We are part of the California Reading and Literature Project

Book Choices for 2010 to 2011 3rd Thursday 7 pm Barnes & Nobel

August 19 Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
September 16 The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larson
October 21 Hotel at the End of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
November 18 Things Fall Apart by Chiune Achebe
December 16 Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War, and an African Farm by Lauren St. John
January 20 The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
February 17 Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Bloody Jack #2 by L. A. Meyer
March 17 The Help by Kathryn Stockett
April 21 The little prince and first half of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
May 19 The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
June 16 Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
July 21 Heart of Darkness by Josef Conrad

Peace Like a River Creates Hurricane of Discussion

Even though Sheila was not convinced this was a great book going into the discussion, we had such a great time I think everyone was convinced it was a great book. Oh be jubilant my soul! I loved the imagery of the river going to heaven in the end and how the father heals the son Rubin and then the father goes up the river to heaven. I also loves the total casual distracted pace of the novel. The other most impressive feature was the way Christians in this book prayed for their enemy Mr. Andreson and how that transformed Rubin's (the son) attitude toward Mr. Andreson. Another important feature was when Roxy shared with the group the story of Horace Spofford who wrote the hymn, Peace like a river. Horace lost his 4 daughters when a ship sank they were on. The only way he could get through that even was to place his trust in God. As he sailed over the place where the boat had gone down, he wrote the hymn. Rubin's family was like that too. They were able to overcome so many obstacles with their faith in God. As Leif Enger says through Rubin's character, "God was overworked on our behalf."

We welcome Kori Lynn to the group and I hope we all enjoy Blind Assassin our April 15 by Margaret Atwood at Barnes and Noble at 7 pm.

If You Want to Suggest a Book Respond to this Message

Besides focusing on the importance of randomness, Nassim Taleb in Black Swan says humans are made to love stories and not so much facts. Our last three books, Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Descartes Bones and The Johnstown Flood have been factual recounts which don't really rise to the level of novel in so many ways. So now I've been really wanting to read a good story.

If you know of a good story, respond to this post. If you want to make a suggestion for a novel to read for next year please make a note of that too.

Descartes' Bones by Russell Shorto

We will celebrate the holiday season reading a book by Shorto who explores the history of faith and reason in his book, Descartes' Bones on Thursday, December 17 at Janice Leppke's house 715 E. Cortland Avenue, Fresno, CA. We'll see you there!! Glenn 630-5016

The World Series of Book Conferences here in Fresno!!

The most prestigious conference for international children's books coming out of Basel, Switzerland called the International Board on Books for Young people (IBBY) will take place in Fresno in October 2011. That's like getting the olympics in your city for children's book people!

Here's the website http://www.ibby.org/
Next year's conference is in Spain http://www.ibbycompostela2010.org/?lang=en The call is Oct 30.

Also, Juan Felipe Herrera will give a poetry reading tomorrow night, Thursday, October 8, at 7 p.m. at the Henry Madden Library. There is no charge for admission. A reception follows the program.

So that's Margarita Engle two weeks ago, Francisco Jimenez last Friday, Juan Felipe Herrera tomorrow and Gary Soto (at Fresno City) November 4 (?). http://www.garysoto.com/museum.html

It's like is the Paris for Latino writers!!

Announcing the Books for 2009-2010

August 20 - Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
September 17 - White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
October 15- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
November 19 - Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
December 17 - Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict between Faith and Reason by Russel Shorto
January 21 - The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
February 18 - The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
March 18 - Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
April 15 - The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
May 20 - A Separate Peace by John Knowles
June 17 - Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
July 15 - In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez