Showing posts with label 2019. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2019. Show all posts
Last meeting of 2019
We had the last book group meeting of 2019 on Monday, December 9th at 3pm. We had great weather so attendance was good! Members brought some wonderful goodies and we talked about some of our favorite book club books from the past and from 2019. Favorites included:
Anyone interested in other books we've read since starting in 2004, can find the list here.
Several books that we did not read in book group were also discussed. These included:
Alice Network
Alice Network
Our next book club meeting will be Monday, January 27th at 3pm in the library's large meeting room. We will be reading Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart and we'll be visiting with the author via Skype! Copies of the book can be picked up at the LME Library circulation desk. Discussion sheets are also available for pickup or can be accessed online.
Next meeting December 9th
Our next book club meeting will be on Monday, December 9th at 3pm for our coffee chat. We'll wrap up 2019 and discuss our favorite books we read outside of bookgroup. Please feel free to bring your favorite appetizers and desserts and join us!
Best of 2019 lists
Every year about this time, the "best of the year" lists start to come out. There are also some lists where you can contribute--on goodreads.com, the voting has begun! If you want to weigh in with your favorites, you can vote now through December 2nd at https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-books-2019
Otherwise, here are a few of the lists that have been posted:
Barnes & Noble best so far (this is only through June 2019 but had some of my favorites!)
UPDATED 11/13/19--Barnes & Nobles Book of the Year finalists
UPDATED 11/13/19--Barnes & Nobles Book of the Year finalists
Overdrive's Best Books of 2019 (this is the vendor we use for our ebooks in ADML)
In addition, libraries in our region are picking book group titles for 2020 (like us!) and you can view the current and previous lists here.
November 2019 - Great Alone
At our October book group meeting, we discussed The last castle : the epic story of love, loss, and American royalty in the nation's largest home by Denise Kiernan. Several of the book group members have visited the Biltmore mansion and were able to give first hand impressions of the experience. Most members enjoyed learning more about the Vanderbilt family and the mansion but felt the book focused a bit too much on the family and not enough on the contributions and benefits due to the construction. We had Biltmore's Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce which was excellent! We also spent a few minutes choosing books for next year. Watch for the list to be posted soon!
Book Summary:
"In 1974, a former Vietnam POW, suffering from flashbacks and nightmares, moves his family to Alaska to live off the grid in an attempt to find peace, restoration, and freedom. They will also face dangers, both internally and externally, as they face the ultimate test of the human spirit"-- Lenora Allbright is 13 when her father convinces her mother, Cora, to move from Seattle to Kaneq, AK. It's 1974, and the former Vietnam POW sees a better future away from the noise and nightmares that plague him. Having been left a homestead by a buddy who died in the war, Ernt is secure in his beliefs, but never was a family less prepared for the reality of Alaska, the long, cold winters and isolation. Locals want to help out, especially Lenora's classmate Matthew Walker. Yet the harsh conditions bring out the worst in Ernt, whose paranoia takes over their lives and exacerbates what Leni sees as the toxic relationship between her parents."
October 2019 - Last Castle
Summary: Documents the story of the Gilded Age mansion Biltmore, tracing George Vanderbilt's construction of his European-style estate and the efforts of his bride, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, to become its protector in the face of changing fortunes and times.
Aug 2019 - Sept 2019
July 2019 - Educated
Summary of Educated by Tara Westover:
"Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag." In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent. As a way out, Tara began to educate herself, learning enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University. Her quest for knowledge would transform her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Tara Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes, and the will to change it."
June 2019 - Bluebird, Bluebird
May 20 - Story of Arthur Truluv
At our April 29th book club meeting, we discussed the book, Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. Members liked the book and the fact that it brings attention to the contributions made by these women. The movie version focuses only on the race to moon, so it was interesting that about a third of the book dealt with WWII war efforts. It was amazing to read about how these working women were able to balance children, families, jobs, and all that goes with it in an age before many of our modern conveniences (permapress clothing, convenience foods, even dishwashers!) During the meeting, we had treats from Frosted Bakery.
Book Summary: "For the past six months, Arthur Moses's days have looked the same: He tends to his rose garden and to Gordon, his cat, then rides the bus to the cemetery to visit his beloved late wife for lunch. The last thing Arthur would imagine is for one unlikely encounter to utterly transform his life. Eighteen-year-old Maddy Harris is an introspective girl who visits the cemetery to escape the other kids at school. One afternoon she joins Arthur--a gesture that begins a surprising friendship between two lonely souls. Moved by Arthur's kindness and devotion, Maddy gives him the nickname "Truluv." As Arthur's neighbor Lucille moves into their orbit, the unlikely trio band together and, through heartache and hardships, help one another rediscover their own potential to start anew. Wonderfully written and full of profound observations about life, The Story of Arthur Truluv is a beautiful and moving novel of compassion in the face of loss, of the small acts that turn friends into family, and of the possibilities to achieve happiness at any age."
Book Club article in Library Journal - Apr 2019
The LME Library book group has been meeting for over 15 years. Why do book groups (or clubs) continue to be popular? Find out in this article from Library Journal called "The Book Club Experience".
April 29 - Hidden Figures
At the book group meeting on March 25, we had a small group discuss Celine by Peter Heller. Definitely not your run of the mill mystery, but if you like eccentric characters, vivid imagery, insightful passages, and are patient with the storytelling, you will probably enjoy this one. Interesting note: the character, Celine, was modeled after the author's own mother. We had cinnamon coffee cake from Frosted Bakery.
Our next meeting will be Monday, April 29th at 3pm and we will be discussing Hidden Figures by Marot Lee Shetterly. Copies are available at the LME Library desk and discussion sheets are available for pickup or online.
Summary: "Before John Glenn orbited the earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South's segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America's aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam's call, moving to Hampton, Virginia, and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Even as Virginia's Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley's all-black "West Computing" group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens."
Summary: "Before John Glenn orbited the earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South's segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America's aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam's call, moving to Hampton, Virginia, and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Even as Virginia's Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley's all-black "West Computing" group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens."
March 25 - Celine by Peter Heller
At our February 25th meeting, we discussed the book, Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson. Everyone who attended thoroughly enjoyed the book and we had a great discussion. There's so much going on with the book that most of the readers would love to see a sequel! We had cupcakes and cookies from Frosted Bakery for refreshments.
Summary: Celine specializes in reuniting families, trying to make amends for a loss in her own past. She is asked for help by Gabriela, whose father, a photographer, went missing on the border of Montana and Wyoming. He was assumed to have died from a grizzly mauling, but his body was never found. Investigating a trail gone cold in Yellowstone National Park, it becomes clear the two women are being followed-- and this is a case someone desperately wants to keep closed.
January 28 - Cuckoo's Calling
Book Summary: "After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: his sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man."
Titles for 2019
We chose our titles for 2019 during our October and November meetings. Here's our list:
2019 (Our 16th year!)
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January 28
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Galbraith, Robert
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February 25
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Jackson, Joshilyn
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March 25
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Heller, Peter
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April 29
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Shetterly, Margot Lee
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May 20
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Berg, Elizabeth
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June 24
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Locke, Atttica
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July 29
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Westover, Tara
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August 26
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Wiggs, Susan
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September 30
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Ide, Joe
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October 28
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Kiernan, Denise
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November 25
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Hannah, Kristin
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December 9th @ 3pm —Coffee Chat about your
favorite books of 2019
& get our new list for 2020
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For those of you keeping track--here's the listing for all the titles we've read over the last 16 years! Book Discussion Lists 2004-2019
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