October's Book

Posted
by John David Anderson

October 19th (3rd Thurs)
7:30 pm at Aimeè's

Summary from Harper Collins.com

From John David Anderson, author of the acclaimed Ms. Bixby’s Last Day, comes a humorous, poignant, and original contemporary story about bullying, broken friendships, and the failures of communication between kids.

In middle school, words aren’t just words. They can be weapons. They can be gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you enemies. They can come back to haunt you. Sometimes they can change things forever.

When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends Deedee, Wolf, and Bench come up with a new way to communicate: leaving sticky notes for each other all around the school. It catches on, and soon all the kids in school are leaving notes—though for every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well.

In the middle of this, a new girl named Rose arrives at school and sits at Frost’s lunch table. Rose is not like anyone else at Branton Middle School, and it’s clear that the close circle of friends Frost has made for himself won’t easily hold another. As the sticky-note war escalates, and the pressure to choose sides mounts, Frost soon realizes that after this year, nothing will ever be the same.

Click here to find it at the public library
Click here to find it on Amazon
Click here to find it at Barnes and Noble

Click here for discussion questions from Harper Collins

July's Book

Please post your response to the Facebook group or email her.
Thank you!

Message from Stacy C.,

I may have picked a book ,but I want to run something past everyone. There is an author named Georgette Heyer who wrote in the 1920's and they compare her books to jane Austen, she has written tons of books and I thought it might be interesting for everyone to pick one and we could compare them to each other and to Jane Austen novels, what we love/hate about both of them. they are free on kindle unlimited (someone could borrow my kindles if they don't have unlimited) I think some are on the library e-book site. Or I'm also reading a book called the storied life of AJ Fikry, but not sure if it's a good book club selection yet.

What do you think?

UPDATE

Any Regency Period work

by Georgette Heyer

July 20th (3rd Thurs)

7:30 pm at Stacy C.'s

Note from Stacy C.

Pick a regency period book by Georgette Heyer. A couple titles are 'The Great Sophie', Frederica, The Talisman Ring, The Foundling... etc.. they are quick funny quirky little novels. We will compare plots and characters and how they compare to Jane Austen novels. She write mysteries too but we are going to focus on the regency period books.

Click here to find Georgette Heyer books at the public library

Click here to find Georgette Heyer books on Amazon

Click here to find Georgette Heyer books at Barnes and Noble

To learn a little more about Georgette Heyer's click here

Here's a 2015 article Georgette Heyer, queen of Regency romance, honoured with blue plaque

Stacy also mentioned another work as a possibility for future reading The Storied Life of AJ Fikry

June's Book

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
by Richard Bach

June 29th (5th Thurs)
7:30pm at Sarah F.'s 


Note from Sarah

Here are some questions to think about as you read/rethink what you read and I'd love to hear what you guys think on Thursday. I love analyzing literature and hope you do too!

-Why did the author choose a seagull as the base of his story/what could be some of the symbolism?

-Why flight/flying as the 'goal' (what's the symbolism in flight)?

-In what ways did Jonathan begin to understand that he was more than a 'limited mortal' (or perhaps think of it as an eternal being)?

-What can we learn about love and missionary work in the story? (How did Jonathan help Fletcher and others)

-How is forgiveness and love one of the keys to learning and progressing in the story? What are some of the other keys discussed?

-In what ways are we like Jonathan? In what ways are we like Fletcher? What is the Flock-are we?

Bring other thoughts/questions/discussions as you'd like.

If you are looking for something else to read in the meantime-I highly suggest Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson...many parts of it match well with Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Summary from Amazon:
This is the story for people who follow their hearts and make their own rules...people who get special pleasure out of doing something well, even if only for themselves...peopel who know there's more to this living than meets the eye:  they'll be right there with Jonathan, flying higher and faster than they ever dreamed.

A pioneering work that wed graphics with words, Jonathan Livingston Seagull now enjoys a whole new life.

Click here to find the book at the public library
Click here to find the book on Amazon
Click here to find the book at Barnes and Noble

May's Book

The Westing Game
by Ellen Raskin

May 18th (3rd Thursday)
7:30pm at Angela's

Summary from Amazon
A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel w. Westing's will.  And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire has chosen a virtual stranger-and possible murderer-to inherit his vast fortune, one things for sure: Sam Westing may be dead...but that won't stop him from playing one last game!

Book trailer:

Discussion Questions can be found here

To find the book click below:

• Public Library
• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble

March's Book

Cold Cereal
by Adam Rex

March 30th (5th Thurs)
7:30pm at Kristin P.'s


Summary from PCPL website:

Baker and Taylor
A boy who may be part changeling, twins involved in a bizarre secret experiment, and a clurichaun in a red tracksuit try to save the world from an evil cereal company whose ultimate goal is world domination.

HARPERCOLL
From author Adam Rex comes the first book in the Cold Cereal Saga—a hilarious, clever, and action-packed adventure series with an educational hook.

Scottish Play Doe—aka Scott—is used to being a little different. Sometimes he hallucinates things no one else can see. But then one of these hallucinations tries to steal Scott's backpack, and he comes face-to-face with an honest-to-goodness leprechaun named Mick who's on the run from, of all things, the Goodco Cereal Company. With the help of his friends Erno and Emily, Scott and Mick uncover Goodco's sinister plans—and take the first steps in saving the world from the evil cereal company. 

Like the Artemis Fowl Series and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series, the Cold Cereal Saga takes elements of familiar mythology—in this case, Arthurian legend and Irish folklore—and reimagines it in the modern world with a cast of relatable characters and myriad magical beings. The story is told from multiple points of view, and there are dozens of illustrations—including "commercial breaks"—and stories within the story.

 Supports the Common Core State Standards


Click here to find it at the public library 

 Click here to find it on Amazon 

 Click here to find it at Barnes and Noble

September's Book

The Persian Pickle Club
by Sandra Dallas

Sept. 22th (4th Thurs) - Date Change!
8pm at Ashley C.'s

Disclaimer:
We apologize in advance, if the book's content is offensive in any way.  If you'd like to learn more about the book it was previously discussed in R.R. Book Club August 2008  Please note our local library only has 3 copies.

Summary:
In 1930s Harveyvile, Kansas, Rita Ritter, a recent arrival, is invited to join the Persian Pickle Club, but her interest in journalism brings her dangerously close to a secret the club has sworn to keep.

summary from PCPL

Review:

http://www.cahners.com/ Hard times in Depression-era Harveyville, Kansas, are softened by the conviviality of a weekly quilting circle called the Persian Pickle Club. Queenie Bean, the "talkingest" member of the group, narrates the novel with snappy style. Over the course of a year, during which the club experiences more sorrow than sewing, Queenie and her pals depend on one another more than ever. When Queenie forms a fast friendship with the newest "Pickle," a flashy, big-city gal named Rita, the equilibrium of the group changes, for Rita is a novice newspaper reporter intent on making a name for herself. The story Rita most wants to crack involves the mysterious death of one of the club ladies' husbands. Will secrets long stitched into the collective fabric of friendship hold? This and other suspenseful questions of small-town life will entertain readers who enjoyed Fannie Flag's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Random, 1987), Olive Ann Burns's Cold Sassy Tree (LJ 10/15/84), or Dallas's first novel, Buster Midnight's Cafe (LJ 4/15/90). Keddy Ann Outlaw, Harris Cty. P.L., Houston Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information.

Click here to find the book at the public library
Click here to find the book on Amazon
Click here to find the book at Barnes and Noble

July's Book

The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro

Thurs. July 21st (3rd Thurs)
8pm at Andi M's

Summary:
The novel's narrator, Stevens, is a perfect English butler who tries to give his narrow existence form and meaning through the self-effacing, almost mystical practice of his profession.  In a career that spans the second World War, Stevens is oblivious of the real life that goes on around him -- oblivious, for instance, of the fact that his aristocrat employer is a Nazi sympathizer.  Still, there are even larger matters at stake in this heartbreaking, pitch-perfect novel -- namely, Stevens' own ability to allow some bit of life-affirming love ito his tightly repressed existence.

summary from the PCPL website

Click here to find the book at the public library

Click here to find the book on Amazon

June's Book

The Rent Collector
by Cameron Wright

June 16th (3rd Thurs)
8pm at Aimeè's 

Summary:
The Rent Collector is the story of a young mother, Sang Ly, struggling to survive by picking through garbage in Cambodia's largest municipal dump.  Under the threat of eviction by an embittered old drunk who is charged with collecting rents from the poor of Stung Meanchey, Sang Ly embarks on a desperate journey to save her ailing son from a life of ignorance and poverty.  It's a tale of discovery and redemption in which she learns that literature, like hope, is found in the most unexpected places.  Though the book is a work of fiction, it was inspired by real people living at Stung Meanchey.

Summary from the book's website

Click here to visit the library website

Click here to find the book on Amazon

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Click here for discussion questions

Click here to visit the book's website

April's Book

The Neverending Story 
by Michael Ende

April 21st (3rd Thurs)
8pm at Kristin P.'s

Summary
This epic work of the imagination has captured the hearts of millions of readers worldwide since it was first published more than a decade ago.  Its special story within a story is an irresistible invitation for readers to become part of the book itself.  And now this modern classic and bibliophile's dream is available in hardcover again.  

The story begins with a lonely boy named Bastian and the strange book that draws him into the beautiful but doomed world of Fantastica.  Only a human can save this enchanted place--by giving its ruler, the Childlike Empress, a new name.  But the journey to her tower leads through lands of dragons, giants, monster, and magic--and once Bastian begins his quest, he may never return.  As he is drawn deeper into Fantastica, he must find the courage to face unspeakable foes and the mysteries of his own heart.

Readers, too, can travel to the wondrous, unforgettable world of Fantastica if they will just turn the page...

summary from goodreads.com

• Click here to visit the public library website
• Click here to find the book on Amazon
• Click here to find the book at Barnes and Noble
• Click here for interesting facts about the book and movie
• Click here to visit the author's website

March's Book

The Crossover
by Kwame Alexander

March 17th (3rd Thurs)
8pm at Lisa D.'s

Summary
"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks...The cours is SIZZLING.  My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm delivering," announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell.  He and his twin borther Jordan are awesome on the court.  but Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he's got mad beats, too, that tell his family's story in verse, in this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood.  

Josh and Jordan must come to grips with the growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.

summary from goodreads.com

Click here to visit the library website

Click here to find the book on Amazon

Click here to find the book at Barnes and Noble

Click here for discussion questions

Click here to visit the author's website

February's Book

Ella Minnow Pea  
A Novel in Letters
by Mark Dunn

February 18th (3rd Thurs)
8pm at Andi M.'s 

Summary:
Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina.  Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."  Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the islands Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as the fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop.  As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel.  The result is both a hilarious and moving story of the girl's fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere.

summary from PCPL

Click here to visit the library website

Click here to find the book on amazon

Click here to find the book at Barnes and Noble

Click here for discussion questions

September's book

Anthem
by Ayn Rand

Sept. 17th (3rd Thurs.)
8pm at Aimeè's

Summary:
In a chilling future world in which all individuality has been crushed, one man, Equality 7-2521, dares to defy the ideals of collectivism, make personal choices, to seek forbidden knowledge, and to love the woman of his choice.

summary from local library website

*This book comes from the sophomore English reading list, there are 2 copies of the book floating around the book club.

Click here to find it at the library.

Click here to find it on amazon.

Click here for discussion questions.

August's Book

The Broken Covenant
by Caroll Hofeling Morris

Aug. 20th (3rd Thurs.)
8pm at Janeen's 

Summary:
Publication Date: January 1, 1989 in The Broken Covenant, author Carroll Hofeling Morris tells a gripping story of sin and its aftermath, as one woman faces the possibility of estrangement from the church and the disintegration of her family until she learns to accept responsibility for her actions.

summary from amazon.com

Click here to find the book on amazon.

Click here to visit the author's website.

May's Book

Michael Vey 
The Prisoner of Cell 25
by Richard Paul Evans

May 14th (2nd Thurs)
8pm at Judy P.'s 

Summary:

To everyone at Meridian High School, fourteen-year-old Michael Vey is nothing special, just the kid who has Tourette's syndrome. But in truth, Michael is extremely special--he has electric powers. Michael thinks he is unique until he discovers that a cheerleader named Taylor has the same mysterious powers. With the help of Michael's friend, Ostin, the three of them set out to discover how Michael and Taylor ended up with their abilities, and their investigation soon brings them to the attention of a powerful group who wants to control the electric teens--and through them, the world.

Summary from the libary website

Click here to visit the book website and see the book trailer 

Click here to visit the library website 

March's Book

Peak
by Roland Smith

March 19th (3rd Thurs)
8pm at Andi M.'s

Summary:

After Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, he's left with two choices: wither away in Juvenile Detention or go live with his long-lost father, who runs a climbing company in Thailand. But Peak quickly learns that his father's renewed interest in him has strings attached. Big strings. He wants Peak to be the youngest person to reach the Everest summit — and his motives are selfish at best. Even so, for a climbing addict like Peak, tackling Everest is the challenge of a lifetime. But it's also one that could cost him his life.

Roland Smith has created an action-packed adventure about friendship, sacrifice, family, and the drive to take on Everest, despite the incredible risk. Peak is a novel that readers won't be able to put down.

Summary from www.scholastic.com

Click here for discussion questions from wikibloggroup.com

Click here to visit the library website

*Emily P. picked up a library caboodle kit.  Please pick up & return books to her.

January's Book

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
by E.L. Konigsburg

January 15th (3rd Thurs)
8pm at Janice's

Summary:

Bored with her life, twelve-year-old Claudia Kincaid is ready for a big change. In fact, she wants to run away from home. But she doesn't like discomfort. She doesn't even like picnics. So an old-fashioned, knapsack kind of running away is out of the question. Instead of running from somewhere, she decides to run to somewhere — some place comfortable, and preferably beautiful. Where else, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City? Fare on the train from the suburbs takes three weeks of skipping hot fudge sundaes. Taking Jamie, the second youngest of her three brothers — the quiet one with the largest cache of money — with her, Claudia's life is immediately changed in a big way. Nights she and Jamie take baths in one of the museum's fountains and they sleep in royal beds in the museum's collection, despite the "Please do not step on the platform" sign. Every day they check out by 4:30 and reenter the museum around the back at 5:30. To remain inconspicuous, Claudia and Jamie join school-group tours by day, and when the museum closes, stand on the toilets in the bathroom stalls out of view from the guards checking for strays.

But she and Jamie's vacation from their "real" life turns into an adventure when Angel, a sculpture rumored to have been carved by Michelangelo, arrives. Will they solve a mystery that even the experts can't solve?

Author Konigsburg's tale of a young girl's escape into a search for identity — her own and Angel's — in one of the world's greatest museums was awarded a 1967 Newbery Medal, as well as named an American Library Association Notable Book, and "Best of the Best" by the School Library Journal. Illustrated by Konigsburg's own expressionistic line drawings, the book remains a modern classic.

Summary from www.scholastic.com

Discussion questions from www.scholastic.com

Click here to here to visit the library website

November's Book

The Willoughbys
by Lois Lowry

Nov. 20th (3rd Thurs.)
8pm at Stacy's

Summary:
Abandoned by their ill-humored parents to the care of an odious nanny, Tim, the twins, Barnaby A and Barnaby B, and their sister, Jane, attempt to fulfill their roles as good oldfashioned children. Following the models set in lauded tales from A Christmas Carol to Mary Poppins, the four Willoughbys hope to attain their proscribed happy ending too, or at least a satisfyingly maudlin one. However, it is an unquestionably ruthless act that sets in motion the transformations that lead to their salvation and to happy endings for not only the four children, but their nanny, an abandoned baby, a candy magnate, and his long-lost son too. Replete with a tongue-in-cheek glossary and bibliography, this hilarious and decidedly old-fashioned parody pays playful homage to classic works of children’s literature.

summary from goodreads.com

Click here to view discussion questions from SweetOnBooks.com

Click here to visit the library website

October's Book

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
by Helen Simonson

Oct. 16th (3rd Thurs.)
8pm at Lieschen's 

Please contact Lieschen to pick up a library copy of the book.  Because the books were checked out as a caboodle kit from the library, ALL the books need to be returned to Lieschen at book club or shortly thereafter.  Thank you!

Summary:

You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major Pettigrew is one of the most indelible characters in contemporary fiction, and from the very first page of this remarkable novel he will steal your heart.

The Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. But then his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more.

But village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as the permanent foreigner. Can their relationship survive the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of culture and tradition? (From the publisher.)

Summary from LitLovers.com

Click here to view discussion questions from LitLovers.com

August's Book

My Name is Asher Lev
by Chaim Potok

August 28th (4th Thurs.) - NEW DATE
8pm at Sarah L.'s

Summary:

Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. Asher Lev is an artist who is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels even when it leads him to blasphemy. In this stirring and often visionary novel, Chaim Potok traces Asher’s passage between these two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other subject only to the imagination.

Asher Lev grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community in postwar Brooklyn, a world suffused by ritual and revolving around a charismatic Rebbe. But in time his gift threatens to estrange him from that world and the parents he adores. As it follows his struggle, My Name Is Asher Lev becomes a luminous portrait of the artist, by turns heartbreaking and exultant, a modern classic.

summary from www.goodreads.com 

Click here to visit the amazon kindle library.

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Click here to view discussion questions from www.sparknotes.com

July's Book

*Update from Stacy:
Book Club will be moved to next week due to the craziness that is the first week of school. Thanks !! 

The Bean Trees
by Barbara Kingsolver

July 23th (4th Wed. NEW NEW DATE)
8pm at Stacy C.'s

Summary:

Marietta Greer spent her childhood in rural Kentucky determined to do two things: avoid getting pregnant and escape rural Kentucky. At the start of the novel, she has headed west in a beat-up '55 Volkswagon, changing her name to "Taylor" when her car runs out of gas in Taylorville, Illinois. By the time two tires give way in Tucson she has with her a stunned, silent three-year-old Cherokee girl who was, literally, dropped into her arms one night. She has named the child Turtle, for her strong, snapping-turtle-like grip.

In Tucson Taylor finds friendship and support in Lou Ann Ruiz, a fellow Kentuckian and single mother, with whom she and Turtle share a house. Her newfound community also includes Mattie, who runs a safe house for political refugees in the upstairs rooms above her auto repair shop.

The novel's theme of fear, flight, homelessness, and finding sanctuary within a community are present in Taylor's struggle to find a place where she belongs, and the more urgent plight of two Central American refugees, Estevan and Esperanza. These fellow travelers help one another create new lives and redefine the meanings of home and family. (From the publisher)

summary from www.litlovers.com 

Click here to visit the library website and reserve your copy.

Click here to view discussion questions from www.litlovers.com