March 7, 2024
205 East Main
Marcellus, Michigan 49067
Phone: 269-646-9654
Fax: 2269-646-9603
Email: marcellusmichiganlibrary@gmail.com
Website: www.marcellus.michlibrary.org
MeLCat website: https://mel.org/welcome
First Thursday Book Club Meeting Minutes
March 7, 2024
The Marcellus Township Wood Memorial Library’s First Thursday Book Club met on Thursday, March 7, 2024 from 12 NOON to 1:00 PM in the library with seven members in attendance.
The library is offering the following opportunity for interested readers:
Since 2007, the Great Michigan Read—Michigan Humanities’ signature program—has bridged communities across the state with Michigan-based fiction and non-fiction titles that spark dialogue among diverse perspectives, encourage a deeper understanding of the humanities, and connect thousands of readers with authors and engaging educational programming. The 2023-2024 title—selected by seven regional selection committees representing all corners of Michigan—is Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley.
This author’s debut novel is a captivating and powerful story that explores complex themes such as identity, family, community, and justice. The novel follows the journey of 18 year old Daunis Fontaine, a biracial tribal member, as she navigates the challenges of her dual identity, the trauma of losing loved ones, and the pressure of being a bridge between two cultures. The novel is beautifully written and well
researched, drawing on Boulley’s own experiences. It provides a rare and insightful glimpse into the complexities and diversity of indigenous communities and their struggles to maintain their traditions and sovereignty in the face of colonization, exploitation, and discrimination. Through Great Michigan Read events and conversations, Firekeeper’s Daughter will help readers understand how the conflicts of the past have shaped indigenous cultures and their commitment to move forward today.
The Marcellus Township Wood Memorial Library will be hosting a group discussion regarding the book Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley on Wednesday, April 10 at 6:00 PM. Join us for a community discussion about this book. The library has PLENTY of books to go around, so please check one out and join the book chat. Light refreshments will be available!
In addition, Great Michigan Read in partnership with Portage Communiteen Read is hosting An Evening with Author Angeline Boulley on April 16 from 6:30 PM until 8:00 PM at the Portage Zhang Senior Center, 203 East Centre Avenue, Portage, Michigan. Participants will have the opportunity to meet author Angeline Boulley for a conversation about her book! The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP and tickets can be obtained at the link below:
RSVP and Ticket Link for An Evening with Author Angeline Boulley in Portage, MI, April 16, 2024
The Marcellus Township Wood Memorial Library’s First Thursday Book Club meeting minutes are published in “files” on the Marcellus Twp Library Book Club Facebook site. If you have not already joined this site, please do!
This month, note that a literary quiz can be found at the end of these meeting minutes. Readers have been given the opening lines of 10 well known books and are being asked to match these beginning sentences with their respective books. For example, Charles Dickens book A Tale of Two Cities begins with: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” We’ve included 10 opening lines and 10 well known books in this month’s quiz. Follow the instructions on the quiz. Send your responses to marcellusmichiganlibrary@gmail.com. The first respondent with the correct answers will win this month’s prize—a lovely jar of local honey.
Title and Author: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter (contributor)
Description: Vicki Myron was a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm and an alcoholic husband. But her biggest challenge as the new head librarian in Spencer, Iowa, was to raise the spirits of a small, out-of-the-way town mired deep in the farm crisis of the 1980s. Then, on the coldest morning of the year, Vicki found a tiny, bedraggled kitten almost frozen to death in the night drop box, and her life— and the town of Spencer—was never the same. Dewey, as the townspeople named the kitten, grew into a strutting, affable library cat whose antics kept patrons in stitches, and whose sixth sense about those in need created hundreds of deep and loving friendships. As his fame grew, people drove hundreds of miles to meet Dewey, and he even ended up in a hit television documentary…in Japan! Through it all, Dewey remained a loyal companion, a beacon of hope not just for Vicki Myron, but for the entire town of Spencer as it slowly, steadily pulled itself up from the worst financial crisis in its long history.
Genre: Adult non-fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book
MeLCat: Book; audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): This book begins with a tiny kitten being dropped into a library’s drop box. The outgoing kitten with its cute antics then becomes a permanent resident of the library. This is a heartwarming story and a fast read. The book highlights a small town’s struggles and the difficulties navigating a bureaucracy. That this cat resides in a public library becomes a worldwide story even prior to the advent of social media platforms. In fact, a Japanese documentary was produced regarding the library cat.
Title and Author: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Description: Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .
Genre: Adult fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book; Overdrive audiobook & eBook
MeLCat: Book; audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): This book is filled with quirky characters. The main character, Eleanor, has experienced childhood trauma that has significantly impacted how she has lived her life…that is until she meets the right people and these people in her sphere help her overcome and blossom.
Title and Author: From Scratch by Tembi Locke
Description: From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home is a poignant and transformative cross-cultural love story set against the backdrop of the Sicilian countryside, about how one woman discovered the healing powers of food, family and unexpected grace in her darkest hour. An incredible journey through Tembi’s life, the book tracks her relationship with her late husband, Saro through three summers spent in the Sicilian countryside. In this sweeping story, we see Tembi and Saro’s initial introduction on the streets of Florence, Italy, their move to Los Angeles as they forge a life together despite disapproval from Saro’s traditional Sicilian parents, and the rare illness that upends everything they thought they knew about family and forgiveness. Ultimately, Tembi’s tribulations lead her back to the Sicilian countryside and her mother-in-law’s table, where with the healing gifts of simple fresh food, the embrace of a close-knit community, and the power of enduring love, she finds the strength to step into a new life. Complete with 16 recipes drawn from Tembi and Saro’s culinary adventures, From Scratch is a stunning debut for anyone who has dared to reach for big love and fight for what matters most.
Genre: Adult non-fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book; Overdrive audiobook & eBook
MeLCat: Book; audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): This book was also made into a Netflix movie. The patron commenting about this book told the group that this may be the most beautiful love story ever written. Tembi’s husband dies, and as she goes through the grieving process, she finds her deceased husband’s family, community, and food, realizing how much she loved her husband and that his family will help her overcome her grief. An excellent book.
Title and Author: The Lonely Hearts Book Club: A Novel by Lucy Gilmore
Description: A young librarian and an old curmudgeon forge the unlikeliest of friendships in this charming, feel-good novel about one misfit book club and the lives (and loves) it changed along the way. Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely…but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane's day that when Arthur doesn't show up one morning, she's instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another. Anxious, Sloane tracks the old man down only to discover him all but bedridden...and desperately struggling to hide how happy he is to see her. Wanting to bring more cheer into Arthur's gloomy life, Sloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowly, the lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each other, and in their book club, find the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns out, everyone has a special book in their heart—and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages. Books have a way of bringing even the loneliest of souls together...
Genre: Adult non-fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book
MeLCat: Book; audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): The book club member reviewing this book enjoyed it. The book emphasizes that connections with people can mean in one’s life and that acceptance of others can and will help expand one’s own friendship horizons. This was a quick read.
Title and Author: The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
Description: The riveting story of a young Black musician who discovers that his old family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius: when it’s stolen on the eve of the world’s most prestigious classical music competition, he risks everything to get it back. Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music. When he discovers that his beat-up, family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach, and together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Without it, Ray feels like he's lost a piece of himself. As the competition approaches, Ray must not only reclaim his precious violin, but prove to himself—and the world—that no matter the outcome, there has always been a truly great musician within him.
Genre: Adult fiction-mystery
Availability:
In Library: Book; Overdrive eBook
MeLCat: Book
Club member comment(s): This book was described as an easy read. It’s a mystery about a Black violinist whose Stradivarius goes missing on the eve of an important music competition. The book offers a history of the American south and reveals the inherent racism of the world of classical music during that time period. Music is definitely a theme and now much music means to the main character.
Title and Author: First Lie Wins: A Novel by Ashley Elston
Description: Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist. The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time. Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to—her real identity—just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge...
Genre: Adult fiction—mystery, thriller
Availability:
In Library: Overdrive audiobook & eBook
MeLCat: Book
Club member comment(s): Conspiracy is the theme of this book. The club member reviewing the book told the group it was a fast, fun read.
Title and Author: People of the Book: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks
Description: In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation. In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city’s rising anti-Semitism. In inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it from burning. In Barcelona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah’s extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna’s investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love. Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is at once a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity, an ambitious, electrifying work by an acclaimed and beloved author.
Genre: Adult fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book; Overdrive audiobook
MeLCat: Book; audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): A complex book with many characters and geographical locations.
Title and Author: Dark Storm (South Shores Series #6) by Karen Harper
Description: There are some forces you can’t outrun… Forensic psychologist Claire Markwood has experienced her share of disaster. But nothing could prepare her for her sister, Darcy, going missing. Claire rushes to the butterfly sanctuary where Darcy has been working, prepared to do what she does best— work the clues. But her sister, along with her car and some of the sanctuary’s rarest species of butterflies, has seemingly vanished without a trace. Amid a flurry of mysterious leads and dead ends, Claire and her criminal lawyer husband, Nick, tap every resource at their disposal. But the deeper they dig, the more unsettling the case becomes, dredging up old family secrets that shake the foundation of everything Claire thought to be true. Because some secrets aren’t just threatening—they’re deadly.
Genre: Adult fiction—romantic suspense
Availability:
In Library: Not available
MeLCat: Book
Club member comment(s): This book’s main characters include a forensic psychologist married to an attorney. The club member reviewing this book indicated that many, many characters were introduced immediately which became confusing. There were also a number of side stories and characters that were thoroughly explored but had little to contribute to the main plot. This book received a “thumbs down” from the club member reviewing it.
Title and Author: The Secret (Jack Reacher #28) by Lee Child and Andrew Child
Description: 1992. All across the United States respectable, upstanding citizens are showing up dead. These deaths could be accidents, and they don’t appear to be connected—until a fatal fall from a high floor window attracts some unexpected attention. That attention comes from the Secretary of Defense. All of a sudden he wants an interagency task force to investigate. He wants Jack Reacher as the army’s representative. If Reacher gets a result, great. If not, he’s a convenient fall guy. But office politics aren’t Reacher’s thing. Three questions quickly emerge—who’s with him, who’s against him, and will the justice he dispenses be the official kind...or his own kind?
Genre: Adult fiction--thriller
Availability:
In Library: Large print book; Overdrive audiobook & eBook
MeLCat: Book; audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): This was a good and enjoyable read!
Title and Author: Friction: A Novel by Sandra Brown
Description: Crawford Hunt wants his daughter back. Following the death of his wife four years ago, Crawford, a Texas Ranger, fell into a downward spiral that left him doing deskwork and his five-year-old daughter Georgia in the custody of her grandparents. But Crawford has cleaned up his act, met all the court imposed requirements, and now the fate of his family lies with Judge Holly Spencer. Holly, an ambitious and confident judge, temporarily occupies the bench of her recently deceased mentor. With an election upcoming, she must prove herself worthy of making her judgeship permanent. Every decision is high-stakes. Despite Crawford’s obvious love for his child and his commitment to being an ideal parent, Holly is wary of his checkered past. Her opinion of him is radically changed when a masked gunman barges into the courtroom during the custody hearing. Crawford reacts instinctually, saving Holly from a bullet. But his heroism soon takes on the taint of recklessness. The cloud over him grows even darker after he uncovers a horrifying truth about the courtroom gunman and realizes that the unknown person behind the shooting remains at large . . .and a threat. Catching the real culprit becomes a personal fight for Crawford. But pursuing the killer in his customary diehard fashion will jeopardize his chances of gaining custody of his daughter, and further compromise Judge Holly Spencer, who needs protection not only from an assassin, but from Crawford himself and the forbidden attraction between them.
Genre: Adult fiction—romantic suspense
Availability:
In Library: Book; Overdrive audiobook & eBook
MeLCat: Book; audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): This book was “okay.”
Title and Author: Coiled Pine Needle Basketry Stitch List: A Step-by-Step Guide to 24 Common Stitches by Nancy McKeown
Description: This Stitch List of step-by-step instructions with meticulously detailed illustrations covers 24 of the basic stitches commonly used in pine needle basketry today. The list is further expanded from the basics to include more complex stitches, and some of the combinations that can create intricate patterns in pine needle works. Each stitch gets a two-page, full-color spread so that all the information about that stitch is visible at once. This compilation of coiled pine needle basketry stitches is an ideal resource and essential reference for beginners, seasoned coilers, and teachers as well.
Part 1: Overview includes a visual stitch list, information about tools and materials, and general tips & techniques
Part 2: Getting Started explores a number of ways to begin a pine needle basket, demonstrating a variety of “starts”
Part 3: Stitches is all about each of the 24 stitches covered
Part 4: Resources includes a list of suppliers, a glossary of terms, and a bibliography rich with further reference material and online links
Genre: Adult non-fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book
MeLCat: Not available.
Club member comment(s): The club member reviewing this book indicated that she has done coiled needle basketry. The group discussed how to complete a project using pine needles and where to obtain pine needles long enough for weaving.
Title and Author: Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Description: The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of
herself the client needs. Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he’s the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job. Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?
Genre: Adult fiction--romance
Availability:
In Library: Book; Overdrive audiobook & eBook
MeLCat: Book
Club member comment(s): The club member reviewing this book told the group that it was a fun read but that chapters 19-21 should be x-rated, and she wasn’t aware of this before starting the book.
Title and Author: Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon by Iris Apfel
Description: A unique and lavishly illustrated collection of musings, anecdotes, and observations on all matters of life and style, infused with the singular candor, wit, and exuberance of the globally revered ninety-six-year-old fashion icon whose work has been celebrated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and by countless fans worldwide. A woman who transcends time and trends, Iris Apfel is a true original, one of the most dynamic personalities in the worlds of fashion, textiles, and interior design. As the cofounder with her husband, Carl Apfel, of Old World Weavers, an international textile manufacturing company that specialized in reproducing antique fabrics, her prestigious clientele has included Greta Garbo, Estee Lauder, Montgomery Clift, and Joan Rivers. She also acted as a restoration consultant and replicated fabric for the White House over nine presidential administrations. Iris’s travels worldwide and a passion for flea markets of all sorts inspired her work and fueled her passion for collecting fashion and accessories. Now, this self-dubbed geriatric starlet, whose irrepressible authenticity, wit, candor, and infectious energy have earned her nearly a million followers on social media, has created an entertaining, thought-provoking, visually arresting, and inspiring volume—her first book—that captures her unique joie de vivre. Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon, contains an eclectic mix of musings and 180 full-color and black-and-white photos and illustrations—presented in the same improvisational, multifaceted style that have made Iris a contemporary fashion icon. Astute maxims, witty anecdotes from childhood to the present, essays on style and various subjects, from the decline of manners to the importance of taking risks, fill the book as do lists, both proclamatory, revelatory, and advisory. All are paired with a bold, color filled, exciting design that varies from page to page. Here, too, is a treasure trove of never-before published personal photographs and mementos, mixed with images from top international fashion photographers and illustrators with enchanting, surprising novelties such as Disney cartoons, vintage postcards, the Iris Apfel Halloween costume for children, and more.
Genre: Adult non-fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book
MeLCat: Book
Club member comment(s): The author of this book died recently and was known during her life for her flamboyant sense of style. Her clothing is showcased at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She made textiles, and some of these can be found in the White House. This vibrant woman was full of life and often said that she never wanted to let getting old get in her way. She realized that she was not particularly beautiful but that she had a keen sense of style, reminding others that getting old is a given but that doesn’t mean that one has to get boring as one ages. The club member reviewing this book said she admired the author for what she was—not afraid to put herself out there.
Title and Author: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice or, on the Segregation of the Queen: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, Book 1 by Laurie R. King
Description: In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees in Sussex when a young woman literally stumbles onto him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern, twentieth-century woman proves a deft protégée and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. They are soon called to Wales to help Scotland Yard find the kidnapped daughter of an American senator, a case of international significance with clues that dip deep into Holmes's past. Full of brilliant deduction, disguises, and danger, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, the first book of the Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes mysteries, is "remarkably beguiling.”
Genre: Adult historical fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available
MeLCat: Book; audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): The club member reviewing this book recently reread it. The book is about Sherlock Holmes and a young Mary Russell. Sherlock, retired, is learning about bees and Mary is his apprentice. The book is interesting and very well written.
