Book Club Kits at Hennepin County Library

Here are the book club kits we can access through the Hennepin County Library system:

https://hclib.bibliocommons.com/user_profile/619266231

 

FICTION

- All the Light We Cannot See by Doerr, Anthony
-  And the Mountains Echoed by Hosseini, Khaled
-  Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Landvik, Lorna
-  Ape House by Gruen, Sara
-  The Art of Fielding
-  The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Sendker, Jan-Philippby Harbach, Chad
-  The Aviator's Wife by Benjamin, Melanie,
-  The Bathing Women by Tie, Ning
-  Beautiful Ruins by Walter, Jess,
-  Bel Canto by Patchett, Ann
-  Belle Cora by Margulies, Phillip
-  Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Fountain, Ben
-  The Blazing World by Hustvedt, Siri
-  A Brief History of Seven Killings by James, Marlon
-  The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Díaz, Junot
-  Bring up the Bodies by Mantel, Hilary,
-  The Buddha in the Attic by Otsuka, Julie, 1962-
-  Burial Rites by Kent, Hannah (WE READ)
-  Caleb's Crossing by Brooks, Geraldine
-  The Cat's Table by Ondaatje, Michael, 1943-
-  The Chaperone by Moriarty, Laura, 1970-
-  Charity Girl by Lowenthal, Michael
-  City of Thieves by Benioff, David
-  Claire of the Sea Light by Danticat, Edwidge, 1969-
-  Cloud Atlas by Mitchell, David
-  A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Marra, Anthony
-  The Curiosity by Kiernan, Stephen P.
-  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Haddon, Mark, 1962-
-  Cutting for Stone by Verghese, A. 1955-
-  The Dante Club by Pearl, Matthew
-  Dear Life, Stories by Munro, Alice, 1931-
-  Defending Jacob by Landay, William
-  The Dinner by Koch, Herman, 1953-
-  The Dog Stars by Heller, Peter, 1959-
-  The Dovekeepers by Hoffman, Alice
-  The Dressmaker by Alcott, Kate
-  Everything I Never Told You by Ng, Celeste (WE READ)
-  Fall of Giants by Follett, Ken
-  Falling Together by De los Santos, Marisa, 1966-
-  Fever by Keane, Mary Beth
-  Florence Gordon by Morton, Brian, 1955-
-  Forgotten Country by Chung, Catherine
-  The Forgotten Waltz by Enright, Anne, 1962-
-  The Fortune Hunter by Goodwin, Daisy
-  The Gathering by Enright, Anne, 1962-
-  Ghost Month by Lin, Ed
-  Girl in Translation by Kwok, Jean
-  Girlchild by Hassman, Tupelo, 1973-
-  Girls in White Dresses by Close, Jennifer
-  The Goldfinch by Tartt, Donna
-  Gone Girl by Flynn, Gillian, 1971- (WE READ)
-  A Good American by George, Alex
-  The Good Daughters by Maynard, Joyce, 1953-
-  The Handmaid's Tale by Atwood, Margaret, 1939-
-  The Headmaster's Wife by Greene, Thomas Christopher, 1968-
-  The Healing by Odell, Jonathan, 1951-
-  The High Divide by Enger, Lin
-  The History of Love by Krauss, Nicole
-  A Hologram for the King by Eggers, Dave
-  Homegoing by Gyasi, Yaa
-  Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Ford, Jamie
-  Hour of the Red God by Crompton, Richard, 1973-
-  The House Girl by Conklin, Tara
-  How It All Began by Lively, Penelope, 1933-
-  The Husband's Secret by Moriarty, Liane
-  The Hypnotist's Love Story by Moriarty, Liane
-  Illuminations, A Novel of Hildegard Von Bingen by Sharratt, Mary, 1964-
-  In the Shadow of the Banyan by Ratner, Vaddey
-  The Invention of Wings by Kidd, Sue Monk
-  The Invisible Bridge by Orringer, Julie
-  Invisible City by Dahl, Julia, 1977-
-  The Journey Home by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson
-  The Kitchen House by Grissom, Kathleen
-  Lake Wobegon Days by Keillor, Garrison
- A Land More Kind Than Home by Cash, Wiley
-  The Language of Flowers by Diffenbaugh, Vanessa
-  The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Erdrich, Louise
-  The Last Runaway by Chevalier, Tracy
-  The Leftovers by Perrotta, Tom, 1961-
-  Life After Life  by Atkinson, Kate (WE READ)
-  The Light Between Oceans by Stedman, M. L.
-  The Lighthouse Road by Geye, Peter
-  Lilac Girls, A Novel by Kelly, Martha Hall
-  Little Century by Keesey, Anna, 1962-
-  Longbourn by Baker, Jo
-  Love Anthony by Genova, Lisa
-  The Lowland by Lahiri, Jhumpa
-  The Magicians by Grossman, Lev
-  Main Street by Lewis, Sinclair, 1885-1951
-  A Man Called Ove, A Novel by Backman, Fredrik, 1981- (WE READ)
-  The Martian by Weir, Andy
-  May We Be Forgiven by Homes, A. M.
-  Me Before You by Moyes, Jojo, 1969- (WE READ)
-  Molokaª i by Brennert, Alan
-  Motherless Brooklyn by Lethem, Jonathan
-  Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Sloan, Robin, 1979-
- The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Flanagan, Richard, 1961-
-  Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954-
-  Nightwoods by Frazier, Charles, 1950-
-  No One Is Coming to Save Us by Watts, Stephanie Powell (WE READ)
-  NW by Smith, Zadie
-  The Odds, A Love Story by O'Nan, Stewart, 1961-
-  On Such A Full Sea by Lee, Chang-rae
-  On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon by Gibbons, Kaye, 1960-
-  Once Upon A River by Campbell, Bonnie Jo, 1962-
-  One Thousand White Women, the Journals of May Dodd by Fergus, Jim
-  The Orchardist by Coplin, Amanda
-  The Orphan Master's Son by Johnson, Adam, 1967-
-  Orphan Train by Kline, Christina Baker, 1964- (WE READ)
-  The Other Typist by Rindell, Suzanne
-  The Painted Girls by Buchanan, Cathy Marie
-  The Paris Wife by McLain, Paula
-  The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Bender, Aimee
-  Pearl of China by Min, Anchee, 1957-
-  The Pilot's Wife by Shreve, Anita
-  The Postmistress by Blake, Sarah, 1960-
-  Ready Player One by Cline, Ernest (WE READ)
-  The Real Minerva by Sharratt, Mary, 1964-
-  Reconstructing Amelia by McCreight, Kimberly
-  Red Sky in Morning by Lynch, Paul, 1977-
-  Redeployment by Klay, Phil
-  A Reliable Wife by Goolrick, Robert, 1948-
-  The Road Back to Sweetgrass, A Novel by Grover, Linda LeGarde
-  The Rosie Project by Simsion, Graeme C.
-  The Round House by Erdrich, Louise
-  Rules of Civility by Towles, Amor
-  Running the Rift by Benaron, Naomi, 1951-
-  Sacred Wilderness by Power, Susan, 1961-
-  Salvage the Bones by Ward, Jesmyn
-  The Sandcastle Girls by Bohjalian, Chris, 1962-
-  Sarah's Key by Rosnay, Tatiana de, 1961-
-  Secret Daughter by Gowda, Shilpi Somaya
-  The Secret Keeper by Morton, Kate, 1976-
-  The Sellout by Beatty, Paul
-  The Sense of An Ending by Barnes, Julian
-  The Shoemaker's Wife by Trigiani, Adriana
-  The Signature of All Things by Gilbert, Elizabeth, 1969-
-  The Silent Wife by Harrison, A. S. A.
-  The Snow Child by Ivey, Eowyn
-  So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Enger, Leif
-  South of Superior by Airgood, Ellen
-  The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by Wroblewski, David
-  The Storyteller by Picoult, Jodi, 1966-
-  The Submission by Waldman, Amy, 1969-
-  A Sudden Country by Fisher, Karen, 1961-
-  Swamplandia! by Russell, Karen, 1981-
-  The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Webb, Wendy
-  Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Brunt, Carol Rifka
-  Those Who Save Us by Blum, Jenna
-  Tigers in Red Weather by Klaussmann, Liza
-  The Tortilla Curtain by Boyle, T. Coraghessan
-  TransAtlantic by McCann, Colum, 1965-
-  The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Mathis, Ayana
-  Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Horan, Nancy
-  The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Joyce, Rachel
-  The Valley of Amazement by Tan, Amy
-  A Visit From the Goon Squad by Egan, Jennifer
-  The Weird Sisters by Brown, Eleanor, 1973- (WE READ)
-  What Alice Forgot by Moriarty, Liane (WE READ)
-  Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Semple, Maria (WE READ)
-  The Wives of Los Alamos by Nesbit, TaraShea
- Wolf Hall by Mantel, Hilary, 1952-
-  Wuthering Heights by Brontë, Emily, 1818-1848
-  The Year We Left Home by Thompson, Jean, 1950-
-  Z, A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Fowler, Therese

