Hey ladies - Was so sad to miss the STBC this week! I'm in the midst of a 2 week meeting blitz for Junior League (remind to ask next spring in case any of you would like to join as new members). I'm very excited about our titles for June and July. Have been reading a lot of murder/mystery paperbacks especially by Harlan Coben (I think) lately. They are easy, interesting and lightish summer murder reading if you are in need of something of that genre! Looking forward to seeing you next month!
Ann S
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Books we've read... and what's ahead
SEPTEMBER 2009
"The Glass Castle: A Memoir" by Jeannette Walls
The Glass Castle is Jeannette Walls's memoir of growing up in extreme poverty, and sometimes even extreme neglect, with parents who clearly loved her and her siblings, but did not know how to provide for the family. The book is sad and heartbreaking, there is no doubt. But Jeannette never lost faith and continued to persevere even when it seemed that everything had been taken from her and her sisters and brother.
---
AUGUST 2009
"Pride of the Bimbos" by John Sayles
A novel about a circus sideshow softball team (”The Brooklyn Bimbos") who play in drag at scraggly small towns across the South. The heart of the team and the novel is a midget and former private eye named Pogo Burns, who is pursued by Dred, an evil super-pimp whom Pogo had earlier shot in order to rescue a woman he loved. The Pride of the Bimbos is about Pogo's rise, fall and eventual immortality, a man who refuses to admit he's a freak
---
JULY 2009
"Pride Prejudice and Zombies," by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read
---
JUNE 2009
"Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise" by Ruth Reickl
As the New York Times's restaurant critic for most of the 1990s, Reichl had what some might consider the best job in town; among her missions were evaluating New York City's steakhouses, deciding whether Le Cirque deserved four stars and tracking down the best place for authentic Chinese cuisine in Queens. Thankfully, the rest of us can live that life vicariously through this vivacious, fascinating memoir. The book—Reichl's third—lifts the lid on the city's storied restaurant culture from the democratic perspective of the everyday diner. Reichl creates wildly innovative getups, which include wigs, makeup, thrift store finds and even credit cards in other names. They help Reichl maintain anonymity in her work, but they also offer the opportunity to become someone else, at least for a little while.
---
MAY 2009
"The Doctor's Wife" by Elizabeth Brundage
The novel hinges the plot on an assassination attempt of an abortion doctor. What evolves is a novel of psychological suspense that is edgy and compelling. Brundage's sense of plot and timing is impeccable, and she really knows how to hook a reader from the very first chapter. The action starts with a kidnapping and it does not let up from there. The story unfolds with many of the twists coming out of the past.
---
APRIL 2009
"Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson
Some people are born to greatness, some achieve it and some accidently stumble upon it while getting lost stumbling down the slopes of K2. This book is the story of mountaineer turned school builder Greg Mortenson whose chance encounter with the people of northern Pakistan after an unsuccessful attempt on K2 led to a new mission to educate the poor in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Mortenson builds schools mostly for girls and has learned how to work with the the leaders of this mostly Islamic area in a way that the united states as a whole has not yet learned.
---
MARCH 2009
"Outliers: The Story of Success"by Malcolm Gladwell
This book takes readers on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" -- the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. Gladwell asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.
---
FEBRUARY 2009
"Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
The novel follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. She has married three men and been tried for the murder of one of them. Though Janie feels no compulsion to justify herself to the town, she does explain herself to her friend, Phoeby, with the implicit understanding that Phoeby can "tell 'em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat's just de same as me 'cause mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf." Hurston breathes humanity into both her men and women, and allows them to speak in their own voices.
---
JANUARY 2009
"I Was Told There'd Be Cake" by Sloane Crosley
From accidentally despoiling an exhibit at the Museum of Natural History to siccing the cops on the wrong neighbor, Sloane Crosley can do no right, despite the best of intentions—or perhaps because of them. In a sharp, original storytelling style that confounds expectations at every turn, Crosley recounts her victories and catastrophes in an irresistible voice that is all her own, finding genuine insights in the most unpredictable places.
