Meeting at Petunia's Place for October to January

Set back from the busy street corner on the northwest corner of Palm and Bullard is the best bookstore in town, Petunia's Place where we will meeting October 21, November 18, December 16, and January 20. Then we will decide whether we should check out the Fort Washington Library or the Fig Garden Library (or not). We are not meeting at Barnes and Noble because we couldn't hear each other very well sitting in the cafe near the coffee grinder. The loud music and foot traffic were also distracting.

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.