July Book Club

The Glass Castle: A Memoir

Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubbornnonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose MaryWalls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving amongSouthwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic,brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teachingthem physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. RoseMary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providingfor her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a mealthat would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make apainting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wanderinglife faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- andthe family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. Hestole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of thefamily escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend forthemselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayalsand, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that shehad the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describesher parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumphagainst all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in afamily that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination tocarve out a successful life on her own terms.

For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells herown story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and LongIsland and is married to the writer John Taylor.

June 7th Book Club - Cherie

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Book Description

Publication Date: August 23, 2011

A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.

Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what’s been missing in her life, and when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.

BONUS: This edition contains The Language of Flowers discussion questions.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Thursday May 10th Book Club - Dana

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

Publication Date: April 3, 2012

Book Description

Grace Winter, 22, is both a newlywed and a widow. She is also on trial for her life.

In the summer of 1914, the elegant ocean liner carrying her and her husband Henry across the Atlantic suffers a mysterious explosion. Setting aside his own safety, Henry secures Grace a place in a lifeboat, which the survivors quickly realize is over capacity. For any to live, some must die.

As the castaways battle the elements, and each other, Grace recollects the unorthodox way she and Henry met, and the new life of privilege she thought she'd found. Will she pay any price to keep it?

The Lifeboat is a page-turning novel of hard choices and survival, narrated by a woman as unforgettable and complex as the events she describes.

Review

"Charlotte Rogan uses a deceptively simply narrative of shipwreck and survival to explore our all-too-human capacity for self-deception." (J. M. Coetzee )

"The Lifeboat traps the reader in a story that is exciting at the literal level and brutally moving at the existential: I read it in one go." (Emma Donoghue, author of Room )

"What a splendid book. . . . I can't imagine any reader who looks at the opening pages wanting to put the book down. . . . It's so refreshing to read a book that is ambitious and yet not tricksy, where the author seems to be in command of her material and really on top of her game. It's beautifully controlled and totally believable." (Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall )

"The Lifeboat is a spellbinding and beautifully written novel, one that will keep readers turning pages late into the night. This is storytelling at its best, and I was completely absorbed from beginning to end." (Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried, In the Lake of the Woods, July, July )

"The Lifeboat is a richly rewarding novel, psychologically acute and morally complex. It can and should be read on many levels, but it is first and foremost a harrowing tale of survival. And what an irresistible tale it is; terrifying, intense, and, like the ocean in which the shipwrecked characters are cast adrift, profound." (Valerie Martin, author of Property and The Confessions of Edward Day )

About the Author

Charlotte Rogan studied architecture at Princeton University, graduating in 1975. She lives in Westport, Connecticut. This is her first novel.

Upcoming Book Club Dates

April 12 -Kimbril
May 10 -Dana
June 7 -Cherie
July 12 -J.C.
August 9 -Denise
September 13 -Paula
October 11 - Amy Jones
November 8 - Amy Gall
December 13 -Malin

April 2012

April Kimbril May
April 12th at 7pm location TBA

50 Shades of Grey by E L James

Review -

My latest obsession is the Trilogy series – 50 Shades. The first book is called 50 Shades of Grey. Think of it as a cross between Beauty & the Beast and Twilight. It is a love story of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. The complex character of Christian is that you love him and hate him at the same time. He is an uber successful, alpha male with a dark and dominate side in his intimate relations. He meets and falls for innocent and virginal college student Anastasia. Read more: Book Club: 50 Shades of Grey Reviewhttp://947freshfm.radio.com/2012/03/05/bookclub-50-shades-of-grey-review/#ixzz1qzOCERRL

March 2012

March – Jennifer Malin

Friday, March 9th at 7pm Leroy Selmons

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, seven years in the making, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in her blockbuster bestseller, Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

February 2012

February – Amy Rossi Gall

Valley of the Dolls Book Club

Thursday Feb 9th 7PM Yummy House

Amazon.com Review

Sex and drugs and shlock and more--Jacqueline Susann's addictively entertaining trash classic about three showbiz girls clawing their way to the top and hitting bottom in New York City has it all. Though it's inspired by Susann's experience as a mid-century Broadway starlet who came heartbreakingly close to making it, but did not, and despite its reputation as THE roman á clef of the go-go 1960s, the novel turned out to be weirdly predictive of 1990s post-punk, post-feminist, post "riot grrrl" culture. Jackie Susann may not be a writer for the ages, but--alas!--she's still a writer for our times.