalo Coat, is a classic of Northwest literature. Three doctors came to Opportunity Moscow, Idaho, in the 1890s, drawn by the town's promise. All attained their private objectives and financial success, symbolized by owning a great buffalo coat to wear through the bitter winters. And yet, for these men there was irony in the name Opportunity--each of their lives ended in tragedy.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
In this enthralling international bestseller, two girls live inconspicuous lives in the center of an elegant Paris apartment building. It is only when a stranger moves into their building — and sees through the girls' disguises — that Paloma and Rene discover their kindred spirits

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (a young adult title)Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.

Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson
Provides an account of the hurricane which struck Galveston, Texas, in 1900 and killed ten thousand people.

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Maisie entered domestic service in 1910 at the age of thirteen, to work as a maid at the Belgravia mansion of Lady Rowan Compton. When her remarkable intelligence and innate love of learning are discovered by her employer, Maisie becomes the pupil of Maurice Blanche, a learned friend of the Comptons who is often retained by Europe's elite, and the police, to conduct discreet investigations.

Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
When Norman Huntley, and his friend, Henry, invent an 83 year old woman, called Mrs. Hargreaves, they are inspired to write to their fictional friend. The silly, harmless, game turns out not to be such, when she arrives on their doorstep, in Buckinghamshire, exactly as he imagined her

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
Laurel Hand is forced to face her Southern past when she returns to Mississippi for her father's funeral.

A Painted House by John Grishmam
Racial tension, a forbidden love affair, and murder are seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy in a 1950s Southern cotton-farming community.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Wealthy Mr. Darcy and spirited Elizabeth Bennett dislike each other at first sight, and each must contend with their pride and prejudices while Elizabeth's mother plots economically advantageous marriages for all her daughters

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Scout's father defends a black man accused of raping a white woman in a small Alabama town during the 1930s.

An Unfinished LifebyMark Spragg
Seeking to escape her brutal boyfriend and hoping to introduce her daughter, Griff, to the grandfather she has never met, widow Jean Gilkyson seeks refuge in her late husband's Wyoming hometown with her estranged father-in-law.

these boxes will be available in January of 2011! thanks to those of you who voted!!

please contact me if you have any questions at jhentzen@ifpl.org or 612-8330

last minute addtions...

2010-09-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

somehow these titles were missed, please add them to your consideration:

1776 by David McCullough

Draws on personal correspondence and period diaries to present a history of the American Revolution that ranges from the siege of Boston, to the American defeat at Brooklyn and retreat across New Jersey, to the American victory at Trenton.

Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson

Provides an account of the hurricane which struck Galveston, Texas, in 1900 and killed ten thousand people.

A Painted House by John Grishmam
Racial tension, a forbidden love affair, and murder are seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy in a 1950s Southern cotton-farming community.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Scout's father defends a black man accused of raping a white woman in a small Alabama town during the 1930s.

vote over there, on the left... and don't forget about the other titles below :)

voting starts now..

2010-09-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

ok... this is it! this is a list of the nominated titles for the 2011 book club in a box collection. you can vote over on the left for your top 10 titles for the collection!! voting ends october 23, and winners will be announced by october 30!!

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Meet Enzo, the unforgettable canine narrator of this bittersweet and transformative story of family, love, loyalty, and hope. Enzo is a philosopher with a nearly human soul, and he's gained a wealth of knowledge from hours spent in front of the TV.

The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
From the critically acclaimed author of "The Kindness of Strangers" comes a wry, engrossing, and moving story of a veterinarian's journey through the aftermath of divorce--amidst a motley crew of animals.

Border Songs by Jim Lynch
An extremely tall dyslexic is pushed away from his family's Washington dairy farm to join the Border Patrol, where he indulges his obsessions with birds and art while occasionally catching smugglers and illegal immigrants on the British Columbian border.

Buffalo Coat by Carol Ryrie Brink
Originally published in 1944, Carol Brink's first adult novel, Buffalo Coat, is a classic of Northwest literature. Three doctors came to Opportunity Moscow, Idaho, in the 1890s, drawn by the town's promise. All attained their private objectives and financial success, symbolized by owning a great buffalo coat to wear through the bitter winters. And yet, for these men there was irony in the name Opportunity--each of their lives ended in tragedy.

The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt
This spellbinding novel, at once sweeping and intimate, from the Booker Prize-winning author of "Possession," spans the Victorian era through the World War I years, and centers around a famous children's book author and the passions, betrayals, and secrets that tear apart the people she loves. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Commuters by Emily Gray Tedrowe
The sudden marriage of one middle-class family's 78-year-old matriarch to a wealthy outsider establishes a union that scandalizes the community and creates surprising alliances.

Cutting For Stone by A. Verghese
Twin brothers born from a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Addis Ababa, Marion and Shiva Stone come of age in an Ethiopia on the brink of revolution, where their love for the same woman drives them apart.

Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker by Syrie James
The bestselling author of "The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen" and "The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bront" has crafted her most powerful novel yet, in which she uncovers the thrilling untold story of Mina Harker and her forbidden love with Dracula.

The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Bess Heath, the daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company, meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform and finds herself inexplicably drawn to him. He lives off what the river provides, which makes him a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the power of the falls. As their paths become entwined, Bess must make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family and her future.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
In this enthralling international bestseller, two girls live inconspicuous lives in the center of an elegant Paris apartment building. It is only when a stranger moves into their building — and sees through the girls' disguises — that Paloma and Rene discover their kindred spirits

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
Vivid, passionate, funny, deeply researched, and page-turningly plotted, this novel--set in northern Thailand--is a daring, spellbinding tale of anthropologists, missionaries, demon possession, sexual taboos, murder, and an obsessed young reporter named Mischa Berlinski.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Orphaned Jane Eyre endures an unhappy childhood, hated by her aunt and cousins and then sent to comfortless Lowood School. But there life improves and Jane stays on as a teacher, though she still longs for love and friendship. At Mr. Rochester's house, as a governess, she hopes she might have finally found them -- until she learns the terrible secret of the attic.

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard
Narrated from the perspective of a 13-year-old boy growing up in the 1980s, Labor Day is the story of the boy and his mother who are forever changed during a long weekend when a mysterious man enters their lives.

The Lace Makers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri
A struggling young fashion designer journeys to Ireland to mend a broken heart and helps a group of local lace makers change their lives--and her own. Not everyone welcomes Kate, and a series of unexpected events threatens to unravel everything the women have worked so hard for.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson
From one of the most beloved and bestselling authors in the English language comes a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the middle of the United States in the middle of the last century.

Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr
The Liars' Club brought to vivid life Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood. Cherry, the account of her adolescence, "continued to set the literary standard for making the personal universal" (Entertainment Weekly). Now Lit follows the self-professed blackbelt sinner's descent into alcoholism and madness--and her astonishing resurrection.

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Maisie entered domestic service in 1910 at the age of thirteen, to work as a maid at the Belgravia mansion of Lady Rowan Compton. When her remarkable intelligence and innate love of learning are discovered by her employer, Maisie becomes the pupil of Maurice Blanche, a learned friend of the Comptons who is often retained by Europe's elite, and the police, to conduct discreet investigations.

Miss Heargreaves by Frank Baker
When Norman Huntley, and his friend, Henry, invent an 83 year old woman, called Mrs. Hargreaves, they are inspired to write to their fictional friend. The silly, harmless, game turns out not to be such, when she arrives on their doorstep, in Buckinghamshire, exactly as he imagined her.

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
Laurel Hand is forced to face her Southern past when she returns to Mississippi for her father's funeral.

The Other Mothers' Club by Samantha Baker
Eve has had it--she's no "wicked stepmonster" in the making. She absolutely adores Ian, the new man in her life, and she's more than willing to open her heart to his kids. But nothing she does is right in their eyes, and she just can't take it anymore.

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver's national bestseller paints an intimate portrait of a crisis-ridden family amid the larger backdrop of an African nation in chaos. Examine how the tragedy of the Price family mirrors the political unrest in the Congo, how the novel views religion and marriage, and how Kingsolver reconciles the demands of art with her belief that writing should support a political cause.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay
Paris, May 2002: On Vel dHivs 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
Eight students gather in Lillian's Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen.

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Preparing to fight China's nineteenth-century Opium Wars, a motley assortment of sailors and passengers establish family-like ties that eventually span continents, races, and generations.

