The Art of Racing in the Rain

Title: The Art of Racing in the Rain
Author: Garth Stein
Genre: Fiction, Animals

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life… as only a dog could tell it.

Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals.

On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through: the sacrifices Denny has made to succeed professionally; the unexpected loss of Eve, Denny's wife; the three-year battle over their daughter, Zoë, whose maternal grandparents pulled every string to gain custody. In the end, despite what he sees as his own limitations, Enzo comes through heroically to preserve the Swift family, holding in his heart the dream that Denny will become a racing champion with Zoë at his side.

Book Club Discussion Night: 18 May 2011

Discussion Leader: Courtney Bennion

Host: Lynette Carter

Reading Guide: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_A/art_of_racing_the_rain1.asp

 

Mrs. Mike

Title: Mrs. Mike
Author: Benedict and Nancy Freedman
Genre: Classics

Summary: A moving love story set in the Canadian wilderness, Mrs. Mike is a classic tale that has enchanted millions of readers worldwide. It brings the fierce, stunning landscape of the Great North to life-and tenderly evokes the love that blossoms between Sergeant Mike Flannigan and beautiful young Katherine Mary O'Fallon.


"It is the personality of Sgt. Mike blowing through this account like a clear breeze that gives it a refreshing quality. Everyone's dream of a cop, he was also a romantic and understanding husband, the fondest of fathers; a man of honor and humor." (New York Times)


"Mrs. Mike...is the story of the start of young love, its growth to maturity, and its acceptance of a dangerous, hard, but enthralling life." (Los Angeles Herald-Express)

Book Club Discussion Night: 20 April 2011

Discussion Leader: Nancy Farrar

Host: Lisa Packer

Reading Guide: http://jaimelirejaimelire.blogspot.com/2009/11/mrs-mike-discussion-questions.html

Crow Lake

 

Title: Crow Lake
Author: Mary Lawson
Genre: Modern Fiction

 

Summary: Set against the wild terrain of northern Ontario, where heartbreak and hardship are mirrored in the landscape, this universal drama of love and misunderstanding recounts a family' tragic and moving past. Poignant, funny, and utterly unforgettable, Crow Lake is a deceptively simple masterpiece of literary fiction.

Orphaned young, Kate Morrison and her siblings were bound together by loss. None of them could have expected the tumultuous times ahead—least of all Kate' older brothers, Matt and Luke. Twenty years later, the sacrifices they made and the promises they broke would continue to reverberate through their lives and the quiet rural community of Crow Lake.

In a gorgeous, slow-burning story, Mary Lawson combines well-drawn characters, beautiful writing, and a powerful description of the land to tell the emotionally pitch-perfect story of personal struggles, familial bonds, and the power of forgiveness.

Book Club Discussion Night: 17 March 2011

Discussion Leader: Lynette Carter

Host: Marci Hansen 
Reading Guide: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_C/crow_lake1.asp


 

Publish Post

Sarah's Key

Title: Sarah's Key
Author: Tatiana De Rosnay
Genre: Modern Fiction

Summary: Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

Book Club Discussion Night: 17 February 2011

Discussion Leader: Robin Staker

Host: Trina Whitbeck

Reading Guide: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_s/sarahs_key1.asp

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Title: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Genre: Mystery Fiction

Summary: When Precious Ramotswe decides to use the money her beloved father left her to open the first ever Ladies' Detective Agency in Botswana, everyone is skeptical. "Can women be detectives?" asks the bank's lawyer. Mama Ramotswe herself feels unsure of her success. After all, her only assets are a tiny white van, two desks, two chairs, a telephone, an old typewriter, a teapot, and three teacups. But she does possess the intangible assets of intuition and intelligence. These she has in great supply, along with perseverance, a keen knowledge of the human mind and heart, a steadfast sense of right and wrong, and a personality that inspires trust and loquaciousness in nearly all who meet her. What she also has is a deep love for Africa generally and for Botswana and its people especially. "They are my people, my brothers and sisters. It is my duty to help them to solve the mysteries of their lives. That is what I am called to do".

Book Club Discussion Night: 19 January 2011

Discussion Leader: Sheri Woodbury

Host: Lee Urling

Reading Guide: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/1_ladies%27_detective_agency1.asp

 

The Bean Trees

Title: The Bean Trees
Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Genre: Journey or Quest Novel

The wisteria vines on their own would just barely get by, is how I explained it to Turtle, but put them together with rhizobia and they make miracles."
- Taylor Greer in The Bean Trees

Summary: Marietta Greer spent her childhood in rural Kentucky determined to do two things: avoid getting pregnant and escape rural Kentucky. At the start of the novel, she has headed west in a beat-up '55 Volkswagon, changing her name to "Taylor" when her car runs out of gas in Taylorville, Illinois. By the time two tires give way in Tucson she has with her a stunned, silent three-year-old Cherokee girl who was, literally, dropped into her arms one night. She has named the child Turtle, for her strong, snapping-turtle-like grip. In Tucson Taylor finds friendship and support in Lou Ann Ruiz, a fellow Kentuckian and single mother, with whom she and Turtle share a house. Her new found community also includes Mattie, who runs a safe house for political refugees in the upstairs rooms above her auto repair shop. The novel's theme of fear, flight, homelessness, and finding sanctuary within a community are present in Taylor's struggle to find a place where she belongs, and the more urgent plight of two Central American refugees, Estevan and Esperanza. These fellow travelers help one another create new lives and redefine the meanings of home and family.

-1989 School Library Journal Best Books of the Year
- 1989 American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults

Kingsolver on The Bean Trees:

"I always think of a first novel as something like this big old purse you've been carrying around your whole life, throwing in ideas, characters, and all the things that have ever struck you as terribly important. One day, for whatever reason, you just have to dump that big purse out and there lies this pile of junk. You start picking through it, and assembling it into what you hope will be a statement of your life's great themes. That's how it was for me. It probably wasn't until midway through the writing that I had a grasp of the central question: What are the many ways, sometimes hidden and underground ways, that people help themselves and each other survive hard times?"

Book Club Discussion Night: 4 November 2010

Discussion Leader: Marci Hansen

Host: Jeri Egbert

Reading Guide: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_B/bean_trees1.asp

The Help

Title: The Help
Author: Kathryn Stockett
Genre: Historical Fiction, African American Fiction

 Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:

Summary: Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women-mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends-view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

Click here to listen to Kathryn Stockett discuss The Help, and discover the story behind the novel.

Book Club Discussion Night: 21 Oct 2010

Discussion Leader: Lee Urling

Host: Tammy Hender

Reading Guide: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_h/the_help1.asp