Books We Have Read as a group

Recent books are at the bottom of list:

 No date – “Losing the Garden” by Laura Waterman

***No date –“Glass Castle” – Jeanette Walls

***October 22, 2006 – “Three Cups of Tea” – Greg Mortenson

***No date – “Kite Runner”

No date – “Namesake”

***No date – “A Fine Balance” Rohinton Mistry

No date – “A Thousand White Women”

***No date -  “Bel Canto” by Anne Patchett

***2005 – Broken for You – Stephanie Kallos

***December 2005 – Shadow of the Wind

November 19, 2006 -   "History of Love" by Nicole Kraus

December 10, 06   "The Painted Drum" by Louise  Erdrich.   

***January 7, 2007    "The Five Quarters of the Orange" by Joanne Harris

***February 11, 2007 "Suite Francaise", by Irene Nemirovsky

 March 4, 2007  "A Short History of  Tractors in Ukrainian" by Marina Lewycka

***April 2007 -  "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

***April 29, 2007   "Waiting" by Ha Jian

*** June 3, 2007 -   "My Antonia" by Willa Cather

July 1, 2007 - "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.  

***July 29, 2007 - "Gentlemen & Players" by Joanne Harris

***September 23, 2007    "Astrid and Veronika" by Linda Olsson

***October 2007  Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth".

***October 21, 2007 - "In the Lake of the Woods" by Tim O'Brien 

November 17, 2007   , "Peyton Place" – Six Burner Café after “Spitfire Grill”

January 6, 2008   "Keeping Faith" by Jodi Picoult

February 3, 2008 “In the Fall” Jeffrey Lent

***March 2, 2008 – “Crossing to Safety” Wallace Stegner

April 6, 2008- Sunday at 3:00 PM  Jeffrey Lent at the Silver Center followed by dinner at Six Burner Bistro

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April 27, 2008 "These is My Words" by Nancy Turner

***June 1, 2008 -    "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving.

July 6, 2008   Jeffrey Lent's "Lost Nation". 

August 10, 2008  "The Last Chinese Chef" by Nicole Mones  

September 14, 2008, “Crow Lake” by Mary Lawson

October 5, 2008  "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami  

November 2, 2008   Consumption" by Kevin Patterson. 

December 7, 2008. “Some Can Whistle”

January 4, 2009  “Loving Frank”

February 1, 2009 -  “Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral”

***March 1, 2009 – “When the Crocodile Eats the Sun” – Peter Godwin (memoir)

***April 1, 2009 – “East of Eden”, John Steinbeck

***May 30, 2009 – “The Reader”, Berhard Schlink

June 28, 2009 – “Sassy Tree”

July 26, 2009 – “Garden in the Dunes”

***August 30, 2009 – “The Life and Death of Charlie St. Cloud” 

September 27, 2009 – “Pope Joan”

October 25, 2009 – “The Scalpel and the Silver Bear”

November, 2009 – no meeting

December 6, 2009 – “The Housekeeper and the Professor”

***January 31, 2010 – “Olive Kitteridge”

February 28, 2010 – “Sin in the Second City”

March 28, 2010 –  “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” by Carson McCullers

April 18, 2010 – “Main Street” by Sinclair Lewis

***May 16, 2010 – “Cellist of Sarajevo” by Stephen Galloway

June 27, 2010 – “Mists of Avalon”

July 25, 2010 – “We Took to the Woods” by Louise Dickinson Rich

August 29, 2010 – “Ines of My Soul” – Isabel Allende

***September 26, 2010 -  “The Help” – 

October 31, 2010 – "A Tale of Two Valleys" by Alan Deutschman,

November 2010 – No meeting

***December 5, 2010 – “Power of One” – Bryce Courtenay

January 30, 2011 – Reservation Blues –  Sherman Alexie

***February 27, 2011 – Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet – Jamie Ford

***March 27, 2011 – “Strength in What Remains” by Tracy Kidder

April, 2011 – no meeting

***May 15, 2011 – “Water for Elephants” by Sarah Gruen

June 26, 2011 – “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot

July 31, 2011 – “The Widow’s War” by Sarah Gunning

***August 21, 2011 – “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand”

September 25, 2011 – “The Girl who Fell from the Sky”

***October 30, 2011 – “The Bells” by Richard Harvell

***December 4, 2011 – “Kindred” by Octavia Butler

January 29, 2012 – “The Wives of Henry Oades – a Novel” by Johanna Moran

***February 25, 2012 – “Breakfast with Buddha”

March 25, 2012 – Ann Patchett  “State of Wonder”

April 29, 2012 – James McBride “ The Color of Water”

May 20, 2012 -  The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

July 1, 2012 – Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd

July 29, 2012 – Old Filth by Jane Gardam

***August 26, 2012 – “In the Time of the Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez

***September 30 – “Dandelion Wine” by Ray Bradbury

October 28, 2012 – “Tea-Olive Bird Watching Society

December 1, 2012 – “11/22/63” – by Stephen King

Jan;uary 27, 2013 – “The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes

February 24, 2013 – “Their Eyes were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston

March 24, 2013 – “Lower River” by Paul Therouix

April 2013 – No meeting

***May 19, 2013 – “Clara and Mr. Tiffany”  by Susan Veerland

***June30, 2013 – “The Art of Hearing Heartbeats”

*** - Books liked by Kathy Didier

March 24, 2013 - Meeting at Diane's

Once again, we enjoyed the scenic mountain views from Diane's living room.  Beautiful day.  No weather issues.  Book discussed was "Lower River" by Paul Theroux.  We all agreed that Theroux writes well...but, this was a very dark story.  After a divorce and sale of his business, our main character "Hock" returns to Mali where he happily spent time in the Peace Corps forty years earlier.  This story proved that "You cannot go back".  Hock's intentions were good.  He wanted to help the people...to continue where he left off.  But, times had changed and he had changed, the people of the village had changed.  The book was like a nightmare.  He was trapped...held captive.  Felt hopeless.  It was not a pleasant read...and yet written well. 

From Malena's suggestions we voted to read "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" by
Jan-Philipp Sendker at our June 30, meeting. 

Marilyn is our club's coordinator for World Book Night.  This year, those of us in the North Country applied as a group.  We will be receiving twelve orders of twenty books each.  These books will be distributed to different organizations in Plymouth, NH...such as the Pemi Youth, Women Against Violence, the Whole Village, Bridge House.  The idea of the book distribution is to share our love of books with "Light Readers". The distribution date, World Wide, is April 23.  Lori and Claire are sharing their forty books with the Women's Soup Kitchen where Claire volunteers.  Marilyn asked for assistance in sorting and packing books for our local organizations.  Publicity of the event was discussed. 

Because so many members will be out of town on April 28, it was decided that our next meeting will be on May 19, at Marilyn's house.   Book to be discussed is "Clara and Mr. Tiffany" by Susan Vreeland.

Marlena's suggestions for June book

Just to remind everyone.  We meet on March 24, at Diane's.  We agreed to skip the April meeting.  We meet on May 19, as the next weekend is Memorial Day.  Our June meeting will be on June 30.  Below are Marlena's suggestions for the June book.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel
Rachel Joyce
Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with
his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does, even
down to how he butters his toast. Little differentiates one day from the
next. Then one morning the mail arrives, and within the stack of quotidian
minutiae is a letter addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl from a woman he
hasn't seen or heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice
and is writing to say goodbye.

Harold pens a quick reply and, leaving Maureen to her chores, heads to the
corner mailbox. But then, as happens in the very best works of fiction,
Harold has a chance encounter, one that convinces him that he absolutely
must deliver his message to Queenie in person. And thus begins the unlikely
pilgrimage at the heart of Rachel Joyce's remarkable debut. Harold Fry is
determined to walk six hundred miles from Kingsbridge to the hospice in
Berwick-upon-Tweed because, he believes, as long as he walks, Queenie
Hennessey will live.

Still in his yachting shoes and light coat, Harold embarks on his urgent
quest across the countryside. Along the way he meets one fascinating
character after another, each of whom unlocks his long-dormant spirit and
sense of promise. Memories of his first dance with Maureen, his wedding day,
his joy in fatherhood, come rushing back to him-allowing him to also
reconcile the losses and the regrets. As for Maureen, she finds herself
missing Harold for the first time in years.

And then there is the unfinished business with Queenie Hennessy.


One Amazing Thing
Chitra Divakaruni
Late afternoon sun sneaks through the windows of a passport and visa office
in an unnamed American city. Most customers and even most office workers
have come and gone, but nine people remain. A punky teenager with an
unexpected gift. An upper-class Caucasian couple whose relationship is
disintegrating. A young Muslim-American man struggling with the fallout of
9/11. A graduate student haunted by a question about love. An
African-American ex-soldier searching for redemption. A Chinese grandmother
with a secret past. And two visa office workers on the verge of an
adulterous affair.

When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull, trapping these nine
characters together, their focus first jolts to their collective struggle to
survive. There's little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment
when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them
to bear, the young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale,
"one amazing thing" from their lives, which they have never told anyone
before. And as their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family,
political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their
life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of
stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats
Jan-Philipp Sendker
A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing
Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present.  When a
successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his
wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be...until they find
a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never
heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her
father's past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived.
There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion
that will reaffirm the reader's belief in the power of love to move
mountains.

The Light Between Oceans
M. L. Stedman
AFTER FOUR HARROWING YEARS ON THE WESTERN Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly
half a day's journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the
supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife,
Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving
Isabel hears a baby's cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore
carrying a dead man and a living baby.
Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood
a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel
insists the baby is a "gift from God," and against Tom's judgment, they
claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel
return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the
world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

Brooklyn: A Novel
Colm Toibin
One of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary literature"
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland
in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from
Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America, she decides she must go,
leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.

Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least
expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian
family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to
fall in love, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her
future.