February 2014 book: Joyland by Stephen King

"For my February pick, I'm going with Joyland by Stephen King," said Becky. "He had 2 out in 2013, both have excellent reviews, but this one is significantly shorter at 280 pages. Doctor Sleep sounds fantastic too though. It's like The Shining II basically."

ABOUT THE BOOK

The #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.

"I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts. That combo made Hard Case Crime the perfect venue for this book, which is one of my favorites. I also loved the paperbacks I grew up with as a kid, and for that reason, we’re going to hold off on e-publishing this one for the time being. Joyland will be coming out in paperback, and folks who want to read it will have to buy the actual book." – Stephen King

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, June 2013: What a smart, sweet, spooky, sexy gem of a story. In this one-off for the Hard Case Crime publishing imprint, King has found yet another outlet and format (print only, a zippy 280 pages) to suit his considerable talents. All are on full display here in the story of Devon Jones--"a twenty-one-year-old virgin with literary aspirations … and a broken heart"--who spends the summer of 1973 at Joyland amusement park in North Carolina. Devon makes new pals, proves himself to the hard-core carny workers, saves a girl’s life, befriends a dying boy (who has a secret gift), and falls for the boy’s protective, beautiful mother. The first half of the story is sweet and nostalgic, with modest hints of menace to come. (Think: “The Body,” King’s novella that became the film Stand By Me.) Devon learns to “sell fun” and “wear the fur” (carny-speak for dressing as Howie the Happy Hound, the park mascot), but he also learns about the woman who had been killed in the Funhouse, whose ghost still haunts Joyland. King has fun with the carny lingo--most of it researched and real, some of it invented. (The Ferris wheel, for example, is the chump-hoister.) The second half gets spookier, spinning into a full-on murder mystery--but also a love story, and a coming-of-age-story, with some supernatural fun woven in. More than a trifecta, this is King at his narrative and nostalgic best. A single-session tale to savor some summer afternoon. And then try not to keep thinking back on it. --Neal Thompson

From Publishers Weekly

Michael Kelly begins his rendition of King's engaging short novel sounding pleasantly satisfied, if wistful, with just a twinge of regret—precisely the mood of Devin Jones, the book's protagonist. Now in his 60s, Devin recalls the details of how he spent 1973, working as a Happy Helper at Joyland, a slightly seedy North Carolina amusement park where, several years before his arrival, a young girl was murdered on a ride called Horror House. Kelly follows King's lead in fashioning a proper voice for each and every character, creating a delightfully unpretentious and winning listening experience. With this performance, it seems as if Kelly is himself responding to the advice given to new carnival employees by the sweetly paternal Joyland director, Bradley Easterbrook: Remember, the old man tells them, you're here to sell fun. A Hard Case paperback. (June) --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

January 2014 book: Seabiscuit

Amy has selected our January 2014 book: Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand. I'm so excited. I've had this book on my shelf and I've been meaning to read it for over 10 years!

ABOUT THE BOOK
Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes:

Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports icon.

Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race.

Amazon.com Review

He didn't look like much. With his smallish stature, knobby knees, and slightly crooked forelegs, he looked more like a cow pony than a thoroughbred. But looks aren't everything; his quality, an admirer once wrote, "was mostly in his heart." Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of the horse who became a cultural icon in Seabiscuit: An American Legend.

 

Seabiscuit rose to prominence with the help of an unlikely triumvirate: owner Charles Howard, an automobile baron who once declared that "the day of the horse is past"; trainer Tom Smith, a man who "had cultivated an almost mystical communication with horses"; and jockey Red Pollard, who was down on his luck when he charmed a then-surly horse with his calm demeanor and a sugar cube. Hillenbrand details the ups and downs of "team Seabiscuit," from early training sessions to record-breaking victories, and from serious injury to "Horse of the Year"--as well as the Biscuit's fabled rivalry with War Admiral. She also describes the world of horseracing in the 1930s, from the snobbery of Eastern journalists regarding Western horses and public fascination with the great thoroughbreds to the jockeys' torturous weight-loss regimens, including saunas in rubber suits, strong purgatives, even tapeworms.

Along the way, Hillenbrand paints wonderful images: tears in Tom Smith's eyes as his hero, legendary trainer James Fitzsimmons, asked to hold Seabiscuit's bridle while the horse was saddled; critically injured Red Pollard, whose chest was crushed in a racing accident a few weeks before, listening to the San Antonio Handicap from his hospital bed, cheering "Get going, Biscuit! Get 'em, you old devil!"; Seabiscuit happily posing for photographers for several minutes on end; other horses refusing to work out with Seabiscuit because he teased and taunted them with his blistering speed.
Though sometimes her prose takes on a distinctly purple hue ("His history had the ethereal quality of hoofprints in windblown snow"; "The California sunlight had the pewter cast of a declining season"), Hillenbrand has crafted a delightful book. Wire to wire, Seabiscuit is a winner. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

HGifted sportswriter Hillenbrand unearths the rarefied world of thoroughbred horse racing in this captivating account of one of the sport's legends. Though no longer a household name, Seabiscuit enjoyed great celebrity during the 1930s and 1940s, drawing record crowds to his races around the country. Not an overtly impressive physical specimenD"His stubby legs were a study in unsound construction, with huge, squarish, asymmetrical 'baseball glove' knees that didn't quite straighten all the way"Dthe horse seemed to transcend his physicality as he won race after race. Hillenbrand, a contributor to Equus magazine, profiles the major players in Seabiscuit's fantastic and improbable career. In simple, elegant prose, she recounts how Charles Howard, a pioneer in automobile sales and Seabiscuit's eventual owner, became involved with horse racing, starting as a hobbyist and growing into a fanatic. She introduces esoteric recluse Tom Smith (Seabiscuit's trainer) and jockey Red Pollard, a down-on-his-luck rider whose specialty was taming unruly horses.

In 1936, Howard united Smith, Pollard and "The Biscuit," whose performance had been spottyDand the horse's star career began. Smith, who recognized Seabiscuit's potential, felt an immediate rapport with him and eased him into shape. Once Seabiscuit started breaking records and outrunning lead horses, reporters thronged the Howard barn day and night. Smith's secret workouts became legendary and only heightened Seabiscuit's mystique. Hillenbrand deftly blends the story with explanations of the sport and its culture, including vivid descriptions of the Tijuana horse-racing scene in all its debauchery. She roots her narrative of the horse's breathtaking career and the wild devotion of his fans in its socioeconomic context: Seabiscuit embodied the underdog myth for a nation recovering from dire economic straits.

(Mar.) Forecast: Despite the shrinking horse racing audienceDand the publishing adage that books on horse racing don't sellDthis book has the potential to do well, even outside the realm of the racing community, due to a large first printing and forthcoming Universal Studios movie. A stylish cover will attract both baby boomers and young readers, tapping into the sexiness and allure of the "Sport of Kings." Hillenbrand's glamorous photo on the book jacket won't hurt her chances, and Seabiscuit should sell at a galloping pace.

Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A Taste of India: Soup Recipe

Here is my approximate recipe for the soup I made last night for book club:

2 cans stewed tomatoes
Qt. chicken broth
1 lb. ground buffalo meat
2 cans black beans
1 can corn
Brown rice (already cooked)
Sliced parsnips
Sliced carrots

Season to taste with:
Salt
Pepper
Red wine (1/4 c. or so)
Splash of lemon juice
Garam masala (The Indian spices - YUM!)

*********

Cass - What was the recipe you mentioned? Please share!

Becky - What was that recipe for the chicken tortilla soup you have brought before?
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Tortilla-Soup-I/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=chicken%20tortilla%20soup&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

Meet J. Maarten Troost

J. Maarten Troost was born in Groningen, the Netherlands. He is of mixed Dutch-Czech descent and began traveling as a small child, spending many a summer in Prague during the height of the Cold War. His mother, the author would like it to be known, was formerly a Young Pioneer and the winner of multiple grenade-throwing competitions. Today, she is a Republican.

At the age of five, the author moved to Toronto, Canada, which is why even now he talks a little funny. According to him, he became an awesome hockey player though this could not be independently verified. He spent his winters cultivating maple trees, trapping beavers, and building igloos. In the summers, he traveled to Holland where he ate cheese, rode bicycles, fixed dykes, and wore wooden shoes, which would lead to bunion problems later in life.

He moved to the United States at the age of fourteen, settling in the Washington D.C. area. He attended high school but has no recollection of those years. When he was released, he hopped on a Greyhound bus and made his way to Cape Cod, where he found work selling hot dogs on the beach in Provincetown. To parents of seventeen-year old boys, he does not recommend allowing this.
Troost enrolled at Boston University, where he studied International Relations, and because he is a deeply practical person, Philosophy. He obtained valuable work experience in the food services industry, eventually rising to the Monday lunch shift, and in the ferociously competitive field of house-painting, where he suffered a near career-ender when he accidently painted a client’s Dalmatian green.

In 1992, the author moved to Prague and became a correspondent for The Prague Post. He has now become one of those insufferable Gen-Xers who make people’s eyes glaze over whenever he speaks of Prague in the Nineties. He traveled widely, spending time in Russia, which he described as “cold,” and the Balkans, in particular war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina, an experience he referred to as “scary,” demonstrating his flare for evocative description.

He returned to the United States in 1994 and attended graduate school at George Washington University. Believing that the internet was just a passing fad, he obtained a Master’s Degree in International Relations, having concluded that what was really important was a certain expertise in the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire. He put his degree to work and began an exciting career as an office temp.

One day, while the author was extremely busy rearranging paper clips according to size, color, and function, his girlfriend called and asked whether he’d be inclined to move to a small atoll in the equatorial Pacific.  The author spent a very long three seconds gazing upward at the soft, clinical glare of fluorescent lights, and decided that, yes, come to think of it, he would prefer to live on a tropical isle in the South Seas. The two years that he spent living in the remote islands of Kiribati became the subject matter of The Sex Lives of Cannibals, which Publishers Weekly called “a comic masterwork of travel writing.” The book has been optioned by Hollywood approximately 106 times and is now available as a high school musical. Interested parties should contact his agent.

Upon his return to Washington D.C., the author was hired as a consultant to the World Bank, where he specialized in infrastructure finance. The author has no explanation for this and attributes it to a terrible misunderstanding.  He would like to extend his apologies to the good people of Lesotho. He was just kind of making things up as he went along.

Troost returned to the South Pacific in 2000, settling in Vanuatu and subsequently, Fiji.  After the Lesotho debacle, he decided to devote himself fulltime to writing. He used his experiences in Melanesia to write Getting Stoned with Savages, which John in Arizona called “pretty good.”
The author eventually settled in California, spending a couple of years in Sacramento before moving to Monterey. He decided to use his quasi-expertise in the world’s smallest nations by turning his attention to… China. After all, how hard could it be? He spent months traveling the roads and rails of China and developed a fondness for spicy donkey intestines and live squid. He has since made a substantial contribution to PETA. The book that came out of his experiences was called Lost on Planet China, which was an Amazon Best of the Month book. It too is available as a high school musical.

Shockingly, the author of Getting Stoned with Savages eventually developed a substance abuse problem, which required a stay in rehab. While institutionalized, Troost led Team Wet Brain (the alcoholics) to glorious triumph over Team Pin Cushion (the heroin addicts) in an epic multi-day Ping-Pong tournament. Once he sobered up, Troost immersed himself in the world of Robert Louis Stevenson. He decided to follow Stevenson’s journey through the South Seas, a trip that took him to the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, Tahiti, Samoa, and back to his erstwhile home, Kiribati. You can read about his latest (mis)adventures in Headhunters on My Doorstep. When asked about his feelings upon completing his South Pacific trilogy, Troost is reputed to have said: “Now I feel like a real man.”

The author currently lives with his wife and two sons in the Washington D.C. area. He would like to relocate and invites readers’ suggestions for good places to move to.

MORE

Great q & a here: http://jmaartentroost.com/j-maarten-troost-author-of-headhunters-on-my-doorstep/q-and-a-a-conversation-with-j-maarten-troost/

December 2013 book: Headhunters on My Doorstep: A True Treasure Island Ghost Story

For December, Cindy has selected this book for our reading pleasure:

Headhunters on my Doorstep: A True Island Adventure Ghost Story by J. Maarten Troost.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

From Publishers Weekly

Newly sober travel writer Troost retraces Robert Louis Stevenson's route through the South Pacific from the Marquesas to Samoa in this evocative, funny literary memoir. He recounts his voyage upon the Aranui III cargo ship rooming with a seasick "family of cheerful gnomes from Lyon," battling the urge for a drink and acquiring a traditional Marquesan tattoo on the anniversary of his sobriety. Troost provides insight into addiction and recovery that, in his case, turned him from alcoholic to longdistance runner, and from Buddhism to the Catholic Church. We learn the history of the islands and view the beautiful landscapes of lagoons, atolls, and beaches through Troost's vibrant descriptions. Troost muses on quotes from Stevenson's In the South Seas, such as his thoughts on cannibalism, "to eat a man's flesh after he is dead is far less hateful than to oppress him whilst he lives." He also discusses other literary works about the South Pacific including Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's Back to Nature and Herman Melville's Typee. Troost is an excellent travel narrator, clever, bold, and full of captivating visual details. His personal story of recovery is also powerfully told and will surely resonate with many readers.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* It might seem odd that Troost, the Dutch American travel writer, had never read Robert Louis Stevenson’s In the South Seas, the chronicle of Stevenson’s South Pacific voyage to the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Samoa. But, hey, to Troost’s nimble, rather offbeat mind, RLS was “boring. He was stuffy. He was probably English.” Troost adds, “So I was an idiot.” This travel memoir charts the author’s own South Pacific voyage, replicating (to a degree) Stevenson’s. The trip was partly therapeutic—Troost, a recovering alcoholic, has a big problem with continents (“Bad things happened to me on large land masses. Terrible things”)—and going somewhere small and isolated seemed just the thing to ease a troubled spirit. But there was also an educational component. Troost was trying to experience the voyage in two ways: as a modern-day adventure, but also as a way to explore an episode of Stevenson’s life, to get to know this man and writer he’d neglected for far too long. Like Bill Bryson, Troost deftly combines humor, commentary, and education (an aside about the Marquesas episode of Survivor, sparked by the author’s discovery that he’s standing on a beach that featured in the show, leads smoothly into a look at “old Marquesas” and its odd mixture of wealth and poverty). Troost is a very funny guy, but he also has a lot of serious things to talk about. A splendid travel memoir. --David Pitt

Distilleries opening in Minnesota

I thought I would pass along these articles from the Pioneer Press about the craft distillery movement. There's even a distillery opening in Isanti soon! How exciting!!

Minnesota beginning to catch up with the craft spirits boom

Before Prohibition, many Minnesota farms had a still.

Farmers made use of leftover grain by making spirits that helped offset some of the financial heartaches of agriculture. That practice didn't necessarily stop during Prohibition, but after its repeal in 1933, a series of restrictive laws made it much more difficult to manufacture and sell alcohol, and the practice eventually disappeared.

Fast forward to 2011 when a change in a law drastically lowered the cost of starting a small distillery. Minnesota finally started to catch up with the rest of the nation in a craft spirits boom that harkens back to the state's roots.

"We grow great grain and corn here," said Lee Egbert, co-owner of 11 Wells, a distillery that will open on the Hamm's Brewery site on the East Side of St. Paul. "We're also known for our water -- you know, 'the land of sky blue waters' -- so it only makes sense. Minnesota is going to be a huge whiskey state."

READ MORE:
http://www.twincities.com/restaurants/ci_24375300/minnesota-beginning-catch-up-craft-spirits-boom?source=pkg

Minnesota's craft distilleries in high spirits

 

ISANTI SPIRITS
Location: 4242 285th Ave., Isanti, Minn.; facebook.com/IsantiSpiritsLlc
Spirits: Rye whiskey, bourbon, gin
Background: Rick Schneider is a college art professor (he teaches glass blowing) who grew up in Rochester, Minn., but lived in Virginia, Maryland and Alabama before coming back to the state to start living his dream -- distilling.

He and his wife looked at 70 hobby farms before settling on one just outside Isanti. Their distillery will be located on the property.

Originally, Schneider wanted to grow the grain for his whiskey, but it turns out he doesn't have enough acreage. No matter, he has organic farmers growing for him "within two miles" of his future distillery. "You can't get much greener than that," Schneider said.

Schneider might be the most well-trained of the state's startup distillers. He attended a weeklong hands-on workshop at Dry Fly Distillery in Spokane, Wash., and also worked as an intern in Michigan State University's distiller program -- the only collegiate alcoholic beverages program in the country.

When he was there, he created a rye whiskey that is now aging in barrels, ready to be sold as soon as he opens.

READ MORE

http://www.twincities.com/restaurants/ci_24372814/minnesota-distilleries-high-spirits?source=pkg

Bruce Bradley's blog

You can check out Bruce Bradley's blog (which I find very interesting) or his Facebook posts.

http://www.brucebradley.com/

https://www.facebook.com/brucebradleyauthor

The ladies...

The ladies I laugh with. Bounce ideas off of. Discuss things with. Share a bottle of wine with. And count on. You all rule!

And a bit about Dante

There is a link between Yann Martel's Beatrice and Virgil and Dante's Beatrice and Virgil from his famous poem The Divine Comedy.

From wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy

The poem is written in the first person, and tells of Dante's journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting from the night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after Easter in the spring of 1300.

The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory;

Beatrice, Dante's ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Beatrice was a Florentine woman whom he had met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionable courtly love tradition, which is highlighted in Dante's earlier work La Vita Nuova.

Beatrice & Virgil discussion questions

1. What is Beatrice & Virgil about?
2. Discuss the main characters. What are Henry and the taxidermist like? How are they different from one another, and in what ways are they similar? What are Beatrice and Virgil like?
3. What do you think of Henry’s original idea for his book? Do you agree with him that the Holocaust needs to be remembered in different ways, beyond the confines of “historical realism”? Why, or why not?
4. What is the importance of self-reflexivity in the novel? For example, does Henry remind you of Yann Martel? How does Beatrice & Virgil relate to the book that Henry wanted to publish originally? Who writes the story?
5. How would you compare Beatrice & Virgil to Life of Pi? How do Yann Martel’s aims in the two novels differ, and how does he go about achieving them?
6. Close to the start of the book, Henry (the writer) says, “A book is a part of speech. At the heart of mine is an incredibly upsetting event that can survive only in dialogue” (p. 12). Why would this be the case? How does it influence the form of the book we are reading?
7. Describe the role Flaubert’s story “The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator” plays in the novel.
8. Why doesn’t the waiter at the cafe address the taxidermist?
9. How do you explain Henry’s wife’s reaction to the taxidermist and his workshop?
10. How do you feel about the play A 20th-Century Shirt? Could it be performed? Does it remind you of anything? What role does it play in the book?
11. Who are Beatrice and Virgil in literature? Which other books and writers do you find influencing this one, and with what effects?
12. What moral challenges does Beatrice & Virgil present the reader with? What does it leave you thinking about?
13. What are the different kinds of theatre, acting and performance in Beatrice & Virgil and what do they add to the book?
14. What is the significance of names in the novel, especially Henry’s full name?
15. How is writing like or unlike taxidermy in the book?
16. What role do Erasmus and Mendelssohn play in the novel, and why does it matter?
17. What is your favourite part of Beatrice & Virgil?
18. How do the two parts of the book relate? How do they connect to Henry’s original plan for his book? Or, to put it another way: why “Games for Gustav”?
19. What do Henry’s non-literary activities—music lessons, waiting tables—tell us about him as a character? What else do they add to the book?
20. How is Henry changed by the events of the novel? How does this relate to Beatrice and Virgil having “no reason to change” (p. 151) over the course of their play?
21. Beatrice & Virgil stresses compound words, new words, overvalued words, words that are “cold, muddy toads trying to understand sprites dancing in a field” (p. 88)—what are some of the key words in the book, and how are words important as a theme in the novel?
22. How do Henry and Henry help each other write?
23. What is the significance of 68 Nowolipki Street?
24. Does Beatrice & Virgil itself aim to “make the Holocaust portable” for modern memory? Does it succeed in doing so? How does the book’s ending change things?
25. What is the significance of the word “Aukitz” in the novel, and in the book design?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/1239-beatrice-and-virgil-martel?start=3

Two opposite thoughts on Beatrice & Virgil

Beatrice and Virgil is so dull, so misguided, so pretentious that only the prospect of those millions of "Pi" fans could secure the interest of major publishers and a multimillion-dollar advance. This short tale runs into trouble almost from its first precious page with an autobiographical portrait of the thinly disguised author.
Ron Charles - Washington Post

Dark but divine.... This novel might just be a masterpiece about the Holocaust.... Martel brilliantly guides the reader from the too-sunny beginning into the terrifying darkness of the old man's shop and Europe's past. Everything comes into focus by the end, leaving the reader startled, astonished, and moved.
USA Today

Oh, that's interesting...

I thought I'd share this piece from a bio about Yann Martel at http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/1239-beatrice-and-virgil-martel?start=1

Meanwhile, Martel managed to write and publish two books: a collection of short stories titled The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios in 1993 and a novel about gender confusion called Self in 1996. Both books sold only moderately well, further frustrating the writer. In an effort to collect his thoughts and refresh his creativity, he took a trip to India, first spending time in bustling Bombay. However, the overcrowded city only furthered Martel's feelings of alienation and dissolution. He then decided to move on to Matheran, a section near Bombay but without that city's dense population. In this peaceful hill station overlooking the city, Martel began revisiting an idea he had not considered in some time, the premise he had unwittingly created when reading Updike's review in the New York Times Review of Books. He developed the idea even further away from Max and the Cats. While Scliar's novel was an extended holocaust allegory, Martel envisioned his story as a witty, whimsical, and mysterious meditation on zoology and theology. Unlike Max Schmidt, Pi Patel would, indeed, be the son of a zookeeper. Martel would, however, retain the shipwrecked-with-beasts theme from Max and the Cats. During an ocean exodus from India to Canada, the ship sinks and Pi finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with such unlikely shipmates as a zebra, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

The resulting novel, Life of Pi, became the smash-hit for which Martel had been longing. Selling well over a million copies and receiving the accolades of Book Magazine, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, and, yes, the New York Times Review of Books, Life of Pi has been published in over 40 countries and territories, in over 30 languages. It is currently in production by Fox Studios with a script by master-of-whimsy Jean-Pierre Jeunet (City of Lost Children; Amélie) and directorial duties to be handled by Alfonso Cuarón (Y tu mamá también; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).
Martel is now working on his third novel, a bizarrely allegorical adventure about a donkey and a monkey that travel through a fantastical world...on a shirt. Well, at least no one will ever accuse him of borrowing that premise from any other writer.


PLUS

Extras
From a 2002 Barnes & Noble interview:
• Life of Pi is not Yann Martel's first work to be adapted for the screen. His short story "Manners of Dying" was made into a motion picture by fellow Canadian resident Jeremy Peter Allen in 2004.
• When he isn't penning modern masterpieces, Martel spends much of his time volunteering in a palliative care unit.

• When asked what book was most influential to his career as a writer, here's what he said:

I would say Le Petit Chose, by the French writer Alphonse Daudet. It was the first book to make me cry. I was around ten years old. It made me see how powerful words could be, how much we could see and feel through mere black jottings on a page. (Author bio and interview from Barnes & Noble.)

October 2013 book: Fat Profits

"Fat Profits" by Bruce Bradley will be our October 2013 book pick. I waffled between it and the adults books by J.K. Rowling -- but I think those I will save for another day when there aren't so many requests at the library for them!

I can't wait to read "Fat Profits"! I've been following the author's blogs and Facebook posts for awhile. He is a former insider at General Mills and offers quite the look at how our "food" is made these days. This is a novel that is built off his inside knowledge. Should fit right into our food theme :)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Ready for a real page-turning thriller that's sure to keep you up all night?

At a crossroads in his life after a bitter divorce, Andrew Hastings fights to prove he can be a great father while trying to climb the corporate ladder. Desperate to prove himself to his latest boss, Andrew works tirelessly to launch International Food & Milling’s revolutionary, new weight-loss product. However, when a colleague leaves him a cryptic voicemail minutes before her tragic death, Andrew starts asking questions that lead him down a deadly trail of corporate deceit. As the death count rises, Andrew realizes he’s the latest target, and he goes on the run to uncover the truth and save his family.

Showcasing an extraordinary blend of action and suspense with an insider's firsthand expertise of the food industry, Bruce Bradley’s debut novel is a heart-pounding thrill ride reminiscent of Michael Crichton’s finest work. Wrapped in a story of corporate misdeeds that’s all too common in today’s headlines, FAT PROFITS will have you glued to your seat until the very last page.

Gone Girl Discussion Questions

Questions about the Book:
1. In the first third of the book, did you think Nick was guilty? Why or why not?


2. In the second part of the book, once you know the truth, what did you think was going to happen with Nick and Amy?


3. Do you think someone could actually plan every detail of a set up or murder as perfectly as Amy did?


4. What did you expect to happen after Amy returned? Were you surprised by her "final precaution?" Do you think that would truly be enough to get Nick to stay?


5. Early on in the book, Amy writes in her diary: "Because isn't that the point of every relationship: to be known by someone else, to be understood?" (29). Toward the end of the book, on the night of Amy's return, when she is making the case for going forward together, here is what she says and Nick thinks:
   "'Think about it, Nick, we know each other. Better than anyone in the world now.'
   It was true that I'd had this feeling too, in the past month, when I wasn't wishing Amy harm. It would come to me at strange moments--in the middle of the night, up to take a piss, or in the morning pouring a bowl of cereal--I'd detect a nib of admiration, and more than that, fondness for my wife, right in the middle of me, right in the gut. To know exactly what I wanted to hear in those notes, to woo me back to her, even to predict all my wrong moves...the woman knew me cold...All this time I'd thought we were strangers, and it turned out we knew each other intuitively, in our bones, in our blood" (385).
   To what extent do you think the desire to be understood drives relationships? Do you understand how this could be appealing to Nick despite everything else?


6. Nick stops strangling Amy and thinks, "Who would I be without Amy to react to? Because she was right: As a man, I had been my most impressive when I loved her -- and I was my next best self when I hated her...I couldn't return to an average life" (396). Is this believable? Is it possible for Nick to be more fulfilled in an extraordinary relationship where he is understood even if it is manipulative an dangerous?
Questions about Life & Marriage Raised by the Book:

7. Nick once muses, "It seemed to me that there was nothing new to be discovered ever again...We were the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time. We stare at the wonders of the world, dull-eyed, underwhelmed. Mona Lisa, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building. Jungle animals on attack, ancient icebergs collapsing, volcanoes erupting. I can't recall a single amazing thing I have seen firsthand that I didn't immediately reference to a movie or TV show...I've literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me want to blow my brains out, is: The secondhand experience is always better. The image is crisper, the view keener, the camera angle and soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality can't anymore" (72). Do you think this observation is true about our generation? How do you think this affects relationships? How does it affect the way we live?


8. Nick writes,"I got secretly furious, spent ten minutes just winding myself up -- because at this point of our marriage, I was so used to being angry with her, it felt almost enjoyable, like gnawing on a cuticle: You know you should stop, that it doesn't really feel as good as you think, but you can't quit grinding away" (107). Have you experienced this dynamic? Why do you think it feels good to be angry sometimes?


9. At one point, Amy quotes the advice "Fake it until you make it." Later, Nick writes, "We pretend to be in love, and we do the things we like to do when we're in love, and it feels almost like love sometimes, because we are so perfectly putting ourselves through the paces" (404). Generally speaking, do you think this is good marriage advice? Do Nick and Amy disprove this advice?


10. Rate Gone Girl on a scale of 1 to 5.

http://bestsellers.about.com/od/bookclubquestions/a/Gone-Girl-By-Gillian-Flynn-Book-Club-Discussion-Questions.htm


1. Consider Amy and Nick Dunne as characters. Do you find them sympathetic...at first? Talk about the ways each reveals him/herself over the course of the novel. At what point do your sympathies begin to change (if they do)?

2. Nick insists from the beginning he had nothing to do with Amy's disappearance. Did you believe him, initially? When did you begin to suspect that he might have something to do with it? At what point did you begin to think he might not?

3. How would you describe the couple's marriage? What does it look like from the outside...and what does it look like from the inside? Where do the stress lines fall in their relationship?

4. On their fifth anniversary, Nick wonders, "What have we done to each other? What will we do?" Is that the kind of question that might present itself in any marriage? Yours? In other words, does this novel make you wonder about your own relationship? And can you ever truly know the other person?

5. Amy and Nick lie. When did you begin to suspect that the two were lying to one another...and to you, the reader? Why do they lie...what do they gain by it?

6. Do you find the Gillian Flynn's technique of alternating first-person narrations compelling...or irritating. Would you have preferred a single, straightforward narrator? What does the author gain by using two different voices?

7. A skillful mystery writer knows which details to reveal and when to reveal them. How much do you know...and when do you know it? In other words, how good is Flynn at burying her clues in plain sight? Now that you know how the story plays out, go back and pick out the clues she left behind for you.

8. Flynn divides her narrative into two parts. Why? What are the difference between the two sections?

9. In what way does Amy's background—her parents' books about her perfection—affect her as an adult?

10. The Dunnes move to North Carthage, near Hannibal, the home of Mark Twain. How has Tom Sawyer been worked into Gone Girl...and why? What does that extra-textual detail add to the story?

11. Did you suspect Nick's big secret? Were you surprised—shocked—by it? Or did you have an inkling?

12. Does Amy try hard enough to like North Carthage? Or is she truly a duck out of water, too urbane to ever fit into a small, Midwestern town?

13. What are Amy's treasure hunts all about? Why does she initiate them for Nick?

14. Critics, to a one, talk about the book's dark humor and author's wit. What passages of the book do you find particularly funny?

15. Movie time: who would you like to see play what part?

http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/8836-gone-girl-flynn?start=3

1. Do you like Nick or Amy? Did you find yourself picking a side? Do you think the author intends for us to like them? Why or why not?

2. Does the author intend for us to think of Nick or Amy as the stronger writer? Do you perceive one or the other as a stronger writer, based on their narration/journal entries? Why?

3. Do you think Amy and Nick both believe in their marriage at the outset?

4. Nick, ever conscious of the way he is being perceived, reflects on the images that people choose to portray in the world—constructed, sometimes plagiarized roles that we present as our personalities. Discuss the ways in which the characters—and their opinions of each other—are influenced by our culture’s avid consumption of TV shows, movies, and websites, and our need to fit each other into these roles.

5. Discuss Amy’s false diary, both as a narrative strategy by the author and as a device used by the character. How does the author use it to best effect? How does Amy use it?

6. What do you make of Nick’s seeming paranoia on the day of his fifth anniversary, when he wakes with a start and reports feeling, You have been seen?

7. As experienced consumers of true crime and tragedy, modern “audiences” tend to expect each crime to fit a specific mold: a story, a villain, a heroine. How does this phenomenon influence the way we judge news stories? Does it have an impact on the criminal justice system? Consider the example of the North Carthage police, and also Tanner Bolt’s ongoing advice to Nick.

8. What is Go’s role in the book? Why do you think the author wrote her as Nick’s twin? Is she a likable character?

9. Discuss Amy’s description of the enduring myth of the “cool girl”—and her conviction that a male counterpart (seemingly flawless to women) does not exist. Do you agree? Why does she assume the role if she seems to despise it? What benefit do you think she derives from the act?

10. Is there some truth to Amy’s description of the “dancing monkeys”—her friends’ hapless partners who are forced to make sacrifices and perform “sweet” gestures to prove their love? How is this a counterpoint to the “cool girl”?

11. What do you think of Marybeth and Rand Elliott? Is the image they present sincere? What do you think they believe about Amy?

12. How does the book deal with the divide between perception and reality, or between public image and private lives? Which characters are most skillful at navigating this divide, and how?

13. How does the book capture the feel of the recession—the ending of jobs and contraction of whole industries; economic and geographical shifts; real estate losses and abandoned communities. Are some of Nick and Amy’s struggles emblematic of the time period? Are there any parts of the story that feel unique to this time period?

14. While in hiding, Amy begins to explore what the “real” Amy likes and dislikes. Do you think this is a true exploration of her feelings, or is she acting out yet another role? In these passages, what does she mean when she refers to herself as “I” in quotes?

15. What do you think of Amy’s quizzes—and “correct” answers—that appear throughout the book? As a consistent thread between her Amazing Amy childhood and her adult career, what does her quiz-writing style reveal about Amy’s true personality and her understanding of the world?

16. Do Nick and Amy have friends? Consider Nick’s assurance that Noelle was deluded in her claims of friendship with Amy, and also the friends described in Amy’s journal. How “real” are these friendships? What do you think friendship means to each of them?

17. What was the relationship between Amy and Nick’s father? Do you think the reader is meant to imagine conversations between the two of them? Why does Nick’s father come to Nick and Amy’s home?

18. Amy publicly denounces the local police and criticizes their investigation. Do you think they did a good job of investigating her disappearance? Were there real missteps, or was their failing due to Amy’s machinations?

19. Do you believe Amy truly would have committed suicide? Why does she return?

20. Were you satisfied with the book’s ending? What do you think the future holds for Nick, Amy, and their baby boy?

September 2013 Book: Beatrice & Virgil

For September 2013, Cass has picked "Beatrice and Virgil" for our reading pleasure.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Beatrice and Virgil is Canadian writer Yann Martel's third novel. First published in April 2010, it contains an allegorical tale about representations of the Holocaust. It tells the story of Henry, a novelist, who receives the manuscript of a play in a letter from a reader. Intrigued, Henry traces the letter to a taxidermist, who introduces him to the play's protagonists, two taxidermy animals—Beatrice, a donkey, and Virgil, a monkey.


The Globe and Mail reported that Martel received a $2 million advance from Random House for U.S. rights alone, and that the total advance for worldwide rights was around $3 million, probably the highest ever advance for a single Canadian novel.^[1] Martel's earlier novel, Life of Pi, won the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and sold seven million copies worldwide.

The title is an allusion to two of the main characters in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_and_Virgil

Certain Women book discussion questions

Certain Women explores the sensitive issue of death and, more specifically, the fear of dying with unresolved issues. In this novel (which I did not finish), Emma Wheaton disrupts her successful stage career to be with her dying father, David Wheaton. David is also an actor, having performed in a number of plays during his long career. However, he is obsessed with the one play he never got to do – an unfinished play about the Old Testament King David, written by Emma’s estranged husband, Nik.

As David Wheaton’s nine wives and eleven children gather to say their final goodbyes to David, the stories of both him and King David are simultaneously woven together and unraveled.  Since Emma is the main female protagonist, the novel focuses on her upbringing and experiences being raised by the great actor that was David Wheaton.  As she is surrounded by her extended and eclectic family, painful memories resurface that begin to allow her to confront her past and start the process of healing.  As David Wheaton faces his approaching death, Emma grapples with her future.

 http://crazy-for-books.com/2011/02/faith-n-fiction-roundtable-discussion-certain-women-by-madeleine-lengle.html

- Were there too many characters to keep track of and was it difficult to follow the author’s shift from King David to David Wheaton?
- First, if you died today, is there anything left unresolved in your life that you would regret?
- So, can anyone be redeemed, regardless of what he or she has done, as long as they atone for their sins?
- If a person has wronged you in a devastating way, how can we truly just forgive and move on?

August 2013 book: Gone Girl

Becky has picked "Gone Girl"
by Gillian Flynn for our August 2013 read.

