Kathy's Suggestions for our February Book Selection

Tell the Wolves, I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt - 2012

 
In this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don’t know you’ve lost someone until you’ve found them.

There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June’s world is turned upside down. But Finn’s death brings a surprise acquaintance into June’s life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.

At Finn’s funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn’s apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she’s not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.
 

An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again

The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman 2015

“A luminous, Marquez-esque tale” (O, The Oprah Magazine) from the New York Times bestselling author of The Museum of Extraordinary Things: a forbidden love story set on a tropical island about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro—the Father of Impressionism.

Growing up on idyllic St. Thomas in the early 1800s, Rachel dreams of life in faraway Paris. Rachel’s mother, a pillar of their small refugee community of Jews who escaped the Inquisition, has never forgiven her daughter for being a difficult girl who refuses to live by the rules. Growing up, Rachel’s salvation is their maid Adelle’s belief in her strengths, and her deep, life-long friendship with Jestine, Adelle’s daughter. But Rachel’s life is not her own. She is married off to a widower with three children to save her father’s business. When her older husband dies suddenly and his handsome, much younger nephew, Frédérick, arrives from France to settle the estate, Rachel seizes her own life story, beginning a defiant, passionate love affair that sparks a scandal that affects all of her family, including her favorite son, who will become one of the greatest artists of France.

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman 2013

In this stunning new novel, the acclaimed author of The Plum Tree merges the past and present into a haunting story about the nature of love and loyalty--and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most.

Ten years ago, Izzy Stone's mother fatally shot her father while he slept. Devastated by her mother's apparent insanity, Izzy, now seventeen, refuses to visit her in prison. But her new foster parents, employees at the local museum, have enlisted Izzy's help in cataloging items at a long-shuttered state asylum. There, amid piles of abandoned belongings, Izzy discovers a stack of unopened letters, a decades-old journal, and a window into her own past.

Clara Cartwright, eighteen years old in 1929, is caught between her overbearing parents and her love for an Italian immigrant. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, Clara's father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash, he can no longer afford her care--and Clara is committed to the public asylum.

Even as Izzy deals with the challenges of yet another new beginning, Clara's story keeps drawing her into the past. If Clara was never really mentally ill, could something else explain her own mother's violent act? Piecing together Clara's fate compels Izzy to re-examine her own choices--with shocking and unexpected results.

Illuminating and provocative, What She Left Behind is a masterful novel about the yearning to belong--and the mysteries that can belie even the most ordinary life.

The Island by Victoria Hislop 2007

The Petrakis family lives in the small Greek seaside village of Plaka. Just off the coast is the tiny island of Spinalonga, where the nation's leper colony once was located—a place that has haunted four generations of Petrakis women. There's Eleni, ripped from her husband and two young daughters and sent to Spinalonga in 1939, and her daughters Maria, finding joy in the everyday as she dutifully cares for her father, and Anna, a wild child hungry for passion and a life anywhere but Plaka. And finally there's Alexis, Eleni's great-granddaughter, visiting modern-day Greece to unlock her family's past.

A richly enchanting novel of lives and loves unfolding against the backdrop of the Mediterranean during World War II, The Island is an enthralling story of dreams and desires, of secrets desperately hidden, and of leprosy's touch on an unforgettable family.



Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche 2013
The bestselling novel—a love story of race and identity—from the award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele.

Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland. 

October 29, 2017 at Mary Jo's New Home

Submitted by Ann S.

Riverrun Book Club review of “When The Moon is Low”

The following notes made from the perspective an impartial observer with no previous knowledge of the story.

This book is about family and survival, a definite page turner.  To say one loved or enjoyed this book has to be qualified due to the heartbreaking circumstances of the characters.  Aspects of this book caused apprehension to some readers, but the need to know the outcome overcame the inclination to put the book down.   While it was questioned how so many tragic things could happen to one person, it seems the author combined the experiences of many to show the desperate issues facing refugees.  All felt that even given the difficulties, Fereiba had no choice but to try to get to her sister.

