November 2, 2023
The Marcellus Township Wood Memorial Library’s First Thursday Book Club met on Thursday, November 2nd, 2023 from 12 NOON to 1:00 PM in the library with seven members present. Members enjoyed a variety of tasty goodies during this meeting and are always grateful to those opting to share their culinary talents with us!
Next month, our meeting will be in early December, the start of the holiday season. We’re going to celebrate the season by having a Cookie Exchange during our meeting. Cookie exchanges or swaps allow friends to tray a whole assortment of cookies without having to bake dozens of different kinds themselves. If you’d like to participate, bring in enough cookies for the members to sample and to ensure each club member has several of each type of cookie to take home. Please share your cookie recipes as well! If you’re not into baking, you can certainly bring in your favorite packaged or bakery made cookies because we’re not picky! And...don’t let the need to bring cookies prevent you from attending! We’re willing to share cookies with anyone joining us!
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!
Books discussed:
The links under each book discussed below will take you directly to the Marcellus Township Wood Memorial Library’s Catalog entry or the MeLCat entry for that particular book, large print book, CD audiobook, Libby audiobook, or Libby eBook.
Title and Author: Between the Flowers: A Novel by Harriette Simpson Arnow
Description: Between the Flowers is Harriette Simpson Arnow's second novel. Written in the late 1930s, but unpublished until 1997, this early work shows the development of social and cultural themes that would continue in Arnow's later work: the appeal of wandering and of modern life, the countervailing desire to stay within a traditional community, and the difficulties of communication between men and women in such a community. Between the Flowers goes far beyond categories of "local color," literary regionalism, or the agrarian novel, to the heart of human relationships in a modernized world. Arnow, who went on to write Hunter's Horn (1949) and The Dollmaker (1952)―her two most famous works―has continually been overlooked by critics as a regional writer. Ironically, it is her stinging realism that is seen as evidence of her realism, evidence that she is of the Cumberland―an area somehow more "regional" than others. Beginning with an edition of critical essays on her work in 1991 and a complete original edition of Hunter's Horn in 1997, the Michigan State University Press is pleased to continue its effort to make available the timeless insight of Arnow's work with the posthumous publication of Between the Flowers.
Genre: General fiction.
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb15436394
Club member comment(s): This book’s protagonist is an independent woman who wants more than what rural Kentucky in the early part of the 1900s could offer her. This was a great read and comes highly recommended by the club member sharing her perspectives with the others.
Title and Author: The Last Beekeeper: A Novel by Julie Dalton
Description: It’s been more than a decade since the world has come undone, and Sasha Severn has returned to her childhood home with one goal in mind―find the mythic research her father, the infamous Last Beekeeper, hid before he was incarcerated. There, Sasha is confronted with a group of squatters who have claimed the quiet, idyllic farm as their own. While she initially feels threatened, the group soon becomes her newfound family, offering what she hasn't felt since her father was imprisoned: security and hope. Maybe it's time to forget the family secrets buried on the farm and focus on her future. But just as she settles into her new life, Sasha witnesses the impossible. She sees a honey bee, presumed extinct. People who claim to see bees are ridiculed and silenced for reasons Sasha doesn't understand, but she can't shake the feeling that this impossible bee is connected to her father's missing research. Fighting to uncover the truth could shatter Sasha's fragile security and threaten the lives of her newfound family―or it could save them all. Julie Carrick Dalton's The Last Beekeeper is a celebration of found family, an exploration of truth versus power, and the triumph of hope in the face of despair. It is a meditation on forgiveness and redemption and a reminder to cherish the beauty that still exists in this fragile world.
Genre: Literary fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb43304193
Large Print Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb43382361
Club member comment(s): This is scifi/fantasy but is believable. Upon introduction, the book’s characters are 10 or 11 years old and bees are present in nature. As they age, bees are no longer present necessitating hand pollination, and the book explores the broader implications of the now missing bees. This book is well written, interesting, and is recommended to others.
Title and Author: The Lost Sisterhood: A Novel by Anne Fortier
Description: From the author of the New York Times bestseller Juliet comes a mesmerizing novel about a young scholar who risks her reputation—and her life—on a thrilling journey to prove that the legendary warrior women known as the Amazons actually existed. Oxford lecturer Diana Morgan is an expert on Greek mythology. Her obsession with the Amazons started in childhood when her eccentric grandmother claimed to be one herself—before vanishing without a trace. Diana’s colleagues shake their heads at her Amazon fixation. But then a mysterious, well-financed foundation makes Diana an offer she cannot refuse. Traveling to North Africa, Diana teams up with Nick Barran, an enigmatic Middle Eastern guide, and begins deciphering an unusual inscription on the wall of a recently unearthed temple. There she discovers the name of the first Amazon queen, Myrina, who crossed the Mediterranean in a heroic attempt to liberate her kidnapped sisters from Greek pirates, only to become embroiled in the most famous conflict of the ancient world—the Trojan War. Taking their cue from the inscription, Diana and Nick set out to find the fabled treasure that Myrina and her Amazon sisters salvaged from the embattled city of Troy so long ago. Diana doesn’t know the nature of the treasure, but she does know that someone is shadowing her, and that Nick has a sinister agenda of his own. With danger lurking at every turn, and unsure of whom to trust, Diana finds herself on a daring and dangerous quest for truth that will forever change her world. Sweeping from England to North Africa to Greece and the ruins of ancient Troy, and navigating between present and past, The Lost Sisterhood is a breathtaking, passionate adventure of two women on parallel journeys, separated by time, who must fight to keep the lives and legacy of the Amazons from being lost forever.
Genre: Historical fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb26370223
Audiobook: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb26851462
Club member comment(s): This is a romantic historical novel about an English woman who is left a brass arm bracelet and a strange letter which cause her to embark on a journey to discover if there are Amazon women left in the world. The book delves into the history of Amazon women and is action packed with violent and scary experiences softened by love affairs. The club member found the book enjoyable and attention grabbing.
Title and Author: Settled in the Wild: Notes from the Edge of Town by Susan Hand Shetterly
Description: Whether we live in cities, suburbs, or villages, we are encroaching on nature, and it in one way or another perseveres. Naturalist Susan Shetterly looks at how animals, humans, and plants share the land—observing her own neighborhood in rural Maine. She tells tales of the locals (humans, yes, but also snowshoe hares, raccoons, bobcats, turtles, salmon, ravens, hummingbirds, cormorants, sandpipers, and spring peepers). She expertly shows us how they all make their way in an ever-changing habitat. In writing about a displaced garter snake, witnessing the paving of a beloved dirt road, trapping a cricket with her young son, rescuing a fledgling raven, or the town's joy at the return of the alewife migration, Shetterly issues warnings even as she pays tribute to the resilience that abounds. Like the works of Annie Dillard and Aldo Leopold, Settled in the Wild takes a magnifying glass to the wildness that surrounds us. With keen perception and wit, Shetterly offers us an education in nature, one that should inspire us to preserve it.
Genre: Adult nonfiction
Availability:
In Library:
Book: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/147397514
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb17345186
Club member comment(s): The club member sharing her thoughts about this book described it as a journal about living in the wild. She considered it “okay.” The book was part of the “mystery date with a book” program the Library offered in October 2023. This was not a book that she would have normally picked to read.
Title and Author: Summer at the Garden Café: A Novel by Felicity Hayes McCoy
Description: The second in Felicity Hayes-McCoy's Finfarran Peninsula series, and sequel to The Library at the Edge of the World—a heartwarming story about secrets between four generations of Irish women, and the healing powers of books, love, and friendship. The Garden Café, next to Lissbeg library, is a place where plans are formed and secrets shared, and where, even in high tourist season, people are never too busy to stop for a sandwich and a cup of tea. But twenty-one-year-old Jazz—daughter of the town’s librarian Hanna Casey—has a secret she can’t share. Still recovering from a car accident, and reeling from her father’s disclosures about his long-time affair, she’s taken a job at The Old Forge guesthouse, and begun to develop feelings for a man who’s strictly off-limits. Meanwhile, involved in her own new affair with architect Brian Morton, Hanna is unaware of the turmoil in Jazz’s life—until her manipulative ex-husband, Malcom, reappears trying to mend his relationship with their daughter. Rebuffed at every turn, Malcolm must return to London, but his mother, Louisa, is on the case. Unbeknown to the rest of the family, she hatches a plan, finding an unlikely ally in Hanna’s mother, the opinionated Mary Casey. Watching Jazz unravel, Hanna begins to wonder if secrets which Malcolm has forced her to keep may have harmed their beloved daughter more than she’d realized. But then, the Casey women are no strangers to secrets, something Hanna realizes when she discovers a journal, long buried in land she inherited from her great-aunt Maggie. Ultimately, it’s the painful lessons of the past that offer a way to the future, but it will take the shared experiences of four generations of women to find a way forward for Hanna and her family.
