January 10th choices

Vote by Wednesday, December 14th at midnight for our January 10th selection:

1) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Fifteen-year-old autistic Christopher John Francis Boone is mathematically gifted and socially hopeless, raised in a working-class home by parents who can barely cope with their child's quirks. He takes everything that he sees (or is told) at face value, and is unable to sort out the strange behavior of his elders and peers.

Late one night, Christopher comes across his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork. Wellington's owner finds him cradling her dead dog in his arms, and has him arrested. After spending a night in jail, Christopher resolves--against the objection of his father and neighbors--to discover just who has murdered Wellington. He is encouraged by Siobhan, a social worker at his school, to write a book about his investigations, and the result--quirkily illustrated, with each chapter given its own prime number--is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

2) Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian-born man. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never get legally married. (Both were survivors of previous bad divorces.) But then the U.S. government gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving into this topic completely, trying to discover through historical research, interviews, and much personal reflection what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is. Committed attempts to "turn on all the lights" when it comes to matrimony, frankly examining questions of compatibility, infatuation, fidelity, family tradition, social expectations, divorce risks and humbling responsibilities.

3) How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

First published in 1937, Carnegie's advice has remained relevant for generations because he addresses timeless questions about the fine art of getting along with people: How can you make people like you instantly? How can you persuade people to agree with you? How can you speak frankly to people without giving offense? The ability to read others and successfully navigate any social situation is critically important to those who want to get a job, keep a job, or simply expand their social network.

As Carnegie explains, the majority of our success in life depends on our ability to communicate and manage personal relationships effectively, whether at home or at work. How to Win Friends and Influence People will help you discover and develop the people skills you need to live well and prosper.

4) The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright

Jack and Laurel Cooper are two hardworking, loving Christian pillars of the community who die in each other's arms one night in the bed-and-breakfast that they own and operate. The event calls their three grown children home for the funeral, including their youngest son, a fugitive from the law who must face an outstanding warrant for his arrest and confront his one true love, now engaged to another man. As events unfold around the funeral, the three children discover a treasure trove of family history in the form of Wednesday letters-notes that Jack wrote to his wife every single week of their married lives. As they read, the children brush across the fabric of a devoted marriage that survived a devastating event kept secret all these years. It's a lovely story: heartening, wholesome, humorous, suspenseful and redemptive. It resonates with the true meaning of family and the life-healing power of forgiveness all wrapped up in a satisfying ending.

Holiday Book Exchange 2011

Here are the books that were exchanged at our holiday gathering last night. We narrowed this list to 4 choices to vote on for our next meeting on January 10th.

-The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
-Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin
-Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
-Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
-The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
-The Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White
-How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
-The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright

Happy holidays!

Christmas Festivities 2011

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, December 6th at 7:30pm at Tina's house. We'll discuss Heaven is For Real (a very quick read), enjoy an evening brunch (monkey bread, quiche, and other treats), and also have a book exchange.

To participate in the exchange, bring a wrapped book you really like and would recommend (it can be new, used, paperback or not). You'll end up giving it away to another book clubber and going home with something new to read!

Thad Roberts Interview

At our meeting last night, Kim talked about this CBS interview from July 2011 with Thad Roberts from Sex on the Moon:

November choices

Thanks to Julie for coming up with three choices for our November book! Vote before end of next Monday, October 3rd:

Room by Emma Donoghue
Five-year-old Jack and his Ma live and eat and play and sleep in one room--an 11×11-foot space that is their prison--captives of the terrifying man Jack calls Old Nick. When their insular world suddenly expands beyond the confines of their four walls, the consequences are piercing and extraordinary. Despite its disturbing premise, Room is rife with moments of hope and beauty, and the dogged determination to live, even in the most desolate circumstances. A stunning and original novel of survival in captivity, readers who enter Room will leave staggered, as though, like Jack, they are seeing the world for the very first time.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. For a decade, Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of these stories, slowly gaining the trust of the family while helping them learn the truth about Henrietta, and with their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories?

Heaven is for Real: a Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent
Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.

Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us.

Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.

Big Book Sale 2011

You really should go to the Big Book Sale September 21-25 at Fort Mason. It's an annual event where the San Francisco Public Library sells all types of media, and it's apparently the largest book sale on the West Coast. There's no cost to get in, and everything is $4 or less. I've gone 2 or 3 times and come out with some great finds. I'll probably go Wednesday or Friday morning if you'd like to join me; you won't be disappointed!

Reading with the Stars

If celebrity endorsements draw you in, you may want to consider picking up one of these favorite books (from a feature on msn.com):

Ben Affleck – Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Judd Apatow (director of Knocked Up) and Anderson Cooper – A Death in the Family by James Agee

Samantha Bee (from The Daily Show) – The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Harold Bloom (Yale literature professor) – Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare

George H.W. Bush – The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Don Cheadle – If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes

Bill Clinton – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Mark Cuban (businessman) – The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Nora Ephron (movie director) – The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Chris Matthews – A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Barack Obama – Self-Reliance: The Wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emerson as Inspiration for Daily Living

Michelle Obama – Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Gwenyth Paltrow – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Robert Pattinson – Charles Baudelaire: Complete Poems

Amy Poehler – I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris

Natalie Portman – The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander

Bill Simmons (sports writer) – Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carver

Kristen Stewart – Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

Jay-Z – The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav

October 4th choices

Kristen gives us 4 intriguing choices for our October 4th meeting. Vote before Monday, August 29th at midnight:

1) The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef by Marco Pierre White

Marco Pierre White made history as the most decorated chef in the UK and still holds the honor as the youngest chef ever to win three Michelin stars. Billed as a "brooding Byron" of the kitchen, MPW brought a punk-rock sensibility to his craft, shattering centuries-old rules of fine-dining tradition (and bruising many egos in the process) in his pursuit for perfection. He remains a searing influence on a generation of chefs who survived tours-of-duty in his kitchen brigade and those inspired by White Heat, his modern-classic cookbook (and now high-priced collector's item). In his absorbing culinary memoir, The Devil in the Kitchen, MPW offers intimate insights into his storied career presenting a larger-than-life portrait of a living legend and a culinary genius.

2) Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany (Vintage)
by Bill Buford
Bill Buford gives us a richly evocative chronicle of his experience as “slave” to Mario Batali in the kitchen of Batali’s three-star New York restaurant, Babbo. In a fast-paced, candid narrative, Buford describes three frenetic years of trials and errors, disappointments and triumphs, as he worked his way up the Babbo ladder from “kitchen bitch” to line cook . . . his relationship with the larger-than-life Batali, whose story he learns as their friendship grows through (and sometimes despite) kitchen encounters and after-work all-nighters . . . and his immersion in the arts of butchery in Northern Italy,of preparing game in London, and making handmade pasta at an Italian hillside trattoria.

Heat is a marvelous hybrid: a memoir of Buford’s kitchen adventure, the story of Batali’s amazing rise to culinary (and extra-culinary) fame, a dazzling behind-the-scenes look at a famous restaurant, and an illuminating exploration of why food matters. It is a book to delight in, and to savour.

3) Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton
Gabrielle Hamilton's memoir is just what a chef's story should be--delectable, dripping with flavor, tinged with adrenaline and years of too-little sleep. Hamilton spent her idyllic childhood on a wild farm in rural Pennsylvania with an exhilarant father--an artist and set builder--and French mother. As she entered her teens, however, her family unexpectedly dissolved. She moved to New York City at 16, living off loose change and eating ketchup packets from McDonald’s; worked 20-hour days at a soulless catering company; traveled, often half-starved, through Europe; and cooked for allergy-riddled children at a summer camp. The constant thread running through this patchwork tale, which culminates with the opening of her New York City restaurant, Prune, is Hamilton's slow simmering passion for cooking and the comfort it can bring. "To be picked up and fed, often by strangers, when you are in that state of fear and hunger, became the single most important food experience I came back to over and over," Hamilton writes, and it's this poignant understanding of the link between food and kindness that makes Blood, Bones & Butter so satisfying to read.

4) Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History by Ben Mezrich
In this true story of love and adventure, nothing can stop Thad Roberts from keeping a promise to his girlfriend Rebecca--not even NASA security. When he's in the lab, Roberts is a brilliant NASA co-op intern, but the other interns know him better for devising thrill-seeking activities, like cliff diving and sneaking into the shuttle simulator. When he realizes that scientists consider moon rocks worthless once they’ve been in experiments, Roberts starts to wonder… if they’re worthless, how could stealing them be wrong? Ben Mezrich starts each section with excerpts of Roberts’s love letters to Rebecca from prison, providing a love-drunk context for Roberts’ journey as the moon rock heist balloons from idle fantasy to stark reality. Behind-the-scenes looks at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and thriller-like action that ranges from the U.S. to Belgium make for an enthralling read for anyone who ever dreamed about being an astronaut--or promised to give someone else the moon.

September 7th Choices

Vanessa presented the choices for our next meeting after a great discussion on Unbroken. We'll take a short summer break and re-convene on September 7th at 7:30 at Mikel's house (note this is a Wednesday to allow for recovery from Labor Day). Vote before midnight on Wednesday, July 20th.

1) The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving “a great gentleman.” But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington’s “greatness” and graver doubts about his own faith in the man he served.