There was conversation on immigration policies, the difficulties of adjusting to rules and customs from country to country, and the general hardships faced by refugees.  Other than Fereiba’s tragic loss of her son, I heard no specific description of other cruelties the family faced.  I’m assuming they were too depressing to need discussion?

 

How does the book end?  Does Saleem run into his mother’s arms and return her bangles?  Does he ever meet Roxanne again?  Does he die in the tunnel?  Never fear – Ann Fitzhebert is currently working on the sequel where everything turns out sunny.  

 

Book Voted on For January 2018:  THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TO TOWN  by David Macfarlane

Stephanie has volunteered to host the January meeting.

Changes to the "book suggestion" rooster:  Kathy will provide selections for February.

(Lori March, Marilyn April - to be confirmed)

 

  

NEXT MEEETING:                      CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON     SIX BURNER BISTRO

Sunday, December 3, 2017   -    11:30 a.m. (some will arrive a bit later)

Book for discussion:                    The Interpretation of Loss by Kiran Desai

 

Yankee Swap will be Gently Used Books

Diane's Suggestions for our January 28, 2018 Meeting

"The Day the World Came to Town - 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland" by John DeFeda. 

When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Canada by the closing of U.S. airspace on September 11, the population of this small town on Newfoundland Island swelled from 10,300 to nearly 17,000. The citizens of Gander met the stranded passengers with an overwhelming display of friendship and goodwill. As the passengers stepped from the airplanes, exhausted, hungry and distraught after being held on board for nearly 24 hours while security checked all of the baggage, they were greeted with a feast prepared by the townspeople. Local bus drivers who had been on strike came off the picket lines to transport the passengers to the various shelters set up in local schools and churches. Linens and toiletries were bought and donated. A middle school provided showers, as well as access to computers, email, and televisions, allowing the passengers to stay in touch with family and follow the news.

Over the course of those four days, many of the passengers developed friendships with Gander residents that they expect to last a lifetime. As a show of thanks, scholarship funds for the children of Gander have been formed and donations have been made to provide new computers for the schools. This book recounts the inspiring story of the residents of Gander, Canada, whose acts of kindness have touched the lives of thousands of people and been an example of humanity and goodwill.

Little Fires Everywhere. by Celeste Ng

From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides.  Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs. 

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. by  Ayana Mathis
Beautiful and devastating, Ayana Mathis’s The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is wondrous from first to last—glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life. An emotionally transfixing page-turner, a searing portrait of striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, an indelible encounter with the resilience of the human spirit and the driving force of the American dream.

A debut of extraordinary distinction: tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one unforgettable family.

In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented.  Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave.  She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them, a world that will not be kind. Captured here in twelve luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother’s monumental courage and the journey of a nation. 

The Given Day.  by Dennis Lehane 

Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane’s long-awaited eighth novel unflinchingly captures the political and social unrest of a nation caught at the crossroads between past and future. Filled with a cast of unforgettable characters more richly drawn than any Lehane has ever created, The Given Day tells the story of two families--one black, one white--swept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for survival and power. Beat cop Danny Coughlin, the son of one of the city’s most beloved and powerful police captains, joins a burgeoning union movement and the hunt for violent radicals. Luther Laurence, on the run after a deadly confrontation with a crime boss in Tulsa, works for the Coughlin family and tries desperately to find his way home to his pregnant wife.

Here, too, are some of the most influential figures of the era--Babe Ruth; Eugene O’Neill; leftist activist Jack Reed; NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois; Mitchell Palmer, Woodrow Wilson’s ruthless Red-chasing attorney general; cunning Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge; and an ambitious young Department of Justice lawyer named John Hoover. 

Coursing through some of the pivotal events of the time--including the Spanish Influenza pandemic--and culminating in the Boston Police Strike of 1919, The Given Day explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in the thrall of, itself. As Danny, Luther, and those around them struggle to define themselves in increasingly turbulent times, they gradually find family in one another and, together, ride a rising storm of hardship, deprivation, and hope that will change all their lives. 

“[An] engrossing epic. . . . A vision of redemption and a triumph of the human spirit.”

September 24, 2017 - Meeting at Claire's North Country Home

Submitted by Ann S.

September 24, 2017 - a record breaking day for temps at Bretton Woods.   11 members of the book club met at Claire’s condo.  We ate, we drank and we were treated to that wonderful view of Mt. Washington.  Claire made Benne Wafers, just like in the book.  The book discussed was “South of Broad”.   

The book was also possibly record breaking for its inclusion of nearly every social issue known:  Murder, incest, suicide, homosexuality, interracial problems, bullying, alcoholism, cancer, aids, class distinction, various forms of mental illness, nuns that come out of the convent, mothers that go back in, child abusing priests, sports rivalry, and a promiscuous movie star.  He also threw in a hurricane and a porpoise rescue. 

Celia we are so glad you showed up when you did. Without your help we may have been undone by the dearth of possible subjects.   Seriously, thanks for getting us into a reasonable discussion.  Marilyn and Lori knew from the beginning the reason for the suicide, while a few of us were worried that the book was nearing the end and Conroy wasn’t going to tell us why.  That said, most found it an easy read and we all finished the book. 

We were joined by Carol and her sister Judy.  Always nice to see Judy who by the way was a participant in the original plans for River Run book club.

Carol, if you fwd. Judy's email I will add her to the meeting notes.

Book Voted on For December:  THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS by Kiran Desai

NEXT MEEETING:    October 29^th at 1 p.m.

Book for discussion:    When the Moon is Low by Nadia Hashimi

Place:                            MaryJo’s at 280 Upper Mad River Road, Thornton

                                      Driveway is exactly across from Fondue Ave– if using GPS put in Fondue Ave.

                                      Tel:  603-254-6808

                                      

­CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON

MaryJo has made reservations for us (we thank you)

Six Burner Bistro

Sunday, December 3, 2017

11:30 p.m.

Yankee Swap will be Gently Used Books

August 20, Meeting at Celia's House

Submitted by Ann S.

It was a pleasure to spend another great summer Sunday enjoying drinks and hors d’oeuvres in the gazebo at Celia’s, we missed Ann F and MaryJo.  Thank you Joy for the Bellini cocktails, a wonderful way to celebrate, have a great (safe) walk in Spain.

The book discussed was Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough, the story of Teddy Roosevelt, a weak and asthmatic child who grew up to be one of the most robust and ambitious U.S. presidents.  The person who suggested this book (me) thought the group would find it dry and boring.  However, although we agreed it was certainly not McCullough at his best, people found it interesting.  Not all finished the book but that never held this group back from avid discussion.  We talked about asthma and the timing of Teedee’s attacks; how the double funeral for his mother and his wife sends him to the badlands where he decides he can do his best work in politics; how he decides to remarry and then never mentions his first wife’s name again; and we all found it strange how his sisters (both married) proclaimed their love for Teddy came first.

How come Marilyn had the only book showing the family tree?

SEPTEMBER MEETING:

Next Meeting:             24 September 2017

Book for discussion:   South of Broad by Pat Conroy

Location:                     Claire’s Condo at Bretton Woods           

OCTOBER MEETING:

Date:                             October 29, 2017

Book Chosen:              When the Moon is Low by Nadia Hashimi

Location:                      MaryJo’s new home

Christmas Luncheon Meeting

Date:                             December 3, 2017

Place:                            Six Burner Café Plymouth – 

Book:                            Will be chosen from Claire’s suggestions

Carol's Suggestions of Books for our October meeting

Book Club List for October, 2017

1. “ Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon” by Marjorie Kellogg, 1968, 208
pages
“An unusual 1960’s novel about three people with serious physical
disabilities who meet at a state hospital and decide to throw in their lot together
at a house of their own. The novel is short and the writing is terse and
understated.”

