Books Read in 2010

1. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
2. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jaime Ford
5. The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen
6. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
7. The Survivors Club by Ben Sherwood
8. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
9. Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda
10. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
11. The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright

December's Book

White Elephant Gift
(Book) Exchange
New or Used, Any Genre

Dec. 15th (3rd Wed.)
8pm at Aimeè's

The month of December has the potential for being crazy and hectic. Instead of meeting to discuss a specific book, we'll be meeting to chat, munch, & enjoy a white elephant (book) gift exchange. The book may be new or used and any genre. Perhaps we can discuss other books we've been reading outside of book club selections. Happy Reading!

November's Book

The Wednesday Letters
by Jason F. Wright

Nov. 17th (3rd Wed.)
8pm at Trina's

Summary:
The surprise New York Times bestseller, from an author who delivers "American storytelling at its best."

Jack and Laurel have been married for 39 years. They've lived a good life and appear to have had the perfect marriage. With his wife cradled in his arms, and before Jack takes his last breath, he scribbles his last "Wednesday Letter."

When their adult children arrive to arrange the funeral, they discover boxes and boxes full of love letters that their father wrote to their mother each week on Wednesday. As they begin to open and read the letters, the children begin to uncover the shocking truth about the past. In addition, each one must deal with present-day challenges. Matthew has a troubled marriage, Samantha is a single mother, and Malcolm is the black sheep of the family who has returned home after a mysterious two-year absence.

The Wednesday Letters has a powerful message about forgiveness and quietly beckons for readers to start writing their own "Wednesday Letters." (From the publisher.)

summary from www.litlovers.com

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October's Book

The Five Love Languages
by Gary Chapman

October 20th (3rd Wed)
8pm at Cori's

Summary:
Outlines five expressions of love--quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch--and explains how to identify and communicate effectively in a spouse's "love language."

summary from the library web site

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September's Book

Rowan of Rin
by Emily Rodda

Sept. 1st (1st Wed)
8pm at April Dawn's

Summary:
Because only he can read the magical map, young, weak, and timid Rowan joins six other villagers to climb a mountain and try to restore their water supply, as fears of a dragon and other horrors threaten to drive them back.

Summary from www.library.pima.gov

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August's Book

The Last Lecture
by Randy Pausch

Aug. 18th (3rd Wed)
8pm at Jenn's

Summary:
The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

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July's Book

The Survivors Club
by Ben Sherwood

July 21st (3rd Wed)
8pm at Kristi's

Summary:
From award-winning journalist Sherwood comes a fascinating exploration of survival that can help prepare you for life's inevitable struggles, from cancer and crime to car accidents and airplane crashes.

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June's Book

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

June 16th (3rd Wed)
8pm at Charlotte's

Summary:
As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club on Guernsey--a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island.

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May's Book

The 5000 year leap: the 28 great ideas that changed the world
by W. Cleon Skousen

May 19th (3rd Wed)
8pm at Cami's

Summary:
The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World. For many years in the United States there has been a gradual drifting away from the Founding Fathers original success formula. This has resulted in some of their most unique contributions for a free and prosperous society becoming lost or misunderstood. Therefore, there has been a need to review the history and development of the making of America in order to recapture the brilliant precepts which made Americans the first free people in modern times.
In this book, discover the 28 Principles of Freedom our Founding Fathers said must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desire peace, prosperity, and freedom. Learn how adherence to these beliefs during the past 200 years has brought about more progress than was made in the previous 5000 years. Published by National Center for Constitutional Studies, a non-profit organization.

Summary from www.goodreads.com

Reviews:
A fascinating, in-depth study of the remarkable origins and enlightening ideas that helped to forge this great nation. I am proud to be an American and sincerely grateful for this God ordained nation. --Dr. Stephen R. Covey, Co-founder FranklinCovey, Speaker, Bestselling Author

I beg you to read this book filled with words of wisdom which I can only describe as divinely inspired. You will find answers to questions plaguing America, and more importantly you will find hope. I know I have! --Glenn Beck, Nationally Syndicated Radio and Television Host

The fight for the soul of our country is real! Every patriotic American, young and old, should read this book! --Chris Cannon, US House of Representatives, 1997-2009

Reviews found at www.amazon.com

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There's quite a wait for the book so reserve your copy early.

April's Book

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
by Jaime Ford

April 21st (3rd Wed)
8pm at Trina's


Summary:
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart. From the Hardcover edition

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March's Book

Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen

March 24th (4th Wed)
8pm at Judy's

Summary:
"The business of Mrs. Bennet's life 'was to get her daughters married'. What ensues--elopements, desertions and misunderstandings--comprise what many consider to be Jane Austen's finest novel"--Publisher's web page.

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February's Book

A Room with a View
by E.M. Forster

Feb 17th (3rd Wed)
8pm at Emily's

Summary:
This Edwardian social comedy explores love and prim propriety among an eccentric cast of characters assembled in an Italian pensione and in a corner of Surrey, England.A charming young Englishwoman, Lucy Honeychurch, faints into the arms of a fellow Britisher when she witnesses a murder in a Florentine piazza. Attracted to this man, George Emerson—who is entirely unsuitable and whose father just may be a Socialist—Lucy is soon at war with the snobbery of her class and her own conflicting desires. Back in England, she is courted by a more acceptable, if stifling, suitor and soon realizes she must make a startling decision that will decide the course of her future: she is forced to choose between convention and passion. The enduring delight of this tale of romantic intrigue is rooted in Forster’s colorful characters, including outrageous spinsters, pompous clergymen, and outspoken patriots. Written in 1908, A Room with a View is one of E. M. Forster’s earliest and most celebrated works.

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January's Book

Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe

Jan 13th (Wednesday)
8pm at Kristi's

Kristi said...
I am hosting for Jan, I am picking the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. I know it is kind of late notice, but the reason I picked this book is because there are a number of different copies of the book. There is a children's copy of this book. I have 2 copies for thoes of you that want a quick read. (4th grade level) There is also a few different versions at the library, one a childrens book, one a teen and one an adult read ( or the original book). Pick your book you think you will be able to read! We will meet at my house next week to discuss it, Wed. the 13th. You will only have a week to read the book, so good luck!

Summary:
This classic story of a shipwrecked mariner on a deserted island is perhaps the greatest adventure in all of English literature. Fleeing from pirates, Robinson Crusoe is swept ashore in a storm possessing only a knife, a box of tobacco, a pipe-and the will to survive. His is the saga of a man alone: a man who overcomes self-pity and despair to reconstruct his life; who painstakingly teaches himself how to fashion a pot, bake bread, build a canoe; and who, after twenty-four agonizing years of solitude, discovers a human footprint in the sand... Consistently popular since its first publication in 1719, Daniel Defoe's story of human endurance in an exotic, faraway land exerts a timeless appeal. The first important English novel, Robinson Crusoe has taken its rightful place among the great myths of Western civilization.

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