Category Archives: Great Reads

From Sue Kirchen Betts:  I  recently read La Rose by Louise Erdrich which I found fascinating, two families sharing a son. I also read For the Benefit of Those Who See,  by Rosemary Mahoney (2014) which helped me understand how people who are blind manage so well with listening to the human voice. 

I find it impossible to keep up with all your book suggestions, to say nothing of keeping up with the reading.  I read slowly, so I am amazed at how much some of you can get through.  Here are some recommendations from the last few months (note that some don’t include the author.) 

• Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger (Barbara Douglass)
• Just Mercy,
• Ghettoside,by Jill Leovy
• In the Country, by Mia Alvar, short stories about the Philippines and Filipinos in the global labor force
• The Museum of Extraordinary Things, by Alice Hoffman
• When the Moon is Low, by Nadia Hashimi, about an Afghani family’s  trek as refugees through Asia and Europe to get to England 
• They Don’t Mean to But they Do, by Catherine Schine – a lighter book about aging in New York and family relations. 
• We Do Our Part ,by Charles Peters. A comparison of the the can-do, generous
  spirit of the 30s, 40s, and 50s to the selfish, personal gain attitude of
  the present day. It would make an excellent discussion book. (Sue Carr)
• Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande
• The Circle by Dave Eggers
• Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng

Judy Kennedy always writes the most interesting synopses of the books she’s read.  Because I hate anything to do with zombies, and think I wouldn’t consider a book about zombies, her description here grabbed my attention and made me stop to think.  Thanks, Judy, for your enthusiasm and willingness to share with us.

“Right now, I’m about 2/3rds through WORLD WAR Z:  AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE ZOMBIE WAR by Max Brooks, my book club’s selection for February and recommended by one of our most thoughtful younger members (in her thirties I’d say) who has been trying to get us to read this for over a year.  Lots of resistance from the more traditional older members of the group until a couple of us said “Okay, enough with dysfunctional families, let’s try something really outside our normal comfort read — afterall isn’t that what book clubs really are all about” — and the rest “bit” (pun intended).  And, I for one, am so intrigued that I can hardly wait to get home at night to read more.  It’s something of a slow starter because you need to get a little used to the idea of it all — i.e that there really was a Zombie War  in our time (following the two Great Wars, the Korean War, Vietnam, and the Middle East engagements of recent times) when the “living dead” rose up, multiplied (they only had to bite someone else to create another Ghoul), and threatened the entire world as we know it with extinction.  The book is told retrospectively through a hundred or so interviews of people who lived through it, reacted to it, either influenced the outcome or didn’t based on their own background and culture, from every country in the world.  This really isn’t about zombies of course (there’s really nothing to learn about a zombie);  it’s about fear and what it does to individuals and societies and their value systems –and makes you think about what it does and might do to you and to us and our country and world.  (As my young colleague said to the rest of us, “if you aren’t into zombies, just replace them in your mind as you read the book with the embola virus.”  It was that comment that final got the more conservative of our members to agree to make the book our Feb selection).

Carol Benson sent this summary of what’s buzzing in the chat group.  Thanks, Carol.

1. “Everybody’s Fool” by Richard Russo
2. “Sing for Your Life” by Daniel Bergner
3. “Do Not Say We Have Nothing” by Madeleine Thien
4. “In the Country “ by Mia Alvar
5. “When the Moon is Low” by Nadia Hashimi
6. Sherlocke Holmes mysteries – Laurie King

October 25, 2016, from Judy Kennedy:   Ann Padgett’s new novel, Commonwealth.  Barb Douglas and I both just finished this and loved it.   If you’re a fan of hers (BEL CANTO, RUN, etc.), don’t miss this one.  Only occasionally when I finish a book do I want to turn back to page 1 and start again immediately — this was one of those times!  A fascinating study of two families that become one, over a fifty year period

Not to ignore the current discussion about MHC’s 3-year term president, or the political situation in the country…I’ve read so many good books recently that I couldn’t resist … I had to tell you about them. So here are some suggestions for good summer reading. Coincidentally, three of them take place during the Blitz in London, which ties in with Citizens of London that was reviewed at reunion…

Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans

Noel a 10-yr old orphan, lives very happily with his godmother Mattie.  Noel is a bit odd, brainy, and has little in common with children his age.  The two were sympatico on all issues. Unfortunately, she becomes senile, wanders off and dies.

Most of London’s children are evacuated to the countryside as war comes closer, as is Noel. He is placed with Vera Sedge, a horse of a different color from Mattie. She is a desperate woman, who is trying to survive by any method possible.

Evans paints a realistic and humorous picture of war-time Britain with its indignities, pettiness and multiple levels of dishonorable conduct. A very “good read” plus much more.

The War That Saved My Llife by Kimberly Bradley (for older children)

Ada was born with a club foot. Her mother mistreated her terribly. When word spread that London would be bombed by the Germans, and that children would be evacuated to the country, Ada realized that this was her chance to escape from an unbearable life. She talked Jamie, her younger brother, into escaping with her and they snuck onto the train, leaving London. Of course, their names were not on the list, so there was no one to pick them up. But the warden talked a very reluctant “Miss Smith” into taking them in.

This is a wonderful story of grit and determination. You may not be interested in reading a book written for children but this is indeed a great story.

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave   (Cleave is the author of Little Bee.)

Although The Light We Cannot See is still in first place for fiction I’ve read in the last few years…this comes pretty close. Everyone Brave is Forgiven covers the years from 1939 to 1942. Germany has invaded Poland. Great Britain declares war on Germany. Mary leaves her finishing school immediately for the War Office – to sign up to be a spy. Tom decides to stay put. But his roommate, Alistair, signs up. The three are thrown together, and both Tom and Alistair fall in love with Mary. Here is a heart-wrenching love story set in the midst of an over-whelming battle field.There was so much to the novel – the characterizations, the surprising racism, the different levels of society, the unknown history. But the conversations stood out for me. Cleave is relentless with his clever twists and turns.

Don’t miss this one.

Two weeks ago, I was loaned two books that couldn’t be more different…It Can’t Happen Here (1935) by Sinclair Lewis and Sir Henry (1955) by Robert Nathan. The first is written as a result of the concern of a fascist take-over in Europe (1930s). As worry about bizarre things happening in our own government increase, this book is particularly appropriate. The old fashioned style turned me off and so I didn’t actually read much of it, but it rang a bell. Juxtaposed with it was Nathan’s Sir Henry. This is so quietly humorous, I loved it. Since A Portrait of Jennie, I’ve been a Nathan fan. Sir Henry tells of the exploits of a knight-errant in England, slaying dragons, et al. A wonderful anti-dote to thinking about our world situation. It’s delightful!

What are you reading?

Sue Wheatley Carr

Compiled by Carol Benson from chat group emails after reunion.  Thanks, Carol:

“Mayflower” by Nathaniel Philbrick
“The All-Girls Filling Station’s Last Reunion” by Fannie Flagg
“When Everything Changed” by Gail Collins
“Not my Father’s Son” by Alan Cummings
“The Girl Who Loved Baseball” by Stephen King
“November 22, 1963” by Stephen King
“The Green Mile” by Stephen King
“Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nahisi Coates
“Ghettoside” by Jill Leowy
“The Turner House” by Angela Floury
“Dead Wake:  the Last Crossing of the Lusitania” by Erik Larson
“In the Garden of the Beasts” by Erik Larson

And a P.S. from Rocki:  “Still hoping to find someone who has read my favorite snarky lit mystery whimsy— ‘The Eyre Affair’ by Jasper Fforde, which features female Special Ops Literary Detective Thursday Next fighting the bad guys in a literary-centered Great Britain of the future.  It is great fun for book groups, sending up sci fi, literary pretense, and I don’t know what all!  Somebody please try it!  First of a series.”
—Rocki Hill Hughes

Compiled by Judy Kennedy for everyone who wants to read the Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series of books:

1. Still Life
2. A Fatal Grace
3. The Cruelist Month
4. A Rule Against Murder
5. The Brutal Telling
6. Bury Your Dead
7. A Trick of the Light
8. The Beautiful Mystery
9. How the Light Gets In
10. The Longest Way Home
11. The Nature of the Beast
12. A Great Reckoning

From Dee:  “I like Louise Penny, too. Her mysteries have gotten darker and more substantial over the years, but they still have a great sense of French Canada, just north of our Vermont place, and enjoyable characters.”

From Dee Abrahamse:  Our book group is considering for an upcoming meeting:
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J .D. Vance
The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth
It Can’t Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis
The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead (A portion of this novel was excerpted in The Sunday NYTimes on August 14)
White Trash, by Nancy Isenberg (history of class in America)

Has anyone read any of them?”