Books Read in 2009

1. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
2. The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
3. The Shack by William P. Young
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
5. Arena by Karen Hancock
6. For One More Day by Mitch Albom
7. Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George
8. The Omnivore's Dilemna: a natural history of four meals by Michael Pollan
9. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
10. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
11. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
12. The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans

December's Book

The Christmas Box

by Richard Paul Evans

Dec 9th

8pm at Amy W.'s

Summary:

Richard, a busy and preoccupied father, discovers a Christmas box full of love letters from an old woman to her dead daughter and, with the help of an angel, begins to learn the true meaning of Christmas.

November's Book

The Life of Pi
by Yann Martel

Nov 11th
8pm at Trina's

The library has several large type copies available (books with the larger print). If you prefer the regular print book, you may need to reserve a copy.

Summary:
Possessing encyclopedia-like intelligence, unusual zookeeper's son Pi Patel sets sail for America, but when the ship sinks, he escapes on a life boat and is lost at sea with a dwindling number of animals until only he and a hungry Bengal tiger remain.

October's Book

The Taming of the Shrew
by William Shakespeare

Oct. 14th
8pm at Janei's

The library has several copies available, click here to go to the library web site.

Summary:
Shakespeare's comedy tells of a "shrew," Katherina, who is so ill-tempered she seems unlikely to find a husband, and how her father refuses to let her younger sister marry until Katherina is off his hands. Petruchio appears and asks for Katherina's hand, betting that he can tame her.

September's Book

Cry, The Beloved Country

by Alan Paton

Sept. 9th

8pm at Aimeè's

Aimeè has checked out a library book club caboodle kit with 14 copies of the book. The books will be distributed at the Aug. meeting at Emily's. If you missed August's meeting but would like a copy of the book, please contact Aimeè.

The library also has several other copies available.

Summary:

A novel depicting the racial ferment in 1948 South Africa tells the story of Stephen Kumalo, a Zulu pastor, and his son, Absalom, experiencing the joys and tragedies of a South African community struggling with the injustice of apartheid.

August's Book

The Omnivore's Dilemma:
a natural hisory of four meals
by Michael Pollan


Aug. 12th
8pm at Emily's

The library has *tons* of copies, but you'll want to reserve a copy because it's a popular book with most of the copies out right now. Here's the summary from the library:

Summary:
What should we have for dinner? When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods might shorten your life. Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from a national eating disorder. As the cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast food outlet confronts us with a bewildering and treacherous landscape, what's at stake becomes not only our own and our children's health, but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth. Pollan follows each of the food chains--industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves--from the source to the final meal, always emphasizing our coevolutionary relationship with the handful of plant and animal species we depend on. The surprising answers Pollan offers have profound political, economic, psychological, and even moral implications for all of us.--From publisher description.

July's Book

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow

by Jessica Day George

July 8th

8pm at Shelly's

The library has several copies available, click on the book cover to go directly to the library's web site.

Summary:

"Blessed, or cursed, with an ability to understand animals, the Lass (as she's known to her family) has always been an oddball. And when an isbjorn (polar bear) seeks her out, and promises that her family will become rich if only the Lass will accompany him to his castle, she doesn't hesitate. But the bear is not what he seems, nor is his castle, which is made of ice and inhabited by a silent staff of servants. Only a grueling journey on the backs of the four winds will reveal the truth: the bear is really a prince who's been enchanted by a troll queen, and the Lass must come up with a way to free him before he's forced to marry a troll princess."--Information provided by publisher.

June's Book

For One More Day
by Mitch Albom

June 10th
8pm at Amy W.'s

The library has several copies available, click on the book cover to go directly to the library's web site. The book is also available on Amazon for cheap.

