Schedule and Book Changes

Hello all!

You may have noticed a lack of posts the last couple of months; unfortunately my schedule has been running me about and the Book Club Blog was the juggling ball I dropped. However, I'm back with lots of important news.

Some of you may remember that we were originally planning to read Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love for November and that we were meeting on a Tuesday. NEITHER of these things is true anymore! I'm working out the kinks in using the Barrington Library Book Club in a Bag Kits and I was unable to obtain the Gilbert book set in a timely fashion so instead here is November's information:

Wednesday, November 28th at 7:30 pm in the Church Lounge we will discuss While I Was Gone by Sue Miller

Why Wednesday? Deacons and Session will both be meeting that Tuesday (not to mention choir!) and I still have class on Mondays. Good news though - my only class next semester is on Wednesday nights which will allow us to return to our regularly scheduled day and time starting in January 2008.

Due to the Christmas holidays and more fall schedule conflicts, our December meeting will be on a Wednesday as well:

Wednesday, December 19th at 7:30 in the Church Lounge we will discuss The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore

For more information on Sue Miller see the post directly below this one and watch this page for future updates with information on Christopher Moore.

Here's hoping everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving holiday!

While I Was Gone Resources

We'll be meeting on Wednesday, November 28th at 7:30 pm in the Church Lounge.

For additional information on why this day and why this book see the above post.

Information about While I Was Gone:

• ReadingGroupGuides.com discussion questions
• Page from Oprah's Book Club with info about the book, Sue Miller, and the Oprah led discussion
• Interview at BookPage.com regarding While I Was Gone
• Review from BookReporter.com

Information about Sue Miller:

• Barnes and Noble Meet the Writers biography and interview
• New York Times essay on whether or not her work is autobiographical
• Audio interview with Miller on OnPoint from Boston's NPR station (almost an hour long and focused on her newest book Lost in the Forest)

Hope to see you all soon!

The Law of Similars Resources

So, I'm a little behind this month, but better late than never I guess.

Since I have class Monday nights this fall, the group has graciously agreed to switch to Tuesday meetings for the next couple of months which means that our next meeting is:

Tuesday, September 25 at 7:30 pm - since the Session will likely also be meeting we will plan on being in the South Lounge.

Our title for this month is The Law of Similars by Chris Bohjalian.

Bohjalian has been compared to Jodi Picoult in topic and style and his book Midwives was one of Oprah's Book Club picks. For more information on that title you can read his interview with BookBrowse.com.

For information on all of Bohjalian's titles and his life, the first stop should be his website.
You can also find a brief bio at his Random House Author Page and he's one of the authors featured through the Barnes and Noble "Meet the Writers" program.

BookReporter.com has an interview with Bohjalian. For further insight into Bohjalian's mind you can also check out his newspaper colum, Idyll Banter, from the Burlington Free Press.

Finally, our old standby ReadingGroupGuides.com has a guide for The Law of Similars.

Hopefully I'll get next month's information on Matthew Pearl up a little bit sooner; I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Unless Resources

It's hard to believe we've been meeting for five years; time just seems to fly!
To kick off our sixth year we'll be reading:

Unless by Carol Shields on August 27th at 7:30 pm in the south lounge of the church.

While she was born in River Forest, Shields lived most of her life in Canada. Unless, her final novel, has also been called her darkest. Take a look at some of the following sources for more information on both Unless and Carol Shields:

• Obituary from CBC News - Shields died of cancer in 2003, this summarizes Shields' works and life. CBC article about her writing following her death. CBC article breaking the news of her death.
• Interview about living with cancer in 2000 from CBC Radio.
• Unless was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2002 (Life of Pi won instead), the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. The Booker List from 2002.
• NW Passages profile.
• Interview with BookReporter.com (about halfway down the page).
• Observer interview following the publication of Unless.
• Manitoba Author Publication Index - includes a list of awards won and an annotated bibliography of published works.
• Mostly Fiction review of Unless - scroll down for links to numerous other reviews and resources.
• ReadingGroupGuides.com guide for Unless.
• Carol Shields Memorial Labyrinth - inspired by her novel Larry's Party.
  
  Enjoy and hopefully I'll see you soon!

Founding Mothers Resources

I hope everyone had an excellent Independence Day yesterday! In honor of our country's birthday this month's book club pick is:

Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts

We are back to our regular schedule which means we'll be meeting on Monday, July 23rd at 7:30 pm in the Church Lounge.
At our last meeting I mentioned that I thought I hadn't been able to find much when I looked for sites related to Cokie Roberts but as you now can see, I was clearly wrong.