Genre: Romance
Availability:
In Library:
Book: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/960120128
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb37813270
Large print book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb37662754
Audiobook: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb38305324
Club member comment(s): The second in Felicity Hayes-McCoy's Finfarran Peninsula series, and sequel to The Library at the Edge of the World. The club member reviewing this book selected it because she enjoyed the first book in the series. This book continues with the library theme and some of the same characters and was enjoyable as well.
Title and Author: You Have the Right to Remain Puzzled by Parnell Hall
Description: This is the 8th book of the Puzzle Lady Series by Hall. When Benny Southstreet, a small-time hustler with a big-time gift for constructing crosswords, accuses Cora of stealing one of his creations, it’s clearly a case of mistaken identity...until Cora’s own attorney files a plagiarism suit against her. To add to the enigma, when Benny is found dead, the police charge Cora with his murder! At the heart of the matter is the not-so-little white lie Cora has been living for years: assuming the grandmotherly public face of her publicity-shy niece Sherry, who designs crossword puzzles and publishes them under Cora’s name—aka the Puzzle Lady. It turns out that Sherry’s and Benny’s cruciverbalist paths had recently crossed, resulting in the current incriminating conundrum. As if Sherry’s wedding engagement jitters and a nasty battle over missing antique chairs weren’t enough to deal with, now Cora has to solve the ultimate mystery: how to keep the secret of her identity without losing her life. Because not only does all evidence point to Cora, but someone seems to want her dead. It looks like a riddle with no answer. Luckily for Cora and Sherry, that’s their favorite kind!
Genre: Cozy mystery
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb17628453
Large print book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb17384997
Club member comment(s): This book was described as a “quirky, quick read” about a “puzzle lady” who is known for writing puzzles but doesn’t really do this—her niece does. The “puzzle lady” enjoys solving crimes and is “Barney Fife like.” The club member found this book in her own library, opted to read it, and enjoyed it. A light hearted mystery.
Title and Author: Lights! Cameras! Puzzles! by Parnell Hall
Description: This is book 20 in the Puzzle Lady series. The new novel in the ever-popular mystery series finds the Puzzle Lady on the set of a movie about her own life—and when the first dead body shows up on set, it comes with a crossword puzzle. It’s murder on the movie set! It was no surprise when Cora Felton’s ex-husband’s sensational tell-all memoir, Confessions of a Trophy Husband: My Life with the Puzzle Lady, was optioned for the movies, but it certainly raised eyebrows when the Puzzle Lady herself signed on as an associate producer. Cora explained gamely that she hoped to have some control over the project. The truth was, she needed the money. Some of the more salacious details of the steamy bestseller had not sat well with Granville Grains, the breakfast cereal company for whom the Puzzle Lady appeared in national TV ads for schoolchildren, and they suspended the campaign. Sales of her popular Sudoku books also sagged, leaving Cora and her niece, Sherry, who actually constructs the crosswords, to live on the modest income from the Puzzle Lady crossword puzzle column. Now Cora is filming her life story on location in New York City, and things couldn’t be worse. She doesn’t like the script, she doesn’t like the director, and she absolutely hates the actress who is playing her in the movie. It’s almost a relief when the first dead body shows up on the set. If only it didn’t come with a crossword puzzle . . .
Genre: Cozy mystery
Availability:
In Library: Not available
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb37920800
Club member comment(s): Another of the “puzzle lady” series with murders left and right! This one was enjoyable as well.
