Orange Beach Library Reading Group

Dear Readers,

First I’d like to say I’m sorry if I missed you on Wednesday. I was at the Alabama Library Association Convention giving a presentation on technology in the library. Ironically, I forgot to send you all an email to let you know I would not be here. I have suggestions for the Tuesday group, one non-fiction and the other a fiction novella. For September I want to add “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman and for October, I want to add “Other Voices, Other Rooms” by Truman Capote. Both are available in audio and “tree” book format. I know we’ll get some good discussions from these titles. On another note, I have been trying to watch The Colbert Report on the comedy channel. I TIVO it and watch one or two when I can find the time. Last week he interviewed Jeanette Walls, author of “The Glass Castle” which is our June pick for the second Tuesday meeting. I was pretty excited to actually catch something on television that was connected to our book group. You can watch the interview here: Colbert Report.

As ya’ll know, the O.B. Library closed last Thursday so the entire staff could attend some of the training sessions at the convention in Mobile. It was a great opportunity for us all and we learned some pretty nifty stuff. I attended one conference session where the library book groups are recorded, then posted on the website for distribution in podcasts. I thought that was an interesting idea and we may try it someday. Just think, if you miss a book group you could still “attend” by listening to the podcast which could be downloaded to your iPod or MP3 player! Podcasts are useful to those who are vision impaired too. Don’t worry, we’ll discuss it and you’ll be fully aware of if and when we record our sessions!

Happy Summer Reading to everyone. I look forward to our next session.

The group met to discuss Amy Tan’s “Saving Fish From Drowning”. It was a meaty tome that allowed the range of discussion to cover many topics from world political views to the development of personal relationships. We also took some time at the end to do the ever important choosing of more books for future discussions. Carol is correct… we need to be able to announce the choices earlier than a month in advance. We used to choose for the whole year, but have fallen out of the habit. I’d like to bring that habit back. I apologize for the confusion about the upcoming choices. AND I vow never to ask another author to attend/perform at one of our meetings. It often doesn’t work out well. We’ll keep it strictly book group talk! We talked about Susanna Clark’s “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” and I think it is a good book for our group, but the size (about 800 pages) is daunting. Also, it may not be an easy read for some, especially in the beginning, but it gets better. Soooooo…. we came up with a way to read/talk about the book in the group. Consider it on the list, but with an unassigned month and when everyone (mostly) has read it we’ll discuss it. Unorthodox, but I think it will work. Check out the web site, too. I think it will pique your curiosity.

Now, because of the author interruption in March, our list was pushed back, so right now the May selection is Jim Fergus’ “1000 White Women”.

We went on to choose books for the next few months. These titles will also be listed on the “Reading Lists” page of the blog. It only brings us to August and I’d like to have at least three more titles selected. I am going to suggest a classic for September, but haven’t decided which one. Suggestions are welcome.

May = Jim Fergus “1000 White Women”

June = Jeanette Wall “The Glass Castle” (audiobook on order).

July = Elizabeth George “Playing for the Ashes”

August = Susan Howatch “Glittering Images” (audiobook is on order).

email me with your suggestions. [email protected]

The second Tuesday Book Group will meet on February 13 at 3 PM in the library’s meeting room. Guest author and mystery writer Denise Swanson will be on hand to talk about her Scumble River Mystery Series. Her latest book is titled “Murder of a Real Bad Boy” and is lots of fun. She also has a new title coming in April titled “Murder of a Botox Blonde”! Ha! I think we’re going to have fun at this meeting. Light refreshments will be served.

The Third Wednesday Book Group will meet on February 21 at 3 PM in the library’s meeting room. “Memory Keeper’s Daughter” by Kim Edwards is the chosen text for that group. This has been a popular selection with many book groups and I think we’ll find lots to talk about.

Has anyone read “1000 White Women” by Jim Fergus? I just finished the audio CD and found the book to be quite thought provoking. The book is a fictional account of the Cheyenne indian demand for the U.S. government to provide them with 1000 white women in order to acculturate the Cheyenne into the growing tribe of whites. The demand from Cheyenne chief Little Wolf is real. The journal style novel is a fictional depiction of how that program might have worked. Intriguing. Five copies of the book are available and two copies of the audio CD in the county system. I recommend this title for April’s Tuesday book group.

You can read about upcoming books by clicking on the Reading Lists in the right hand menu under Pages. Of course you can also just email me at [email protected] or call 251-981-2923.

The Wednesday Reading Group met and talked about a favorite subject of everyone’s…. food. Everyone brought cookbooks and stories about their favorite foods and famly events. It was fun to see how much our lives center on food and cooking and sharing recipes. One thing about preparing food for your family, it is so much more than just a way to fill empty bellies. Sharing meals with others is a way of promoting culture, family values, fun and just plain good times. This book club meeting spurred me into an actual cooking frenzy. By frenzy, I mean I cooked. We made a nice chicken, sausage and shrimp gumbo on Sunday AND then I made a King Cake. Of course, the ubiquitous Deviled Eggs was on the menu simply because my youngest son and my husband love them and also like to take the leftover ones for breakfast on Monday morns. No recipe to share for Deviled Eggs because its one of those dishes that has always shown up on the tables of my childhood. I think the recipe is part of my actual genetic code! And for the gumbo….first you make a roux! Ha!

We (Carol) also put out a commando-like ultimatum: pick three titles for the new few months for this group OR dissolve the group! It worked! Here are the next few titles for the Third Wednesday Group: February = Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards; March = Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King; April = The Alchemist by Paul Coelho.

And here are some cookbooks we talked about….and some we didn’t.

At the last meeting we decided to read Amy Tan’s latest novel Saving Fish From Drowning. I really love Tan’s writing and I’m thrilled to have this one chosen for our Tuesday group. I read (listened to the audio CD) about a month after the book was released in 2005 and I loved it. The story is told by a ghost who follows a tour group on a trip to China. The characters are quirky, yet real. You know these people! Amy Tan’s humour and sense of human ethics is right on. I love, love this book. Be aware, it does drag a bit around the end for about 15 pages (I think), but you can quickly thumb through those few pages and get back to the story. Enjoy! And if you haven’t read everything she’s written, well I envy you because you get to enjoy her from the beginning.

The Orange Beach Reading Group will meet at 3 PM on Tuesday, January 9 to discuss Dave Eggers’ book “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius“. The Wednesday group will meet on January 17 @ 3PM to discuss a chosen cookbook. The idea here, was to choose a cookbook with some special recipe or story that resonates with you. We will discuss the role of food in family traditions and the stories that grow up around certain menus and food items. Does Springtime mean crawfish to you? It does to me! Do moon pies mean Mardi Gras to you? Then you grew up in or around Mobile. Louisiana Mardi Gras parades do not traditionally throw moon pies! Coconuts, yes! Moon pies, no! Although the throwing of coconuts has been outlawed now. You can imagine why.

We had a great discussion today on Louis de Berniere’s book Birds without Wings. The author has done a good job of talking about the impact of religion and politics on war, as well as the responsibilities of the individual toward their culture and in respect to religion and politics. It’s a thick book with some very stylized and elevated writing in places, but we think that’s just the way the author communicates. The book presents a view of the history of the Greeks and the Turks and how they have come to live the way they live and have the attitudes they have. War does not happen in a vacuum, but affects individual inhabitants on an immediate and daily basis. Neither does war occur naturally like the setting and rising of the sun, but rather is instigated by individuals with some investment in either religion and/or politics.

We seem to be on a kind of theme of war, politics and religion lately and have some very nice discussions about all of those notions and in addition, the role of women in culture and their role in society. Thank you all for your very insightful comments. I always learn so much in our groups and usually come away with a sea change.

Some other books sort of related to our discussions that came up during the group meeting are:

Desert Queen: the Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell… by Janet Wallach

Dreaming of East by Barbara Hodgson

The Books

eller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad