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!