Review from Publishers Weekly:
In this second novel from Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven author Albom, grief-stricken Charles "Chick" Benetto goes into an alcoholic tailspin when his always-attentive mother, Pauline, dies. Framed as an "as told to" story, Chick quickly narrates her funeral; his drink-fueled loss of savings, job ("sales") and family; and his descent into loneliness and isolation. After a suicide attempt, Chick encounters Pauline's ghost. Together, the two revisit Pauline's travails raising her children alone after his father abandons them: she braves the town's disapproval of her divorce and works at a beauty parlor, taking an extra job to put money aside for the children's education. Pauline cringes at the heartache Chick inflicted as a demanding child, obnoxious teen and brusque, oblivious adult chasing the will-o'-the-wisp of a baseball career. Through their story, Albom foregrounds family sanctity, maternal self-sacrifice and the destructive power of personal ambition and male self-involvement. He wields pathos as if it were a Louisville Slugger—shoveling dirt into Pauline's grave, Chick hears her spirit cry out, " 'Oh, Charley. How could you?' "—but Albom often strikes a nerve on his way to the heart.
(http://www.amazon.com/One-More-Day-Mitch-Albom/dp/1401309577/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242941776&sr=8-1)

May's Book

Arena

by Karen Hancock

May 13th

8pm at Trina's

The library has several copies available, click on the book cover to go directly to the library's web site. Just a little FYI about the book, it's written by a local author who also happens to be Trina's aunt!

Summary:

Callie Hayes finds her life in peril after agreeing to participate in a psychology study, where the examiners cast her into an alien world called the Arena, with only a guidebook and a few supplies to help her return home.

April's Book

A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khaled Hosseini

April 8th (Wednesday)

8pm at Kristi's

The library has several copies (click on the picture of the book cover to go directly to the library web site). It's also available on amazon.com for about a dollar plus shipping.

Summary:

Two women born a generation apart witness the destruction of their home and family in wartorn Kabul, incurring losses over the course of thirty years that test the limits of their strength and courage.

March's Book

The Shack
by William P. Young

Date changed, this month only!
March 18th, Wednesday
8pm at Carrie's


The library has several copies however, there is quite the wait. Click on the picture for a link to the library's web site. This book is also available for purchase at amazon.com , target.com, walmart.com or can be downloaded at eAudioSource.com or theaudiobookstore.com. Just click on the colored text for links to the various web sites.


Summary:
Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant, "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him.

February's Book

The City of Ember

by Jeanne DuPrau

February 11th (Wednesday)

8pm at Judy's

The Library has several copies of the book but several on hold so reserve your copy early! It is also available on compact disc with fewer holds for listening in 7 hours. Click on the bolded words for a link to the library web site.

FYI: There are a few bookclub readers that have the book already, watch your email to see if someone will lend you their book when they are done.

Summary:

In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina finds part of an ancient message that she is sure holds a secret to save her underground city from ruin, but Lina and her friend Doon must decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember forever.

January's Book

Book of a Thousand Days
by Shannon Hale

January 14th (Wednesday)
8pm at Jenn's

The Library has several copies of the book. Click on the picture or the word library above to go directly to the library's web site.

Summary:
Fifteen-year-old Dashti, sworn to obey her sixteen-year-old mistress, the Lady Saren, shares Saren's years of punishment locked in a tower, then brings her safely to the lands of her true love, where both must hide who they are as they work as kitchen maids.

Review:
Drawing from a classic Grimm's fairy tale and Mongolian tradition, this is an engaging tale of a resourceful maid and her emotionally fragile mistress. Set in medieval times, Dashti comes to Titor's Garden, one of the Eight Realms, to find work. She becomes maid to Lady Saren just as Saren is confined to a tower for refusing to marry Lord Khasar. They are given food and other items to last for seven years, and then the tower is bricked up except for a hole for emptying waste. When the food begins to run out after three years, Dashti finds a way out of the tower, and the two begin a journey to the realm of Kahn Tegus. After arriving, the two go to work in the kitchen. Dashti, brave and intelligent, helps Saren and the khan, whose realm faces attack. In the end, she marries Khan Tegus. Written as a journal, the book has a historical feel with fantasy elements. Drawings among the entries help the reader visualize unfamiliar elements and give insight into the characters. The book is another solid work from this Newbury Honor Medal winner. Recommended. Betsy Ruffin, Librarian, Irving Elementary, Cleburne, Texas © 2008 Linworth Publishing, Inc