First we have her NPR Bio which sums up the basics nicely. Then there's her page at the Harry Walker Agency where she's on contract as a lecturer and here's her 1994 Commencement Speech from Wellesley College.

I also found several resources specific to Founding Mothers.

• Women of Influence: A Conversation with Cokie Roberts - This is an interview with Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, regarding Founding Mothers.
• There's also an interview at beliefnet focused on Founding Mothers.
• Here's an online copy of the Reading Group Guide.
• A very brief interview in U.S. News and World Report that's definitely on the lighter side.
• If you have an hour to spare (I know, I'm funny, right?) check out Robert's conversation with Margaret Carlson hosted by the National Constitution Center. I tried the audio only version and it works pretty well - as usual with the internet, the faster your connection the better the quality.

I think that's enough to get us started - if you find something else either post it in the comments or send me an e-mail!

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind Resources

For June we are once again meeting on a Tuesday (but we'll be back to Mondays in July). We've decided to go with a title on the lighter side this month:

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross
Tuesday, June 26th at 7:30 pm in the Church Lounge

This is the first of Ross' seven books about Miss Julia, the sharp-tongued, yet soft hearted, Abbotsville, South Carolina resident. An active presbyterian, Miss Julia's world is rocked when her late husband's mistress shows up with her nine year old son, Little Lloyd.

For more information try Ann B. Ross' homepage which has information on the author herself and the Miss Julia books. I found the "On Writing" and "Book Notes" pages particularly interesting.
You can also check out the Miss Julia discussion guide from ReadingGroupGuides.com which we will use to guide our discussion on the 26th.

See you then!

Death Comes for the Archbishop Resources

We decided for May this year that we wanted to read a classic and the title we have chosen is

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.

If you're interested in learning more about the author before we meet (TUESDAY, May 29) here are some links to sites about Willa Cather:
The Willa Cather Archive from University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A.S. Byatt (author of Possession) article in the Guardian
Domestic Goddesses - A page dedicated to women writers of domestic fiction
The Cather Foundation - Non-profit dedicated to preserving and promoting understanding and appreciation of Willa Cather

A few links about Death Comes for the Archbishop:
The Cliffs Notes online
Times All-Time 100 Greatest Novels - Just a short paragraph
Wikipedia entry - keep in mind Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, the information is probably correct but there are no guarantees.

That's all I have for right now - if you have any ideas for additional links, please e-mail them to me. Thanks!

IMPORTANT: Book and Date Change for May!

Due to a group decision that East of Eden is too long to read this time of year, we are replacing Steinbeck with another classic American author:

Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop will be our choice for May 2007.

Also - don't forget that due to Memorial Day and my class schedule, our meeting for May is on a special day (thanks for being accomadating!):

Tuesday, May 29 at 7:30 in the church lounge

Unfortunately, the only discussion guide I could find was through a subscription database, so I will be unable to post a link to it. I will leave copies in the church Narthex on Sunday though and I will be posting some other links relating to Cather soon. The discussion guide I found was through Novelist, so if your local library carries the Novelist database you could also access the guide that way.

Thanks to everyone who came to the discussion tonight!

Book List in a PDF

PDFs can be seen but not edited. The advantage over Excel is that Adobe Reader 8 can be downloaded for free here: Free Adobe Reader 8

Following should be a link to the page where you can download the Book List PDF:

http://www.mediafire.com/?2maiwzzmoau

Mediafire has some annoying ads, but it provides free file hosting (without having to sign up) so that everyone can access this file.

About the Spreadsheet

This is a new feature I'm trying. We'll have to see how it works. Anyone can edit the spreadsheet. If you want to, you can also save it as an excel spreadsheet to keep at home. Keep an eye out for a pdf of the same information to be posted soon.

Book List in a Spreadsheet

Looking for Alaska Resources

Our next meeting is right around the corner on April 23 at 7:30 in the church lounge. April is traditionally our kids/teen month and this year we're reading Looking for Alaska by John Green.

For a little more information on the book and a preview of some of the discussion questions, you can check out the link to the Rhode Island Teen Book Award page or the official Penguin Reading Guide.

Visit John Green's official webpage for information from the author and check out this blog entry for a somewhat hazy explanation of why he has called Looking for Alaska Christian fiction (something we'll be discussing Monday).

Some interviews with John Green:
Teen Reads - short and focuses more on his second book An Abundance of Katherines
Pop Goes the Library - short
Rich F., Borders Employee - all about Looking for Alaska
Seven Impossible Things - The longest of the interviews with lots of links to related websites; the introduction is sort of strange, but if you're struggling with that just skip down to the actual interview.