"I've heard it is really good and just heard they are going to be making a movie," explained Becky.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Marriage can be a real killer.
   One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.
   On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
   As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
   With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

July 2013 book: Certain Women

Amy has picked "Certain Women" by Madeleine L'Engle for our July 2013 book. It's a book she's read before and she's always wanted to chat about it with others.

 ABOUT THE BOOK

From Library Journal

In Certain Women , terminally ill David Wheaton, a prominent and much-married American actor, obsessively recalls an unfinished play about King David, a role he coveted. L'Engle explores Christian faith, love, and the nature of God by framing the delayed-maturation story of Emma, Wheaton's daughter, within three subplots: the Wheaton family saga, the story of King David, and the history of the play's development. The characterizations of both Davids are compelling, but the primary interest here is the community of women that surrounds each man. L'Engle describes complex truths very simply, pointing out, for instance, that "Life hurts" and that if there's "no agony, there's no joy." Because she also details the emotional cost of discovering and accepting such concepts, many readers will find these observations memorable rather than simplistic. Appropriate for all but the smallest general collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/92.
- Jane S. Bakerman, Indiana State Univ., Terre Haute

From Publishers Weekly

"Marrying was a habit with me, a bad habit," David Wheaton declares from his deathbed in this disappointing novel by the Newbery Award-winning CK author of A Wrinkle in Time . As the 87-year-old actor's boat plies the waters of the Pacific Northwest, Wheaton looks back on his life with eight wives and 11 children. Also on board is his devoted daughter Emma, stunned by the imminence of her father's death and by the recent dissolution of her marriage to a playwright whose drama about King David and his wives provides the framework for L'Engle's relentless analogies between the Old Testament monarch and the modern-day actor. Recasting the biblical tale as a meditation on love and marriage, L'Engle piles on literary references: David met Emma's mother while making a film version of The Mill on the Floss , named their daughter after the heroine of Madame Bovary and calls his boat the Portia . But name-dropping does not a work of literature make. The epigraph from St. Luke--"Certain women made us astonished"--is not borne out by these two-dimensional characters, who don't astonish in the least as they speak and act by formula. The heavy-handed biblical subtext overwhelms rather than enhances the contemporary drama. ( Oct.

Spirit Car book discussion questions

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

 

1. Compare what you learned in school about the 1862 Dakota War to the way this story unfolds. What, if anything, has changed in your understanding of this event?

 

2. How might the author’s life have been different if she had had a strong sense of her Dakota heritage as a child?

 

3. Whose story is the author telling? For whom is she writing the story?

 

4. What impact is achieved by the Dakota Indian history being told through personal family stories? How is the effect different from reading about the same events in a history book?

 

5. Would Lucille’s life likely have been

better or more difficult without her boarding school experiences? What do

you think the boarding schools represented to the Dakota Indian families? 

 

6. Talk about what the author means when she talks about riding in

her spirit car. Have you ever had a similar

experience in connecting with the past?

 

7. Give examples of when the author uses

humor in the book. What role does humor play?

 

8. What is the biggest loss the author is writing about? Discuss the various losses documented in the book. 

 

9. The last sentence of the book is the author’s response to her mother, Lucille: “Yes, I think things are changing for the better.” What do the author and Lucille mean by this statement?

 

10. In thinking about your own family, do you know how and wh y they came to America (if non-Native)? Do you know of any significant history your family members lived through, such as wars or depressions or world-changing inventions like the telephone?

 

11. What is the value of understanding and having connection

to one’s family over several generations? How might

learning about something significant and troubling in your family’s history change you?

 

12. The book jacket describes the book as a counterpoint of memoir and carefully researched fiction. What is your understanding of the term “carefully researched fiction ”, and do you think this technique adds or detracts from the cohesiveness of the book? Do the stories we tell about our own lives incorporate some degree of fiction?

 

From http://www.thefriends.org/assets/documents/spirit-car.pdf

Q. What are you currently writing?

The next book will be a progression of some of the themes in

Spirit Car, although it won’t be a family

memoir. I found myself wondering, when a

person/community has done the work of reclaiming

cultural identity, what’s next? How do you restore

what was lost, how do you heal the traumas of the

past, how do you assume responsibility for the

knowledge that was given? I believe the answer to

those questions is closely tied to our relationship to

the land, to the earth.

 

Q. What do you hope your readers take away from reading this book?

People have told me that reading a family story has

helped them understand Native history because they

can relate to events on a personal level rather than at

a state or national level, as history is often written. I

hope they see how the past lives on in the present,

how an event like the 1862 Dakota War in Minnesota

is very much a part of our contemporary lives. I also

hope they see the beauty and wonder of their own

family stories and how much we’re shaped by the

generations who came before us

Introducing the Upper St. Croix Wine Trail

Check this out! There is so much that is exciting! Two new wineries in the local area! And I hadn't heard of the Wild Mountain Winery before either. Cool!

Introducing the UPPER ST. CROIX WINE TRAIL

6 wineries have formed a coalition to create the
Upper St. Croix Wine Trail

- James Perry Winery - Rush City (opening June 2013)
http://jamesperryvineyards.com/ 
  - North Folk Winery - Stark
http://www.starkwines.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/NorthFolkWinery?fref=ts 

- Wild Mountain Winery - Taylors Falls
http://www.wildmountainwinery.com/
Our regular tasting includes a selection of 6 of your favorites for $5 or a couples tasting to sample all 14 wines for $10.  All tastings include a complimentary sample of our port style dessert wine Aurora Borealis, and souvenir glass.

- Winehaven - Lindstrom
http://www.winehaven.com/ 
15th Annual Raspberries and Wine Festival June 13 & 14

- Dancing Dragonfly Winery - St. Croix Falls, WI (opening May 2013)
http://www.dancingdragonflywinery.com/
Their grand opening celebration is June 8-9

- Chateaux St. Croix Winery - St. Croix Falls, WI

What a great day trip! Sampling local wines from 6 wineries in a 40 mile distance.

http://upperstcroixwinetrail.com

Visit Fort Ridgely - site mentioned in Spirit Car

One of the sites mentioned in our book for May, "Spirit Car", is a historic site that can be visited.

http://sites.mnhs.org/historic-sites/fort-ridgely

Fort Ridgely

Built in 1853 as a police station to keep peace as settlers poured into the former Dakota lands, it withstood several attacks in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 and became a training ground for Civil War recruits. 