---
DECEMBER 2008
"The Shack" by William P. Young
Mac is a grief-stricken father in mid-life about to have an extraordinary experience with God. His great sadness began four years ago on a weekend camping trip, when his 6-year-old daughter, Missy, was murdered. What he couldn't know then, but is about to learn, was God's purpose for Missy's death. This compelling fantasy explores themes of love, loss, and blame.
---
NOVEMBER 2008
"The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein
A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life... as only a dog could tell it.
---
OCTOBER 2008
"Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer
When her mother gets remarried, Bella moves in with her father who lives in a small town on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, where it rains nearly all the time. There she meets Edward, a strange and gorgeous boy from a strange and gorgeous family, and soon she has fallen madly in love with him. She also discovers that he and his family are vampires, and this bothers her not at all. It bothers Edward, though; even though they had long ago sworn off human blood in favor of animal predators, he still worries for her safety, both with him and with his family, who control their lust for human blood only by willpower.
---
SEPTEMBER 2008
"The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch
When a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave—“Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”—wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was a summation of everything he had come to believe. It was about living.
---
AUGUST 2008:
"Friday Night Knitting Club" by Kate Jacobs
Juggling the demands of her yarn shop and single-handedly raising a teenage daughter has made Georgia Walker grateful for her Friday Night Knitting Club. Her friends are happy to escape their lives too, even for just a few hours. But when Georgia's ex suddenly reappears, demanding a role in their daughter's life, her whole world is shattered. Luckily, Georgia's friends are there, sharing their own tales of intimacy, heartbreak, and miracle making. And when the unthinkable happens, these women will discover that what they've created isn't just a knitting club: it's a sisterhood.
---
JULY 2008:
"Five Quarters of the Orange" by Joanne Harris
Adult/High School-Framboise Dartigen relates this story from her point of view as a nine-year-old and as a woman in her 60s. She spent her childhood in a Nazi-occupied French village with her widowed mother and siblings. Knowing that the scent of oranges brought on her mother's severe migraines, Framboise was clever enough or devious enough to hoard orange peel for her own advantage. During their unsupervised play, the children met a young Nazi soldier and were captivated by his charm and the black-market gifts that he gave them. Years later, Framboise, now a widow herself, returns to the village on a quest for the truth about her family's role in a tragic event for which her mother bore the blame and was forced by the townspeople to flee.
---
JUNE 2008:
"The Savage Garden" by Mark Mills
In 1958, while studying in the Tuscan Renaissance garden of the enigmatic Signora Francesca Docci, graduate student Adam Strickland uncovers two murders committed four hundred years apart, the sudden death of 25-year-old Flora Docci in the sixteenth century and the death of Signora Docci's son, Emilio, during WWII. In 1958, while studying in the Tuscan Renaissance garden of the enigmatic Signora Francesca Docci, graduate student Adam Strickland uncovers two murders committed four hundred years apart, the sudden death of 25-year-old Flora Docci in the sixteenth century and the death of Signora Docci's son, Emilio, during WWII.
---
MAY 2008:
"Kabul Beauty School: an American woman goes behind the veil" by Deborah Rodriguez
This is a rollicking story of one of the strangest foreign-aid projects ever conceived, the creation of an academy to train Afghan beauticians. A surprisingly successful venture, it gives Afghan women practical training convertible into cold cash and personal power, a radical idea in a country where women have the approximate status of dirt.
---
APRIL 2008:
"The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield
Vida Winter, England's most famous and reclusive writer, is nearing the end, and before she goes she wants her amazing life story to be recorded for posterity. For this, she engages a lonely young biographer, Margaret Lea, who has a few secrets of her own. When these two forceful women meet, the stage is set for an ever-mounting series of shocking surprises.
---
MARCH 2008:
"The Almost Moon" by Alice Sebold
A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable in this brilliant, powerful, and unforgettable new novel by the author of The Lovely Bones and Lucky. For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate.
---
FEBRUARY 2008:
“A Death In the Family” by James Agee
Forty years after its original publication, James Agee's last novel seems, more than ever, an American classic. For in his lyrical, sorrowful account of a man's death and its impact on his family, Agee painstakingly created a small world of domestic happiness and then showed how quickly and casually it could be destroyed. On a sultry summer night in 1915, Jay Follet leaves his house in Knoxville, Tennessee, to tend to his father, whom he believes is dying. The summons turns out to be a false alarm, but on his way back to his family, Jay has a car accident and is killed instantly. Dancing back and forth in time and braiding the viewpoints of Jay's wife, brother, and young son, Rufus, Agee creates an overwhelmingly powerful novel of innocence, tenderness, and loss that should be read aloud for the sheer music of its prose.
---
JANUARY 2008:
“The Second Assistant” by Clare Naylor and Mimi Hare
A political science degree could never prepare Elizabeth Miller for her new job as second assistant at The Agency, whose clients include everyone you have never met but you know who they are sleeping with. A former congressional intern in Washington, Lizzie makes a bid for a life change that lands her a job a world away, where ethics and First Amendment debates take a backseat to pleading the Fifth for ritalin-snorting boss Scott Wagner, the hottest young agent in Hollywood who devotes his days to playing online poker -- that is, when he is not closing a $30 million deal for one of his AAA-list clients. And while getting six hundred dollar highlights from Cameron Diaz's colorist or organizing the strippers for George Clooney's party come close to causing heart failure for this East Coast girl, the real dangers lurk elsewhere. But Lizzie is a survivor, and no Machiavellian assistant, lecherous producer, or power struggle at The Agency can douse her nascent dreams of climbing up the Hollywood ladder.
---
DECEMBER 2007:
“Holidays on Ice” by David Sedaris
His darkly playful humor is another common thread through the book, worming its way through "Seasons Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!" a chipper suburban Christmas letter that spirals dizzily out of control, and "Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol," a vicious theatrical review of children's Christmas pageants. As always, Sedaris's best work is his sharply observed nonfiction, notably in "Dinah, the Christmas Whore," the tale of a memorable Christmas during which the young Sedaris learns to see his family in a new light. Worth the price of the book alone is the hilarious "SantaLand Diaries," Sedaris's chronicle of his time working as an elf at Macy's, covering everything from the preliminary group lectures ("You are not a dancer. If you were a real dancer you wouldn't be here. You're an elf and you're going to wear panties like an elf.") to the perils of inter-elf flirtation. Along the way, he paints a funny and sad portrait of the way the countless parents who pass through SantaLand are too busy creating an Experience to really pay attention to their children. In a sly way, it carries a holiday message all its own.
----
NOVEMBER 2007:
"Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy" by Donald Kraybill and colleagues
On October 2, 2006, a gunman killed five Amish girls in a Pennsylvania hamlet. A stunned nation watched as the children were laid to rest, and as their grieving parents forgave the murderer. How could they pardon such a heinous act? Three experts on the Amish community talked with the Amish themselves, and sought to gain a true understanding of the Amish, their faith, and their forgiveness
---
OCTOBER 2007:
"The End of the Alphabet" by CS Richardson
This book tells the story of a marriage in 119 undersized pages. A middle-aged man in London is told he has one month to live. He decides that he and his wife will spend it traveling to places he has most loved or longed to see. And they will go by way of the alphabet. A is for Amsterdam. B is for Berlin. C is for Chartres. Together they prove there is more than one way to travel
---
SEPTEMBER 2007:
"The Tender Bar: A Memoir" by J.R.Moehringer
Follow the author from a peripatetic Long Island childhood to life as a budding journalist at the New York Times. Torn between the feminine comfort of his mother and the masculine camaraderie he finds in a series of bars and taverns, Moehringer details his difficult but loving upbringing. Having lived the experiences of his book, Moehringer brings to life colorful characters, like his stuttering grandfather. It is a warmly rendered history that celebrates the oddly composed parts of his childhood, and how time spent in a series of bars carousing with father figures formed him.
---
AUGUST 2007:
"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See
This is an engrossing and fascinating story of women's friendships in nineteenth century rural China. This is an excellent, well-written novel--fascinating on so many levels. Lily, the narrator of the novel is in her eighties, looking back on her life. She shares the stories of her foot binding, nu shu, the secret women's writing, and the various formally women's friendships that society enforced. Lily's sister participated in a sworn sisterhood, where a group of young women formed a friendship that was to last until marriage, but Lily is paired with one girl, Snow Flower, her laotong or "old same." Lily and Snow Flower have a love that is stronger than all of her other relationships--and it causes them both more heartbreak. The novel is really the story of their friendship, its depths, its deceits, its strengths--and it is a fascinating read about a society so different from our own.
