October 4th, 2024
New at the Library!
The next Community Read! will be held on November 21, 2024 @ 6:00 PM. We will be focusing on Jim DeFede’s book The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland. At the Community Read!, we’ll watch a pre recorded interview of the author and then engage in a discussion about his book. Light refreshments will be provided. Contact or visit the library to obtain a copy of this book. We look forward to seeing you here!
Author: Jim DeFede
Description: When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Canada by the closing of U.S. airspace on September 11, the population of this small town on Newfoundland Island swelled from 10,300 to nearly 17,000. The citizens of Gander met the stranded passengers with an overwhelming display of friendship and goodwill. As the passengers stepped from the airplanes, exhausted, hungry and distraught after being held on board for nearly 24 hours while security checked all of the baggage, they were greeted with a feast prepared by the townspeople. Local bus drivers who had been on strike came off the picket lines to transport the passengers to the various shelters set up in local schools and churches. Linens and toiletries were bought and donated. A middle school provided showers, as well as access to computers, email, and televisions, allowing the passengers to stay in touch with family and follow the news. Over the course of those four days, many of the passengers developed friendships with Gander residents that they expect to last a lifetime. As a show of thanks, scholarship funds for the children of Gander have been formed and donations have been made to provide new computers for the schools. This book recounts the inspiring story of the residents of Gander, Canada, whose acts of kindness have touched the lives of thousands of people and been an example of humanity and goodwill.
Books discussed at the October 2024 First Thursday Book Club meeting:
Title and Author: Tisha: The True Love Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaskan Wilderness by Robert Specht
Description: Anne Hobbs was only nineteen in 1927 when she came to harsh and beautiful Alaska. Running a ramshackle schoolhouse would expose her to more than just the elements. After she allowed Native American children into her class and fell in love with a half-Inuit man, she would learn the meanings of prejudice and perseverance, irrational hatred and unconditional love. “People get as mean as the weather,” she discovered, but they were also capable of great good. As told to Robert Specht, Anne Hobbs’s true story has captivated generations of readers. Now this beautiful new edition is available to inspire many more.
Genre: Adult Non-fiction
Availability: This was a good book. The reader knew little about remote Alaska in the 1920s. The trials and tribulations of this young teacher in such difficult circumstances made for interesting reading. It was well written and highly recommended.
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat: Book; large print book
Club member comment(s): Interesting book providing the reader with a window into the harsh living conditions in remote Alaska prior to WWII. This is a true story and a story of love between a school teacher and a half-Inuit man. Their love withstands a number of tests including prejudice
Title and Author: You Are My Sunshine: A Story of Love, Promises, and a Really Long Bike Ride by Sean Dietrich (Sean of the South)
Description: A laugh-out-loud funny true story of a loving relationship, a grand adventure, and a promise kept. It was only a few years after the starry-eyed young couple got married when scary news threatened to take the wind out of their sails. But Sean Dietrich's wife, Jamie, wouldn't let it. She dared to hope for and plan for a great big adventure, and she made him promise to do it with her. For love and the promise of biscuits along the way, Sean—who was never an athlete of any kind—undertook the bike ride of a lifetime and lived to talk about it. In this true-life tale, master storyteller Sean Dietrich—also known as the beloved columnist and creator of the blog and podcast "Sean of the South"—shares their hilarious, touching, and sometimes terrifying story of the long bike ride to conquer The Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Towpath trail. As you laugh out loud through every hard-won mile and lose yourself in his signature poignancy, you'll experience a great adventure that, in the end, will remind you of what's most important in life, the value of keeping your promises, and the importance of connection in your most treasured relationships.
Genre: Adult non-fiction.
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat: Book.
Club member comment(s): Sean Dietrich aka “Sean of the South” is a columnist, novelist, and stand-up storyteller known for his commentary on life in the American South. The reader commented that if one likes Bill Bryson’s books, one would probably like this book. It is laugh out loud funny at times as Sean is not athletic (his wife is) and goes on this bike ride reluctantly at first. Everything that can go wrong
does. The couple even has trouble finding where the biking trail starts to begin their long journey. However, along the way, Sean becomes just as eager to see this trip through to the end as his wife is. It was a fun and enjoyable read.
5
Title and Author: Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall
Description: The summer of 1963 begins like any other for nine-year-old Starla Claudelle. Born to teenage parents in Mississippi, Starla is being raised by a strict paternal grandmother, Mamie, whose worst fear is that Starla will turn out like her mother. Starla hasn’t seen her momma since she was three, but is convinced that her mother will keep her promise to take Starla and her daddy to Nashville, where her mother hopes to become a famous singer—and that one day her family will be whole and perfect.
