Book Club

Dear book club friends,

We decided to have a potluck in October--cooking recipes specifically from  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in addition to discussing our book of the month.  If you don't have access to the book anymore, you can get the recipes online at: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Recipes.html.  If you can let me know what you plan to make, or broadcast it ("reply all") to the group, then we can make sure we don't have duplicates.  So, if you'd like to take part in the potluck, we plan to meet for dinner at 6:45 at Sharidean's house.  If you can't make it for the potluck, book discussion will begin at 8 as usual.
October 12 at 6:45 (for dinner and discussion) and/or 8 PM (for discussion only) at Sharidean's house: The Miracle of Freedom: Seven Tipping Points That Saved the World by Chris Stewart and Ted Stewart (320 pages, hardcover) Chris and Ted Stewart make a strong case that fewer than 5 percent of all people who have ever lived on the earth have lived under conditions that we could consider free. So where did freedom come from, and how are we fortunate enough to experience it in our day? A deeper look at the human record, write the authors, reveals a series of critical events, obvious forks in the road leading to very different outcomes, that resulted in this extraordinary period in which we live. They identify and discuss seven decisive tipping points:
1. The defeat of the Assyrians in their quest to destroy the kingdom of Judah
2. The victory of the Greeks over the Persians at Thermopylae and Salamis
3. Roman Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity
4. The defeat of the armies of Islam at Poitiers
5. The failure of the Mongols in their effort to conquer Europe
6. The discovery of the New World
7. The Battle of Britain in World War II
North Logan Library has one paper book and an audio book that I will attempt to get at my first opportunity.  The Logan Library also has both, but the audio version has an enormously long wait.  The paper copy wait is 24 days--Pat, can you reserve it ASAP?
November 9 at 8 PM at Pat Marshall's house: The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig (352 pages, paperback) is set in the past in rural eastern Montana—and addresses that time and place in distinct, uncluttered prose that carries the full enthusiasm of affection and even love—for the landscape, the characters, and the events of the story—without being sentimental or elegiac. The novel is narrated by an aging Montana state superintendent of schools, Paul Milliron, who is charged with deciding the fate of the state's last scattered rural schools, and who, in the hours preceding his meeting to determine those schools' fate, recalls the autumn of 1909, when he was 13 and attending his own one-room school in Marias Coulee.Recently widowed, Paul's father, overwhelmed by the child-rearing duties presented by his three sons, in addition to his challenging farming duties, hires a housekeeper, sight unseen, from a newspaper ad. The housekeeper, Rose, proclaims that she "can't cook but doesn't bite." She turns out to be a beguiling character, and she brings with her a surprise guest—her brother, the scholarly Morris, who, though one of the most bookish characters in recent times, also carries brass knuckles and—not to give away too much plot—somehow knows how to use them.The schoolteacher in Marias Coulee runs away to get married, leaving Morris to step up and take over her job. The verve and inspiration that he, an utter novice to the West, to children and to teaching children, brings to the task is told brilliantly and passionately, and is the core of the book's narrative, with its themes of all the different ways of knowing and learning, at any age.

This book is available at the North Logan Library, and Pat has also reserved the book club set from Logan Library, but it may not be available until after Oct. 24.

Finally, the website Janet mentioned for getting books is:  http://www.alibris.com/

Happy reading,
                   Julie, 563-6619

Book Club schedule

Book club is a group of people who meet monthly to discuss a book that we've read.  We are no frills--come as you are, when you can, and generally don't serve refreshments, except for our March potluck and this year, our December meeting.  We are mostly neighbors from the Hyde Park 4th and 8th ward geographic areas (not necessarily all LDS) and invite others from our neighborhood to join us.  We also include friends of those neighbors.  We take turns choosing and hosting the book discussion at our houses.  Currently we meet the third Tuesday of the month at 8 PM, unless otherwise specified.  Anyone who would like to come can contact Julie Latvakoski, and she would be happy to add that person to the book club e-mail distribution list.  In the past, we've read such books as: Three Cups of Tea, Goose Girl, Little Women, The Five Love Languages, Skipping Christmas, and The Number One Ladies Detective Agency.

So now that you know what exactly Book Club is....Here's the revised line-up.  The meetings start at 8 PM, unless otherwise specified:

Tuesday, December 14 (note change, 2nd Tuesday of the month!) at Kathy Castleton's house: We will discuss favorite Christmas books and stories, rather than all reading a new Christmas book for December.  Also, if time, we may discuss other non-book club books we are reading.  Optionally, we will bring a plate of cookies to share.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at Pat Marshall’s house: Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference by Warren St. John (336 pages, paperback) who brought Clarkston, GA, to national attention in 2007 with a series of articles about the changes in the small Southern town brought about by an influx of refugees from all over the world. This book comes out of those articles. It gives more detail about the town and, most particularly, the three soccer teams composed of refugee boys (the Fugees) who were coached by Luma Mufleh, an American-educated Jordanian woman. The book is a sports story, a sociological study, a tale of global and local politics, and the story of a determined woman who became involved in the lives of her young charges. Keeping the boys in school and out of gangs, finding a place for them to practice, and helping their families survive in a new world all became part of her daily life.  ***FYI, North Logan Library has 6 copies of this book in their “book club” section.***

Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at Cathy Hansen’s house: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows ( pages, paperback) is set in January 1946. Writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—no ordinary book club. Rather, it was formed as a ruse and became a way for people to get together without raising the suspicions of Guernsey’s Nazi occupiers. Written as a series of letters, so begins a remarkable tale of theisland of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 (starts at 7 PM instead of 8) at Sandi Smith's house: Food and Books Party: a potluck where we bring food related to some book, eat, and discuss books. 

Happy Reading!