April's Book

Nothing to Envy:  Ordinary Lives in North Korea
by Barbara Demick

April 16th (3rd Thurs)
8pm at Amanda C.'s

Summary:

In NOTHING TO ENVY, Demick follows the lives of six people: a couple of teenaged lovers courting in secret, an idealistic woman doctor,  a homeless boy, a model factory worker who loves Kim Il Sung more than her own family and her rebellious daughter.

Demick spent six years painstakakingly reconstructing life in a city off-limits to outsiders through interviews with defectors, smuggled photographs and videos. The book spans the chaotic years that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, the devastating effects of a famine that killed an estimated twenty percent of the population, and an increase in illegal defections.

While many books focus on the North Korean nuclear threat, NOTHING TO ENVY is one of the few that dwells on what everyday life is like for ordinary citizens.  With remarkable detail, Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime in the world today.  She gives a portrait as vivid as walking oneself through the darkened streets of North Korea.

Reviewers have compared the book  to John Hersey’s Hiroshima and to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.  NOTHING TO ENVY is a groundbreaking addition to the literature of totalitarianism. Both the New Yorker and Paris Review have published excerpts of  the book.

Summary from nothingtoenvy.com

Click here for discussion questions from www.litlovers.com

Click here to visit the library website 

February's Book

North & South
by Elizabeth Gaskell

Feb. 21st (3rd Thurs.)
8pm at Emily P.'s

There's also a BBC miniseries that closely mirrors the novel.  It's available at the library, netflix, and amazon instant video.

Summary:
When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction. In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.

summary from www.goodreads.com

Click here to go to the library website

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.