A tragic, spiritual portrait of a perfect English butler and his reaction to his fading insular world in post-war England. A wonderful, wonderful book.

2) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Howard Roark is an architect whose genius and integrity will not be comprised. He has ideas that work against conventional standards.When The Fountainhead was first published, Ayn Rand's daringly original literary vision and her groundbreaking philosophy, Objectivism, won immediate worldwide interest and acclaim. This instant classic is the story of an intransigent young architect, his violent battle against conventional standards, and his explosive love affair with a beautiful woman who struggles to defeat him.

3) How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

One of the best-known motivational books in history, Dale Carnegie's groundbreaking work has sold millions of copies, has been translated into almost every known written language, and has helped countless people succeed in both their business and personal lives.

First published in 1937, Carnegie's advice has remained relevant for generations because he addresses timeless questions about the fine art of getting along with people: How can you make people like you instantly? How can you persuade people to agree with you? How can you speak frankly to people without giving offense? The ability to read others and successfully navigate any social situation is critically important to those who want to get a job, keep a job, or simply expand their social network.

The core principles of this book, originally written as a practical, working handbook on human relations, are proven effective. Carnegie explains the fundamentals of handling people with a positive approach; how to make people like you and want to help you; how to win people to your way of thinking without conflict; and how to be the kind of leader who inspires quality work, increased productivity, and high morale.

As Carnegie explains, the majority of our success in life depends on our ability to communicate and manage personal relationships effectively, whether at home or at work. How to Win Friends and Influence People will help you discover and develop the people skills you need to live well and prosper.

Intro to Louis

This 9-minute video introduces Louis Zamperini, whose true-life story is told in Unbroken:

July 12th Book Choices

Mikel brought choices for our next read, to be discussed on July 12th at Tina's. Vote for your pick before midnight on Thursday, June 16th:

1) Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
From Laura Hillenbrand, the bestselling author of Seabiscuit, comes Unbroken, the inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of catastrophes almost too incredible to be believed. In evocative, immediate descriptions, Hillenbrand unfurls the story of Louie Zamperini--a juvenile delinquent-turned-Olympic runner-turned-Army hero. During a routine search mission over the Pacific, Louie’s plane crashed into the ocean, and what happened to him over the next three years of his life is a story that will keep you glued to the pages, eagerly awaiting the next turn in the story and fearing it at the same time. You’ll cheer for the man who somehow maintained his selfhood and humanity despite the monumental degradations he suffered, and you’ll want to share this book with everyone you know.

2) Same Kind of Different As Me
A dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery. An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel. A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream. A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it.

It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana . . . and an East Texas honky-tonk . . . and, without a doubt, in the heart of God. It unfolds in a Hollywood hacienda . . . an upscale New York gallery . . . a downtown dumpster . . . a Texas ranch. Gritty with pain and betrayal and brutality, this true story also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.

3) Little Bee
The publishers of Chris Cleave's new novel "don't want to spoil" the story by revealing too much about it, and there's good reason not to tell too much about the plot's pivot point. All you should know going in to is that what happens on the beach is brutal, and that it braids the fates of a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan (who calls herself Little Bee) and a well-off British couple--journalists trying to repair their strained marriage with a free holiday--who should have stayed behind their resort's walls. The tide of that event carries Little Bee back to their world, which she claims she couldn't explain to the girls from her village because they'd have no context for its abundance and calm. But she shows us the infinite rifts in a globalized world, where any distance can be crossed in a day--with the right papers--and "no one likes each other, but everyone likes U2." Where you have to give up the safety you'd assumed as your birthright if you decide to save the girl gazing at you through razor wire, left to the wolves of a failing state.

Back in the saddle

After saying our fond farewells to Martha and wishing her well on her adventures in Seattle, we're re-grouping with one of her picks: The Birth Order Book by Kevin Leman (the most recent version). Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, June 7th at 7:30pm at Tina's house. Here's a description:


"Your birth order -- whether you were born first (or are an only child,) or second, in your family -- powerfully influences what kind of person you are, who you marry, the job you choose. Now you can discover: How to pick out the first born in any group. Why the baby in the family gets away with everything. How to help middle children feel less squeezed and more loved. Ways to overcome your worst inborn tendencies. Which career suits you best. How to make the perfect marriage match and much, much more. Internationally known psychologist Kevin Leman reveals an exciting new way to better understand yourself and those you love."

Thanks for everything, Martha!

Update!

Hi ladies,

A quick update- our next meeting is February 1st, and we'll be discussing Brave New World. Our next meeting, which per the vote is The Friend Who Got Away, will be on March 1st.

Can't wait to see everyone!