Secrets to Happiness by Sarah Dunn
From the author of The Big Love, Secrets to Happiness is a big-hearted, knife-sharp, and hilariously entertaining story about the perils of love and friendship, sex and betrayal--and a thoroughly modern take on the struggle to be happy.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf — her wolf — is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
When German prisoners of war are brought to her Arkansas town during World War II, 12-year-old Patty, a Jewish girl, befriends one of POWs and must deal with the consequences of that friendship. A 1973 National Book Award Finalist and an ALA Notable Book.

This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
Simultaneously mourning the demise of his father and his marriage, Judd joins his dysfunctional family as they reluctantly sit shiva and spend seven days and nights under the same roof. The week quickly spins out of control as longstanding grudges resurface, secrets are revealed, and old passions are reawakened. Then his unfaithful wife delivers the clincher: she's pregnant.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
Anyone who despairs of the individual as power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools especially for girls that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson’s quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, "Three Cups of Tea" combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.

An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg
Seeking to escape her brutal boyfriend and hoping to introduce her daughter, Griff, to the grandfather she has never met, widow Jean Gilkyson seeks refuge in her late husband's Wyoming hometown with her estranged father-in-law.

Work Song by Ivan Doig
In 1919, itinerant schoolteacher Morrie Morgan journeys to Butte in the hopes of making his fortune in copper mining but finds instead a rich assortment of local characters before an encounter with a former student leads to a violent union uprising.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
"My greatest thought in living is Heathcliff. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be... Nelly, I "am" Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure... but as my own being." "Wuthering Heights" is the only novel of Emily Bronte, who died a year after its publication, at the age of thirty. A brooding Yorkshire tale of a love that is stronger than death, it is also a fierce vision of metaphysical passion, in which heaven and hell, nature and society, are powerfully juxtaposed. Unique, mystical, with a timeless appeal, it has become a classic of English literature.

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A memoir, a history by Lewis Buzbee
A former bookseller celebrates the experiences of being in a bookstore, from the smell and touch of books to getting lost in between shelves and joining a silent reader community, in an account that is complemented by a history of the bookselling trade.

late, late, late!!

2010-09-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

*let's talk about it begun this week! don't worry or despair... there are book sets left and 4 more discussions to attend. come join us...

*monday night book club... is on a little hiatus while we all participate in let's talk about it

*thursday night book club... with let's talk about it starting this month, i've pushed back the start of this group until december 16 @ 7pm (thursday and tuesday nights were a tie on the voting, btw). the book is yet to be decided upon...

*the 2011 book-club-in-a-box ballot will be ready today! please get a ballot at the 3rd floor desk, or vote over <- there on the left of this screen. i will take the top 10 most voted for books, so make sure you vote!!

any other book club news? hmm... i don't think so.
if you have any questions, email {jhentzen@ifpl.org} or call me {612.4862} at the library!

see you in the library,
jenniffer

the secret river by kate grenville

2010-06-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

1.“Strangers”, we are introduced to William Thornhill, who has been transported to New South Wales as a criminal. “There was no need of lock, of door, of wall: this was a prison whose bars were ten thousand miles of water” (p. 3). Considering William’s confrontation on the first night, is the sentence ironic? In these few pages how is the alien landscape and his visceral reaction to it established? Why do you think that Grenville chose to begin the book with this out-of-sequence chapter?

2. Part 1 of the novel puts us back at Thornhill’s desperately impoverished childhood in a large family in London at the early part of the nineteenth-century. “He grew up a fighter. By the time he was ten years old the other boys knew to leave him alone. The rage warmed him and filled him up. It was a kind of friend” (p. 15). Discuss the effects of poverty on Thornhill and how it shapes the rest of his life.

3. In the London portion of The Secret River, readers may notice similarities with Charles Dickens’s depiction of the poverty and moral tone in nineteenth-century London. The Dickens version has become an archetype. Grenville is very effective at evoking the period, as well. How does her portrayal differ from the familiar Dickensian one? What devices does she use to articulate the era?

4. William meets Sal Middleton, through his sister Lizzie, “She was no beauty, but had a smile that lit up everything around her. The only shadow in her life was the graveyard where her brothers and sisters were buried” (p. 17). Talk about the early relationship between William and Sal. What is the attraction of each to the other? How do the differences in their early lives affect their relationship throughout the years of their marriage?

5. William spends seven years as an apprentice waterman to Sal’s father. “Folk always needed to get from one side of the river to the other, and coal and wheat always had to be got to the docks from the ships that brought them. As long as he kept his health he would never outright starve. He swore to himself that he would be the best apprentice, the strongest, quickest, cleverest. That when freed in seven years he would be the most diligent waterman on the whole of the Thames”(p. 25). What important lessons in addition to his trade do William learn from this experience? What do we learn about William’s fundamental character? At this point, what kind of a man would you say that he is?

6. After William marries Sal and they have their first child, their luck starts to change, and in spite of William’s good intentions they are driven to thievery. When inevitably William is caught, convicted, and sentenced to death, how do the differences in their characters (refer back to Question 4) affect the outcome? What kind of a woman is Sal?

7. Grenville’s descriptions of Sydney are very vivid and quickly establish a stark contrast with the urban landscape of London. “It was a raw scraped little place. There were a few rutted streets, either side of the stream threading its way down to the beach, but beyond them the buildings were connected by rough tracks like animals’ runs, as kinked among the rocks and trees as the trees themselves” (p. 79). How do the Thornhills react and adjust to their new surroundings and circumstances?

8. After Thornhill and Blackwood encounter Smasher Sullivan for the first time, Blackwood advises William, “Ain’t nothing in this world just for the taking . . . A man got to pay a fair price for taking . . . Matter of give a little, take a little” (p. 104). What does Blackwood already know and what is he trying to express to his friend?

9. When Thornhill goes up the river with Thomas Blackwood inThe Queen a whole new world opens up to him. His hunger to own land is immediate and almost atavistic. Sal on the other hand is appalled at the thought of settling the land and becoming farmers. “Perhaps it was because she had not felt the rope around her neck. That changed a man forever” (p. 111). Do you agree with William’s reasoning?

10. Right from the beginning when the Thornhills stake out “their” land there is always a vague feeling of intrinsic threat. “My own, he kept saying to himself. My place. Thornhill’s place. But the wind in the leaves up on the ridge was saying something else entirely” (p. 139). Nothing in William’s experience has prepared him for the mysteries of this new land and its people. What does the land mean to him? What are his biggest delusions? Did you find him aggressive, ignorant, innocent, naïve, full of rationales? Explain.

11. What is the biggest difference in Aboriginal culture and the white settlers’ culture? How does this impact everything that happens from the time that the Thornhills move from Sydney?

12. “For himself, he could take or leave a lot of them, but he made them welcome for Sal’s sake” (p. 162). Discuss your impressions of each of the Thornhill’s neighbors—Saggity, Mrs. Herring, the Webbs, Loveday, and of course Smasher and Blackwood. Smasher and Blackwood are at two extremes in their attitudes and behavior. Where would you place the others in relation to these two? How would you rank Thornhill? How do the white settlers interact? Are they helpful or harmful to one another?

13. In Kate Grenville’s depiction of Sal and of Mrs. Herring, what do you infer about the women who helped to settle New South Wales? What was Sal’s role, and how did it influence her behavior toward her husband and children? What always seems to keep her somewhat removed from William? Do you think that it took a certain kind of woman to endure the hardships of resettlement, or did all women of the lower classes have to endure difficult lives? What is the impression of women settler’s place in the history of Australia that you draw from this novel?

14. Thornhill goes to Sydney to acquire two convict servants, Dan and Ned, from amongst the newly transported English prisoners. Although they come from very similar circumstances, what makes Thornhill stand apart? How is it possible for him to slip into the role of master with such ease? Had the years in New South Wales changed his basic nature?

15. When young Dick is learning to make fire from one of the natives, we see that his perceptions differ greatly from his fathers. “Going on five, that child born at sea between one world and another was a solemn creature with a dreamy face in which Thornhill could not see any echo of his own. He could sit for hours crooning to himself and fiddling about with a few stones” (p. 119). In the end, Dick goes to live with Blackwood. What does this connote?

16. When things start to go very badly for the settlers, the government, in the persons of Captain McCallum and his soldiers, are sent to resolve the situation. There are many other historical occasions where this tragic scenario played itself out. Why is their plan doomed to failure?

17. Once the Thornhill’s corn crop is ruined, Sal’s forbearance is pushed past its limit. After she delivers her ultimatum, what changes forever between husband and wife? How does this change affect the outcome? Do you think it was inevitable?

18. Discuss the final battle scene as seen through the eyes of William Thornhill. “He closed his eyes. Like the old man on his knees he felt he might become something other than a human, something that did not do things in this sticky clearing that could never be undone” (p. 308). In today’s terms we would characterize Thornhill as conflicted. What are the elements at work in his psyche?

19. At the end it appears that William and Sal have realized all that they set out to do. They are successful, rich, and leading a life they could never have dreamed of back in London. However, their beautiful, grand new house isn’t quite right and Sal’s garden will not grow. Why, in spite of hard work and sacrifice don’t they have everything they wanted?

(Questions issued by publisher)

2011 book club in a box

2010-06-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

we're looking for titles for the
2011 Book Club in a Box Collection!

do YOU have a title to suggest?

please submit your book title and reviews to Jenniffer at jhentzen@ifpl.org or leave a comment here! keep in mind that all submissions need to be received by september 4, 2010...

thanks for improving the IFPL with your suggestions!!

NEW BOOK CLUB

2010-05-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

hello! it's me, jenniffer and i'm trying to set up a 2nd in-house book club, because our monday group is at its max of 10 people. over there on the right sidebar, there is a poll that will help me decide when you want the other book club. please take just a second to vote or leave me a note about when you'd like to have book club.

thanks and i'll see you in the library!

on the corner of bitter and sweet by jamie ford

2010-05-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

1. Father-son relationships are a crucial theme in the novel. Talk about some of these relationships and how they are shaped by culture and time. For example, how is the relationship between Henry and his father different from that between Henry and Marty? What accounts for the differences?

2. Why doesn't Henry's father want him to speak Cantonese at home? How does this square with his desire to send Henry back to China for school? Isn't he sending his son a mixed message?

3. If you were Henry, would you be able to forgive your father? Does Henry's father deserve forgiveness?

4. From the beginning of the novel, Henry wears the "I am Chinese" button given to him by his father. What is the significance of this button and its message, and how has Henry's understanding of that message changed by the end of the novel?

5. Why does Henry provide an inaccurate translation when he serves as the go-between in the business negotiations between his father and Mr. Preston? Is he wrong to betray his father's trust in this way?

6. The US has been called a nation of immigrants. In what ways do the families of Keiko and Henry illustrate different aspects of the American immigrant experience?

7. What is the bond between Henry and Sheldon, and how is it strengthened by jazz music?

8. If a novel could have a soundtrack, this one would be jazz. What is it about this indigenous form of American music that makes it an especially appropriate choice?

9. Henry's mother comes from a culture in which wives are subservient to their husbands. Given this background, do you think she could have done more to help Henry in his struggles against his father? Is her loyalty to her husband a betrayal of her son?
10. Compare Marty's relationship with Samantha to Henry's relationship with Keiko. What other examples can you find in the novel of love that is forbidden or that crosses boundaries of one kind or another?

11. What struggles did your own ancestors have as immigrants to America, and to what extent did they incorporate aspects of their cultural heritage into their new identities as Americans?

12. Does Henry give up on Keiko too easily? What else could he have done to find her?

13. What about Keiko? Why didn't she make more of an effort to see Henry once she was released from the camp?

14. Do you think Ethel might have known what was happening with Henry's letters?

15. The novel ends with Henry and Keiko meeting again after more than forty years. Jump ahead a year and imagine what has happened to them in that time. Is there any evidence in the novel for this outcome?

16. What sacrifices do the characters in the novel make in pursuit of their dreams for themselves and for others? Do you think any characters sacrifice too much, or for the wrong reasons? Consider the sacrifices Mr. Okabe makes, for example, and those of Mr. Lee. Both fathers are acting for the sake of their children, yet the results are quite different. Why?

17. Was the US government right or wrong to "relocate" Japanese-Americans and other citizens and residents who had emigrated from countries the US was fighting in WWII? Was some kind of action necessary following Pearl Harbor? Could the government have done more to safeguard civil rights while protecting national security?

18. Should the men and women of Japanese ancestry rounded up by the US during the war have protested more actively against the loss of their property and liberty? Remember that most were eager to demonstrate their loyalty to the US. What would you have done in their place? What’s to prevent something like this from ever happening again?

the inn at lake devine... notes

2010-04-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

1. What fascinates Natalie most about the offensive note from Mrs. Berry is its "marriage of good manners and anti-Semitism" [p. 4]. Does Natalie show, later in the novel, what truly having "good manners" might mean?

2. What does Natalie mean when she mentions the "Gentile ambitions" [p. 65] that led her into a friendship with Robin Fife?

3. Although Eddie and Audrey Marx are both Jewish, they were originally drawn together because of their differences. For the spritelike Audrey, "there was something . . . about Eddie's jumbo presence, something like a bodyguard's or a football player's, that was normally off limits to a Jewish girl" [p. 19]. They were forced to marry when Audrey became pregnant at nineteen. Given the circumstances of their own history together, are Natalie's parents hypocritical in trying to stop Natalie from seeing Kris Berry?

4. Natalie says that her sister, Pamela, in marrying a Catholic (in a Catholic mass, no less), "used up our family's mixed-marriage chit, even our liberal-dating chit. It was up to me to bring home the perfect Jewish son-in-law" [p. 144]. Are Jewish parents more insistent than others about keeping their children from marrying outside their faith? If so, why?

5. The Inn at Lake Devine might be called a "revenge comedy." At the end the Berrys lose the Inn, and both of their sons take up with Jewish women. Is this a fitting comic closure for Ingrid Berry? What about the feckless but kind Mr. Berry, who loses his business because of carelessness in mushroom hunting? Should he have been more active in preventing his wife's exclusion of Jews from the hotel?

6. What are the social and class markers that Lipman uses to create a sense of realism at the Halseeyon and at the Inn at Lake Devine? How well do Kris and Nelson Berry respond to their weekend immersion in Jewish culture when they visit the Halseeyon with Natalie?

7. What role does food play in this novel? How do the significance and style of dining differ among social groups at Lake Devine and at the Halseeyon? Does food have more meaning for the Jews in the Catskills than it does for the WASPs in New England? What does the desire to be a chef reveal about Natalie's character?

8. At camp, Natalie first befriends Robin Fife in the hope of being invited by her family to the Inn at Lake Devine, but she is bored by the dull-witted Robin who, she notes, "couldn't take, make, or get a joke of any kind" [p. 41]. Her relationship with Robin at fourteen could be seen as mere opportunism; how does this change when they meet again ten years later?

9. Why do you suppose Elinor Lipman has chosen to leave out any details of Natalie's college years, including her experience of dating and sex?

10. The novel of the Jewish person coming of age in modern America--the most famous examples are Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint and Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz--is usually told from a young man's perspective. How does the shift to a female narrator in The Inn at Lake Devine challenge and transform this tradition?

11. Do some of the characters come across as more true to life than others? Which of the three families--Marx, Fife, or Berry--seems most realistically depicted? Does the role of surprise in the novel feel realistic? Does the unexpected always work? Does it add or detract from your enjoyment of the story?

12. This novel is based upon the reality of intermarriage and assimilation in American life, issues that are especially painful among the more observant Jewish communities. Lipman expertly draws the difference between the habits of Natalie's Reform family and those of her Orthodox friend Linette Feldman. Is it easier to feel good about the pairing of Natalie and Kris than that of Linette and Nelson? Do you feel that love rightly triumphs over religion in this novel?

13. One reviewer of this novel wrote, "Prejudice, in all its many disguises, is an unusually worthy but often ponderous subject; its very weightiness . . . often threatens to sink otherwise well-written and well-meaning tales."1 What aspects of Lipman's style allow her to avoid this pitfall?

14. What do you find most satisfying about the way that Lipman brings her plot to closure?

15. In a recent interview Elinor Lipman said, "I like novels that are funny, quirky, intelligent, and humane."2 How well, for you, does The Inn at Lake Devine fit this description?

the inn at lake devine... APRIL 11

2010-03-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

a reminder for the book clubbers...

we're reading the inn at lake devine on april 12 at 7pm

the books are here, please contact me when you can get down here to pick your book up!

jenniffer -- 612-8330 (or 612-8155) or shoot me an email jhentzen@ifpl.org

away by amy bloom

2010-03-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

1. Dreams are a recurring theme in the novel. What are Lillian’s dreams, both literal and metaphorical? How do these illustrate or inform the larger subject of the American dream?

2. Much of the novel centers around self-invention and reinvention. Can you identify some characters who invent themselves over the course of the novel? Which characters are successful? Which characters are unable to complete the process?

3. According to folktales, “when you save the golden fish, the turbaned djinn, the talking cat, he is yours forever” (p. 43). Which characters in the novel are saved, in one way or another? Which characters do the saving?

4. “Not that she is mine. That I am hers,” Lillian says, describing her love for Sophie
(p. 79). In many ways, love is the primary engine of the plot. How does love define, inspire, and compel characters in the novel? What are some of the things characters do for love? Do you think that love is portrayed in the novel as a wholly positive force?

5. Contrast Yaakov’s story with Lillian’s. How do they each handle the loss of spouse and children, and how are they changed?

6. Mythology --- both the mythology of individuals and of cultures --- is an important motivator in the novel. Which stories or beliefs drive different characters? How do established myths inform the journeys taken and the challenges faced by Lillian as she crosses the American continent?

7. During Lillian’s journey, there are key points at which she is required to demonstrate her allegiance as either a native or a foreigner, insider or outsider. Can you identify some of these moments? At the end of the novel, how complete is Lillian’s assimilation?

8. Relationships between family members, particularly parents and children, play an important role in the novel. Compare and contrast the relationships between Lillian and Sophie, Reuben and Meyer, Chinky and the Changs. What is distinct about each family? Are there similarities?

9. How are sexuality and physical love portrayed in the novel? Consider Lillian’s relationship with the Bursteins, Chinky’s relationship with Mrs. Mortimer, and Gumdrop’s relationship with Snooky Salt, as well as Lillian’s relationship with John Bishop and Chinky’s relationship with Cleveland Munson.

10. What kind of person is Lillian? What do we learn, throughout the novel, about her passions and prejudices? Do you think Lillian is right when she says that she is lucky (p. 4)?

11. The omniscient third-person narrator of the novel is able to jump forward and backward in time and between parallel narratives. What is the purpose of this technique? Why does the author want us to know what happened to Sophie, even though Lillian herself never learns? Do you think Lillian ever stopped looking for Sophie?

12. The metaphors and descriptive images in this novel are unique. Can you point out a few effective metaphors that helped the novel come alive for you as a reader?

13. What significance do the chapter titles have? What are they derived from, and what do they tell the reader about what happens in the novel? Why did Bloom title her novel Away?

the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society by by mary ann shaffer and annie barrows

2010-01-25T19:57:00.000-08:00

1. What was it like to read a novel composed entirely of letters? What do letters offer that no other form of writing (not even emails) can convey?

2. What makes Sidney and Sophie ideal friends for Juliet? What common ground do they share? Who has been a similar advocate in your life?

3. Dawsey first wrote to Juliet because books, on Charles Lamb or otherwise, were so difficult to obtain on Guernsey in the aftermath of the war. What differences did you note between bookselling in the novel and bookselling in your world? What makes book lovers unique, across all generations?

4. What were your first impressions of Dawsey? How was he different from the other men Juliet had known?

5. Discuss the poets, novelists, biographers, and other writers who capture the hearts of the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. What does a reader’s taste in books say about his or her personality? Whose lives were changed the most by membership in the society?

6. Juliet occasionally receives mean-spirited correspondence from strangers, accusing both Elizabeth and Juliet of being immoral. What accounts for their judgmental ways?

7. In what ways were Juliet and Elizabeth kindred spirits? What did Elizabeth’s spontaneous invention of the society, as well as her brave final act, say about her approach to life?

8. Numerous Guernsey residents give Juliet access to their private memories of the occupation. Which voices were most memorable for you? What was the effect of reading a variety of responses to a shared tragedy?

9. Kit and Juliet complete each other in many ways. What did they need from each other? What qualities make Juliet an unconventional, excellent mother?

10. How did Remy’s presence enhance the lives of those on Guernsey? Through her survival, what recollections, hopes, and lessons also survived?

11. Juliet rejects marriage proposals from a man who is a stereotypical “great catch.” How would you have handled Juliet’s romantic entanglement? What truly makes someone a “great catch”?

12. What was the effect of reading a novel about an author’s experiences with writing, editing, and getting published? Did this enhance the book’s realism, though Juliet’s experience is a bit different from that of debut novelist Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece, children’s book author Annie Barrows?

13. What historical facts about life in England during World War II were you especially surprised to discover? What traits, such as remarkable stamina, are captured in a detail such as potato peel pie? In what ways does fiction provide a means for more fully understanding a non-fiction truth?

14. Which of the members of the Society is your favorite? Whose literary opinions are most like your own?

15. Do you agree with Isola that “reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones”?

* * * * *

what is potato peel pie?

group member carolyn treated us with a little snack tonight (as well as my dinner) of potato peel pie... and it was far better than i expected. here's the recipe... try it for your club meeting!

2 cups grated, peeled raw potatoskins (well packed)

*used the potato to make mashed potatoes for the pie filling

1/4 cup grated onion

1/2 lb bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled (reserve the grease)

1 egg, well beaten

2-3 tbsp self-rising flour

1/2 tsp salt

2-3 small slices of beetroot, diced--*mircrowave briefly if you want the beetroot to be less crisp

sour cream and chives for garnish

preheat oven to 400F. oil small pie plate. mix potato peelings in a bowl, add the beaten egg, grated onion and bacon. sprinkle with flour and combine well.

with floured hands, put peel mix into the pie plate, pushing the mix up the sides of the plate to form the crust. bake the crust for 20 minutes, then brush the top of the crust with the bacon grease to help it brown nicely.

prepare the potatoes as you normally would for mashed potatoes. add mash to crust, top with beetroot* pieces. turn the oven down to 375F. bake an additional 10 minutes or until browned.

remove tart from the pan and serve hot or at least at room temperature.

recipe from Trish

of the literary society at woy woy--central coast of north south wales, australia

water for elephants by sara gruen

2010-01-04T15:22:00.000-08:00

1. To what extent do the chapters concerning the elderly Jacob enhance the chapters recounting the young Jacob's experiences with the Benzini Brothers circus? In what ways do the chapters about the young Jacob contribute to a deeper understanding of the elderly Jacob's life?

2. How does the novel's epigraph, the quote from Dr. Seuss's Horton Hatches the Egg, apply to the novel? What are the roles and importance of faithfulness and loyalty in Water for Elephants? In what ways does Gruen contrast the antagonisms and cruelties of circus life with the equally impressive loyalties and instances of caring?

3. Who did you, upon reading the prologue, think murdered August? What effect did that opening scene of chaos and murder have on your reception of the story that follows?

4. In connection with Jacob's formal dinner with August and Marlena in their stateroom, Jacob remarks, "August is gracious, charming, and mischievous" (page 93). To what extent is this an adequate characterization of August? How would you expand upon Jacob's observation? How would you characterize August? Which situations in the novel reveal his true character?

5. August says of Marlena, "Not everyone can work with liberty horses. It's a God-given talent, a sixth sense, if you will" (page 94). Both August and Jacob recognize Marlena's skills, her "sixth sense," in working with the horses. In what ways does that sixth sense attract each man? How do August and Jacob differ in terms of the importance each places on Marlena's abilities?

6. After Jacob puts Silver Star down, August talks with him about the reality of the circus. "The whole thing's illusion, Jacob," he says, "and there's nothing wrong with that. It's what people want from us. It's what they expect" (page 104). How does Gruen contrast the worlds of reality and illusion in the novel? Is there anything wrong with pandering to people's need for illusion? Why do we crave the illusions that the circus represents?

7. Reflecting on the fact that his platitudes and stories don't hold his children's interest, the elderly Jacob notes, "My real stories are all out of date. So what if I can speak firsthand about the Spanish flu, the advent of the automobile, world wars, cold wars, guerrilla wars, and Sputnik --- that's all ancient history now. But what else do I have to offer?" (page 110). How might we learn to appreciate the stories and life lessons of our elders and encourage people younger than ourselves to appreciate our own?

8. Looking at himself in the mirror, the old Jacob tries "to see beyond the sagging flesh." But he claims, "It's no good. . . . I can't find myself anymore. When did I stop being me?" (page 111). How would you answer that question for Jacob or any individual, or for yourself?

9. In what ways and to what degree do Uncle Al's maneuvers and practices regarding the defunct Fox Brothers circus reflect traditional American business practices? How would you compare his behavior with that of major businessmen and financiers of today? What alternative actions would you prefer?

10. As he lies on his bedroll, after his night with Barbara and Nell, Jacob cannot empty his mind of troubling visions and he reflects that "the more distressing the memory, the more persistent its presence" (page 143). How might the elderly Jacob's memories corroborate or contradict this observation? What have been your experiences and observations in this regard?

11. In his Carnival of the Animals, Ogden Nash wrote, "Elephants are useful friends." In what ways is Rosie a "useful" friend? What is Rosie's role in the events that follow her acquisition by Uncle Al?

12. After Jacob successfully coaches August in Polish commands for Rosie, he observes, "It's only when I catch Rosie actually purring under August's loving ministrations that my conviction starts to crumble. And what I'm left looking at in its place is a terrible thing" (page 229). What is Jacob left "looking at," how does it pertain to August's personality and Jacob's relationship with August, and what makes it a "terrible thing"?

13. How did you react to the redlighting of Walter and Camel, and eight others, off the trestle? How might we see Uncle Al's cutthroat behavior as "an indictment of a lifetime spent feigning emotions to make a buck" (in the words of one reviewer)?

14. After the collapse of the Benzini Brothers circus and Uncle Al's having "done a runner" (page 314), Jacob realizes, "Not only am I unemployed and homeless, but I also have a pregnant woman, bereaved dog, elephant, and eleven horses to take care of" (page 317). What expectations did you entertain for Jacob and Marlena's --- and their menagerie's --- future after they leave the Benzini Brothers circus? How do the elderly Jacob's memories of Marlena and their life together confirm or alter those expectations?

15. At the end of the novel, Jacob exclaims, "So what if I'm ninety-three? . . . why the hell shouldn't I run away with the circus?" (page 331). What would you project to be the elderly Jacob's experiences after he runs away with the circus the second time? How does his decision reflect what we have learned about his early years?

16. Sara Gruen has said that the "backbone" of her novel "parallels the biblical story of Jacob," in the book of Genesis. On the first night after his leaving Cornell, for example, Jacob --- as did his biblical namesake --- lies "back on the bank, resting my head on a flat stone" (page 23). In what other ways does Water for Elephants parallel the story of the biblical Jacob? How do the names of many of the characters reflect names of characters in the biblical account?

17. In the words of one reviewer, Water for Elephants "explores . . . the pathetic grandeur of the Depression-era circus." In what ways and to what extent do the words "pathetic grandeur" describe the world that Gruen creates in her novel?

These book-group discussion questions were prepared by Hal Hager, of Hal Hager & Associates, Somerville, New Jersey.

kindred by octavia butler

2009-12-14T19:39:00.000-08:00

1. Both Kevin and Dana know that they can't change history: "We're in the middle of history. We surely can't change it." (page100); and "It's over . . . There's nothing you can do to change any of it now." (page 264). What, then, are the purposes of Dana' s travels back to the antebellum South? Why must you, the reader, experience this journey with Dana?

2. How would the story have been different with a third person narrator?

3. Many of the characters within Kindred resist classification. In what ways does Dana explode the slave stereotypes of the "house-nigger, the handerkchief-head, and the female Uncle Tom" (page 145). In what ways does she transcend them?

4. Despite Dana's conscious effort to refuse the 'mammy' role in the Weylin household, she finds herself caught within it: "I felt like Sarah, cautioning." (page 156), and others see her as the mammy: "You sound just like Sarah" (page 159). How, if at all, does Dana reconcile this behavior? How would you reconcile it?

5. "The ease. Us, the children . . . I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery." This is said by Dana to Kevin when they have returned to the present and are discussing their experience in the antebellum South. To what extent, if any, do you believe racial oppression exists today?

6. How do you think Butler confronts us with issues of difference in Kindred? How does she challenge us to consider boundaries of black/white, master/slave, husband/wife, past/present? What other differences does she convolute? Do you think such dichotomies are flexible? Artificial? Useful?

7. Compare Tom Weylin and Rufus Weylin. Is Rufus an improvement or simply an alteration of his father? Where, if any, is there evidence of Dana's influence on the young Rufus in his adult character?

8. Of the slaves' attitude toward Rufus, Dana observes "Strangely, they seemed to like him, hold him in contempt, and fear him at the same time." (page 229) How is it they can feel these contradictory emotions? How would you feel toward Rufus if you were in their situation?

9. Compare Dana's 'professional' life (i.e. her work as temporary help) in the present with her life as a slave.

10. When Dana and Kevin return from the past together, she thinks to herself: "I felt as though I were losing my place here in my own time. Rufus's time was a sharper, stronger reality." (page 191) Why would the twentieth century seem less vivid to Dana than the past?

11. Dana loses her left arm as she emerges—for the last time in the novel—from the past. Why is this significant?

12. Kevin is stranded in the past five years, while Dana is there for almost one. Is there a reason why Butler felt Kevin needed to stay in the past so much longer? How have their experiences affected their relationship to each other and to the world around them?

13. A common trend in the time-travels of science fiction assumes that one should not tamper with the past, lest s/he disrupt the present. Butler's characters obviously ignore this theory and continue to invade each other's lives. How does this influence the movement of the narrative? How does this convolute the idea of 'cause and effect'?

climbing the mango tree... and food memories

2009-11-02T19:59:00.000-08:00

Climbing the Mango Tree is a delightful memoir of the author’s childhood in mid-twentieth-century Delhi, India. Madhur Jaffrey’s wealthy family lived in an extended-family compound, and her life was rich in cousins, aunts, and uncles. It was also rich in food, and this book links specific memories with lovingly-described meals, from street food to picnic snacks to full-course dinners that boggle the imagination. Because Jaffrey’s family was of the professional class, their lifestyle blended Hindu traditions (their heritage, to which the family’s women gave primary allegiance), Muslim culture (which the men absorbed in their work), and English customs (again from the men, but also from the children, who attended English schools). This blend worked itself seamlessly into their food, dress, and family culture–until the partition of India in the 1940s disrupted their lives. The book provides a fascinating look at a way of life that will be exotic to many Americans, full of memorable characters and delicious recipes.

* * * * *
Madhur Jaffrey was born in 1937 into a well-off family in Delhi, India. When she was 19, she went to London to pursue her interest in acting, studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. While there, she missed the food of her youth (she had never done any cooking as a girl), so she wrote to her mother, requesting recipes, and taught herself to cook. After graduating from the RADA, she acted in film, television, and radio productions, marrying an Indian actor. After a move to New York, she began to write food articles, then to host a television program about Indian cooking. She has been the host of three BBC series on Indian food and has published numerous cookbooks. All of her work seeks to put food into the context of regional cultures, educating Westerners about life in India and beyond as she teaches them to cook.

* * * * *

Discussion Questions
1. How does food help Jaffrey’s family negotiate their mixing of cultures? Does it help create an independent identity for the family?

2. The family’s structure is overtly patriarchal, but the women still seem to inspire strong memories in Jaffrey, and she herself is a strong, independent girl who grows into a distinguished woman. What kind of role models does she see among the women in her family that help her? How do these women function in the family? Does food play a role in their roles?

3. What aspects of the elite Delhi culture that she describes surprise you the most? Which would you find most difficult to negotiate? Why?

4. The family seems to have strong unwritten rules about which foods belong in which settings–what it is appropriate, in other words, to eat at particular times and places. Consider your own unwritten rules about such things, and compare them with others in the group, if you’d like. Why do you think that people develop such customs?

5. Jaffrey seems to have a strong sense of her own family and its identity, even within the extended family living situation. What distinguishes her family, in her mind?

6. How does Jaffrey herself blend cultures into her attitudes and personality?

7. At the book’s end, Jaffrey talks about how the “innocent honey” put on her tongue came as she aged to be “mixed with the pungencies of Indian spices.” What does she mean by that? Do you have a parallel food metaphor, from your own cultural setting, to describe the progress and growing complexity of your life?

there is just ONE book left for the IFPL Book Club...

Kindred by Octavia Butler

join us for the meeting on December 14 @ 7pm

see me if you're interested in the last book!!

mysteries of the mistress of spices

2009-10-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

The Mistress of Spices is a lyric novel, written in a mixture of prose and poetry, in the style that has been called “magic realism”: while primarily set in this world (specifically, a run-down part of Oakland, California), it includes features which defy natural laws and give it an air of mysticism. The heroine, Tilo, comes to Oakland after she has been trained on a remote, magical island by the priestess-like Old Mistress of Spices for a vocation of ministering to others. Assuming a crone’s body and forbidden to leave her shop, Tilo shares the magic of her spices and her own psychic powers with a variety of Indian immigrants who are alienated, lonely, and/or in danger in their new homeland. Soon, however, her own independent, intense nature leads her to disobey her instructions (and the voices of her spices, which take on animate qualities). She ventures outside the shop; she falls in love with a non-Indian. In the end, Tilo must decide whether she will remain true to her calling or choose an ordinary life of mortal love, knowing that her choice will bring potentially dire effects.

* * * * *

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was born in India (Bengal) and lived there until 1976, when she emigrated to the United States to study. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. During her education, her website biography notes, she worked at “many odd jobs, including babysitting, selling merchandise in an Indian boutique, slicing bread in a bakery, and washing instruments in a science lab.” She has published in many anthologies and magazines (including the New Yorker and the Atlantic Monthly) and has won awards for her poetry (a Pushcart Prize, and Alan Ginsberg Award) and for her prose (Arranged Marriage won a National Book Award in 1996). The Mistress of Spices was named to several best-books lists, including the San Francisco Chronicle’s “100 Best Books of the 20th Century” list.

Divakaruni teaches creative writing at the University of Houston and has judged the National Book Award and the PEN Faulkner Award. She has continued to be active in social justice concerns, working with organizations that help South Asian and South Asian American women who are victims of domestic violence, and with a group that helps educate urban slum children in India. She lives in Houston with her husband and two sons. Her website (www.chitradivakaruni.com) includes biographical details, information on her books and awards, links to interviews, and a page about her writing practice.

* * * * *

Discussion Questions

The book shares a great deal of information about the alleged powers of individual spices. Do you believe that spices (or other food) can indeed change people’s ways of thinking? Ways of behaving? Fates?
Tilo is clearly an independent, rebellious young woman from her earliest years. Why does she choose to become a Mistress?
In writing about her own work on her website, the author says that women’s problems–especially the problems of immigrant women–are among her foremost concerns (she also reveals that she worked at a battered woman’s shelter in Berkeley). Does this novel have things to say about why immigrant women (or any women) suffer? Does it hold out any hope for relief? Are the spices a kind of metaphor in this equation?
“I write to unite people . . . to dissolve boundaries,” Divakaruni has said. What kinds of boundaries are being dissolved in this novel, and how? Does food play a role in this dissolution?
A New York Times Book Review article called Mistress of Spices’ ending (in which Tilo chooses her lover over her vocation) “predictable”; a more harsh phrase that might be used is “a sell-out to romantic conventions.” How do you respond to Tilo’s choice? Is the author ultimately compromising the theme of women’s power by having her main character deny her vocation?
How do you respond to the earthquake at the book’s end?
Divakaruni’s poetry has won many prizes, as the biographical sketch above suggests. In what ways is this book “poetic?” Do those components make it a better book? Do poetry and spices go together, somehow? How?

thoughts on chocolat...

2009-10-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

about... Joanne Harris was born in 1964 to an English father and French mother and has lived her whole life in England. Trained as a linguist at Cambridge, she worked as an elementary school teacher for fifteen years, during which time she published three novels. The last of these was Chocolat, which catapulted her in 1999 to international fame. She then became a full-time writer and has produced five more novels (several of which also use food motifs, including Blackberry Wine and Five Quarters of the Orange) and a collection of short stories, and she has collaborated on two cookbooks (The French Kitchen and The French Market). Her fiction has been termed “gastromance” for the way that it merges exuberant description of food with the conventions of romantic fiction. She lives with her husband and daughter near where she was born, and is a musician as well as an award-winning writer.

Harris’ extensive website includes biographical information, notes on her books, links to interviews with her, and an excellent informal essay entitled “How I Write,” which will interest readers who are themselves aspiring writers.

* * * * *

1. Why do you think that Vianne sets up her chocolate shop in this town? Why has she chosen chocolate in the first place as a means for expressing herself, since her mother wasn’t interested in the craft of cooking? Is luxury chocolate appropriate, given her personality? Her psychic gifts?

2. Why (besides the chocolate’s delicious taste) are the townspeople drawn to Vianne’s shop? What is Vianne expressing through her chocolate, and why do the townspeople need that?

3. In what ways are Vianne and Father Reynaud moral opposites? Harris has said that there are no real heroes or villains in the work–do you agree? Can you see drawbacks to living with Vianne’s values, as well as with Reynaud’s? Can you find pity for him, as well as for her?

4. What does the character of Anouk add to the book? How would your sense of Vianne, or of the symbolism of the chocolate itself, be different if she weren’t there? Does knowing that Harris based the character on her own young daughter influence your take on the novel? Knowing that the character of Armande was based on Harris’ beloved great grandmother, a fine cook and powerful matriarch?

5. The battle over chocolate in Lansquenet takes place during Lent, a time when people traditionally deny themselves things to focus their spiritual energy. Harris seems to be suggesting that such self-denial is inevitably repressive–do you agree? Or, do you think that there is a time and place for such discipline?

6. Chocolat has a great deal to say about insiders and outsiders (in both social terms and in terms of institutionalized religion). What do you think that Harris is ultimately suggesting about the costs and benefits of being one or the other?

7. Do you think that the ending (both what happens to Reynaud and what happens to Vianne) is plausible? Why or why not?

8. Harris has suggested that the book demonstrates that “love, not faith is the key to salvation.” How does this theme play out in Chocolat? Why might Harris have chosen chocolate, per se (vs., say, garlic or cheese or lobster) as the central metaphor, given this thematic intention?

choice cuts... thoughts to ponder

2009-10-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

about... Mark Kurlansky wrote the best-selling books Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changes the World, Salt: A World History, and The Basque History of the World. He worked as a professional chef and pastry maker in New York and New England and writes a column about food history for the magazine Food and Wine. He has won the James Beard Award for Excellence in Food Writing. He has also written for 25 years about international affairs, particularly European and Latin American subjects, and has recently written a collection of short stories and a novel based on his experiences in the Caribbean. He lives in New York with his wife and daughter.

* * * * *

1. How do the approaches and attitudes toward specific foods (chocolate, spices, meat) voiced by writers in this collection compare/contrast to those put forth in other books that you’ve read in this series?

2. Within any given chapter in this book, you’ll see a range of ideas about the properties of a particular food group, the best way to prepare it, and what it symbolizes culturally. Look at some of the writers who voice attitudes less familiar to you. What can you learn about their culture/time period from what they say about food?

3. Many of the writers in this book are extremely opinionated. What is it about food, in particular, that tends to bring out such strong feelings? Choose a few writers for your discussion.
4. Can you identify historical changes overall in the way that people think about food? What are those? Are the more recent writers necessarily more “right” than the earlier ones? Why or why not?

5. Can you identify any constants in the way that people think about food that transcend the historical and cultural contrasts chronicled in this book? What are they?

6. Which selections here do you particularly like? Why? Do those writers express attitudes toward food that you share?

Let's Talk About It Book-Clubs-In-a-Box and an IFPL Book Club

2009-09-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

this is what's going on...

Let's Talk About It

get your books today
discussions begin next Monday--the 21st of September
discussions will continue every other Monday

Book Clubs in a Box

we're talking nominations for the 2010 collection until this Friday--the 18th of September
vote on the titles you'd like see in the 2010 collection

IFPL Book Club

I've invited all of you who let me know you were interested in a book club here at the library to LTAI... my hope is that some seeds will be planted here, and a group will grow!!

Snow Falling on Cedars, week one

2009-03-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

historical background
Between 1901 and 1907, almost 110,000 Japanese immigrated to the United States. They were drawn by promises of ready work--American railroads actually sent recruiters to Japanese port cities, offering laborers three to five times their customary wages--and by worsening economic conditions in their homeland, which was undergoing social upheaval in the aftermath of the Meiji Restoration. Although many originally came as dekaseginin--temporary sojourners--work was plentiful, not only on the railroads, but in the lumber camps, salmon fisheries, and fruit orchards of Oregon and Washington. Increasingly, the newcomers stayed on. Many purchased their own farms. In time, these issei--first-generation Japanese--started families.

The Japanese government actively encouraged emigration, and although the Gentleman's Agreement of 1908 curbed the flow of Japanese men, it allowed unrestricted entry to their wives and children. Many women were "picture brides," who came to join husbands they knew only through photographs and letters and whom they had "married" by proxy in ceremonies in their native villages.

Very quickly the newcomers encountered antagonism. Although Japanese constituted less than two percent of all immigrants to the U.S., newspapers trumpeted an "invasion." The mayor of San Francisco proclaimed that "the Japanese are not the stuff of which American citizens can be made." The Sacramento Bee warned that "the Japs...will increase like rats" if allowed to settle down. The Asiatic Exclusion League agitated for legislation to halt all Japanese immigration. Politicians ran for office on anti-Japanese platforms. In 1923, the state of Oregon prohibited issei from legally buying land. A year later, Congress passed the National Origins Act, which banned all immigration from Japan.

In spite of this, the newcomers thrived. They found ways of getting around some laws (under Oregon's Alien Land Law, first-generation Japanese could legalize their land purchases by registering them in the names of their American-born-or nisei-children). They tolerated other laws. Meanwhile, the immigrants preserved the ceremonies and values of Japan even as they encouraged their children to acculturate and, particularly, to educate themselves. "You must outperform your detractors," one issei counseled his children. Typically, the nisei grew up thinking of themselves as Americans, yet were reminded of their difference every time they encountered the taunts and ostracism of their white neighbors.

Following the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, hostility turned into paranoia--and paranoia became law. Japanese who had lived in America for thirty years were accused of spying for their native land. The day after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered all Japanese-owned businesses closed and all issei bank accounts frozen. The U.S. government had already compiled lists of Japanese whose loyalties might be suspect, and more than 1,000 businessmen, community leaders, priests, and educators were arrested up and down the West Coast.

The restrictions escalated. Japanese homes were searched for contraband. Telephone service was cut off. One newspaper columnist wrote: "I am for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in the interior....Herd 'em up, pack 'em off and give 'em the inside room in the badlands...let 'em be pinched, hurt, and hungry." In February 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which empowered the government to remove "any and all" persons of Japanese ancestry from sensitive military areas in four western states. Japanese residents had only days in which to evacuate. They were compelled to sell their land and businesses for a fraction of their value, or to lease them to neighbors who would later refuse to pay their rent. All told, some 110,000 Japanese Americans were deported from their homes to hastily built camps such as Tule Lake and Manzanar, where they lived behind barbed wire for the duration of the war.

Neither Germans nor Italians living in this country were subject to similar restrictions**, and recently declassified documents reveal that the Japanese population was never considered a serious threat to American security. In all of World War II, no person of Japanese ancestry living in the United States, Alaska, or Hawaii was ever charged with any act of espionage or sabotage. As one nisei later wrote, the victims of Executive Order 9066 were people whose "only crime was their face."

In 1988, the U.S. government formally apologized to Japanese citizens who had been deprived of their civil liberties during World War II.

This information was gathered from Lauren Kessler, Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese-American Family. New York, Random House, 1993.

**this isn't absolutely true. about 20,000 german-american and italian-americans were interned throuhgout the united states.

background for the book
The place is the fictional island of San Piedro off the coast of Washington, a community of "five thousand damp souls" [p. 5] who support themselves through salmon fishing and berry farming. The time is 1954, eight years after the end of World War II, in which some of San Piedro's young men lost their lives and many others were irreparably injured, physically as well as emotionally.

Now one of those survivors--a gill-netter named Carl Heine--has drowned under mysterious circumstances and another fisherman is on trial for his murder. The fact that the accused, Kabuo Miyamoto, is a first-generation Japanese American is not mere coincidence. To the local coroner, Heine's injuries suggested that the sheriff look for "a Jap with a bloody gun butt" [p. 59]. And among San Piedro's Anglos, hostility against Japanese still runs high, even if, like Kabuo, those Japanese were born and raised on the island and fought for the United States during the war. Kabuo's trial, in a sense, is a continuation of the white community's quarrel with its Asian neighbors.

But the Japanese--and particularly Kabuo and his wife, Hatsue--have their own grounds for resentment, stemming from years of bigotry that culminated during World War II, when thousands of Japanese Americans were interned in government relocation camps and Kabuo was effectively robbed of land that his father had worked and paid for. Even as the state presents its case against Kabuo Miyamoto, the reader is compelled to recognize the Miyamotos' case against their white neighbors, the best of whom stood by as an entire community was driven into exile. Their case never receives a public hearing: it can only be prosecuted in the courtrooms of memory and conscience.

It is not only the Japanese who remember. Among the trial's observers is Ishmael Chambers, the embittered war veteran who runs the San Piedro Review. Ishmael is not an objective witness. He grew up with Carl and Kabuo. He lost an arm on Tarawa to Japanese machinegun fire. Most important, Hatsue was Ishmael's boyhood love and he has never come to terms with losing her. In the course of the trial he will find himself torn between rancor and conscience, loath to forgive Hatsue yet unable to condemn her husband. To a large extent, Snow Falling on Cedars is about the ways in which Ishmael, Kabuo, and Hatsue at last acknowledge their respective losses and recognize the sense of mutual indebtedness and need that may survive even the gravest injuries and betrayals--the way in which loss itself may become a kind of kinship. In a place as isolated as San Piedro, "identity was geography instead of blood" [p. 206] and people make enemies reluctantly, knowing that "an enemy on an island is an enemy forever" [p. 439]. The snow that falls on David Guterson's hauntingly imagined world falls on everyone who lives in it.

hope to see you tonight at the library!

The Wind in the Willows

2008-11-18T17:12:00.000-08:00

1. Why is Mole lucky to have met Rat on his first trip out into the world? What might have happened to Mole if Rat hadn’t found him?

2. What was Mole’s first impression of Toad? How did it change after the trip in the gypsy caravan?

3. Do you think it was brave or foolish of Mole to go off into the Wild Wood by himself? Explain your answer.

4. How did Rat show his friendship to Mole when they both got lost in the wild Wood?
5. What problems do you think Toad, Mole and Rat may have with their friendship in the future?

6. If Mr. Toad lived today, what new craze or fad would he take up?

7. Whose house do you find most appealing – that of Badger, Mole, Rat, or Toad – and why?

8. Do you think friendship was the same in 1908 as it is today?

9. Would you have liked to live in the English countryside in 1908, in the setting of this book? Why or why not? How does the time period influence the way the four main characters speak.

10. What secret message do you think Rat and Mole heard in the wind in the willows?

11. How does Toad’s strong sense of dignity create a serious danger for him?

12. Do you think Toad will return to Toad Hall without being found by the police? Why or why not?

13. If Rat and the Sea Rat were humans, would this part of the story still be a fantasy?

14. How does the way Toad acts with the barge-woman show that prison didn’t change him?

15. How did the battle for Toad Hall help unite Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad and make them forget their conflicts with each other?

16. What conflict did Toad have with himself after Toad Hall was regained?

17. Do you think the four friends will continue to live peacefully together? IF not, what might happen?

18. What lessons about friendship did you learn from this book?

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

2008-10-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

How does Cassie grow over the course of the novel?

What is the role of education in the Logan family? Is it worshipped? Compare the importance of education with the importance of religion or of material wealth.

Most of the violence of the novel involves men. In what ways are Mama and Big Ma also heroes?

What does Mr. Jamison due to help the Logan's and the black community? Is he a realistic character? Why or why not?

What role does family tradition play in the novel?

Does the novel stereotype either black or white behavior?

Examine the character of T. J.. In what ways does he represent problems in contemporary communities? Think of peer pressure, poverty, weapons, and drinking. Was his decline inevitable? Besides his own, whose fault were his problems?

* * *
In what ways do the tactics of the Logan family resemble those of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s?

How does Mildred Taylor make the conclusion more than a "black and white" issue?

Explain the extent of and motivation behind Harlan Granger's harassment of the Logan family.

Charlotte's Web...

2008-10-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

(please forgive me for the fact that i missed posting the discussion questions for The Bridge to Teribithia... i apologize)

Tonight we discussed Charlotte's Web by E. B. White. What do you think about:

1. In what way does White adapt the animals' fictional personalities to the way those animals act in real life?

2. The threat of death is a very serious part of everyone's life. Is it surprising to find that threat central to such a charming story as this?

3. When the message "some pig" appears in Charlotte's web, everyone except Mrs. Zuckerman is immediately impressed with Wilbur, not Charlotte. What might White be trying to say about human nature?

4. What do you think about the doctor's lack of concern over Fern's apparent delusions about animals and spiders talking?

5. A fable is a simple narrative in which talking animals are used to represent human characteristics. Usually, the fable ends with an explicit moral, or lesson. What moral, or morals, might be drawn from Charlotte's Web?

6. Part of White's reason for writing this novel was his own sense of the unfairness of raising an animal simply to kill it for food later. How does that basic sense of barnyard injustice help you to understand the book?

7. Templeton the rat acts solely out of self-interest, yet he is in many ways the hero of the story, next to Charlotte. How does Templeton's role in the book contribute to the impression that the story is real?

8. Think about the words Charlotte chooses to write in her web. What are the reasons she gives for choosing those words? Why are they particularly appropriate for Wilbur?

9. In the early drafts of Charlotte's Web, Fern and the other humans played a much smaller role. In fact, the book began with Wilbur already living in Zuckerman's barn, and Fern did not appear until several chapters had passed. Why did White decide to begin the book with Fern's saving Wilbur from her father's ax? What is Fern's role in the story?

don't be afraid to leave us a comment... we'd love to hear what you think!

discussion questions from: http://kids.aol.com/homework-help/language-arts/book-notes/charlottes-web

Let's Talk About It

2008-09-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, ready to get started after our summer break?

We are excited and all set to jump into a new Let's Talk About It series!

Join us this Fall while we revisit some childhood classics in the theme of Not Only for Children, and we will start discussing Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson on September 23 right here or at the library at 7pm.

oops! May has gotten away from me!

2008-05-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

okay, book clubers...

the Featured Author kiosk is sporting the work of Arthur C Clarke right now, so I suggest we read 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Have you read it before?

Have you seen the movie?

What do you think about this...

How does 2001 express a concern about nuclear weapons?

an interesting obituary can be found here

feel free to leave a comment!

see you in the library!

holden's hypocrisy...

2008-04-29T07:57:00.000-07:00

I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.

Holden often behaves like a prophet or a saint, pointing out the phoniness and wickedness in the world around him. Is Holden as perfect as he wants to be? Are there instances where he is phony and full of hypocrisy? What do these moments reveal about his character and his psychological problems?

What do you think is next for Holden? In 5 years? Twenty years?

The Catcher in the Rye questions...

2008-04-05T15:31:00.001-07:00

Question:

Holden narrates the story of The Catcher in the Rye while he is recovering from his breakdown. Do you think the promise of recovery that Holden experiences as he watches the carousel at the end of the novel has been fulfilled? Specifically, has Holden gained a more mature perspective on the events that he narrates?

Quote to ponder:

“Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.” “Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it.” ...Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right—I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game.

please leave a comment... let us know what you think!

april's book to ponder...

2008-03-25T10:12:00.001-07:00

The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger

(please note, this is not the same as Idaho Falls Reads... we aren't giving away The Catcher In The Rye, but we are encouraging you to read it and add your comments to the blog!)

about the book: Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

Also, the Washington Post recently review the book, you can read that review here.

I'll start posting questions for the book in April, and I look forward to seeing what you think!

censorship...

2008-03-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. ~Voltaire

Plan to join us tonight for an insightful discussion on censorship lead by Margaret Johnson.

Professor Johnson she currently is the Associate Professor of English and Assistant Dean of Arts & Sciences at ISU-Pocatello. She works in the fields of rhetoric and composition, postmodern fiction, and film studies.

Her work has appeared in the following publications: Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Film-Philosophy Quarterly, Popular Culture in Libraries, and The Encyclopedia of Novels into Film. Professor Johnsons also wrote the Instructor’s Manual for The Shape of Reason, 3rd edition.

Don't censor yourself... come to this presentation!

TONIGHT!! March 24 at 7pm on the 3rd Floor

Buring Bright

2008-03-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Q: Read the poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold. In what ways is it significant that Montag reads this particular poem to Mildred and her friends?

Q:Although Ray Bradbury's work is often referred to as science fiction, Fahrenheit has plenty to say about the world as it is, and not as it could be. As you review the book, list examples of the themes mentioned below, as well as others you notice. Discuss how you feel about the stands the author or characters take in Fahrenheit.
· conformity vs. individuality
· freedom of speech and the consequences of losing it
· the importance of remembering and understanding history
· machines as helpers to humans, machines as hindrances or enemies

Q:Describe Clarisse’s effect on Montag and her function in the novel. How and why does she change him? Why does she vanish from the novel?

Q:Explain why no female characters are alive at the end of the novel. Why did both female characters die in the novel, but in the film, why does Clarisse, as a human book living in the woods, survive and greet Montag?

quote to ponder:

The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time . . . Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!

The Sieve and the Sand

2008-03-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

Q: Why would society make "being a pedestrian" a crime? (Clarisse tells Montag that her uncle was once arrested for this.)

Q: One suicide and one near-suicide occur in this book. One woman, who shuns books but loves TV and driving fast in her car, anesthetizes herself,; "We get these cases nine or ten a night," says the medical technician. Another woman, who cherishes her books, sets herself on fire with them; "These fanatics always try suicide," says the fire captain. Why would two people who seem to be so different from each other try to take their own lives? Why does suicide happen so frequently in Montag's society?"

Q: Why do you think the firemen's rulebook credited Benjamin Franklin-- writer, publisher, political leader, inventor, ambassador--as being the first fireman?

Q: Why does Beatty program the Hound to track Montag even before Montag stole the book? Do you believe Beatty had seen him steal books before? Or is it that Beatty had detected a change in Montag's attitude or behavior?

quote to ponder:

Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores.

just found this...

2008-03-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

Fahrenheit 451, the 1953 reincarnation of "The Fire Man," presents ideas that are far more complex than that brief description indicates. This novel is a soothsayer, warning of a future populated by non-readers and non-thinkers; a lost people with no sense of their history. At the same time it salutes those who dedicate their lives to the preservation and passing on of knowledge, and testifies to the quiet or passionate courage of the rebel with a cause. Fahrenheit also poses questions about the role(s) of government: Should it reflect the will of the people? Should government do the people's thinking for them?

"Three years ago I wrote a short novel entitled 'The Fire Man' which told the story of a municipal department in the year 1999 that came to your house to start fires instead of to put them out."
--Ray Bradbury, 1953

what were you doing in 1999?

book clubs in a box!

2008-03-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

what would you think about having a box of books, author information and discussion questions for you to check out and use in your book club?

you'd think:

it's about time!

well, it's happening at IFPL! we are estimating that all 12 boxes will be ready to be checked out in june of 2008!!

and for those of you who nominated the books for the boxes, you will be alerted--and awarded--as soon as the boxes are ready to go.

we're really excited to be offering this to you, and we hope that you and your groups take full advantage of this program. if you have questions or concerns, please send me an email jhentzen@ifpl.org

see you at the library!

The Hearth & the Salamander

2008-03-06T10:26:00.001-08:00

The first discussion group meets today... if you can't make the groups, please take advantage of this blog to discuss the book with other readers...

What do you think about these quotes?

So it was the hand that started it all . . . His hands had been infected, and soon it would be his arms . . . His hands were ravenous.

We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind.

Why do you think Beatty hates books?

What do you think about Montag’s relationship with Mildred. Is this a typical marital relationship in their culture? Think about the role of family in the characters’ lives, particularly in relation to the TV parlor “families” and their nature and function.

welcome to the club!

2008-03-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

this week we'll start the on-line discussion with part one of F451... The Hearth and the Salamander

if you can't make the discussion groups at the library, please feel free to post comments and observations about the book as well as look into what other people are saying.

i will also start posting those "thought provoking" questions on thursday!