When Starla is grounded on the Fourth of July, she sneaks out to see the parade. After getting caught, Starla’s fear that Mamie will make good on her threats and send her to reform school cause her to panic and run away from home. Once out in the country, Starla is offered a ride by a black woman, Eula, who is traveling with a white baby. She happily accepts a ride, with the ultimate goal of reaching her mother in Nashville. As the two unlikely companions make their long and sometimes dangerous journey, Starla’s eyes are opened to the harsh realities of 1963 southern segregation. Through talks with Eula, reconnecting with her parents, and encountering a series of surprising misadventures, Starla learns to let go of long held dreams and realizes family is forged from those who will sacrifice all for you, no matter if bound by blood or by the heart.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Availability:
In Library: Libby eBook only.
MeLCat: Book; audiobook
Club member comment(s): The club member commented that some adult readers would be turned off by the “young adult” label given this book. However, it is a five star read. Starla, the nine year old protagonist, is feisty, sassy, courageous and also disobedient (which gets her and others into trouble repeatedly). The book keeps the reader guessing the entire time with the question ‘what happens next?’ The book covers the realities of 1963 Mississippi well including segregation and the suppression of social, political and economic rights of African Americans through violence and other forms of
intimidation. Yet, it is also uplifting. Family is not what Starla originally defined it to be. It could be even better if she just opens her heart to the kindness of others. It is an unforgettable read!
Title and Author: Stella Bain: A Novel by Anita Shreve
Description: When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in an exclusive garden in London, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in. A gesture of goodwill turns into something more as Bridge quickly develops a clinical interest in his houseguest. Stella had been working as a nurse's aide near the front, but she can't remember anything prior to four months earlier when she was found wounded on a French battlefield. In a narrative that takes us from London to America and back again, Shreve has created an engrossing and wrenching tale about love and the meaning of memory, set against the haunting backdrop of a war that destroyed an entire generation.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat: Book; audiobook
Club member comment(s): The reader gave this book 3 stars. The genre is historical fiction. Only after reading the book, did the reader realize that this is a spin off from another book by the same author “All He Ever Wanted.” It may have helped to clarify this story to have read the other book first as it gives the
back history of this book. The story was good but far too much time was devoted to the child custody court case that occurs once the main character returns to America. The court case is covered in such exquisite detail that it does not match detail in the rest of the book. The reader listened to the audiobook. The narrator was bland and had little inflection which gave the listening experience a flatness. It was not a recommended read.
Title and Author: Where the Lost Wander: A Novel by Amy Harmon
Description: In this epic and haunting love story set on the Oregon Trail, a family and their unlikely protector find their way through peril, uncertainty, and loss. The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at twenty. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both. But life in a wagon train is fraught with hardship, fear, and death. Even as John and Naomi are drawn to each other, the trials of the journey and their disparate pasts work to keep them apart. John’s heritage gains them safe passage through hostile territory only to come between them as they seek to build a life together. When a horrific tragedy strikes, decimating Naomi’s family and separating her from John, the promises they made are all they have left. Ripped apart, they can’t turn back, they can’t go on, and they can’t let go. Both will have to make terrible sacrifices to find each other, save each other, and eventually…make peace with who they are.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat: Book; audiobook
Club member comment(s): This book details the experiences of a family and a larger group of people traveling west in the mid-1800s in search of better life circumstances. The book is also a story of the growing love between a young widow and a half Pawnee Indian half white man traveling with the wagon train. Well written and paced, the book grabbed our reader’s attention quickly and kept her coming back for more about what happened to the wagon train party and this young couple. This was the first
book written by Amy Harmon that our club member has read. She recommended the book to others and will be seeking out other books written by Ms. Harmon!
Title and Author: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club: A Novel by Helen Simonson
Description: It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped to run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or (horror) a governess, she's sent as a lady's companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance finds herself swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne on-Sea after she rescues local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas. Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies' motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy's recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked. With sharp humor, biting wit, and a warm heart, Simonson captures the mood of a generation facing the seismic changes brought on by war. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is a timeless comedy of manners, refreshing as a summer breeze and bracing as the British seaside.
Genre: Historical fiction
Availability:
In Library: Large print book; Libby audiobook
MeLCat: Book; large print book
Club member comment(s): Interesting historical fiction with engaging characters. Recommended reading for other club members.
Title and Author: Buffalo in Our Backyard by Jean Cummings
Description: This is a true story of a family who learned how to care for a buffalo herd. The author, Jean Cummings, her husband--a newly trained surgeon--and their children settled in Stanwood, a village tucked into the wild forests of central Michigan. It was not the life Mrs. Cummings had expected. When her husband announced he was going to raise buffalo she didn't take him seriously, but in the spring of 1964 the arrival of thirteen buffalo changed their lives. Her husband became known as The Buffalo Doctor. You'll find out all about it in this charming account--Kahtanka crowned herd bull; the donkey who thought he was a buffalo; first calves and buffalo baby announcements; a sexy cow named Mable; a bath for a buffalo; an exotic dancer in a buffalo-fur bikini for a buffalo-fur fashion show. There are herds of facts and information about buffalo history, the killing off of the great herds, and anything else you could possibly want to know about this monstrous but lovable animal.
Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat: Book.
Club member comment(s): The author expected to be leading a very different life as a surgeon’s wife than the life she actually led in a small village tucked in the wild forests of central Michigan raising buffalo. The book was fun to read and offers a primer on all things buffalo.
Title and Author: Away: A Novel by Jane Urquhart
Description: A stunning, evocative novel set in Ireland and Canada, Away traces a family’s complex and layered past. The narrative unfolds with shimmering clarity, and takes us from the harsh northern Irish coast in the 1840s to the quarantine stations at Grosse Isle and the barely hospitable land of the Canadian Shield; from the flourishing town of Port Hope to the flooded streets of Montreal; from Ottawa at the time of Confederation to a large-windowed house at the edge of a Great Lake during the present day. Graceful and moving, Away unites the personal and the political as it explores the most private, often darkest corners of our emotions where the things that root us to ourselves endure. Powerful, intricate, lyrical, Away is an unforgettable novel.
Genre: Historical fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat: Book.
Club member comment(s): Complex but enjoyable novel.
Title and Author: The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebecca Yarros
Description: Twenty-eight-year-old Georgia Stanton has to start over after she gave up almost everything in a brutal divorce―the New York house, the friends, and her pride. Now back home at her late great grandmother’s estate in Colorado, she finds herself face-to-face with Noah Harrison, the bestselling author of a million books where the cover is always people nearly kissing. He’s just as arrogant in person as in interviews, and she’ll be damned if the good-looking writer of love stories thinks he’s the one to finish her grandmother’s final novel…even if the publisher swears he’s the perfect fit.
Noah is at the pinnacle of his career. With book and movie deals galore, there isn’t much the “golden boy” of modern fiction hasn’t accomplished. But he can’t walk away from what might be the best book of the century―the one his idol, Scarlett Stanton, left unfinished. Coming up with a fitting ending for the legendary author is one thing, but dealing with her beautiful, stubborn, cynical great-granddaughter, Georgia, is quite another. But as they read Scarlett’s words in both the manuscript and her box of letters, they start to realize why Scarlett never finished the book―it’s based on her real-life romance with a World War II pilot, and the ending isn’t a happy one. Georgia knows all too well that love never works out, and while the chemistry and connection between her and Noah is undeniable, she’s as determined as ever to learn from her great-grandmother’s mistakes―even if it means destroying Noah’s career.
Genre: Romance
Availability:
In Library: Book; Libby audiobook; Libby eBook
MeLCat: Book
Club member comment(s): Our club member had read other books by the same author and told the group that this book is quite different from the others. This book was enjoyable and recommended to the other club readers.
Title and Author: The Book of Lost Friends: A Novel by Lisa Wingate
Description: Bestselling author Lisa Wingate brings to life startling stories from actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as newly freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold away. Louisiana, 1875: In the tumultuous era of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest: Hannie, a freed slave; Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now destitute plantation; and Juneau Jane, Lavinia’s Creole half sister. Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following roads rife with vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of stolen inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and siblings before slavery’s end, the pilgrimage west reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope. Louisiana, 1987: For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt—until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, is suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled live oaks and run-down plantation homes lie the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.
Genre: Historical fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book; Libby audiobook.
MeLCat: Book.
Club member comment(s): This was the Community Read! choice. Our reader enjoyed this book as did our other readers and highly recommends it!
Title and Author: God: Stories edited by C. Michael Curtis
Description: In a fresh approach to an age-old discussion, an esteemed editor of the Atlantic Monthly collects twenty-five dazzling short stories by eminent writers about spiritual experiences of all sorts. With works by John Updike, Philip Roth, Louise Erdrich, James Joyce, Flannery O'Connor, James Baldwin, Alice Munro, and more, God: Stories offers insight, solace, and pleasure not only to the faithful but to seekers -- and to those who simply love fine stories. "Challenging the mind and exhilarating the soul . . . [this] rare and precious collection" (Susannah Heschel) explores the human dimensions of spirituality from the comic to the passionate, the skeptical to the mystical and beyond.
Genre: Adult Non-fiction
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat: Book.
Club member comment(s): Our club member enjoyed this book of short stories by famous authors about spiritual experiences of all kinds.
