Book Chatters’

  We are an informal book discussion group of 8.  We have been reading and chatting since May 2001.  Members alternate selecting titles.  New members are always welcome to join us.  We usually meet the fourth Tuesday evening of each month. 

Some of our favorite books are:

THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls

THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett

THE HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET by Jamie Ford

LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Sue Monk Kidd

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen

Our February 2011 selection was:

PARROT & OLIVIER IN AMERICA

by Peter Carey

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2010: In this vivid and visceral work of historical fiction, two-time Booker Prize winner Peter Carey imagines the experiences of Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French political philosopher and author of Democracy in America. Carey brings de Tocqueville to life through the fictionalized character of Olivier de Garmont, a coddled and conceited French aristocrat. Olivier can only begin to grasp how the other half lives when forced to travel to the New World with John "Parrot" Larrit, a jaded survivor of lifelong hardship who can’t stand his young master who he is expected to spy on for the overprotective Maman Garmont back in Paris. Parrot and Olivier are a mid-nineteenth-century Oscar and Felix who represent the highest and lowest social registers of the Old World, yet find themselves unexpectedly pushed together in the New World. This odd couple’s stark differences in class and background, outlook and attitude—which are explored in alternating chapters narrated by each—are an ingenious conceit for presenting to contemporary readers the unique social experiment that was democracy in the early years of America. --Lauren Nemroff

Our thoughts:  Certainly not one of our favorite books!  In fact, several of us did not finish it!  The best part of the book was the developing friendship between the main characters.  Unfortunately, the first half of the book was spent on their very different childhoods before they even met.  The characters and story are certainly memorable, but this is not a title we can recommend.  Cheryl J 

Our March 2011 selection is:

SHADOW OF THE WIND

by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

From Booklist

Call it the "book book" genre: this international sensation (it has sold in more than 20 countries and been number one on the Spanish best-seller list), newly translated into English, has books and storytelling--and a single, physical book--at its heart. In post-World War II Barcelona, young Daniel is taken by his bookseller father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a massive sanctuary where books are guarded from oblivion. Told to choose one book to protect, he selects The Shadow of the Wind, by Julian Carax. He reads it, loves it, and soon learns it is both very valuable and very much in danger because someone is determinedly burning every copy of every book written by the obscure Carax. To call this book--Zafon's Shadow of the Wind-- old-fashioned is to mean it in the best way. It's big, chock-full of unusual characters, and strong in its sense of place. Daniel's initiation into the mysteries of adulthood is given the same weight as the mystery of the book-burner. And the setting--Spain under Franco--injects an air of sobriety into some plot elements that might otherwise seem soap operatic. Part detective story, part boy's adventure, part romance, fantasy, and gothic horror, the intricate plot is urged on by extravagant foreshadowing and nail-nibbling tension. This is rich, lavish storytelling, very much in the tradition of Ross King's Ex Libris (2001). Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association.

March Meeting:  We plan to meet on Friday, March 25 in Findlay.  After discussing the book at a local restaurant, we will attend the CommunityREAD event, featuring Jamie Ford, author of THE HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET.  For more information, contact me – cheryl@nbpubliclibrary.org. 

For information on the annual Hancock County event – http://www.community-foundation.com

Happy Reading!  Cheryl J