Title and Author: The Measure: A Novel by Nikki Erlick
Description: A luminous, spirit-lifting blockbuster that asks: would you choose to find out the length of your life? Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice. It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live. From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise? As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge? The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything. Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is a sweeping, ambitious, and invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest.
Genre: Literary fiction
Availability:
In Library:
Libby audiobook: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/597672734
Libby e-Book: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/597709888
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb42798422
Audiobook: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb42920328
Club member comment(s): The eight characters in this book all have a box with their name on it delivered to their front door one day. The measure of each character’s life if in the box which contains a piece of string—some longer and some shorter—indicating how long that person would live. Some people opt to look in their boxes. Others do not. The fact that some people know how long they will live drives ethical questions such as whether those who are expected to have short lives should receive expensive medical treatments and/or who should receive governmental assistance. This is a well written and thought provoking story that prompted discussions in the club meeting about the ramifications of making decision about having genetic testing done to identify if one has a life limiting illness. This book was recommended to the others by the club member reviewing the book.
Title and Author: Habits of the House: A Novel by Fay Weldon
Description: This is book one in the Love & Inheritance Trilogy. As the Season of 1899 comes to an end, the world is poised on the brink of profound, irrevocable change. The Earl of Dilberne is facing serious financial concerns. The ripple effects spread to everyone in the household: Lord Robert, who has gambled unwisely on the stock market and seeks a place in the Cabinet; his unmarried children, Arthur, who keeps a courtesan, and Rosina, who keeps a parrot in her bedroom; Lord Robert's wife Isobel, who orders the affairs of the household in Belgrave Square; and Grace, the lady's maid who orders the life of her mistress. Lord Robert can see no financial relief to an already mortgaged estate, and, though the Season is over, his thoughts turn to securing a suitable wife (and dowry) for his son. The arrival on the London scene of Minnie, a beautiful Chicago heiress with a reputation to mend, seems the answer to all their prayers. As the writer of the pilot episode of the original Upstairs, Downstairs―Fay Weldon brings a deserved reputation for magnificent storytelling. With wit and sympathy―and no small measure of mischief―Habits of the House plots the interplay of restraint and desire, manners and morals, reason and instinct.
Genre: Historical fiction.
Availability:
In Library:
Book: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/147405606
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb23887552
Audiobook: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb24668106
Club member comment(s): The reader listened to the audiobook version. The narrator was excellent because she was able to take on the accents of characters from diverse backgrounds and countries. This book is about a wealthy family’s loss of their money and attempts to regain wealth specifically by marrying off the children to rich aristocrats. The author deploys a tongue-in-cheek criticism of the wealthy aristocrats and their airs and graces and particularly about the marriage of one English character to an American woman. Great read and highly recommended.
Title and Author: Long Live the King by Fay Weldon
Description: Weldon's second installment of the Love and Inheritance Trilogy is a return to romance, intrigue, and beautiful homes. In this rendering of King Edward VII's all-consuming 1902 coronation, England is still mourning Queen Victoria. Tension between Lord Robert (Earl of Dilberne) and his wife, Isobel, over extra coronation tickets results in Isobel secretly posting them to Robert's estranged brother, Edwin, along with a gift for their 16-year-old niece, Adela. Edwin is a repressed, abusive man who calls Adela stupid and plain, and deprives her of food. When tragedy strikes Adela's family, the suddenly-orphaned, lovely, blue-eyed girl with the "blonde-red Botticelli waves" is seduced into the world of trances and fake spiritualism, becoming Princess Ida. Meanwhile, Isobel is consumed with Robert's interest in the beautiful, bejeweled, and unhappily married Duchess Consuelo, a Vanderbilt. Robert and Isobel's outspoken daughter, Rosina, stung by her family's rejection, marries spontaneously and unsuitably, running off with her mate and chatty parrot to Australia. Fans of the Victorian and Edwardian periods will appreciate the characters' noble mien and place in history.
Genre: Historical fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb24554617
Large print book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb25996885
Audiobook: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb25424371
Club member comment(s): This is the second book in Weldon’s Love and Inheritance Trilogy with some of the same characters that the reader is introduced to in the first. The book is quite a bit shorter than the first, and the reader thought it was not as enjoyable as the first book in the trilogy.
Title and Author: Painting the Light: A Novel by Sally Cabot Gunning
Description: Martha’s Vineyard, 1898. In her first life, Ida Russell had been a painter. Five years ago, she had confidently walked the halls of Boston’s renowned Museum School, enrolling in art courses that were once deemed “unthinkable” for women to take, and showing a budding talent for watercolors. But no more. Ida Russell is now Ida Pease, resident of a seaside farm on Vineyard Haven, and wife to Ezra, a once-charming man who has become an inattentive and altogether unreliable husband. Ezra runs a salvage company in town with his business partner, Mose Barstow, but he much prefers their nightly card games at the local pub to his work in their Boston office, not to mention filling haystacks and tending sheep on the farm at home—duties that have fallen to Ida and their part-time farmhand, Lem. Ida, meanwhile, has left her love for painting behind. It comes as no surprise to Ida when Ezra is hours late for a Thanksgiving dinner, only to leave abruptly for another supposedly urgent business trip to Boston. But then something unthinkable happens: a storm strikes and the ship carrying Ezra and Mose sinks. In the wake of this shocking tragedy, Ida must settle the affairs of Ezra’s estate, a task that brings her to a familiar face from her past—Henry Barstow, Mose’s brother and executor. As she joins Henry in sifting through the remnants of her husband’s life and work, Ida must learn to separate truth from lies and what matters from what doesn’t. Captured in rich, painterly prose—piercing as a coastal gale and shimmering as sunlight on the waves—Painting the Light is an arresting portrait of a woman, and a considered meditation on grief, persistence, and reinvention.
Genre: Historical fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb41879368
Audiobook: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb43167269
Club member comment(s): The reader listened to the audiobook version. This book is primarily about the strength and resiliency of the female main character. She is able to regroup after significant hardships, learn new skills, reinvent herself and continually move forward. The reader learned a great deal about inheritance laws in England during the time period the book was written. Good read and recommended to the others.
Title and Author: America, A Redemption Story: Choosing Hope, Creating Unity by Senator Tim Scott with Joel N. Clark
Description: America is at a crossroads, reckoning with contested narratives about its history and identity, and facing unprecedented division. Bestselling author Senator Tim Scott shares a renewed vision for the United States--and invites all Americans to find themselves within this nation's redemptive story of opportunity, unity, and hope. Senator Scott knows what it's like to live at the intersection of hardship and opportunity. From his roots in South Carolina, growing up in a poor, single-parent household to starting a successful small business to his rising political career in the Senate, Scott's message of hope for America grows from his own life--the challenges, the achievements, and the work he's currently doing to bring positive change to the people of the United States. In America, a Redemption Story, Scott invites readers on a compelling journey to reclaim the American dream today. Weaving together deeply personal memoirs, stories of his family's struggle with poverty and injustice, and stirring accounts of fellow Americans past and present, Scott says we can see the truth of America's identity in the stories of individuals--people whose lives embody the hope and resilience that have carried the nation through its greatest failures and challenges. Listeners will:
- be inspired by the stories of personal grit and everyday heroism that reveal the power of a single individual to create positive change--for themselves, their communities, and their nation; ● gain an insider's view through Senator Scott's stories from his political career; ● and learn why principles of personal responsibility, opportunity for all, and unity based on empathy provide the greatest hope for our nation's future.
At once a clear-eyed reckoning with America's past and present failures, an ode to its exceptional accomplishments, and a vision of the greatness it can still achieve, this book is Scott's call to all Americans to see themselves as inheritors--and fellow authors--of a story still being written.
Genre: Adult Nonfiction
Availability:
In Library:
Book: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/996961162
Libby eBook: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/604406708
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb42999108
Audiobook: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb47293608
Club member comment(s): The patron reviewing this book chose it because she wanted to learn more about Senator Tim Scott as a GOP candidate for President. His story and his Christian testimony are inspiring. The book is well written, and the club member highly recommended it to the others interested in learning more about the men and women running for the highest office in this country.
