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".

• The protagonist is a nice young woman whose life is suddenly invaded.
• She’s self-made and independent, with primarily good family relationships.
• She has an interesting job.
• She is not looking for trouble–she is doing exactly what she should be doing and something cuts across her bow.
• She solves her problem by her own courage and intelligence.
• The story has no on-scene violence
• The story has no strong four-letter words or explicit sex scenes.

At last night's book group, members enjoyed our historical dishes of Floating Island and Apple Pan Dowdy as we discussed our October pick, John Adams.

The LME Library Book Club is now listed on GoodReads!  Information can be found at http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/47640.Lillie_M_Evan_Library_Book_Club 

We greatly enjoyed our book club meeting with author, Melanie Benjamin on April 25th. She was very helpful in answering our questions about her book, Alice I Have Been, and it was wonderful to get the author's perspective on certain aspects of the story.

Melanie has written another book which is due out in July 2011 called the Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb.  Watch the new book shelves because it will soon be available at the LME Library!

Book clubs are so much more than just reading the book. As a book club member, you develop a better understanding of the book, and the community participation transforms the written words into a collective experience that is shared among all attending. Thanks so much to Melanie for visiting with us!

Our next book is I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass. Copies are available in the library and the discussion guide is also available online.

I just realized that I haven’t posted the books we chose for February-June. At the October and November book groups, I did a series of lightning talks about a variety of books. The members present voted on the books they would like to read. I then created a schedule, so that everyone can see the upcoming titles. Here is the schedule through June 2011:
Feb 28 Girl with the Pearl Earring Chevalier, Tracy (discussion sheet already available!)

Mar 28 Kitchen God's Wife Tan, Amy

Apr 25 Alice I Have Been Benjamin, Melanie

May 23 I See You Everywhere Glass, Julia

Jun 27 Listening is an Act of Love Isay, Dave

Readers can pick up schedules at the library circulation desk or online. Book group meetings are on the last Monday of the month (with no meeting in December) at 6:30pm.

July 26, 2010The Next Thing on My List: A Novel by Jill Smolinski

This Spring our choices for book club are varied and will take us all over the world and into our own history and emotions. Hopefully, there is lots of thought provoking and discussion starting ideas to explore. Happy Reading!

Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places on Earth by Eric Weiner
Part humor, part twisted self-help guide, and part foreign affairs discourse. The Geography of Bless will take us from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments "un-unhappiness." This book investigates not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people happier in one part of the world than in another? Eric Weiner answers those questions and more, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions. We will be discussing the book on April 26, 2010 at 6:30

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Have you had a favorite teacher? Or one that you felt didn't understand you and didn't care? At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large but she doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her. As people around her grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition-its conflicts, its tragedies and joys and the endurance it requires. We will be discussing this book on May 24, 2010 at 6:30. Note the change from our regular last Monday of the month time due to the Memorial Day holiday.

Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg
In this biography, Rick Brag tells an unforgettable tale about fathers and sons inspired by his own relationship wth his ten-year-old stepson. He learns, right from the start, that a man who chases a woman with a child is like a dog who chases a car and wins. He sets out to understand his father, his son, and himself. With candor, insight, tremendous humor, and the remarkable gift for descriptive storytelling on which he made his name, Rick Bragg delivers a brilliant and moving rumination on the lives of boys and men, a poignant reflection on what it means to be a father and a son. We will be reading this book in June, just in time for Father's Day and we'll discuss it on June 28, 2010 at 6:30.

This final quarter of 2009 we have some great books to explore!

September 28, 2009

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
Recovering after a string of unsuccessful relationships, Liz Gilbert takes a yearlong journey immersing herself in fabulous cuisine, divine transcendence, and then equanimity between body and soul. During her first four months, Liz learns Italian and masters the art of finding the best food in town. Next, she calms her “monkey mind” and reclaims her inner peace through a prolonged stay at her Guru’s ashram near Bombay, without traveling at all throughout the Indian subcontinent. Finally, Liz seeks balance between her inner and outer selves in Indonesia. Bali’s cultural peculiarities are an odd backdrop to her process of a reintegrating romantic intimacy into her life, but her wry and intelligent story-telling, spiced with a dash of self deprecation, propels her travelogue.
October 26, 2009Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

“I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.” So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives. In this groundbreaking historical novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America's greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Mamah's profound influence on Wright. Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan's Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world, and her unforgettable journey, marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leads inexorably to this novel's stunning conclusion.

November 30, 2009

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
Although much has been written about the Great Depression and how hard life was during that time, Mildred Kalish’s memoir of growing up on a rural Iowa farm during the 1930's is anything but depressing. Mildred was the third of four children and grew up on her grandparent's farm with extended family living close by. While Mildred's childhood was full of hard work and strict discipline, it was also full of fun, family and lots of great food. Little Heathens is a wonderfully written memoir full of fond memories (and a few recipes) from a childhood spent on a farm.
December 2009

No Book Club, Happy Holidays!

When this time of the year arrives, my reading switches gears. Today, I keep talking about "beach reads". Not that I plan a trip to the beach this summer, just that I want a purely entertaining, not too much thinking involved type of book. A book that I have really enjoyed reading lately is Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. This is a perfect summer read, all about a magical garden, cooking (that I can read about and not actually do) and a couple of sisters with issues. Summer is a great time to read a series. The days are longer and you may have time to develop a friendship with the characters in a series of books. I love the books about the little town of Harmony by Philip Gulley. Living in a small town, you learn to love the people, quirks, habits, foibles and all. Gulley shows a real understanding of his characters and their attempts to live lives of love and, well, harmony. Have you found a book to spend some time with this summer? Come on, share!

Your Friend, Library Lil

We have been enjoying talking about books together for five years this month. In that time I have made some great friends and really improved my choices in the books I read! As many of us have said, "If I wasn't reading this for group, I probably wouldn't have chosen to read it." And you all know that we have read some great books together. I wonder which of the books have been your favorites and why? How about sharing your choices here on our blog. Here are the books we've read together in the last five years: