September 2014

Many thanks to Josh Weil, author of The Great Glass Sea, for taking the time to talk to our book club.  It was the highlight of the evening!

We also discussed:

The Divine Comedy - Dante
From a Distance - Raffaella Barker
At Home in Mitford - Jan Karon
World of Wonders - Robertson Davies
The Other Story - Tatiana de Rosnay
Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay
Signature of All Things - Elizabeth Gilbert
An Italian Wife - Ann Hood
All Fall Down - Jennifer Weiner
A New Light on Tiffany (Clara Driscoll) - Marin Eidelberg
And the Dark Sacred Night - Julia Glass
Three Junes - Julia Glass
I Sailed with Magellan - Stuart Dybek
Townie - Andre Dubus
Ron Hansen
W. G. Sebald
Jim Harrison
Nadine Gordimer
J. M. Coetzee
The Great Glass Sea - Josh Weil
Les Roberts
Cop Town - Karin Slaughter
Police - Jo Nesbo
The Arsonist - Sue Miller
My Beloved World - Sonia Sotomayor
Duck Duck Go
Rasputin's Shadow - Raymond Khoury
The Dinner - Herman Koch
Summer House with Swimming Pool - Herman Koch
Memory of Water - Emmi Itaranta

From our sister group in OK:

Lawton Book Bunch
Thursday, September 11, 2014

The Next meeting will be Thursday, October 8, 2014

Books

Bourdain, Anthony. Author in general
Diamond, Jared. Author in general
Faulkner, James. Absalom, Absalom!
Larson, Erik. Devil in the White City
Le Carre, John. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Penny, Louise. Trick of the Light; Beautiful Mystery
Ripley, Amanda. The Smartest Kids in the World
Shyamalan, M. Night. I Got Schooled
Tan, Amy. Valley of Amazement
Zevin, Gabrielle. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry


Of Interest

Man Booker 2014 Short List: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/man-booker-prize-2014

Hogarth Shakespeare Series: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/about-us/Hogarth/The-Hogarth-Shakespeare/ (Authors include Anne Tyler, Jeanette Winterson, Margaret Atwood, Howard Jacobson, Jo Nesbo, and Tracy Chevalier.

Texas Book Festival 2014 Line Up: www.texasbookfestival.org

Television

The Roosevelts. PBS Sept.14-21, 2014

We ARE book people, who meet once a month for dinner and scintillating conversation which turns partly (but only partly!) on books. That’s who we are. And National Book Lovers Day is a marvelous tip of the hat to who we are. But we would be book people even without National Book Lovers Day. Frantzie Couch

From Mary Lou in MD:

Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas (2003).  This is the first in a series set in the California desert town of Pico Mundo.  The 20-year-old narrator is a short order grill cook at the town’s one diner.  His oddity is his ability to see dead people who are not yet ready to move to the Beyond.  Some of these are just restless, like Elvis, and others may have died violently.  Odd’s unusual talent may enable him to assist Police Chief Wyatt Parker in apprehending the murderer.  All of the characters are strange, at least, and some of them are grotesque, like Odd’s friend and mentor the 6-fingered 400 pound Little Ozzie Boone.  Odd is a self-declared unreliable narrator, a good guy, and an amateur detective.  I will look for more of this entertaining series.  

Belva Plain, Crossroads (2008).  There are plenty of secrets and mysteries in this novel of family relationships.  Gwen Wright is the adopted daughter of Cassie Wright, powerhouse 3^rd generation owner of a renowned glassworks in a thriving New England.  Gwen grows up with all the privileges and advantages, but also with the unsettling perception that she is a disappointment to her beautiful and talented mother.  In contrast, Jewell Fairbanks grew up poor and disadvantaged and jealous of Gwen, her boss’s daughter.   The secrets in the novel revolve around the identity of Gwen’s birth parents.  The dramatic tension builds as these three very different women interact on the way to realizing their true identities.  

Catherine Coulter, Double Take (2007).  FBI agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock, who happens to be Dillon’s wife, are drawn into a mystery by their friend Virginia sheriff Dixon Noble.  Dixon’s wife disappeared three years ago and now her godfather reports that he saw her in San Francisco, where she is he trophy wife of an aging millionaire.  Dix goes to San Francisco where he stays with Sherlock’s parents while he investigates.  Meanwhile, local FBI agent Cheney Stone pulls a woman out of San Francisco Bay, saving her from attempted murder.  She turns out to be Julia Ransom, famous widow suspected of murdering her spiritualist, medium husband.  The two plots become intertwined and wind through a mysterious world of psychic visions and communications with the dead which may or may not be total frauds.    

Stuart Woods, Hot Mahogany (2008).   Attorney Stone Barrington is a former NYPD detective who is “of counsel” to a very prestigious Manhattan law firm, handling matters with which they do not wish to be associated.   Stone is a handsome, wealthy bachelor who needs all his creative intellect to remain unscathed by entanglements with the fair sex.  His former NYPD partner Dino Bacchetti assists Stone in his detective endeavors.  This mystery centers on rare, highest quality antique American furniture, greedy private collectors, and unscrupulous dealers and (perhaps) forgers.  The chief delight of this novel, like others in this series, is Stone’s inventiveness in ensuring that the tricksters are justly tricked.  

Ann Granger, A Rare Interest in Corpses (2006).  In 1864, orphaned Lizzie Martin arrives in London to become lady’s companion to her godfather’s widow.  The garrulous and protective cabbie who conveys her to her new home offers future assistance.  Eventually Lizzie seeks him out as she seeks to solve the mystery of her predecessor companion’s unexplained disappearance.  Equally challenging for Lizzie is learning to navigate her strange and sometimes dangerous world of pretentious society and urban decadence.  Fortunately (and delightfully) she is astute.  I will look for more Ann Granger novels.