Title and Author: The Fire by Night: A Novel by Teresa Messineo
Description: A powerful and evocative debut novel about two American military Nurses during World War II that illuminates the unsung heroism of women who risked their lives in the fight—a riveting saga of friendship, valor, sacrifice, and survival combining the grit and selflessness of Band of Brothers with the
Emotional resonance of The Nightingale. In war-torn France, Jo McMahon, an Italian-Irish girl from the tenements of Brooklyn, tends to six seriously wounded soldiers in a makeshift medical unit. Enemy bombs have destroyed her hospital convoy, and now Jo singlehandedly struggles to keep her patients and herself alive in a cramped and freezing tent close to German troops. There is a growing tenderness between her and one of her patients, a Scottish officer, but Jo’s heart is seared by the pain of all she has lost and seen. Nearing her breaking point, she fights to hold on to joyful memories of the past, to the times she share with her best friend Kay, whom she met in nursing school. Half a world away in the Pacific, Kay is trapped in a squalid Japanese POW camp in Manila, one of thousands of Allied men, women, and children whose fates rest in the hands of a sadistic enemy. Far from the familiar safety of the small Pennsylvania coal town of her childhood, Kay clings to memories of her happy days posted in Hawaii, and the handsome flyer who swept her off her feet in the weeks before Pearl Harbor. Surrounded by cruelty and death, Kay battles to maintain her sanity and save lives as best she can…and live to see her beloved friend Jo once more. When the conflict at last comes to an end, Jo and Kay discover that to achieve their own peace, they must find their place—and the hope of love—in a world that’s forever changed. With rich, superbly researched detail. Teresa Messineo’s thrilling novel brings to live the pain and uncertainty of war and the sustaining power of love and friendship, and illuminates the lives of the women who risked everything to save others during a horrifying time.
Genre: Historical fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb31814962
Audiobook: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb32271046
Club member comment(s): The club member reviewing this book was a military Nurse in the United States Air Force and selected this book because it was about military Nurses. The author spent 7 years researching this book, and it shows. The reader fact checked the author’s details with an internet search several times while reading the book, and found the author’s account to be historically accurate. The book does not romanticize the Nurses experiences. The details are realistic, gritty, brutal at times, and riveting. How deep friendships, loving relationships, and personal resilience and determination see these women through these tough, tough experiences is fascinating. This is one of the best historical fiction books the club member has read in some time. Unforgettable.
Title and Author: Ugly Love: A Novel by Colleen Hoover
Description: When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she doesn’t think it’s love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.
Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.
They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.
Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.
Genre: Romance fiction
Availability:
In Library:
Libby Audiobook: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/590218948
Libby eBook: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/597661172
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb27308086
Large print book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb43390328
Audiobook: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb28190436
Club member comment(s): The club member reviewing this book listened to the audioversion. She described the book as “spicy.” Two narrators were utilized—a man and a women. The male narrator’s voice was described as robotic which made for a not so enjoyable listening experience.
Title and Author: Friends, Loves, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir by Matthew Perry
Description: “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.” So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more. In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening—as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.
Genre: Nonfiction
Availability:
In Library:
Book: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/632036253
Libby Audiobook: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/608955112
Libby eBook: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/608955064
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb43017859
Audiobook: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb43066992
Club member comment(s): The book covers how Perry’s growing up years shaped his comedic career. His personal stories are good. He describes both good and bad detox experiences including how he almost lost his life while detoxing in a facility whose staff failed to recognize pancreatitis and refused to allow him to seek medical care. Mr. Perry died recently. His book will remain part of his legacy.