There are also a bunch of Non-Fiction titles :)

November 2018: The Hate U Give

Cass' book pick for us next is "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas.

ABOUT THE BOOK

8 starred reviews ∙ William C. Morris Award Winner ∙ National Book Award Longlist ∙ Printz Honor Book ∙ Coretta Scott King Honor Book ∙ #1 New York Times Bestseller!

"Absolutely riveting!" —Jason Reynolds
"Stunning." —John Green
"This story is necessary. This story is important." —Kirkus (starred review)
"Heartbreakingly topical." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A marvel of verisimilitude." —Booklist (starred review)
"A powerful, in-your-face novel." —Horn Book (starred review)

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi as indicated by her accent. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in Right-On Magazine with a picture included. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University and an unofficial degree in Hip Hop. She is an inaugural winner of the Walter Dean Myers Grant 2015, awarded by We Need Diverse Books. 

October 2018: Eductated: A Memoir

For October 2018, Becky picked "Educated: A Memoir" for us to read.

ABOUT THE BOOK

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University

Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times • Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

“A coming-of-age memoir reminiscent of The Glass Castle.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”—Vogue
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Praise for Educated

“Heart-wrenching . . . a beautiful testament to the power of education to open eyes and change lives.”—Amy Chua, The New York Times Book Review

“A heartbreaking, heartwarming, best-in-years memoir.”—USA Today

“Tara Westover’s one-of-a-kind memoir is about the shaping of a mind. . . . She evokes a childhood that completely defined her. Yet it was also, she gradually sensed, deforming her.”—The Atlantic

“Riveting . . . Westover brings readers deep into this world, a milieu usually hidden from outsiders.”—The Economist

“Incredibly thought-provoking . . . so much more than a memoir about a woman who graduated college without a formal education. It is about a woman who must learn how to learn.”—The Harvard Crimson

“A subtle, nuanced study of how dysfunction of any kind can be normalized even within the most conventional family structure, and of the damage such containment can do.”—Financial Times

“Westover’s extraordinary memoir is haunting in the best way, delivering a powerful coming-of-age saga.”—Paste

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tara Westover is an American author living in the UK. Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, she never attended school. She spent her days working in her father's junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom, and after that first taste, she pursued learning for a decade. She graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2008 and was subsequently awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009, and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. She returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in history in 2014.

September 2018: 'Born a Crime'

For September 2018, Amy picked Trevor Noah's book, Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. "I have heard that the audio book is well worth the listen. Trevor Noah reads the book himself," she said.

"I also highly recommend listening to Trevor Noah's interview with Oprah on her SuperSoul podcast. I can find the podcast on the Pocket Cast app on my phone, but all I can find online is a youtube recording. So, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DGQyLGC-As

ABOUT THE BOOK

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Michiko Kakutani, New York Times • Newsday • Esquire • NPR • Booklist

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.

Time Quintet (L'Engle) book discussion questions

QUESTION BY THEME IN THE TIME QUINTET

Good vs. Evil
In A Wrinkle in Time, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which take Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace to the planet Uriel. There, as they see The Dark Thing, a shadow that is creeping over the cosmos, the children begin to understand the age-old struggle between the forces of good and evil. Have students make two columns on a large sheet of paper; one column should be labeled "good," and the other "evil." Beginning with Love and Hate, one in each column, ask students to list other characteristics of these forces.

In each of the novels, members of the Murry family learn important lessons when they encounter evil forces. Ask students to identify the conflict in each novel and discuss the overall theme of good vs. evil. How are these conflicts resolved? What does each Murry child learn about the power of love?

In A Wind in the Door, Charles Wallace is tormented by his classmates. Meg says, "It's not right in the United States of America that a little kid shouldn't be safe in school" (p. 47). Engage the class in a discussion about the safety issues facing public schools today, for example bullying, weapons, gangs, etc. How are these issues considered "evil" forces? 

Courage and Honor
In A Wrinkle in Time, Meg experiences various types of love throughout her adventure. When she returns to Camazotz for Charles Wallace, she learns that love can enable her to be brave in the face of danger. It provides her with the strength that she needs to overcome evil. Ask students to trace the development of Meg's understanding of the power of love and discuss or write about it in an essay format.

In some ways, Charles Wallace might be considered the most courageous Murry. Encourage students to compare and contrast his courageous journey in A Wind in the Door to his adventures in A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

The Murry twins, Sandy and Dennys, take their first time-travel adventure in Many Waters. As the "practical" members of the family, they are very frightened throughout most of their trip. Ask students to discuss whether it takes courage to be "practical" and "ordinary" in a family like the Murrys. How might being "practical" and "ordinary" cause anyone to be frightened upon entering a new experience? Do the twins become more courageous by the end of the novel?

Dealing with Giftedness
Charles Wallace realizes that he is different. While he is intellectually gifted, he lacks the physical ability to do things like the other boys in his class. Ask students to brainstorm characteristics of an intellectually gifted child. Make a chart for each of the Murry children and Calvin O'Keefe and cite evidence from the novels that indicates that each child might be considered gifted.

Family and Relationships
Have students study the Murry-O'Keefe family tree which can be found in the back of any of the 35th anniversary commemorative editions. Ask each student to select one person from the tree and design a page about that person's life and adventures to be included in a Murry-O'Keefe family scrapbook. Compile the pages and bind it. 

(From http://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/teachers-guide/96847/a-swiftly-tilting-planet/)

A WRINKLE IN TIME

1. A Wrinkle In Time is very much a novel about good vs. evil. Who in the book represents good? Who represents evil?
2. How does Meg feel about her father and his work?
3. Imagine living in a community that mistrusts and resents you. What is it like for the Murrys to live in a community that doesn't understand them?
4. How is Charles Wallace like Meg? How is he different?
5. How would you describe tesseracting? Would you want to do it?
6. What are Meg's faults? How do they help her in the end?
7. Meg experiences various types of love throughout her adventure. How does her understanding of love develop over the course of the novel?
8. Who is the most courageous character?
9. Would you define this story as fantasy or science fiction? What are the differences between these two genres?
10. If you had the opportunity to time travel, would you? If you could chose the time, what time period would you travel to? The past? The future?
11. Would you recommend this book to others?

A WIND IN THE DOOR

1. In Chapter 11, Senex says, "'It is only when we are fully rooted that we are really able to move."' (pg. 190) What does the author mean by this, and how might it apply to your life?
2. What clue does the author give at the end of the book to indicate that Proginoskes is really all right despite having Xed himself?
3. Why is it better to X oneself than to be Xed by the Echthroi? What is the difference?
4. Despite the fact that grown-ups have a harder time kything and may be slower at it than children, Calvin believes adults are able to go deeper than a child can once they get the hang of it. What does he mean by this? Can you give two examples from the story in which Mr. Jenkins proves that Calvin is right about this?

June 2018: Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle

For June 2018, I picked the Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle because I've been wanting to re-read them. Have fun!

The Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle consists of A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time.

ABOUT THE BOOKS
A Wrinkle in Time―One of the most significant novels of our time. This fabulous, ground-breaking science-fiction and fantasy story is the first of five in the Time Quintet series about the Murry family. A Wrinkle in Time is soon to be a major motion picture from Disney, directed by Ava DuVernay, starring Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling.
A Wind in the Door―When Charles Wallace falls ill, Meg, Calvin, and their teacher, Mr. Jenkins, must travel inside C.W. to make him well, and save the universe from the evil Echthros.
A Swiftly Tilting Planet―The Murry and O'Keefe families enlist the help of the unicorn, Gaudior, to save the world from imminent nuclear war.
Many Waters―Meg Murry, now in college, time travels with her twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys, to a desert oasis that is embroiled in war.
An Acceptable Time―While spending time with her grandparents, Alex and Kate Murry, Polly O'Keefe wanders into a time 3,000 years before her own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918, and spent her formative years in New York City. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories, poems and journals for herself, which was reflected in her grades (not the best). However, she was not discouraged.

At age 12, she moved to the French Alps with her parents and went to an English boarding school where, thankfully, her passion for writing continued to grow. She flourished during her high school years back in the United States at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, vacationing with her mother in a rambling old beach cottage on a beautiful stretch of Florida Beach.

She went to Smith College and studied English with some wonderful teachers as she read the classics and continued her own creative writing. She graduated with honors and moved into a Greenwich Village apartment in New York. She worked in the theater, where Equity union pay and a flexible schedule afforded her the time to write! She published her first two novels during these years—A Small Rain and Ilsa—before meeting Hugh Franklin, her future husband, when she was an understudy in Anton Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard. They married during The Joyous Season.

She had a baby girl and kept on writing, eventually moving to Connecticut to raise the family away from the city in a small dairy farm village with more cows than people. They bought a dead general store, and brought it to life for 9 years. They moved back to the city with three children, and Hugh revitalized his professional acting career.

As the years passed and the children grew, Madeleine continued to write and Hugh to act, and they to enjoy each other and life. Madeleine began her association with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where she was the librarian and maintained an office for more than thirty years. After Hugh’s death in 1986, it was her writing and lecturing that kept her going. She lived through the 20th century and into the 21st and wrote over 60 books. She enjoyed being with her friends, her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren.

Build a Board at Book Club

Inspired by this:

We made this:

Raise a mocktail!

Made some pretty delish non-al mocktails!

July/August 2018: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

For July 2018, we'll be reading Kevira's pick: “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier. (Kevira and I switched months because she was on vacation in June!) *We moved this book to August because so many people were gone in July!

ABOUT THE BOOK
The unassuming young heroine of Rebecca finds her life changed overnight when she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome and wealthy widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. Rescuing her from an overbearing employer, de Winter whisks her off to Manderley, his isolated estate on the windswept Cornish coast--but there things take a chilling turn. Max seems haunted by the memory of his glamorous first wife, Rebecca, whose legacy is lovingly tended by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. As the second Mrs. de Winter finds herself increasingly burdened by the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, she becomes determined to uncover the dark secrets that threaten her happiness, no matter the cost.

“One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century, Rebecca has woven its way into the fabric of our culture with all the troubling power of myth or dream.” —Sarah Waters

“Du Maurier is in a class by herself.” —THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Excellent . . . Perfect . . . Mastery from surprise to surprise.” —CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

“Addictive and breathtaking. Its blending of melodrama and subtlety is ingenious. The Cornish setting never quite leaves the imagination.” —THE INDEPENDENT

“This chilling, suspenseful tale is as fresh and readable as it was when it was first written.” —THE DAILY TELEGRAPH 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, DBE (13 May 1907 - 19 April 1989) was an English author and playwright.

Although she is classed as a romantic novelist, her stories seldom feature a conventional happy ending and have been described as "moody and resonant" with overtones of the paranormal. These bestselling works were not at first taken seriously by critics, but have since earned an enduring reputation for storytelling craft. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight".

Du Maurier spent much of her life in Cornwall, where most of her works are set. As her fame increased, she became more reclusive.

Her parents were the actor/manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and stage actress Muriel Beaumont, and her grandfather was the cartoonist and writer George du Maurier.

Orphan Train book discussion questions

1. On the surface, Vivian’s and Molly’s lives couldn’t be more different. In what ways are their stories similar?
2. In the prologue Vivian mentions that her “true love” died when she was 23, but she doesn’t mention the other big secret in the book. Why not?
3. Why hasn’t Vivian ever shared her story with anyone? Why does she tell it now?
4. What role does Vivian’s grandmother play in her life? How does the reader’s perception of her shift as the story unfolds?
5. Why does Vivian seem unable to get rid of the boxes in her attic?
6. In Women of the Dawn, a nonfiction book about the lives of four Wabanaki Indians excerpted in the epigraph, Bunny McBride writes: “In portaging from one river to another, Wabanakis had to carry their canoes and all other possessions. Everyone knew the value of traveling light and understood that it required leaving some things behind. Nothing encumbered movement more than fear, which was often the most difficult burden to surrender.” How does the concept of portaging reverberate throughout this novel? What fears hamper Vivian’s progress? Molly’s?
7. Vivian’s name changes several times over the course of the novel: from Niamh Power to Dorothy Nielsen to Vivian Daly. How are these changes significant for her? How does each name represent a different phase of her life?
8. What significance, if any, does Molly Ayer’s name have?
9. How did Vivian’s first-person account of her youth and the present-day story from Molly’s third-person-limited perspective work together? Did you prefer one story to the other? Did the juxtaposition reveal things that might not have emerged in a traditional narrative?
10. In what ways, large and small, does Molly have an impact on Vivian’s life? How does Vivian have an impact on Molly’s?
11. What does Vivian mean when she says, “I believe in ghosts”?
12. When Vivian finally shares the truth about the birth of her daughter and her decision to put May up for adoption she tells Molly that she was “selfish” and “afraid.” Molly defends her and affirms Vivian’s choice. How did you perceive Vivian’s decision? Were you surprised she sent her child to be adopted after her own experiences with the Children’s Aid Society?
13. When the children are presented to audiences of potential caretakers, the Children’s Aid Society explains adoptive families are responsible for the child’s religious upbringing. What role does religion play in this novel? How do Molly and Vivian each view God?
14. When Vivian and Dutchy are reunited she remarks, “However hard I try, I will always feel alien and strange. And now I’ve stumbled on a fellow outsider, one who speaks my language without saying a word.” How is this also true for her friendship with Molly?
15. When Vivian goes to live with the Byrnes Fanny offers her food and advises, “You got to learn to take what people are willing to give.” In what ways is this good advice for Vivian and Molly? What are some instances when their independence helped them?
16. Molly is enthusiastic about Vivian’s reunion with her daughter, but makes no further efforts to see her own mother. Why is she unwilling or unable to effect a reunion in her own family? Do you think she will someday?
17. Vivian’s Claddagh cross is mentioned often throughout the story. What is its significance? How does its meaning change or deepen over the course of Vivian’s life?

From
http://christinabakerkline.com/novels/orphan-train/reading-group-guide/

May 2018: No One Is Coming To Save Us

"My May choice is No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts. It is billed as a retelling of/inspired by The Great Gatsby," said Susan.

“A skillful riff on The Great Gatsby… Watts writes about ordinary people leading ordinary lives with an extraordinary level of empathy and attention….The ways in which No One Is Coming to Save Us intersects with and veers away from Fitzgerald’s familiar plot can be very rewarding… Every departure can be seen as a sly comment on what it means to be a person of color in today’s America…. The novel’s intricately plotted relationships pay off satisfyingly in its final chapters.” —New York Times Book Review

Read Stephanie’s essay, “I Love The Great Gatsby, Even If It Doesn’t Love Me Back,” published on Lit Hub, here. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

*WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL*
*THE INAUGURAL SARAH JESSICA PARKER PICK FOR BOOK CLUB CENTRAL*
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2017 BY The Washington Post • Refinery29 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Bookpage 
NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2017 BY Entertainment Weekly • Nylon • Elle • Redbook • W Magazine • The Chicago Review of Books

JJ Ferguson has returned home to Pinewood, North Carolina, to build his dream house and to pursue his high school sweetheart, Ava. But as he reenters his former world, where factories are in decline and the legacy of Jim Crow is still felt, he’s startled to find that the people he once knew and loved have changed just as much as he has. Ava is now married and desperate for a baby, though she can’t seem to carry one to term. Her husband, Henry, has grown distant, frustrated by the demise of the furniture industry, which has outsourced to China and stripped the area of jobs. Ava’s mother, Sylvia, caters to and meddles with the lives of those around her, trying to fill the void left by her absent son. And Don, Sylvia’s unworthy but charming husband, just won’t stop hanging around.

JJ’s return—and his plans to build a huge mansion overlooking Pinewood and woo Ava—not only unsettles their family, but stirs up the entire town. The ostentatious wealth that JJ has attained forces everyone to consider the cards they’ve been dealt, what more they want and deserve, and how they might go about getting it. Can they reorient their lives to align with their wishes rather than their current realities? Or are they all already resigned to the rhythms of the particular lives they lead?

No One Is Coming to Save Us is a revelatory debut from an insightful voice: with echoes of The Great Gatsby it is an arresting and powerful novel about an extended African American family and their colliding visions of the American Dream. In evocative prose, Stephanie Powell Watts has crafted a full and stunning portrait that combines a universally resonant story with an intimate glimpse into the hearts of one family.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Stephanie Powell Watts won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence for her debut story collection, We Are Taking Only What We Need (2012), also named one of 2013’s Best Summer Reads by O: The Oprah Magazine. Her short fiction has been included in two volumes of the Best New Stories from the South anthology and honored with a Pushcart Prize.

Ms. Powell Watts’s stories explore the lives of African Americans in fast food and factory jobs, working door to door as Jehovah’s Witness ministers, and pressing against the boundaries of the small town, post-integration South. Her debut novel, titled No One Is Coming to Save Us, follows the return of a successful native son to his home in North Carolina and his attempt to join the only family he ever wanted but never had. As Ms. Powell Watts describes it, “Imagine The Great Gatsby set in rural North Carolina, nine decades later, with desperate black people.”

Born in the foothills of North Carolina, with a PhD from the University of Missouri and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she now lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where she is an associate professor at Lehigh University.

January 2018: Book Club Outing

Thanks to Becky, we got to enjoy a wonderful Escape Room during our January meet-up! We did the Investigation of Miss Treedcath and figured it out! THANK YOU!! It was so much fun!

April 2018: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Julie's pick for us in April 2018 is "Orphan Train: A Novel" by Christina Baker Kline.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The #1 New York Times Bestseller
Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train is an unforgettable story of friendship and second chances that highlights a little-known but historically significant movement in America’s past—and it includes a special PS section for book clubs featuring insights, interviews, and more.
Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse...
As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.
Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life—answers that will ultimately free them both.
Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

From Booklist

A long journey from home and the struggle to find it again form the heart of the intertwined stories that make up this moving novel. Foster teen Molly is performing community-service work for elderly widow Vivian, and as they go through Vivian’s cluttered attic, they discover that their lives have much in common. When Vivian was a girl, she was taken to a new life on an orphan train. These trains carried children to adoptive families for 75 years, from the mid-nineteenth century to the start of the Great Depression. Novelist Kline (Bird in Hand, 2009) brings Vivian’s hardscrabble existence in ­Depression-era Minnesota to stunning life. Molly’s present-day story in Maine seems to pale in comparison, but as we listen to the two characters talk, we find grace and power in both of these seemingly disparate lives. Although the girls are vulnerable, left to the whims of strangers, they show courage and resourcefulness. Kline illuminates a largely hidden chapter of American history, while portraying the coming-of-age of two resilient young women. --Bridget Thoreson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
 Christina Baker Kline is the author of instant New York Times bestseller A Piece of the World (2017), about the relationship between the artist Andrew Wyeth and the subject of his best-known painting, Christina’s World. Kline has written six other novels -- Orphan Train, Orphan Train Girl, The Way Life Should Be, Sweet Water, Bird in Hand, and Desire Lines -- and written or edited five works of nonfiction. Her 2013 novel Orphan Train spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list, including five weeks at # 1, and was published in 40 countries. More than 100 communities and colleges have chosen it as a “One Book, One Read” selection. Her adaptation of Orphan Train for young readers is Orphan Train Girl.

In addition to her novels, Kline has commissioned and edited two widely praised collections of original essays on the first year of parenthood and raising young children, Child of Mine and Room to Grow, and edited a book on grieving, Always Too Soon. She is coeditor, with Anne Burt, of a collection of personal essays called About Face: Women Write About What They See When They Look in the Mirror, and is co-author, with her mother, Christina Looper Baker, of a book on feminist mothers and daughters, The Conversation Begins. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Money, More, and Psychology Today, among other places.

Kline was born in Cambridge, England, and raised there as well as in the American South and Maine. She is a graduate of Yale, Cambridge, and the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in Fiction Writing. She has taught fiction and nonfiction writing, poetry, English literature, literary theory, and women’s studies at Yale, NYU, and Drew University, and served as Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University for four years. She is a recipient of several Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowships and Writer-in-Residence Fellowships at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is on the advisory board of Roots & Wings, a foster-care organization in NJ; The Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor, ME; and the Montclair Animal Shelter, and supports a number of libraries and other associations.

Kline lives in an old house in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband, David Kline, and three sons, Hayden, Will, and Eli.  She spends as much time as possible in an even older house in Southwest Harbor, Maine.

March 2018: Burial Rites

Andrea has picked "Burial Rites" by Hannah Kent as our second book in 2018.

ABOUT THE BOOK

*Soon to be a major motion picture starring Jennifer Lawrence*

A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829.

Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.

Riveting and rich with lyricism, BURIAL RITES evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, September 2013: Exploring the final months of an Icelander maid charged with murder and condemned to execution in 1829 is hardly a reader-friendly subject for a novel. But in her mesmerizing debut, Hannah Kent offers a retelling of actual historical events that makes it impossible not to become invested in understanding the guilt--or innocence--of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last person to be executed in Iceland. Kent seamlessly shifts between historical documents and different characters’ perspectives with a lyricism that makes every tortured thought and charged interaction echo in the silence of Iceland’s stark landscape. As details of Agnes’s involvement in the crime come to light, this thoroughly researched debut novel asks us to examine the significance of stories--both the ones that others tell about us and the ones that we tell about ourselves--ultimately offering Agnes a chance at a more compassionate story than the one history has given her. --Heather Hunt


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hannah Kent was born in Adelaide in 1985. Her first novel, the international bestseller, Burial Rites (2013), was translated into 28 languages and was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize) and the Guardian First Book Award. It won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Indie Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier's People's Choice Award, and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her second novel, The Good People will be published in 2016 (ANZ) and 2017 (UK and North America).

Hannah is also the co-founder and publishing director of Australian literary publication Kill Your Darlings.