2. “Not Without Peril”, 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of
New Hampshire, by Nicholas Howe, published in 2000, 293 pages.
“Not without peril” is an outstanding addition to the literature of
mountaineering. Howe’s work gives us a masterful, riveting, and meticulously
researched account of some of the most tragic encounters with the wrath of the
White Mountains. These stories are made even more chilling because of the
accessibility of these mountains to the recreational hiker” quote from Donna
Urey, White Birch Booksellers, N. Conway


3. Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox
“Thoroughly enjoyed this exciting book. Lynne's writing style was so captivating I
felt as though I was swimming by her side”
“Lynne Cox's book detailing her long distance swims is fascinating. It is easy to
get wrapped up in her adventures, and hard to put the book down. The writing is
effective and engaging, and the stories themselves awe-inspiring. Somewhere
around the middle of the book, I began to feel that her obsessiveness was
somewhat over the top, and wondered what the point was in her taking on the
increasingly difficult and death-defying swims. But near the end, when she is
finally able to achieve her lifelong goal of swimming across the Bering Strait, it all
comes together. I got the chills reading that chapter, not just because of the 32
degree water.” Quote from Amazon books


4.THE MOON IS LOW, by Nadia Hashimi. 416 pages, paperback, 2016
This story is simply told, in the voices of Fareiba, and her son Saleem
as they leave a troubled Afghanistan for a better life in London. The
story traces Fareiba's difficult life first as a motherless child, and later as
a widow with three children compelled to leave her country after her
husband is killed. Saleem's voice join in as the family begins its move.
The story is heart wrenching, yet the characters too engrossing to make
the reader easily put the book down. The kindness shown by strangers
occasionally sweetens the bitter deal that life has dealt the family, and
shows that there are decent people around. The story is topical, and
gives a refugee's perspective on the current crisis making global
headlines.


We Love You , Charlie Freeman by Kaitlan Greenidge 2016,
the Freeman family--Charles, Laurel, and their daughters, teenage
Charlotte and nine-year-old Callie--have been invited to the
Toneybee Institute in rural Massachusetts to participate in a
research experiment. They will live in an apartment on campus
with Charlie, a young chimp abandoned by his mother. The
Freemans were selected for the experiment because they know
sign language; they are supposed to teach it to Charlie and
welcome him as a member of their family.
Isolated in their new, nearly all-white community not just by their
race but by their strange living situation, the Freemans come
undone. And when Charlotte discovers the truth about the
Institute’s history of questionable studies, the secrets of the past
begin to invade the present.

July 30, 2017 - Metting hosted by Marilyn and Diane at Millbrook Pond

This summary was submitted by Ann S.

While we all look forward to every meeting place, this peaceful meadow surrounded by the beauty of nature is especially favored.  Thank you Marilyn for hosting this and thanks to Diane for the "shade".   I have a feeling there were others helping with set up - thanks to all, it was a wonderful day.

The book discussed was Hillbilly Elegy.  This book was suggested by Ann F.
  
 J.D. Vance's book has been the topic of recent commentaries in various news forms including TV interviews, youtube, book reviews, etc.  Many of those articles suggest the book explains the "why" of changes to the Political climate of the area.  The decision of the majority was to abandon that line of thought and discuss the book as a story of Vance's life.  

Mamaw and Papaw were the main stable people in his life.  With their advice and direction, strange as it sometimes was, he was able to overcome the mess of his young life with his mother and graduate from Yale Law School.  We agree with his statement that (upward) social mobility is about lifestyle change, not just money. Mamaw and Papaw were seemingly middle class (house, TV, car) yet they kept their hillbilly values and way of life.  Both Vance and his sister have been able to move away from that.  Vance believes he has successfully dealt with all the difficulties of his early life.  However we (and this has also been expressed by his sister) believe there will still be issues.

 As usual there was a difference of opinions, it would have been interesting to hear from those not attending.  We always miss those who can't make it.

Wonderful cake Celia. 

See you all in 3 weeks. 

Celia offered a list of four books from which Pat Conroy's "South of Broad" was selected.  

Other books were: 

Illegal Gardener

And the Mountains Echoed

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

AUGUST MEETING::

August Meeting:          20 August 2017

Book for discussion:    Mornings of Horseback by David McCullough

Location:                     Celia's

SEPTEMBER MTG:

Book Chosen:              South of Broad by Pat Conroy

Location:                       ??????    Did I miss something here 

June 25, 2017 Meeting at Joy's House

Submitted by Ann S.

We met at Joy’s home in Concord for one last time as Joy has sold her
house.  Congratulations Joy!
We also wished Mary Jo happiness in her new home and Happy Birthday to
Joy and Stephanie.
Good food, good wine, good friends.

Well Stephanie while you don’t hold the record for record for
suggesting the longest book, this may have been the book with the
longest discussion.  We were missing only Kathy and Judy for this
meeting so it does not need a lengthy review here.

The title is taken from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. quote “If I cannot
do great things, I can do small things in a great way”.  Picoult
acknowledges she is a white woman trying to make us see the discomfort
of being black--how it feels to be the “odd” one in the room, and the
meaning of equality. Whether we liked or disliked Jody Picoult’s
writing, agreed or disagreed with her depiction of the characters, or
found the ending a bit fake, we acknowledged her achievement in
bringing race issues to the attention of her white majority audience.
As noted above, our discussion was lengthy, sometimes intense, and
informative.  Some did not enjoy the book but all agree that we are
glad to have read it.

NOTES:

The book chosen for the August Meeting is:  Mornings on Horseback by
David McCullough

Celia has volunteered her home for the August meeting.
Carol will submit the list for the Sept. reading

Next Meeting:

Date:               July 30, 2017

Book:              “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D.Vance

Time:              1 p.m.

Where:            The Meadow at Marilyn’s
                       In the event of rain we will meet at Marilyn’s home



Sent from my iPad

Ann S. Recommendations for our August Book

These are the book suggestions for reading in August.

To be voted on at the June 25 meeting at Joy's  It is also attached as a word document.

WE NEVER ASKED FOR WINGS – Vanessa Diffenbaugh ,320 pages (The Language of Flowers) 

For 14 years, Letty has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children—Alex 15, and Luna just 6—in their tiny apartment on a spit of wetlands near the bay. But now Letty’s parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life. Letty comes up with a plan to help the family escape the dangerous neighborhood and heartbreaking injustice that have marked their lives, but one wrong move could jeopardize everything she’s worked for and her family’s fragile hopes for the future. Diffenbaugh blends gorgeous prose with compelling themes of motherhood, undocumented immigration, and the American Dream in a powerful and prescient story about family.

THE HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES - Nathaniel Hawthorne, 344 Pages

 

In a sleepy New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last 4 members of the Pyncheon family of Salem. The greed and haughty pride of the family through the generations is mirrored in the gloomy decay of their seven-gabled mansion, where the family's enfeebled and impoverished relations now live. Mysterious deaths threaten the living. Musty documents nestle behind hidden panels carrying the secret of the family's salvation--or its downfall. A brilliant intertwining of the popular, the symbolic, and the historical, this Gothic Romance is a powerful exploration of personal and national guilt.

THE HOUSE AT SUGAR BEACH – Helene Cooper (nonfiction), 354 Pages

Helene is “Congo” a descendant of 2 Liberian dynasties traced back to the first ship of freemen from New York in 1820 to found Monrovia.  She grew up at Sugar Beach, a 22-room mansion by the sea. Her childhood was filled with servants, flashy cars, and a villa in Spain.  It was also African, with knock foot games and hot pepper soup. When she was 8, the Coopers took in a foster child--Eunice, a Bassa girl.  For years Helene, her sister and Eunice enjoyed wealth and advantage. In April 1980 a group of soldiers staged a coup assassinating the President and his cabinet. The entire Congo class were now the hunted.  After a brutal attack Helene, sister and mother fled to America. They left Eunice behind.

Helene tried to assimilate as an American teenager, become a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and New York Times and reported from every part of the globe except Africa.  Liberia descended into a third-world hell.  A near-death experience in Iraq convinced her that Liberia—and Eunice—could wait no longer.  At its heart, it is a story of tragedy, forgiveness and a long voyage home told with unflinching honesty and a survivor's gentle humor.