 The site is located within Fort Ridgely State Park and is managed by the Nicollet County Historical Society.

The restored commissary building houses interpretive exhibits and a gift shop. The stone foundations of the other fort buildings remain and interpretive markers on the grounds tell the fort's story. The site is located within Fort Ridgely State Park which offers hiking trails, horseback riding, a nine hole golf course, fishing and camping.

History

Yielding to pressure from the U.S. government in 1851, the Eastern Dakota (Eastern Sioux) sold 35 million acres of their land across southern and western Minnesota.

The Dakota moved onto a small reservation along the Minnesota River, stretching from just north of New Ulm to the South Dakota border.

 

In 1853, the U.S. military started construction on Fort Ridgely, near the southern border of the new reservation and northwest of the German settlement of New Ulm. The fort was designed as a police station to keep peace as settlers poured into the former Dakota lands.

 

Nine years later, unkept promises by the U.S. government, nefarious practices by fur traders and crop failure all helped create tensions that erupted into the U.S.-Dakota War in August 1862. Dakota forces attacked the fort twice, on August 20 and August 22. The fort that had been a training base and staging ground for Civil War volunteers suddenly became one of the few military forts west of the Mississippi to withstand a direct assault. Fort Ridgely's 280 military and civilian defenders held out until Army reinforcements ended the siege.

 

The Army abandoned the Fort in 1867. Civilians occupied the remaining buildings and later dismantled them for their own use. From 1935 to 1942 the Veteran Conservation Corps excavated the site, restored the foundations of eight fort buildings and reconstructed the entire commissary building. In 1970 the fort was added to the National Register of Historic Places, while much of the park was added in 1989. The Minnesota Historical Society assumed stewardship of the site in 1986.

 

Resources for Further Investigation

 

U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 website

 

Fort Ridgely

72404 County Road 30

Fairfax, MN 55332

See map: Google Maps

Directions

In Fort Ridgely State Park, off Minn. Hwy. 4, seven miles south of Fairfax.

Hours

Memorial Day Weekend-Labor Day: Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Open Monday holidays.

Admission

$5 adults, $3 seniors (65+), students w/ID and children 6-17. Free for children age 5 and under and MHS members. Minnesota State Park vehicle permit required.
 

FYI: Cambridge Community Read

FOR YOUR INFORMATION
 The Community Read in Cambridge, Minn. this year is "Safe from the Sea" by Peter Geye. It's set in Northern Minnesota and sounds quite fascinating. (Don't be surprised if it's my book choice in a few months :)

In case you're interested:

Author Event with Peter Geye

 May 2nd

4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. book signing at
Scout & Morgan Books

7:00 p.m. Presentation, book signing and refreshments at the
Cambridge Community College

 

        

Set in the landscape of Northern Minnesota and on the unforgiving waters of Lake Superior, Geye tells a story of father and son who have been estranged for many years after a tragic shipwreck. When Noah receives a call from his dying father, a former iron ore ship officer, he is forced to return to Minnesota to care for a man he hasn't spoken to in years.Safe From the Sea is a beautifully written novel that describes so well the unique sense of place that is the Lake Superior landscape. Click here to listen to Peter read an excerpt from Safe From the Sea.

June 2013 book: To Kill a Mockingbird

Cindy has picked a classic tale for our June 2013 read: To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee Harper. It's one of her all-time favorite books.

ABOUT THE BOOK
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old.

The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explains the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."^[1]

As a Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in English-speaking countries with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets.

Reception to the novel varied widely upon publication. Literary analysis of it is sparse, considering the number of copies sold and its widespread use in education. Author Mary McDonough Murphy, who collected individual impressions of the book by several authors and public figures, calls To Kill a Mockingbird "an astonishing phenomenon".^[2] In 2006, British librarians ranked the book ahead of the Bible as one "every adult should read before they die".^[3] It was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1962 by director Robert Mulligan, with a screenplay by Horton Foote. Since 1990, a play based on the novel has been performed annually in Harper Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. To date, it is Lee's only published novel, and although she continues to respond to the book's impact, she has refused any personal publicity for herself or the novel since 1964.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in 1926, Harper Lee grew up in the Southern town of Monroeville, Alabama, where she became close friends with soon-to-be famous writer Truman Capote. She attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery (1944–45), and then studied law at the University of Alabama (1945–49). While attending college, she wrote for campus literary magazines: Huntress at Huntingdon and the humor magazine Rammer Jammer at the University of Alabama. At both colleges, she wrote short stories and other works about racial injustice, a rarely mentioned topic on such campuses at the time.^[4] In 1950, Lee moved to New York City, where she worked as a reservation clerk for British Overseas Airways Corporation; there, she began writing a collection of essays and short stories about people in Monroeville. Hoping to be published, Lee presented her writing in 1957 to a literary agent recommended by Capote. An editor at J. B. Lippincott advised her to quit the airline and concentrate on writing. Donations from friends, including Michael and Joy Brown and Alice Lee Finch,^[5] allowed her to write uninterrupted for a year.^[6]

Ultimately, Lee spent two and a half years writing To Kill a Mockingbird. A description of the book's creation by the National Endowment for the Arts relates an episode when Lee became so frustrated that she tossed the manuscript out the window into the snow. Her agent made her retrieve it.^[7] The book was published on July 11, 1960, initially titled Atticus. Lee renamed it to reflect a story that went beyond a character portrait.^[8] The editorial team at Lippincott warned Lee that she would probably sell only several thousand copies.^[9] In 1964, Lee recalled her hopes for the book when she said, "I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird.' ... I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected."^[10] Instead of a "quick and merciful death", Reader's Digest Condensed Books chose the book for reprinting in part, which gave it a wide readership immediately.^[11] Since the original publication, the book has never been out of print.

INFORMATION FROM WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird