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

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

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

September's Book

Possession
by A. S. Byatt

Sept. 19th  (3rd Thurs)
8pm at Emily P.'s

Summary:
Winner of England’s Booker Prize and the literary sensation of the year, Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once an intellectual mystery and triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets. As they uncover their letters, journals, and poems, and track their movements from London to Yorkshire—from spiritualist séances to the fairy-haunted far west of Brittany—what emerges is an extraordinary counterpoint of passions and ideas.

An exhilarating novel of wit and romance, an intellectual mystery, and a triumphant love story. This tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets became a huge bookseller favorite, and then on to national bestellerdom.

summary from www.goodreads.com

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

August's Book

The Host
by Stephenie Meyer

Aug. 16th (3rd Thurs.)
8pm at Erin's home

Summary:
Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans, is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.

summary from www.goodreads.com

Click here or on the picture 

to go to the library web site

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.

Click on the picture to link to the library web site

September's Book

The Rescue
by Nicholas Sparks

September 13th, Thursday 8pm at Judy's

Summary

A volunteer fireman and a single mother join forces to find the woman's son who has been lost in a storm. While searching for the boy, the two adults find themselves increasingly close.

February's book

Big Stone Gap

by Adriana Trigiani

Feb 13th at Aimeè's

Summary:

Town pharmacist and local spinster Ave Maria has been keeping the secrets of Stone Gap for a long time, but now a skeleton is about to tumble from her own family closet.