Title and Author: The Waters: A Novel by Bonne Jo Campbell
Description: A master of rural noir returns with a fierce, mesmerizing novel about exceptional women and the soul of a small town. On an island in the Great Massasauga Swamp—an area known as “The Waters” to the residents of nearby Whiteheart, Michigan—herbalist and eccentric Hermine “Herself” Zook has healed the local women of their ailments for generations. As stubborn as her tonics are powerful, Herself inspires reverence and fear in the people of Whiteheart, and even in her own three estranged daughters. The youngest—the beautiful, inscrutable, and lazy Rose Thorn—has left her own daughter, eleven-year-old Dorothy “Donkey” Zook, to grow up wild. Donkey spends her days searching for truths in the lush landscape and in her math books, waiting for her wayward mother and longing for a father, unaware that family secrets, passionate love, and violent men will flood through the swamp and upend her idyllic childhood. Rage simmers below the surface of this divided community, and those on both sides of the divide have closed their doors against the enemy. The only bridge across the waters is Rose Thorn. With a “ruthless and precise eye for the details of the physical world” (Jane Smiley, New York Times Book Review), Bonnie Jo Campbell presents an elegant antidote to the dark side of masculinity, celebrating the resilience of nature and the brutality and sweetness of rural life.
Genre: Adult fiction--mystery
Availability:
In Library: Book; Overdrive eBook
MeLCat: Book; audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): Written by a local Portage, MI, author, this book revolves around the lives of three women. The author is gifted at painting pictures with her words.
Title and Author: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
Description: From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class. Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck. The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history. A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.
Genre: Adult non-fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book; Overdrive audiobook
MeLCat: Book; audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): Interesting book written by a now US Senator. The author explains why the leaving this part of America is difficult.
Title and Author: Searching for Tina Turner by Jacqueline E. Luckett
Description: Drawing strength from Tina Turner's life story, Searching for Tina Turner is Lena's struggle to find herself after 25 years of being a wife and mother. On the surface, Lena Spencer appears to have it all. She and her wealthy husband Randall have two wonderful children, and they live a life of luxury. In reality, however, Lena finds that happiness is elusive. Randall is emotionally distant, her son has developed a drug habit, and her daughter is disgusted by her mother's "overbearing behavior." When Randall decides that he's had enough of marriage counseling, he offers his wife an ultimatum: "Be grateful for all I've done for you or leave." Lena, realizing that money can't solve her problems and that her husband is no longer the man she married, decides to choose the latter.
Genre: Adult fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available
MeLCat: Book
Club member comment(s): A fun, fast paced book about a woman experiencing a mid-life crisis.
Title and Author: The Firekeeper’s Daughter (Sugar Island series-Book 1) by Angeline Boulley
Description: Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug. Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims. Now, as the deceptions — and deaths — keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.
Genre: Young adult fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book; Overdrive audiobook & eBook
MeLCat: Book; Spanish book; Audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): A well written and interesting book that the reader told the group was different than she thought it would be. Recommended to the other readers in the group.
Title and Author: Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival by Velma Wallis
Description: Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River Valley in Alaska, this is the suspenseful, shocking, ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine. Though these women have been known to complain more than contribute, they now must either survive on their own or die trying. In simple but vivid detail, Velma Wallis depicts a landscape and way of life that are at once merciless and starkly beautiful. In her old women, she has created two heroines of steely determination whose story of betrayal, friendship, community, and forgiveness "speaks straight to the heart with clarity, sweetness, and wisdom"
Genre: Adult fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available
MeLCat: Book
Club member comment(s): Excellent book highlighting the value of older adults in society and the dangers of ageism.
Title and Author: Daphne's Diary Magazine #1 2023 (ENGLISH) | Creative Art Craft Workbook | Interactive Diary Magazine for Mindfulness, Coloring, Art, Cooking, Travel | Full of Creative Inspirations and Sweet Articles by Daphne Diary
Description: Daphne’s Diary is a diary in the form of a magazine. Daphne invites you into her creative world of homes and gardens, cooking, travel, crafts and shopping. She writes about what she gets up to – experiences that readers can identify with and which form a source of inspiration. Each edition of Daphne’s Diary is a surprise. This diary magazine is produced from four types of paper and includes extra items, such as stickers, cards and things to fold, stick and cut out yourself. Our magazine is distributed in Dutch in the Netherlands and Belgium, in German in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, in English in the UK, Ireland, Iceland, South Africa, Sweden, US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Japan. We publish a creative journal every year, in the same style as the magazine. There is also a Daphne’s Diary birthday calendar, magazine holder, gift box, labels, cards, writing paper, envelopes etc. -
Genre: Adult non-fiction
Availability
In Library: Not available
MeLCat: Not available
Club member comment(s): Beautifully illustrated diary magazine that the reader picked up at a local consignment shop.
Title and Author: The French War Bride by Robin Wells
Description: World War II Paris serves as the backdrop of a story of compassion, betrayal, and forgiveness from the national bestselling author of The Wedding Tree. "I never knew what he saw in you." At her assisted living center in Wedding Tree, Louisiana, ninety-three-year-old Amelie O'Connor is in the habit of leaving her door open for friends. One day she receives an unexpected visitor--Kat Thompson, the ex fiancee of her late husband, Jack. Kat and Jack were high school sweethearts who planned to marry when Jack returned from France after World War II. But in a cruel twist of fate, their plans were irrevocably derailed when a desperate French girl overheard an American officer's confession in a Parisian church. Now Kat wants to know the truth behind a story that's haunted her whole life. Finding out how Amelie stole Jack's heart will--she thinks--finally bring her peace. As Amelie recalls the dark days of the Nazi occupation of Paris, The French War Bride reveals how history shapes the courses of our lives for better or for worse.
Genre: Adult historical fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available
MeLCat: Book; audiobook (CDs)
Club member comment(s): Set in France during WW2, this book explores the life of a group of young people and particularly one young woman as they attempt to survive the German occupation of their country. The book explores the moral ambiguities of war. How far would or should one go to protect those they love and serve ones country?
Title and Author: The Women of the Copper Country: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell
Description: In July 1913, twenty-five-year-old Annie Clements has seen enough of the world to know that it’s unfair. She’s spent her whole life in the mining town of Calumet, Michigan, where men risk their lives for meager salaries—and have barely enough to put food on the table for their families. The women labor in the houses of the elite, and send their husbands and sons deep underground each day, dreading the fateful call of the company man telling them their loved ones aren’t coming home. So, when Annie decides to stand up for the entire town of Calumet, nearly everyone believes she may have taken on more than she is prepared to handle. Yet as Annie struggles to improve the future of her town, her husband becomes increasingly frustrated with her growing independence. She faces the threat of prison while also discovering a forbidden love. On her fierce quest for justice, Annie will see just how much she is willing to sacrifice for the families of Calumet.
Genre: Adult historical fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book
MeLCat: Book; audiobook
Club member comment(s): The reader told the group that she did not finish this book because of its heavy emphasis on unions and the function of unions.
The next meeting of the Marcellus Township Wood Memorial Library’s First Thursday Book Club will be held on Thursday, April 4, 2024, at 12 NOON in the library. We look forward to seeing you here!
Tammy Terpstra
Interlibrary Loan Specialist/Library Assistant
Marcellus Township Wood Memorial Library
Instructions: Each of the sentences below are opening lines of one of the book titles listed below. Match each of these opening lines with the appropriate book title below by placing the number before the opening lines next to its matching book title below. Send your responses to marcellusmichiganlibrary@gmail.com. The first respondent with the correct answers will win this month’s prize—a jar of local honey!
Opening lines of well-known books:
- “Here is a small fact: You are going to die.”
- “All this happened, more or less.”
- “It was a queer, sultry summer; the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”
- “Happy families are all alike; unhappy families are all unhappy in their own way.”
- “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
- “My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”
- “This is the story of a man named Eddie and it starts at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It may seem strange to start a story with an ending, but all endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.”
- “At dusk they pour from the sky. They blow across the ramparts, turn cartwheels over rooftops, flutter into ravines between houses. Entire streets swirl with them, flashing white against the cobbles. Urgent message to the inhabitants of this town, they say: Depart immediately to open country.”
- “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children.” 10. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
Well known books that begin with one of the opening lines above:
______The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
______All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
______Beloved by Toni Morrison
______1984 by George Orwell
______The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
______The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
______Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
______The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
______Slaughterhouse Five: A Novel by Kurt Vonnegut
______Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