Title and Author: Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck by Mckayla Coyle
Description: Embrace your inner goblin! Learn to decorate, dress, craft, forage, and live according to the goblin principles of community, diversity, proud weirdness, and joyful mess. Do you ever feel strange, gross, chaotic, underappreciated, or like you don’t quite fit in? Great news: you might be a goblin! That means your imperfections and idiosyncrasies are the most awesome things about you, and you can build a more balanced, comfortable, harmonious life by accepting and honoring them—taking inspiration from the frogs, fungus, moss, rocks, and dirt that goblins love. Can a mushroom give you fashion tips? Can a snail teach you to be a better person? You bet they can—and in this book you’ll also learn to: 1) Build a moss garden for your lair; 2) Grow and use medicinal plants; 3) Forage for berries (even in the city); 4) Mend your cozy sweaters; 5) Display your cool rock collection-- And more! Anyone can be a goblin, and Goblin Mode includes life advice for celebrating physical and mental diversity, rejecting prejudice, and generally hanging on to a little joy. Featuring 25 whimsical illustrations by Marian Churchland, Goblin Mode will help you rethink your relationship with your body, your home, your community, and the earth.
Genre: Nonfiction
Availability:
In Library:
Book: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/996929280
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb43379343
Club member comment(s): Excellent and worthwhile read!
Title and Author: Black Cake: A Novel by Charmaine Wilkerson
Description: We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become? In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves. Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever? Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.
Genre: Literary fiction
Availability:
In Library:
Book: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/548473727
Libby audiobook: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/597703306
Libby eBook: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/590221680
MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb42179895
Large print book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb42708871
Club member comment(s): This book revolves around estranged siblings after their mother dies. The traditional family black cake is in the freezer to be eaten “when the time is right.” Black cake comes from the Caribbean and evolved from the British colonists’ plum pudding. It can take up to a year to make a good Jamaican black cake. The fruit should be soaked in wine and rum for at least six months and then be combined with creamed butter, sugar, spices, and gravy browning (burned sugar) before being baked repeatedly and then doused in a rum and wine mixture. The result is a cake that is rich, velvety, and dense, with aromas of vanilla, almond, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Black cake is made for special occasions like a wedding and is a major part of the story about how the mother escaped Jamaica. The patron reviewing this book enjoyed the read and recommended it to the others, commenting that the book demonstrates that often our parents are not who we think they are.
Title and Author: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Description: A refugee of the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village. All of them have secrets they are desperate to keep, but none outwit Poirot as he navigates the ingenious red herrings and plot twists that contribute to Agatha Christie’s well-deserved reputation as the queen of mystery.
Genre: Mystery
Availability:
In Library:
Libby eBook: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/468933055
MelCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb19283037
Large print book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb26402911
Audiobook: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb20163239
Club member comment(s): A classic Agatha Christie mystery! The club member reviewing this book enjoyed the experience.
Title and Author: The Rabbit Hutch: A Novel by Tess Gunty
Description: Blandine isn’t like the other residents of her building. An online obituary writer. A young mother with a dark secret. A woman waging a solo campaign against rodents — neighbors, separated only by the thin walls of a low-cost housing complex in the once bustling industrial center of Vacca Vale, Indiana. Welcome to the Rabbit Hutch. Ethereally beautiful and formidably intelligent, Blandine shares her apartment with three teenage boys she neither likes nor understands, all, like her, now aged out of the state foster care system that has repeatedly failed them, all searching for meaning in their lives. Set over one sweltering week in July and culminating in a bizarre act of violence that finally changes everything, The Rabbit Hutch is a savagely beautiful and bitingly funny snapshot of contemporary America, a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and longing, entrapment and, ultimately, freedom.
Genre:
Availability:
In Library:
Book: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/612670301
Libby audiobook: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/611833170
Libby eBook: https://marcellus.biblionix.com/catalog/biblio/610244846
In MeLCat:
Book: http://search.mel.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb42916689
Club member comment(s): This book won the following awards:
National Book Award for Fiction (2022)
British Book Award
Nominee for Debut Fiction (2023)
California Book Award Nominee for First Fiction (2022)
National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for John Leonard Prize (2022)
Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Nominee for Shortlist (2022)
Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize (2022)
The club member sharing her thoughts about this book indicated that the book takes place over a week and includes a shockingly violent event. She wished she had not been reading it late at night before attempting to sleep. This is a debut novel. Although difficult to read, a book worth reading.
The next meeting of the Marcellus Township Wood Memorial Library’s First Thursday Book Club will be held on December 7, 2023 at 12 NOON in the library. We look forward to seeing you here! Remember to bring your cookies for the cookie exchange!