MORNINGS ON HORSEBACK - David McCullough, 350 Pages

An Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt.  This is a chronicle of manners and morals, love and duty.  This is the story of a remarkable little boy, seriously handicapped by recurrent and almost fatal asthma attacks, and his struggle to manhood seen in the context of the very uncommon household in which he was raised.

The father is the first Theodore Roosevelt, enormously attractive and selfless, a god in the eyes of his small, frail namesake. The mother, Mittie Roosevelt, is a Southerner and celebrated beauty, and considerably more, which the book makes clear. There are sisters Anna and Corinne,  brother Elliott (the father of Eleanor Roosevelt), and the lovely, tragic Alice Lee, TR’s first love.  All are brought to life to make a beautiful story and an enthralling and brilliant social history.  It is a book about life intensely lived, family love and loyalty, grief and courage, and “blessed” mornings on horseback beneath the wide blue skies of the Badlands.

EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU - Celeste Ng, 298 Pages

Lydia is dead. From the first sentence we know that the oldest daughter of the Lee family has died.  The novel explores alienation, achievement, race, gender, family, and identity. As the police must unravel what has happened to Lydia, the family must uncover the sister and daughter that they hardly knew. The daughter of a college professor and his stay-at-home wife in a small town in the 1970s, Lydia is part of the social changes all around her and suffers from pressure having nothing to do with tuning out and turning on. Her father is American born first-generation Chinese. Her mother is white, and their interracial marriage raises eyebrows. More troubling is her mother’s frustration at having given up medical school for motherhood.  Tantalizingly, thrilling, and emotionally complex. 

May 21, Meeting at Ann S. home in Nashua

On Sunday May 21the River Run Book Club met in Nashua to review “The Friday Night Knitting Club”.

We supplied ourselves with great hors d’oeuvres and wine and sat down to discuss the book.  As it was my house, I voted myself Marlena’s alternate.  I did my best for you Marlena!

The main theme of this book was friendship.  Lori brought to our attention the discerning inserts before sections which, while referred to as knitting instructions,  applied not only to what was happening in the book but also to life.   i.e. the first note captioned “casting on”  says: “Just start.  It’s the same with life…every beginning won’t be the same”.  Thanks Lori, having rushed to finish the book I regrettably skipped some of these best parts.

Lucy’s method of becoming pregnant was perhaps not the conventional route but we did not find it to be offensive. There was discussion as to whether it was more important for Dakota to know her Scotland or Baltimore relatives.  Absolutely none of us believed that anyone could keep two letters from an unfaithful lover (also the father of our child) unopened for 12 years.  There was no good word to be said about Cat. And the final shocker for all of us – the death of Georgia.  

After the discussion we sat down to a light supper catered by Harrow’s accompanied by Kathy’s excellent coleslaw and Joy’s garlic toast (not a crumb is left).  We finished off with Bev’s homemade apple crisp with ice cream.  Some of us who can’t refuse Claire’s lemon cake also imbibed on that and Lori brought macaroons just like those we had in Paris.  I hope you are all sorry that you couldn’t come.

NOTES: 

The book chosen for the July Meeting is:  Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance

Important:  It was voted to move the August meeting to Sunday, Aug. 20, 2017

Next Meeting:

Date:               June 25, 2017  

Book:              “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult

Time:              1 p.m.

Where:            Joy’s Concord residence

Ann F's Book Suggestions for our July 30 Meeting

HILLBILLY ELEGY: A MEMOIR OF A FAMILY & CULTURE IN CRISIS by J.D. Vance

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class through the author’s own story of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of poor, white Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for over forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. In Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hanging around your neck.

The Vance family story began with hope in postwar America. J.D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.

THE DARING LADIES OF LOWELL by Kate Alcott

From Booklist

Alcott (The Dressmaker, 2012) chooses another working-class girl as the heroine of her second historical novel. To Alice Barrow, a job at a textile mill in 1832 Lowell, Massachusetts, represents both an escape from her rural roots and a chance to forge an independent future. Although the hours are long and the work arduous, she enjoys the companionship of the mill girls and the opportunity to take advantage of the intellectual subculture of Lowell, including the mill’s literary magazine and lectures at the Lyceum. Alice’s common sense and intelligence attract the attention of Samuel Fiske, the mill owner’s son, who invites her to act as an emissary for her coworkers at a meeting with his family. However, when Alice’s best friend is found hanged, her burgeoning relationship with Samuel is threatened as his family withholds crucial evidence during the investigation. Set against an authentically detailed mill-town backdrop, this novel interweaves the ­industrial ­revolution, feminism, and workers’ rights into an engrossing narrative with a love story at its core.

GOOD HARBOR: A NOVEL by Anita Diamant

Anita Diamant, whose rich portrayal of the biblical world of women illuminated her acclaimed international bestseller The Red Tent, now crafts a moving novel of contemporary female friendship.

Good Harbor is the long stretch of Cape Ann beach where two women friends walk and talk, sharing their personal histories and learning life's lessons from each other. Kathleen Levine, a longtime resident of Gloucester, Massachusetts, is maternal and steady, a devoted children's librarian, a convert to Judaism, and mother to two grown sons. When her serene life is thrown into turmoil by a diagnosis of breast cancer at fifty-nine, painful past secrets emerge and she desperately needs a friend. Forty-two-year-old Joyce Tabachnik is a sharp-witted freelance writer who is also at a fragile point in her life. She's come to Gloucester to follow her literary aspirations, but realizes that her husband and young daughter are becoming increasingly distant. Together, Kathleen and Joyce forge a once-in-a-lifetime bond and help each other to confront scars left by old emotional wounds.

THE ORPHAN'S TALE: A NOVEL by Pam Jenoff

A powerful novel of friendship set in a traveling circus during World War II, The Orphan's Tale introduces two extraordinary women and their harrowing stories of sacrifice and survival 

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep… When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. And in a moment that will change the course of her life, she snatches one of the babies and flees into the snowy night. 

Noa finds refuge with a German circus, but she must learn the flying trapeze act so she can blend in undetected, spurning the resentment of the lead aerialist, Astrid. At first rivals, Noa and Astrid soon forge a powerful bond. But as the facade that protects them proves increasingly tenuous, Noa and Astrid must decide whether their friendship is enough to save one another—or if the secrets that burn between them will destroy everything.

April 30, 2017, at Mary Jo's Colonel Spencer Inn

Submitted by Ann S:  

Six dedicated members of The River Run Book Club held a final meeting at The Colonel Spencer Inn.  A sad but happy event as Mary Jo revealed the news that the Inn has been sold.  After Judy, Ann F, Marilyn, Lori and I toasted MJ’s good news, we got down to the discussion of My Name is Lucy Barton. 

Loneliness is a major theme of the book.  Lucy seems isolated - a husband who does not visit, a mother who can’t or won’t say “I Love You”, and a father not to be mentioned.  The conversations she shares with her mother are not intimate.  There is no inquiry about Lucy’s children or husband, no talk about the brother still living at home, just gossip about people Lucy knew in her youth.  Why does her mother only takes cat naps saying “you learn to when you don’t feel safe”?  Was the snake in the truck real or imagined (we had varied opinions on this)?  We get a glimpse of the poverty of Lucy’s childhood but not much personal information about her current life. 

Fear not – Strout has a newly released book “Anything is Possible”.  It is described as providing information on Lucy’s childhood as viewed by her siblings and also insight into the life of the New York Lucy we got to know so briefly.

NOTES: 

Thank you Mary Jo for hosting.  Congratulations on the sale, it’s wonderful you’re not going far. 

Stephanie – hope your back is better!

From Stephanie’s book list we choose “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult for the June 25^th meeting discussion.   

Ann F will provide the book list for the July meeting.

Next Meeting:

Date:               May 21, 2017  - Due to Memorial Day it was voted to move mtg. to May 21

Book:              “The Friday Night Knitting Club” by Kate Jacobs

Time:              1 p.m.

Where:            Ann Sevigny’s Nashua residence

                        While I very much want to have this meeting at my home I understand it may be an inconvenience for many. 

                        If a meeting place closer to the majority of members is volunteered for May 21, a change can be made.

                       

 
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