Article About 1984

Most of us read this in High School.  There has been so much superficial as well as deep discussion of how it has affected our world view.  I thought it would be interesting to read some of these and discuss as well as the novel itself.

George Orwell's road to dystopia;

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21337504

Alice Munro; Winner of 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature

This is from Wikipedia; 

Alice Ann Munro (/ˈælɪs ˌæn mʌnˈroʊ/, née Laidlaw /ˈleɪdlɔː/; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as having revolutionized the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move forward and backward in time.^[2] Her stories have been said to "embed more than announce, reveal more than parade."^[3]

Munro's fiction is most often set in her native Huron County in southwestern Ontario.^[4] Her stories explore human complexities in an uncomplicated prose style.^[5] Munro's writing has established her as "one of our greatest contemporary writers of fiction", or, as Cynthia Ozick put it, "our Chekhov."^[6] Munro is the recipient of many literary accolades, including the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature for her work as "master of the contemporary short story",^[7] and the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work. 

November Book Selection

This should be a good one for the season; a comedy about Armegeddon by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (of Discworld Series fame).  It is also being made into a TV series to be released in 2019 on Amazon Prime video.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch is a World Fantasy Award-nominated novel, written as a collaboration between the English authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The book is a comedy about the birth of the son of Satan, the coming of the End Times. Wikipedia

Originally published: May 1, 1990

Authors: Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett

Page count: 288

Adaptations: Good Omens (2018)

Characters: Aziraphale, Anathema Device, Crowley, Shadwell, Adam Young

Genres: Horror fiction, Fantasy, Humorous Fiction

Here is the link to the series preview trailer; 

https://mashable.com/video/good-omens-trailer-nycc/#fMw63Pi9waqa

October 3rd Book !

We will be reading 'I Am The Messanger' by Marcus Zusak.  It was recommended by Maura.  See all of you in October.  Have a good read!

Here is the beginning of a review by N. Alysha Lewis :

For seventeen years, I forced myself not to have a favorite book. I loved reading so much, I didn’t want to decide on one in case I read something even better right after. The Phantom Tollbooth came close because it gave me my love of word play, but even still, when asked, I never gave a straight answer. Then I read I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak.

Many know Zusak as the man who wrote The Book Thief, a very popular selection for summer reading lists that got the movie treatment a few years ago. And I get it. The Book Thief is a great book. It deserves the accolades and attention it has received—but in my opinion, I Am the Messenger, which turned 15 this year, is the YA read you should be picking up.

August 2018 Book

The River of Doubt; Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard.

Early June Book Club at ARBOR CREST Winery!!

We had a very nice time at The Gilded Unicorn followed by the Pie & Whiskey readings at the Washington Cracker Barrel building!  So much fun in fact that we decided to try Arbor Crest outside next time.  If the weather is bad we have a back up plan; Candace's house.  Regardless, her famous applesauce cake will be there! 

We are reading "Guns of the South" by Harry Turtledove.  This is an alternative history book about the Civil War. There is one copy in the city library system and one digital copy in county.  So.... if you can't find one in one of our local used bookstores then you will have to get a cheap copy from one of the following online source;  thriftbooks.com, amazon, betterworldbooks, bookfinder, alibris, abe books.  Candace and I already have a copy. We have a 7 week period till book club so order it
soon.

Homegoing

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi Ghana, 18th century: Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the notorious Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and shipped off to America to be sold into slavery. HOMEGOING follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the slave traders of the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the Asantes’ struggle against British colonialism to the first stirrings of the American Civil War, from the jazz of 20th-century Harlem to the sparkling shores of modern Ghana. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi Publication Date: May 2, 2017 Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Vintage ISBN-10: 1101971061 ISBN-13: 9781101971062

Martin Marten in January 2018

We will be reading Martin Marten by Brian Doyle for the upcoming January Book Club. It will be at Lori's house on Tuesday January 16th. Martin Marten is a braided coming-of-age tale like no other, told in Brian Doyle's joyous, rollicking style. Dave is fourteen years old, living with his family in a cabin on Oregon's Mount Hood (or as he prefers to call it, like the Multnomah tribal peoples once did, Wy'east).

A.J. Fikry

KIRKUS REVIEW Zevin (Margarettown, 2006, etc.) chronicles the life of A. J. Fikry, a man who holds no brief for random acts, who yearns for a distinct narrative, who flounders about until his life is reordered by happenstance. Fikry owns Island Books on Alice Island, a summer destination off Massachusetts—think Nantucket. He’s not yet 40 but already widowed, his wife, Nic, dead in an auto accident. Fikry drinks. Island Books drifts toward bankruptcy. Then, within a span of days, his rare copy of Poe’s Tamerlane (worth $400,000) is stolen, and 2-year-old Maya is deposited at his bookstore. Fikry cannot bear to leave the precocious child to the system once it becomes apparent her single mother has drowned herself in the sea. He adopts Maya, spurred by her immediate attachment to him. That decision detours "his plan to drink himself to death" and reinvigorates his life and his bookstore. Add Amelia Loman, quirky traveling sales representative for Knightley Press, and a romance that takes four years to begin, and there’s a Nicholas Sparks quality to this novel about people who love books but can't find someone to love. With a wry appreciation for the travails of bookstore owners—A. J. doesn’t like e-readers—Zevin writes characters of a type, certainly, but ones who nonetheless inspire empathy. Among others, there are the bright and sweet-natured Maya, who morphs into an insecure but still precocious teenager; Lambiase, local police chief who finds in Firky the friend who expands his life; A. J’s brother-in-law, Daniel Parish, a once–best-selling author riding out a descending career arc; and Daniel’s wife, Ismay, who sees A. J. as everything Daniel should be. All fit the milieu perfectly in a plot that spins out as expected, bookended by tragedy. Zevin writes characters who grow and prosper, mainly A. J. and Lambiase, in a narrative that is sometimes sentimental, sometimes funny, sometimes true to life and always entertaining. A likable literary love story about selling books and finding love.