Title and Author: A Short Walk Through a Wide World: A Novel by Douglas Westerbeke
Description: Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she starts to bleed to death. When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realizes that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. So begins her lifelong journey on the run from her condition, which won’t allow her to stay anywhere for longer than a few days nor return to a place where she’s already been. From the scorched dunes of the Calashino Sand Sea to the snow-packed peaks of the Himalayas; from a bottomless well in a Parisian courtyard, to the shelves of an infinite underground library, we follow Aubry as she learns what it takes to survive and ultimately, to truly live. But the longer Aubry wanders and the more desperate she is to share her life with others, the clearer it becomes that the world she travels through may not be quite the same as everyone else’s... Fiercely independent and hopeful, yet full of longing, Aubry Tourvel is an unforgettable character fighting her way through a world of wonders to find a place she can call home. A spellbinding and inspiring story about discovering meaning in a life that seems otherwise impossible, A Short Walk Through a Wide World reminds us that it’s not the destination, but rather the journey—no matter how long it lasts—that makes us who we are.
Genre: Fantasy
Availability:
In Library: Book.
MeLCat: Book; audiobook
Club member comment(s): Our reader typically does not opt for fantasies as a genre; however, she told the group that the author expertly wove the fantasy into the book’s story line such that she enjoyed it!
Title and Author: The Waters: A Novel by Bonnie 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: Mystery
Availability:
In Library: Book; Libby eBook.
MeLCat: Book.
Club member comment(s): Our reader did not finish this book. She told the group that the level of violence in the novel was such that she did not want to go on.
Title and Author: A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
Description: Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes—and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings. For a start there’s the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson’s acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America’s last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is a modern classic of travel literature.
Genre: Adult Non-fiction
Availability:
In Library: Book; Libby audiobook; Libby eBook
MeLCat: Book; audiobook
Club member comment(s): Laugh out loud funny, this true story of the author’s walk on the Appalachian Trail is wonderful!
Title and Author: The Potluck Club: A Novel (Series: The Potluck Club Book #1) by Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson
Description: In the small Colorado town of Summit View, a surprising multi-generational mix of women from Grace Church meet once a week to pass a hot dish and to pray. But the Potluck Club, as they call themselves, is a recipe for disaster when they send up enough misinformed prayers to bring down a church. And the funny thing: the more they pray, the more troubles seem to come their way. It isn't until they invite God to the table that they discover friendship is the spice of life, and a little dash of grace, just like salt, goes a long way. With charming, down-home characters, humor, poignancy, and a recipe in every chapter, The Potluck Club will keep readers hungering for more.
Genre: Inspirational literature
Availability:
In Library: Not available.
MeLCat: Book.
Club member comment(s): An amusing light read!
Title and Author: The Faculty Lounge: A Novel by Jennifer Mathieu
Description: By the acclaimed author of Moxie, a funny, bighearted adult debut that is at once an ode to educators, a timely glimpse at today’s pressing school issues, and a tender character study, following a sprawling cast of teachers, administrators, and staff at a Texas high school. With its ensemble of warm and unforgettable characters, The Faculty Lounge shows readers a different side of school life. It all starts when an elderly substitute teacher at Baldwin High School is found dead in the faculty lounge. After a bit of a stir, life quickly returns to normal—it’s not like it’s the worst (or even most interesting) thing that has happened within the building’s walls. But when, a week later, the spontaneous scattering of his ashes on the school grounds catches the attention of some busybody parents, it sets in motion a year that can only be described as wild, bizarre, tragic, mundane, beautiful, and humorous all at once. In the midst of the ensuing hysteria and threats of disciplinary action, the novel peeks into the lives of the implicated adults who, it turns out, actually have first names and continue to exist when the school day is done. We a former punk band front man, now a middle-aged principal who must battle it out with the schoolboard to keep his job; a no-nonsense school nurse willing to break the rules, despite the close watch on their campus, when a student arrives at her office with a dilemma; and a disgruntled English instructor who finds himself embroiled in even more controversy when he misfires a snarky email. Oh, and there’s also a teacher make out session in a supply closet during a lockdown. As these people continue to manage the messiness of this school year, there is the looming threat of what will become of their beloved Baldwin High. Ultimately, at the heart of this unconventional workplace novel is a story of the power of human connection and of the joy of finding purpose in what it is we do every day.
Genre: Adult general fiction.
Availability:
In Library: Book.
MeLCat: Book.
Club member comment(s): Our reader is a former teacher and had high expectations for this book. This first part of the book lived up to her expectations because it humorously depicts what really happens in a school’s faculty lounge. The last part of book–not so much. Too much fantasy and not enough reality.
Title and Author: Verity: A Novel by Colleen Hoover
Description: Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.
Genre: Adult fiction-romantic suspense
Availability:
In Library: Book; Libby eBook.
MeLCat: Book; large print book; audiobook; MP3 player
Club member comment(s): Interesting read!