"The Glass Castle: A Memoir" by Jeannette Walls
The Glass Castle is Jeannette Walls's memoir of growing up in extreme poverty, and sometimes even extreme neglect, with parents who clearly loved her and her siblings, but did not know how to provide for the family. The book is sad and heartbreaking, there is no doubt. But Jeannette never lost faith and continued to persevere even when it seemed that everything had been taken from her and her sisters and brother.
---
AUGUST 2009
"Pride of the Bimbos" by John Sayles
A novel about a circus sideshow softball team (”The Brooklyn Bimbos") who play in drag at scraggly small towns across the South. The heart of the team and the novel is a midget and former private eye named Pogo Burns, who is pursued by Dred, an evil super-pimp whom Pogo had earlier shot in order to rescue a woman he loved. The Pride of the Bimbos is about Pogo's rise, fall and eventual immortality, a man who refuses to admit he's a freak
---
JULY 2009
"Pride Prejudice and Zombies," by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read
---
JUNE 2009
"Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise" by Ruth Reickl
As the New York Times's restaurant critic for most of the 1990s, Reichl had what some might consider the best job in town; among her missions were evaluating New York City's steakhouses, deciding whether Le Cirque deserved four stars and tracking down the best place for authentic Chinese cuisine in Queens. Thankfully, the rest of us can live that life vicariously through this vivacious, fascinating memoir. The book—Reichl's third—lifts the lid on the city's storied restaurant culture from the democratic perspective of the everyday diner. Reichl creates wildly innovative getups, which include wigs, makeup, thrift store finds and even credit cards in other names. They help Reichl maintain anonymity in her work, but they also offer the opportunity to become someone else, at least for a little while.
---
MAY 2009
"The Doctor's Wife" by Elizabeth Brundage
The novel hinges the plot on an assassination attempt of an abortion doctor. What evolves is a novel of psychological suspense that is edgy and compelling. Brundage's sense of plot and timing is impeccable, and she really knows how to hook a reader from the very first chapter. The action starts with a kidnapping and it does not let up from there. The story unfolds with many of the twists coming out of the past.
---
APRIL 2009
"Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson
Some people are born to greatness, some achieve it and some accidently stumble upon it while getting lost stumbling down the slopes of K2. This book is the story of mountaineer turned school builder Greg Mortenson whose chance encounter with the people of northern Pakistan after an unsuccessful attempt on K2 led to a new mission to educate the poor in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Mortenson builds schools mostly for girls and has learned how to work with the the leaders of this mostly Islamic area in a way that the united states as a whole has not yet learned.
---
MARCH 2009
"Outliers: The Story of Success"by Malcolm Gladwell
This book takes readers on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" -- the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. Gladwell asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.
---
FEBRUARY 2009
"Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
The novel follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. She has married three men and been tried for the murder of one of them. Though Janie feels no compulsion to justify herself to the town, she does explain herself to her friend, Phoeby, with the implicit understanding that Phoeby can "tell 'em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat's just de same as me 'cause mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf." Hurston breathes humanity into both her men and women, and allows them to speak in their own voices.
---
JANUARY 2009
"I Was Told There'd Be Cake" by Sloane Crosley
From accidentally despoiling an exhibit at the Museum of Natural History to siccing the cops on the wrong neighbor, Sloane Crosley can do no right, despite the best of intentions—or perhaps because of them. In a sharp, original storytelling style that confounds expectations at every turn, Crosley recounts her victories and catastrophes in an irresistible voice that is all her own, finding genuine insights in the most unpredictable places.
---
DECEMBER 2008
"The Shack" by William P. Young
Mac is a grief-stricken father in mid-life about to have an extraordinary experience with God. His great sadness began four years ago on a weekend camping trip, when his 6-year-old daughter, Missy, was murdered. What he couldn't know then, but is about to learn, was God's purpose for Missy's death. This compelling fantasy explores themes of love, loss, and blame.
---
NOVEMBER 2008
"The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein
A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life... as only a dog could tell it.
---
OCTOBER 2008
"Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer
When her mother gets remarried, Bella moves in with her father who lives in a small town on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, where it rains nearly all the time. There she meets Edward, a strange and gorgeous boy from a strange and gorgeous family, and soon she has fallen madly in love with him. She also discovers that he and his family are vampires, and this bothers her not at all. It bothers Edward, though; even though they had long ago sworn off human blood in favor of animal predators, he still worries for her safety, both with him and with his family, who control their lust for human blood only by willpower.
---
SEPTEMBER 2008
"The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch
When a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave—“Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”—wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was a summation of everything he had come to believe. It was about living.
---
AUGUST 2008:
"Friday Night Knitting Club" by Kate Jacobs
Juggling the demands of her yarn shop and single-handedly raising a teenage daughter has made Georgia Walker grateful for her Friday Night Knitting Club. Her friends are happy to escape their lives too, even for just a few hours. But when Georgia's ex suddenly reappears, demanding a role in their daughter's life, her whole world is shattered. Luckily, Georgia's friends are there, sharing their own tales of intimacy, heartbreak, and miracle making. And when the unthinkable happens, these women will discover that what they've created isn't just a knitting club: it's a sisterhood.
---
JULY 2008:
"Five Quarters of the Orange" by Joanne Harris
Adult/High School-Framboise Dartigen relates this story from her point of view as a nine-year-old and as a woman in her 60s. She spent her childhood in a Nazi-occupied French village with her widowed mother and siblings. Knowing that the scent of oranges brought on her mother's severe migraines, Framboise was clever enough or devious enough to hoard orange peel for her own advantage. During their unsupervised play, the children met a young Nazi soldier and were captivated by his charm and the black-market gifts that he gave them. Years later, Framboise, now a widow herself, returns to the village on a quest for the truth about her family's role in a tragic event for which her mother bore the blame and was forced by the townspeople to flee.
---
JUNE 2008:
"The Savage Garden" by Mark Mills
In 1958, while studying in the Tuscan Renaissance garden of the enigmatic Signora Francesca Docci, graduate student Adam Strickland uncovers two murders committed four hundred years apart, the sudden death of 25-year-old Flora Docci in the sixteenth century and the death of Signora Docci's son, Emilio, during WWII. In 1958, while studying in the Tuscan Renaissance garden of the enigmatic Signora Francesca Docci, graduate student Adam Strickland uncovers two murders committed four hundred years apart, the sudden death of 25-year-old Flora Docci in the sixteenth century and the death of Signora Docci's son, Emilio, during WWII.
---
MAY 2008:
"Kabul Beauty School: an American woman goes behind the veil" by Deborah Rodriguez
This is a rollicking story of one of the strangest foreign-aid projects ever conceived, the creation of an academy to train Afghan beauticians. A surprisingly successful venture, it gives Afghan women practical training convertible into cold cash and personal power, a radical idea in a country where women have the approximate status of dirt.
---
APRIL 2008:
"The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield
Vida Winter, England's most famous and reclusive writer, is nearing the end, and before she goes she wants her amazing life story to be recorded for posterity. For this, she engages a lonely young biographer, Margaret Lea, who has a few secrets of her own. When these two forceful women meet, the stage is set for an ever-mounting series of shocking surprises.
---
MARCH 2008:
"The Almost Moon" by Alice Sebold
A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable in this brilliant, powerful, and unforgettable new novel by the author of The Lovely Bones and Lucky. For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate.
---
FEBRUARY 2008:
“A Death In the Family” by James Agee
Forty years after its original publication, James Agee's last novel seems, more than ever, an American classic. For in his lyrical, sorrowful account of a man's death and its impact on his family, Agee painstakingly created a small world of domestic happiness and then showed how quickly and casually it could be destroyed. On a sultry summer night in 1915, Jay Follet leaves his house in Knoxville, Tennessee, to tend to his father, whom he believes is dying. The summons turns out to be a false alarm, but on his way back to his family, Jay has a car accident and is killed instantly. Dancing back and forth in time and braiding the viewpoints of Jay's wife, brother, and young son, Rufus, Agee creates an overwhelmingly powerful novel of innocence, tenderness, and loss that should be read aloud for the sheer music of its prose.
---
JANUARY 2008:
“The Second Assistant” by Clare Naylor and Mimi Hare
A political science degree could never prepare Elizabeth Miller for her new job as second assistant at The Agency, whose clients include everyone you have never met but you know who they are sleeping with. A former congressional intern in Washington, Lizzie makes a bid for a life change that lands her a job a world away, where ethics and First Amendment debates take a backseat to pleading the Fifth for ritalin-snorting boss Scott Wagner, the hottest young agent in Hollywood who devotes his days to playing online poker -- that is, when he is not closing a $30 million deal for one of his AAA-list clients. And while getting six hundred dollar highlights from Cameron Diaz's colorist or organizing the strippers for George Clooney's party come close to causing heart failure for this East Coast girl, the real dangers lurk elsewhere. But Lizzie is a survivor, and no Machiavellian assistant, lecherous producer, or power struggle at The Agency can douse her nascent dreams of climbing up the Hollywood ladder.
---
DECEMBER 2007:
“Holidays on Ice” by David Sedaris
His darkly playful humor is another common thread through the book, worming its way through "Seasons Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!" a chipper suburban Christmas letter that spirals dizzily out of control, and "Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol," a vicious theatrical review of children's Christmas pageants. As always, Sedaris's best work is his sharply observed nonfiction, notably in "Dinah, the Christmas Whore," the tale of a memorable Christmas during which the young Sedaris learns to see his family in a new light. Worth the price of the book alone is the hilarious "SantaLand Diaries," Sedaris's chronicle of his time working as an elf at Macy's, covering everything from the preliminary group lectures ("You are not a dancer. If you were a real dancer you wouldn't be here. You're an elf and you're going to wear panties like an elf.") to the perils of inter-elf flirtation. Along the way, he paints a funny and sad portrait of the way the countless parents who pass through SantaLand are too busy creating an Experience to really pay attention to their children. In a sly way, it carries a holiday message all its own.
----
NOVEMBER 2007:
"Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy" by Donald Kraybill and colleagues
On October 2, 2006, a gunman killed five Amish girls in a Pennsylvania hamlet. A stunned nation watched as the children were laid to rest, and as their grieving parents forgave the murderer. How could they pardon such a heinous act? Three experts on the Amish community talked with the Amish themselves, and sought to gain a true understanding of the Amish, their faith, and their forgiveness
---
OCTOBER 2007:
"The End of the Alphabet" by CS Richardson
This book tells the story of a marriage in 119 undersized pages. A middle-aged man in London is told he has one month to live. He decides that he and his wife will spend it traveling to places he has most loved or longed to see. And they will go by way of the alphabet. A is for Amsterdam. B is for Berlin. C is for Chartres. Together they prove there is more than one way to travel
---
SEPTEMBER 2007:
"The Tender Bar: A Memoir" by J.R.Moehringer
Follow the author from a peripatetic Long Island childhood to life as a budding journalist at the New York Times. Torn between the feminine comfort of his mother and the masculine camaraderie he finds in a series of bars and taverns, Moehringer details his difficult but loving upbringing. Having lived the experiences of his book, Moehringer brings to life colorful characters, like his stuttering grandfather. It is a warmly rendered history that celebrates the oddly composed parts of his childhood, and how time spent in a series of bars carousing with father figures formed him.
---
AUGUST 2007:
"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See
This is an engrossing and fascinating story of women's friendships in nineteenth century rural China. This is an excellent, well-written novel--fascinating on so many levels. Lily, the narrator of the novel is in her eighties, looking back on her life. She shares the stories of her foot binding, nu shu, the secret women's writing, and the various formally women's friendships that society enforced. Lily's sister participated in a sworn sisterhood, where a group of young women formed a friendship that was to last until marriage, but Lily is paired with one girl, Snow Flower, her laotong or "old same." Lily and Snow Flower have a love that is stronger than all of her other relationships--and it causes them both more heartbreak. The novel is really the story of their friendship, its depths, its deceits, its strengths--and it is a fascinating read about a society so different from our own.
Love those flowers, Sharon
Thanks for hosting! We had some pretty strong feelings about Miss Debbie and her antics in Kabul. Post some comments here, too.
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